by Ben Voth, American Thinker:
It is not surprising that there was a surge of punditry opinions arguing that Kamala Harris won the September 10 debate with Donald Trump. The DNC desperately needed the validation of such a win and it was also evident that the ABC moderators felt the same. Many conservative analysts have joined in and agreed that Trump lost the debate. From the standpoint of debate practice, Trump performed one of his most successful debates and arguably won the debate.
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One of the most important successes that Trump scored that has been ignored by analysis was his effective handling of the hostile moderators. Muir and Davis “fact checked” Trump five times while making zero fact checks of Harris. The debate format is unusual because each candidate had an option to make a one-minute rebuttal at any point during the debate. Trump used this option masterfully to have the last word on most of the major controversies in the debate. This was compounded by his win of the coin toss where he again had the last word and made the powerful point that any of the proposals Harris made during the debate could be dutifully performed back at the White House. Trump suggested in the middle of the debate that the two of them should stop debating so she could go back to the White House and implement her proposals.
This leads to the second major strength for Trump that allowed him to prevail over Kamala Harris: the use of humor. Humor is an exceptional weapon of political argumentation. Trump used it with devastating effect multiple times. At least three times, Trump made even Kamala Harris laugh at his jokes directed at her. One of the most famous events in debate history and captured in the recent Reagan movie was when Reagan made Mondale laugh at his joke about his “youth and inexperience.” Trump had multiple moments where he made the audience laugh at Harris’ expense. Trump’s turning of Harris’ dominant debate tactic ‘my turn to speak’ concluding with “does this sound familiar” was a devastating demolition of her tactic used against Mike Pence in 2020. Humor is an underrated tool in political debates because this rhetorical form is highly dramatic, filled with incredible tension and anxiety. The comic relief provided by multiple humorous incursions by Trump demonstrate a level of confidence and argumentation mastery that is higher than Harris.
Many commentators are distracted by the facial expressions made by Harris. From a debate standpoint, looking at your opponent and making mocking interpersonal gestures with your face is childish and weak. Focusing on the camera and the audience that is adjudicating the debate is the best rhetorical option. It is likely that Harris hoped that her close proximity on the stage would allow her to provoke outrage from Trump with her mocking gestures. That did not happen and at key moments such as the discussion of the 13 dead U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, Harris had to abruptly change her facial expression on camera to not appear callous to a serious error by the Biden/ Harris administration.
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