Bad News for Trump: Harris Is Not Biden
Opinion piece originally published by Karen Tumulty for the Washington Post
Tuesday night’s debate was the most resounding affirmation yet that Democrats did the right thing in pushing Joe Biden aside in favor of his vice president.
From the moment Kamala Harris strode across the stage at the National Constitution Center here to shake Donald Trump’s hand, she proved she was the opponent that Biden did not have the capacity to be when he and Trump met, 75 days before, in the debate that killed the president’s candidacy.
It was no wonder that Trump, in his fury, kept trying to bring the conversation back to Biden, fuming at one point, “They threw him out of the campaign like a dog. We don’t even know. Is he our president? We have a president that doesn’t know he’s alive.”
“It is important to remind the former president,” Harris retorted, “you’re not running against Joe Biden. You are running against me.”
Showing the preparation and skills of a former prosecutor, Harris made a forceful case against Trump — most passionately, attacking him on abortion, immigration and foreign policy. At one point, Harris said world leaders are “laughing at” Trump.
Under the debate rules, the candidates’ microphones were muted when it was not their turn to talk, but on the telecast’s split screen, Harris’s shaking head and expressions of incredulity delivered stinging blows. And this time, it was the glowering Trump who showed his age.
Harris clearly knew where his tender spots were. The discipline that Trump managed to maintain at the outset disintegrated when Harris brought up a subject around which his ego appears particularly fragile: the size of the crowds that the two candidates draw. Lately, hers have been at least as large as his.