Andy Bloom: Trump flounders but Harris doesn’t close
Tim Hartman
The week before the debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, I was on 1210 WPHT, Philadelphia, with Rich Zeoli. We discussed what Trump needed to do in the debate.
I said that he needed to be respectful to Kamala and not mispronounce her name. He needed to listen carefully to what she said and attack her policies but not her personally, stay calm, and not get rattled when she went after him.
In their September 10th debate, Trump never addressed Harris by name. Unfortunately, he became rattled and visibly angry at times. He used well-worn, familiar lines, causing him to leave many opportunities on the table.
Trump was disadvantaged because the ABC moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, didn’t play it straight. They asked Trump gotcha questions and follow-up questions – but didn’t do the same for Harris. They fact-checked him during the debate (incorrectly), but again, not her. On several occasions, her mic was open while he spoke – violating the agreed-upon rules.
ABC, Muir, and Davis receive an F.
I graded Harris a B and Trump a C-. I may have been generous to Harris. The liberal Boston Globe also gave Trump a C-, but Harris a C.
If there’s any doubt about how Harris did, consider that her campaign, which previously refused another debate, immediately called for a second debate. Speaking with Sean Hannity on Fox News in the spin room after the debate, Trump said that the loser in a boxing match always wants a rematch. If only Trump had been able to be that quick during the debate, but clearly, the Harris campaign doesn’t think they accomplished what they needed to do.
Trump should agree to a second debate on Fox News. Let’s see if Kamala is fearless and brave enough to accept that challenge.
But Trump still came into this debate, repeating the same lines he had used for years and wasn’t prepared for. If he will debate her again, he must learn how to debate.
Trump took the bait too many times. Reacting to her taunts about crowd size was a mistake and distracted from the question, which was about immigration – a Trump strength – which she did not answer.
Then he went into an internet meme about immigrants eating pets.
The correct answer was to focus on her failure as Border Czar, the number of illegal immigrants in the country, and the crimes – including calling some of the victims by name. He should have mentioned her flip-flops. He should have mentioned that she is running commercials with video of the wall built under his administration and then attacking her authenticity.
The first question was to Harris and asked her whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago? Instead of answering the question, she started with her bio and then something about her “opportunity economy.”
Trump needed to respond by noting she didn’t answer the question, and of course, Americans aren’t better off than four years ago. He should have rattled off why inflation, the border, and chaos on the world stage. These are the main reasons to put him back in the White House.
Focusing on one point of her opportunity economy, her plan to give away $25,000 for some home buyers, he could have attacked it as inflationary as setting up a second 2008-style housing bubble.
Harris claimed that Goldman Sachs, Nobel Prize-winners, and Penn Wharton economists concluded that her economic plan was better than his, and Trump couldn’t resist taking the bait about Penn (where he went to school). It was another missed opportunity.
The better response was: Are these the same experts who, in 2021, said inflation was transitory, or the ones who Joe Biden quoted as saying Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation in our 2020 debate, or the Goldman Sachs that the country bailed out in 2008? Trump could have followed up on that with his economic record as president and scoffed at her for her support of Bidenomics.
Trump didn’t answer if he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Ukraine. He only said that he would end that war as President-elect without saying how. He could have pointed out that he sent arms, not blankets, to Ukraine as a deterrent to war.
One of his best answers was when he said that Putin would have stayed in Moscow and 300,000 Russian lives would have been spared. Getting into a pissing match over what foreign leaders say about him was another example of taking the bait.
Harris called for a cease-fire in Gaza. Her position amounts to “there are fine people on both sides,” which she falsely claimed Trump said – and the moderators didn’t correct. There aren’t fine people on both sides. There is a terrorist organization on one side and one of America’s most reliable allies on the other. There should be no equivocation on Israel. Harris and Biden have spent too much time telling Israel what it needs to do and not enough time telling Hamas to unconditionally release all hostages and recognize Israel’s right to exist. That’s what Trump needs to say.
Trump scored points on Afghanistan but could have done better. Harris blamed him for this administration’s Afghan disaster. Biden undid every policy save two: the China tariffs and the Afghan withdrawal. Trump should have asked: If it was so bad, why didn’t they cancel? And when asked if she had any regrets, she couldn’t even bring herself to mention the lives of thirteen Americans killed in their disastrous withdrawal.
Harris also said that there is not one member in an active war zone. That doesn’t help the 186 U.S. military casualties in the Middle East from attacks mainly in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. On January 28, 2024, three U.S. soldiers were killed during a drone attack in Jordan. A Houthi missile attack in the Gulf of Aden killed three on March 6, 2024. Nearly 50 U.S. service members have been injured by militant attacks, including drone and rocket strikes in Iraq and Syria.
Harris got away with numerous false statements. She once again claimed that she was in favor of fracking and had been on the record as such since 2020. CNN fact-checked her after her Dana Bash interview and called this false. In fact, she said that Joe Biden would not ban fracking. Nobody has found any statement before she became the nominee where she was in favor of fracking.
In a Candy Crowley moment, Davis corrected Trump when he was correct. Former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam clearly talks about infanticide in an interview found on YouTube.
We learned tonight, for the first time, that Harris is a gun owner.
There were so many more – like when Harris claimed police were killed on Jan 6. Of course that was false, but left unchecked.
Trump responded to Harris’s taunts. He missed opportunities that she gave him.
Harris wants to debate Trump again, not because she won, but because her team thinks she didn’t do enough. If Trump agrees to debate her again, he must ensure it’s not on hostile turf and come prepared with new lines and thicker skin.
Andy Bloom is President of Andy Bloom Communications. He specializes in media training and political communications. He has programmed legendary stations including WIP, WPHT, WYSP/Philadelphia, KLSX, Los Angeles, and WCCO Minneapolis. He was Vice President of Programming for Emmis International, Greater Media Inc., and Coleman Research. Andy also served as communications director for Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio). He can be reached by email at andy@andybloom.com or you can follow him on Twitter at @AndyBloomCom.
Trump was asked questions about his actions and policies. When Trump refused to ask those questions he was asked a follow up question on the original question, so which questions were gotcha questions? Trump’s microphone was repeatedly turned back every time he started speaking, even though it violated the rules. So Trump had more than ample opportunity to clarify his stance which he failed to do. Instead all we got was non-answers about how he would end the war in Ukraine, his imaginary health care plan, and a non answers on a national abortion ban.
Trump was fact checked, especially when he blatantly insisted that Hattians in Ohio were eating peoples cats and dogs. Even JD Vance admitted that this was a lie.
Your YouTube video is out of context. It does not show the question that was asked or the full context of the answer. Let us know when you post the complete video regarding that answer and then we can talk.
At the end of the day Trump demonstrated that he has no plans, no self control, and only sees the United States and the rest of the world to be doomed for destruction.
Trump closing remarks were the highlight of his debate presence. He should have used it throughout the night. Every time that Kamala made a statement about what her administration would do his response should have included that she has been #2 in the administration in power for almost 4 years. As far as fact checking during a debate goes, that should never be permitted. The host of the debate should however do a summary fact checking after the debate is over citing the specifics. That way the flow would not be interrupted, but a review of items cited could be presented to the voters. I believe that this debate – like most debates in the past – changed no one’s minds.
The debates should also be held on CSPAN and the moderators should not be media persons but drawn from a list of persons who have served public office over ten years prior.
Frank, I’ve been staying out of the comment sections lately for reasons that should be obvious as you read some poster’s responses, but you make some excellent points. Yes, Trump’s closing was his strongest moment, but I think he needed to do more by dividing it into three parts:
1) How can you trust a person who has done a 180 degree on every issue since she ran for president in 2019 but says her values haven’t changed? Who is she really? She reinvented herself with the media’s help on July 24th. I believe she’s still who she was in 2019. When the Biden policies continue to fail, she will resort to her dangerous far-left 2019 positions.
2) If she’s had these great ideas and plans, why hasn’t she done them the past 3 1/2 years (what he said, but more concisely)? Didn’t she claim to be the last one in the room? She’s had a chance, and she’s done nothing. That’s why she had lower approval ratings than even Joe Biden until the media helped her sudden reinvention on July 24th.
3) Are you better off than you were four years ago? She keeps saying that we’re not going back, but if you want to go back to no inflation and jobs with growing wages, sealed borders, safer cities, and a less chaotic world where the U.S. isn’t involved in two wars, please vote for me on Nov 5th.
Finally, I like your CSPAN idea for future debates. However, if Trump is willing to debate her again after agreeing to CNN and the ABC debacle, he should insist that it’s on Fox News (although Brett Baier and Martha MacCallum—who he seemed to reject this morning – would have to moderate). CSPAN would be a logical non-partisan home for future debates. However, “persons who have served public office over ten years prior” means partisans. I’m not sure if anybody at CSPAN has the chops to moderate a presidential debate. I’d propose finding two centrist journalists from different organizations, one with a slight left and one with a slight right lean – but still seen as fairly unbiased. Rules should include no fact-checking by the moderators. I like not having a live audience. I’m open to muted or live mics.
Having two people with slightly different views working together on questions should prevent the type of gotcha questions that Trump got from Muir and Davis.
You’ve been staying out of the comments because you have an aversion to facts.
1. How do you trust Trump when he has no values? A man who has had multiple affairs, including while Melania was pregnant, a man who sexually assaults women, who does not pay his bills and contracts, has multiple bankruptcies, and repeatedly lied about possessing classified documents for 18 months after leaving office. A man who will cling to every lie has told even when he is wrong as we saw last night.
2. Trump has had ideas and plans over the last 7.5 years, why hasn’t he released any of them? He has yet to announce his health care plan that will be better than Obamacare, something he stated he would 15 times while President. Mexico has not paid for the wall, he did not get North Korea to give up their nuclear weapons, and he openly praises dictators like Viktor Orban, Xi of China, and Putin.
3) Are you better off than you were four years ago? Yes I am. During the last 4 years I have not had to worry about a President who would destroy American democracy by locking up his political opponents, ending free speech, and replacing tens of thousands of civil servants with loyalists who would do anything he says. Nor do I have to worry about being prosecuted or worse because of my faith.
What gotcha questions was Trump asked during the debate? Did that include his repeated claims that Hattians were eating people dogs and cats in Ohio, that he had proof he won the 2020 election even though he refuses to release it, or that he has a healthcare plan.
Worst of all, how does Mr. Bloom, who does not live in Pennsylvania, claim to understand what is in the best interests of people who do live in Pennsylvania. Mehmet Oz made the same claim, look how that ended up for him.
I rarely reply to this account, because it spews misinformation on a regular basis, but how dare anyone tell a former longtime resident of Pennsylvania that he has no right to offer his educated opinion on the character, quality and policy of politicians, regardless of where they live?
Simple Christine: That’s the Democrat’s definition of Democracy. Silence the opposition by any means necessary.
Fedup – No one is silencing you, democracies encourage public discourse. So I have one question for you; was Trump correct when he stated that Hattians in Ohio were eating peoples cats?
I have one question for Ms. Flowers; was Trump correct when he stated that Hattians in Ohio were eating peoples pet cats?
It sounds like your mind is made up and you will reject any evidence that corroborates the cat-eating claim. However, I’ll try anyway. There have actually been some reputable reports that this claim has validity. One is by Christopher Rufo. Here is the link: https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-cat-eaters-of-ohio
Considering that Kamala wore a Nova ear mic pearl earring, I would think you would downgrade her to an F-.
Trump had to debate 3 opponents at once. I’d bet money that Kamala had the questions prior to the debate. It’ll come out. Trump was fact-checked by the ‘moderators’ on the spot 7 times. Harris, while spewing debunked lies with impunity was fact-checked ZERO times. Trump was effective in responding to her lies and push back. Almost 48 hours later, Harris has not received any bump in the pols on the key issues in this race: Economy, Immigration and law enforcement.
Trump was fact checked for out right lies, including that he won the 2020 election, millions have died in the Ukrainian, and that Hattians in Ohio were eating cats. Something that JD Vance admitted did not happen. Trump was asked to explain how he would end the Ukrainian war, what his healthcare policy would be, or how he would 11 million illegal immigrants and refused to do so.
The rules clearly stated that when a question was asked to one candidate they would have two minutes to respond and their opponent had one minute to respond. Otherwise the microphones would be turned off. Yet every time Trump started talking and his microphone was on, even when it should not have been. Giving more time than Harris to talk and the one time Harris tried to do so, she was told no by the moderators.
All Trump did was show he has a thin skin, is quick to anger, resorts to childish insults, and didn’t understand he was running against Kamala Harris and not Joe Biden.
Harris was allowed to speak uninterrupted — despite rattling off falsehoods about active US military in combat zones, as well as Trump’s stance on abortion, the right-wing Project 2025 blueprint, his “very fine people” remark about the Charlottesville race riot, and the ‘bloodbath’ remark, and her reversal on Fracking. Not a word from the lib enabler moderators.
Muir’s “proof” regarding the cat treatment was that the city manager denies that it was happening. Honest mistake: the cat eating Haitian is from Canton, Ohio. He added: “These rumors will not distract us from the real strain on our resources, including the impact to our schools, health care system and first responders,” Heck said. So – in essence, forget the cats – we got bigger immigrant problems.
Trump hasn’t forgotten about the cat eating lie, he is continuing to state it at rallies. With the addition that the Hattians are also eating the geese in the local parks. His repeated statements about this have led to bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio resulting in the closing of multiple schools. Straining the resources of the city of Springfield, OH.
What softball questions did Vice President Harris get asked? Not the category, the actual questions.
Excellent commentary Andy. And very fair. The debate was not fairly organized, and even someone who did not see it through a partisan lens would understand that having to constantly deal with incorrect fact-checking from moderators who had no business inserting themselves into the debate completely undermined the point of the debate, namely, to allow the candidates to address each other and answer questions in real time. Trying to put a finger on the scale for one over the other defeats that purpose. I would say that if the moderators were attempting to favor Trump, which of course ABC would not do. In terms of Kamala, they never forced her to explain herself, her 180 changes in policy, her failure to acknowledge her administration’s role in the border chaos, the fact that they only started to care about the border 6 months before an election cycle (tell me I’m wrong, 30 years practicing immigration law so anyone who says “but but but Trump” have to tell me how long they have been specializing in the field before I’ll listen, and her abhorrent lies about the state of abortion and her running mate’s track record signing legislation that would allow a born child to suffocate to death. This was not a fair hearing, at all, but I do think that the vast majority of voters were not swayed either way. Keep up the great articles
I have a question for Ms. Flowers since she is an immigration lawyer, is Trump correct when he stated that Hattian immigrants in Ohio are eating peoples cats and dogs?