By any reasonable metric, Vice President Kamala Harris beat former President Donald Trump in Tuesday night’s presidential debate.
He did this by demonstrating a superior knowledge not only of policy, but of the psychology of his adversaries. Harris figured out exactly how to anger Trump, how to deceive him, and how to keep the debate on favorable terrain.
To put it more bluntly: Harris drove Trump to spiral at several points during their first (only?) debate.
Let me give an example. Earlier in the debate, moderators tried to press Harris on President Joe Biden’s unpopular immigration record, asking him if he would have done anything differently than his current boss — a topic favorable to Trump.
Harris answered the question — but then took a seemingly unrelated shot at Trump’s rally.
“I’m going to invite you to attend a Donald Trump rally because it’s a really interesting thing to watch. You’ll see during his rallies that he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He’ll talk. [how] Wind turbines cause cancer. And what you will notice is that people start leaving his gatherings early out of exhaustion and boredom,” the vice president said.
This gave Trump a choice; Either sue Harris on immigration, an issue where he is weak, or rage in defense of his unpopular rally. You can guess what he chose.
“Let me respond to the rally,” Trump said. “He said people started leaving. People don’t go to his gatherings. There is no reason to go. And the people who go, he’s living among them and paying them to be there.”
That set off a tailspin: a series of odd touches, including disparaging rants about the completely fake dog-eating problem of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, punctuated by deep concerns about the respectability of Trump’s rally. He didn’t really get back what he should have done – attacking Harris as he migrated across the southern border.
Where it hurt Trump — the rallies he cares so much about — Harris managed to throw him off balance and he never really recovered.
Harris deployed this strategy repeatedly.
During an exchange on the crime, Harris brought up Trump’s own criminal convictions — which prompted him to turn to the debate about a “political case” instead of Harris effectively pressing him. Flip-flops on crime policy.
He raised world leaders calling him “disrespectful,” pushing him to brag about his relationship with Hungarian “strongman” (in Trump’s words) Viktor Orbán, perhaps not the kind of call swing voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania called for. His rapprochement with Russia’s Vladimir Putin required, blasting “what you think is friendship” with a “dictator who will eat you for lunch”.
Each time, Trump took the bait — losing control of his temper and leaving the message, Harris saw what hilarity ensued.
In hindsight, this strategy may seem innovative, but it speaks to something well known about Trump’s psychology.
In covering foreign policy during the Trump years, one fear I heard a lot from national security professionals was that Trump could be easily manipulated: His well-known vanity and narcissism made it easy for foreign powers to extract policy benefits through personal flattery and lavish receptions. . This seems to explain, at least in part, how Trump went from hostile to friendly with foreign leaders like Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping.
But if foreign leaders can figure out how to manipulate Trump’s self-absorption, so can domestic opposition. Harris played with that immense pride Tuesday night.
This technique wasn’t the only reason he won the debate – check him out Strong answers about abortionAmong other things – but it was a must.
