Inflection point in US election after Kamala Harris proves mettle  

Kamala Harris knocks out Donald Trump

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, September 11: The US Vice President, Kamala Harris, emerged a winner in her maiden debate with Republican rival Donald Trump. The Philadelphia debate boosted the stock of Harris for the November presidential election.

“You are not debating with Joe Biden,” Harris told Trump during an exchange in the midst of the television debate. She had come prepared to hunt for Trump who had slayed Biden in a television debate in June.

The global media outlets delivered consensus opinion on an outright win for Harris. Trump was wobbling. The Republican hawk lost his biting teeth to ferocious attacks by Harris.

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The US vice president mocked at Trump for his outlandish claims that “Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have abducted and eaten their neighbours’ pets”. Harris laughed heavily while the moderator of the debate fact-checked and found Trump erring.

The Financial Times quoted an aide of Trump, saying that the debate “was a missed opportunity to knock her out”. The London-based business daily quoted the anonymous source saying that Harris “was losing momentum”. “I think it probably stabilised her,” the FT quoted the top Trump donor saying.

Allan Rappeport while commenting in the debate said that “Harris, sticking with her strategy of baiting Trump, moves the Affordable Care Act discussion to a recollection of how the late Senator John McCain — a Trump nemesis — blocked Republicans from repealing it”.

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Newsweek quoted Mary Katherine Ham, saying that the winner of the debate was Harris. She opined that “Harris was asked if Americans are better off than they were four years ago, and she pointedly did not answer the question”.

“Trump did not call her on it. Instead, he got caught up in his own rambling grievances and scattershot passions,” the US political observer said.

She also said that “such was the pattern throughout the evening, as Kamala outperformed expectations and successfully baited Trump into arguing on inhospitable ground, whether it was abortion, his rallies, or January 6”.

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Politico came out with a collection of headlines from all across Europe. The European dailies hailed that Harris was the clear winner of the debate.

London’s The Times said that “Trump was flailing by the end of the debate”. The sharp comment of Harris during the debate when she told Trump that if he were president, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland”, won European media to the side of the Democratic candidate.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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