Washington [US], September 13: Not simply debating, what was US Vice President Kamala Harris aiming for in her recent televised 'fight' with former President Donald Trump?
"Vice President Kamala Harris had two opponents in the highly anticipated debate on September 10: former President Donald Trump and high expectations. She performed well against both."
That is the comment after the debate mentioned in the assessment of Eurasia Group (USA) - the world's leading political risk research and consulting unit.
From "talk less to avoid trouble".
In fact, a big challenge for Ms. Harris is how to convince the public that she is a worthy choice to represent the Democratic Party in the race for the White House.
This is a big challenge because she officially ran when the race was quite far away, less than 4 months before the G-hour. And because she is vice president in the administration of US President Joe Biden, Ms. Harris could be attacked by her opponent for the economic instability of the current leadership term. Not only that, in the previous debate between the two party candidates, Mr. Biden lost to Mr. Trump .
Recently, Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized Ms. Harris for avoiding the media - which observers believe is a tactic to prevent the risk of "slip of the tongue" of the current US Vice President. Since officially running for office, Vice President Harris has mostly appeared in public through campaign events and the Democratic National Convention from August 19 to 22, where she portrayed the image of a commander in chief with the message that she is the best choice for the position of White House owner this time.
It was not until late August that Ms. Harris made her first television interview as a candidate for the US presidential election. However, during this appearance, the current US Vice President also limited the discussion of details of her action plan if elected.
.to suppress the opponent, but there are still thorns
According to an analysis sent to Thanh Nien by Eurasia Group , Ms. Harris successfully put Trump on the defensive for most of the debate. She criticized her opponent on a series of issues from abortion to Mr. Trump's criminal record.
Meanwhile, former President Trump delivered dark messages on immigration crime and the "radical left". But Ms. Harris seemed to have anticipated Mr. Trump's tactics and proactively responded. Typically, when Mr. Trump criticized current President Biden's policies, Ms. Harris responded: "You're not confronting Mr. Biden. You're confronting me". Or Ms. Harris attacked her opponent: "It's important that we move forward. We have to turn the page on this tired old rhetoric".
Throughout the debate, Mr. Trump repeatedly strayed from the topic. When asked about the war in Gaza, for example, the former president instead focused on the conflict in Ukraine , saying it would never happen under his leadership.
Ms. Harris also exploited body language quite a lot to try to dominate the debate. Specifically, when Mr. Trump spoke, she often expressed exclamations such as: sighing quietly, shaking her head in disdain, looking at the opponent as if pitying... Vice President Harris focused on expressing the message that she is a new generation of leaders, who will turn the page to end the divisive period in American political history. However, the debate was still considered that both sides lacked specific information about policy.
After the debate, some of Mr Trump's allies were unimpressed with his performance. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, for example, described the debate as a "missed opportunity" for Mr Trump.
Despite being considered dominant, the poll results still do not show that Ms. Harris's support rate is actually much higher than Mr. Trump's. Of course, Ms. Harris's efforts are unlikely to change voters who support Mr. Trump, but the goal is to target voters who have not yet made a choice. Perhaps that is why the Democrats clearly expressed their desire for a second debate between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper