The world understandably took notice of Tuesday night's televised presidential debate, given that there are just two months remaining in the campaign for the US presidential election on November 5. It has been widely believed already that another debate will not happen, and the earlier one was the June 27 debate between former president Donald Trump, the Republican Party candidate and President Joe Biden who has already withdrawn his candidature. After a disal performance in the June debate, Joe Biden, showing signs of ageing and mental frailty, dropped out of the race and nominated Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate, as the presidential candidate. This was also endorsed by the Democratic Party Convention. With that, Kamala Harris, who got only a few months to campaign, turned the short period at her disposal for campaign into an advantage. According to reports, Kamala gradually gained more voter support than Trump, who had showed a slight lead over Joe Biden in opinion polls at that stage.
Performance in televised debates is one of the many factors by which American voters evaluate presidential candidates. Voters will evaluate not only the candidates' debating skills, but also their grasp of policy issues, clarity of position, and approach to issues. The views and rationale of the candidates will be assessed regarding a range of matters spanning the US economy, foreign policy, health insurance coverage, immigration and gun control, employment opportunities, and restrictions on abortion. Although the public will consider their expressions of opinion on many occasions, the televised debate is considered to make some immediate impact on the voters' thinking. Most of the observers who evaluated this debate which lasted for more than one and a half hours on the ABC channel under the supervision of two moderators, have opined that Kamala Harris got the upper hand. The same is reflected in most US media surveys too. The majority of US media, including the usually pro-Trump Fox News, noted that the performance of Kamala, who came with well-prepared content, gave the impression that she scored over Trump in many respects.
Trump made several attempts to mislead audience with false statements. One opposed to abortion, Trump accused his opponent of being pro-abortion and even after birth. But Trump didn't care that killing a newborn baby is a punishable homicide everywhere. Another example is Trump's lie about illegal immigrants that they would even slaughter and eat pet animals. During the turn allowed alternately for two months, Trump spent most of his time venting his anger and blaming his opponent. The audience saw almost the same strange expressions that they used to see during the four years that Trump ruled the country.
Given America's position as the leading military and economic power in the world, it is crucial for outside world also if Kamala or Trump will do better. In response to Trump's assertion that Kamala's intention is to destroy the state of Israel, Kamala said that she is committed to the security of Israel. In that regard, there is no difference between the two candidates, except that Kamala insists that the solution to the Palestinian problem is a two-state formula. She also lamented the losses the Palestinians are suffering in the current Gaza war. Kamala skillfully used to good effect the conviction of Trump in last May for offences including sexual assault, illegally influencing the election and for inciting riots following the 2020 elections. Trump went on a verbal rampage, racially abusing Kamala, a black woman with Indian-Jamaican roots, and deriding her as the daughter of a communist, and said that she would lead the United States to communism.
Kamala Harris entered the fray against the former President Trump in adverse circumstances. She had to face unfavourable factors like the support Trump got in the surveys against Biden when he was the candidate, the liability of Joe Biden's mistakes as his vice president, and the tag of being a black woman among a large section of voters. On the other hand, she also had a range of anti-Trump factors from reprehensible past actions and statements, and his racist policies and practices to convictions. The fact that some people within the Republican Party have not been so impressed with Trump's performance also vouches that the former president's road has not been easy. All said, elections are still two months away. So it is also true that there can still be unpredictable factors playing a role in the fierce battle ahead.