Project 2025 showing up in a major way in the debate. Probably not in the way architects of the project would have hoped, but showing up in a major way.
Harris carries the Biden message that things are better now than they were under Trump. I don’t see that working.
On follow up, Harris tries to make the “we inherited a mess” case.
Trump going hard on immigration, which is a winning issue for him even when he goes irresponsibly overboard on it, as he often does.
“They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over the buildings. They’re going in violently,” Trump says of migrant gangs in Springfield, Ohio and Aurora, Colorado.
Trump goes straight to mentioning Springfield, Ohio, being overrun by migrants. He does not mention cats or ducks being eaten by them.
Trump says a tariff isn’t a sales tax, which is maybe very technically true in the sense that it’s not a tax on all goods, but it absolutely is a sales tax, and one that drives up prices for consumers.
Harris opens in response to a question on the economy outlining a variety of small bore tax deductions and incentives for small businesses, which is revealing of how conscious the Harris campaign is of voters’ apprehension toward her failure to make her plans more explicit.
Asked to make the case that Americans are better off than they were four years ago, Harris pivots to discussing her economic plans rather than defend the record of the Biden-Harris administration. Suggests they’ve looked at the polling and decided there is no way of selling this administration’s economic performance.
Harris starts off talking about her plans, which is bad for her. Then pivots to accusing Trump of wanting to pick up where he left off, which is also bad for her on the economy.