What A Day - Harris Makes Lasting First Impression On Trump

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

On Tuesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off in their first and currently only scheduled presidential debate. The candidates went back and forth on the biggest issues in the election, including reproductive rights, the economy, immigration, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But while VP Harris largely stayed on message, Trump often descended into conspiracy theories and lies. Tommy Vietor, host of Pod Save America and Pod Save the World, joins to give his post-debate analysis.Show Notes:Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday   

It's Wednesday, September 11th. I'm Jane Koston. And I'm Priyanka Arabindi, and this is What A Day, the show that went from reeling from the debate to reeling from the Taylor Swift endorsement that we got right afterwards. Like, immediately right afterwards. Wasted no time. I wonder, was she writing it during the debate? Just being like, all this cat talk is making me anxious.

Yeah, all the talk about the cats getting eaten. And she was like, I can't stand for it. I'm out. I'm out. I'm out. No more. On today's show, we are joining you late night recapping Tuesday night's debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. It was also apparently the first time

the two had ever met. And boy, was it a meeting. Kamala Harris, it's a good debate. Have fun. Thank you. I don't know why I find it so funny that she literally introduced herself to Donald Trump, but also she like walked across the stage being OK. It's me. I know. And he's like, he just stays there. It's a what a moment really. Yeah. Things off on a strange note. Yeah. I can't explain why that was weird, but it was weird. No, and it was an intense and really at times baffling 90 minutes. Trump and Harris went back

and forth on the biggest issues in this election, like reproductive rights, the economy, immigration, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. And they did not once talk about golf, which is a very big improvement from last time around. Early on, Harris seemed to goad Trump into losing his composure a bit when she encouraged people to attend one of his rallies. Take a listen. You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you, the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.

You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams and your desires. And I'll tell you, I believe you deserve a president who actually puts you first. And I pledge to you that I will. People don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. That's because people want to take their country back. Yeah, it was clearly a line designed to get under Trump's skin. And it worked. Like, I was joking online earlier that sometimes when I try to give my puppy cheese to make him go do something, he'll just look at me and not take the bait. Trump is not like that. Oh, no, he was all over the cheese. No, Trump was in the crate. Trump was ready to go. And Trump, after that rally's comment,

he became notably more agitated and started yelling a lot more. The whole night. The whole time. Here are some of Trump's greatest hits, if you call them that, from the rest of the night. They're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating. They're eating the pets of the people that live there. Victor Orban, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man. He's a tough person, smart. Prime Minister of Hungary. They said, why is the whole world blowing up? Three years ago, it wasn't. Why is it blowing up?

He said, because you need Trump back as president. They were afraid of him peacefully and patriotically. And nobody on the other side was killed. Ashley Babbitt was shot by an out-of-control police officer that should have never, ever shot her. I mean, all I can say is I read where she was not black, that she put out, and I'll say that. And then I read that she was black, and that's okay.

Either one was okay with me. That's up to her. Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. Okay, so for the record, no one is eating pets. Victor Orban is a dictator. The January 6th rioters were not peaceful, and they were attempting to overturn an election anyway.

That's why they were there. And Harris is always identified as a black woman. Biracial people, we exist. I'm still trying to wrap my head around transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. I'm sorry. I'm still trying to wrap my head around transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. I'm sorry. I'm a little stuck. I think I got lost. The Victor Orban thing. Strong man does not mean what he thinks it means. I think he thinks that like dictator like that means that everybody does what they say. And I would like that. And I'm like, no, no, that's not

good. Just a lot of the inner machinations of his brain on display tonight in the worst ways. Anyways, on policy, Harris also hit Trump hard about his stance on reproductive rights, or really his lack thereof. And she did not mince words about the consequences of Trump's decision to appoint Supreme Court justices who overturned the right to an abortion. And now in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans, which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care. In one state, it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exception even for rape and incest, which understand what that

means. A survivor of a crime, a violation to their body does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral. And one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree. The government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. In response, Trump insisted he would not sign a federal abortion ban. But when the moderators tried to push him about a recent comment his vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, made that Trump would veto a federal abortion ban, he seemed to backpedal. But if I could just get a yes or no, because you're running me, J.D. Vance has said that you would veto if you did come to your desk.

Well, I didn't discuss it with J.D. in all fairness. J.D. and I don't mind if he has a certain view, but I think he was speaking for me. But I really didn't. Got it. He doesn't talk to J.D. Vance. Understood. Loud and clear. Cool.

I mean, personally, I understand. I wouldn't want to either. I get it. Yeah, we get it. Totally get it. We get it. For his part, Trump's major strategy here was a repeat of the last debate. He wanted to tie every question back to immigration, and he did it on

questions about the economy, the ongoing wars overseas, and this one about his involvement on January 6th. Go down to Washington, D.C., and let her sign a bill to close up the border, because they have the right to do it. They don't need bills. They have the right to do it. The president of the United States, you'll get him out of bed. You'll wake him up at four o'clock in the afternoon. You'll say, come on, come on down to the office. Let's sign a bill. If he if he signs a bill that the border is closed, all he has to do is say it to the Border Patrol, who are phenomenal. If they do that, the border is closed. Mr. President, those people are killing many people, unlike J6. Just as a side note, it's weird to refer to the January 6th protesters as J6, like they're a hot K-pop group.

That's weird. I agree with you. Not into it. Nope. Aside from the fact that we're not a dictatorship and that's not how democracy works and that's not how the border works, you can hear Trump saying they there repeatedly, part of an obvious strategy to tie Harris to President Joe Biden, who Trump believes is a giant failure. But Harris was able to pretty successfully counter those attacks with simple lines like this. Well, first of all, it's important to remind the former president,

you're not running against Joe Biden, you're running against me. As the debate was winding down, Harris tried to leave viewers with a more optimistic vision of the country and what she could bring as the first Black and South Asian woman president. Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump. And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country, one who believes in what is possible, one who brings a sense of optimism about what we can do instead of always disparaging the American people. It was a drastic contrast to Trump's dark view of a country that's failing and in decline. For more analysis of the debate, Harris's performance, and what it means for this election,

I spoke with Pod Save America's own Tommy Vitor. Here's our conversation. Tommy, welcome to What A Day. Thank you. Great to be here. What were your initial thoughts on a debate that did not feature two people who are 900 years old? That was really fun to watch. I feel really good right now. I try not to be overly exuberant because obviously the last debate we all watched together as a nation led to us changing nominees. But I think Kamala Harris was so well prepared. She was able to bait Donald Trump into saying stupid things, whining about his crowd size, unloading about court cases, even COVID. She had a great night. Obviously, Trump seemed to do all of his debate prep with the most online people who have ever lived. And I've been talking about Trump being too online since 2020 when he was going on the stump to complain about like Nelly and Bruce

Orr. Don't look it up. Right. Right. But it's only gotten worse. So how has that impacted his ability to reach voters who have no idea what he's talking about? You and I are, I think, obsessed with this. Yes. Like Jake Tapper went on CNN after and said some of Trump's answers were 4chan posts come to life. Like you had to have, you need to know more. Yes. You needed to know. He just would mention Aurora in Springfield without providing any context that he was trying to make an argument about immigration. I think it was the Washington Post at a focus group where they asked some people like, did that answer make sense to you?

And someone said, I couldn't follow a word of it. Yeah. So what did Kamala Harris do effectively? Let's set aside Donald Trump for right now, because something that happened in the last debate was that Biden was so bad that Trump may have looked better than he actually was. But what did Kamala Harris do well tonight? I think she did a really effective job of pivoting back to being serious and substantive and being like, this guy's yelling and he's calling people names. Here's what I want to talk about. I have a plan to help small businesses. I have a plan to help you buy a house, et cetera, et cetera. Like the number one thing we

know that she needs to do in this entire campaign is tell people about how she will help them economically, how she'll deal with inflation and help them buy a home, et cetera, et cetera. And I think she did a lot of work on that tonight. I don't think she solved the problem by any means. I don't think we're going to see her suddenly beating Trump on sort of questions about who can better handle the economy. But I think she spoke to it well, and she attacked his record for giving huge tax cuts to the richest people in the country. How do you think she handled the whole issue of, I mean, Trump was supposed to tie Biden to Kamala Harris and basically say they're both failures. Now, it was super weird when Trump decided actually Biden hates Kamala Harris. That was a weird moment. But how do you think she did

as being able to say, hey, I'm proud of my record, but also I am not Joe Biden? What's so funny for all of like the hand-wringing about this, she did it so simply. She said, I'm not Joe Biden. I'm not Joe Biden. What's so funny for all of like the hand-wringing about this, she did it so simply. She said, I'm not Joe Biden. I'm not Donald Trump. I'm someone else. I'm a new generation. And that was so effective. But also Donald Trump is so sad that he's not running against Joe Biden anymore. Oh, it's like really awkward.

He attacked him over and over again. It was like the kind of MAGA insider stuff you were talking about. He was talking about the Moscow mayor paying off Hunter Biden, like things that have nothing to do with Kamala Harris. Yeah. And then he started going on about Victor Orban for those critical Victor Orban moms that were trying to get those swing voters. Again, a guy, the quasi dictator in Hungary, well known if you like watch CPAC every year, but most voters have no idea who he is. Right. Let's take a break. More with Pod Save America's Tommy Vitor in a moment.

But if you like our show, make sure to subscribe and share it with your friends. Let's get back to our conversation with Tommy Vitor. Something I wanted to get your impressions on are some specific issues. How do you think she did talking about the economy? Because Trump will obviously say that this is the worst economy in the history of time. But she needed to respond to real concerns about inflation, real concerns specifically that young people have about being able to get a job, keep a job and move forward, home buying issues like that. How do you think she did it starting to answer those questions? Yeah, look, those are tough questions. You know, we know people are pissed. Look,

she's unburdened by what has been what has been, which, you know, was what Biden struggled with, which was sounding very defensive and talking about his record and all the things he'd done and sort of the tone was often, how are you not happier about this? She was like, look, things aren't great. We've done X, Y, Z, but we have more work to do. Here's my plan to help you buy a house. Here's my plan to bring down grocery prices. Here's my plan for inflation. So I think she did the things she needed to do. I just don't know that you can solve the problem tonight. It's going to take a lot more interviews and public appearances and events. So something I think that has struck a lot more interviews and public appearances and events.

So something I think that has struck a lot of people is how much Trump has decided that this is a base election, that it's just his base. He believes firmly that he won in 2016 just because of his base. And he's like, I'm just going to go deeper, not wider. That's why he chose J.D. Vance, who apparently he doesn't talk to. Right. Which. About some of the biggest issues in the country, like abortion. Yeah.

Which, weird, like abortion. Yeah. Which, weird, but sure. So, how do you think Kamala Harris did about talking to everyone? Because I think that's been something that's been interesting

where she's the person bringing up Dick Cheney and talking about how she loves America and there's a part of me that was like, this is not how this sounded like 20 years ago.

I know. I know. We were name dropping Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney, and John McCain. Yeah. You had George Bush in there, you're batting for the cycle. I know. I know. We were name dropping Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney, and John McCain. Yeah. You had George Bush in there. You're batting for the cycle. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I think at one point she said, if you're offended by January 6th or these kind of comments are too extreme for you, there's a place for you in my campaign. Like she made an overt

pitch for Republicans, especially never Trump, kind of Nikki Haley voter disaffected Republican. So clearly that was part of the strategy. Like, did it work? Time will tell. But I was glad she did it. I can't get over the fact that Donald Trump decided to relitigate the 2020 election again. I know. Like, especially saying, like, I know I said I lost a couple of days ago, but actually I was being sarcastic and actually I didn't lose.

I'm aware that sounds insane, but I don't know. I'm not a swing voter. So how do you think that relitigating that issue, upon which it's not very popular, we've seen it in the 2022 midterms, people aren't really into it. Like Carrie Lake, not a hugely popular figure for being so focused on this, but how do you think that that played to undecided voters? For a lot of voters, they probably heard the kind of January 6th stuff and they just tuned out and they don't want to hear about it and they don't want to talk about it. But I bet there are others who are like, you don't regret anything from that day. You can't say you regret anything. You can't say, yeah, I wish I had tweeted something earlier or I wish that thugs hadn't gone to the Capitol and beat up a bunch of cops. I mean, he said the only person who was killed was Ashley Babbitt, who got shot by an out-of-control police officer.

You know, he like kind of swerved to attack the cops. Yeah, you know, not backing the blue. Not as like proud boy, you know, militia force that he sent down there. I'm interested. I always think about this because there's a story we're going to tell about how this debate played in a couple of months. But initial reactions, what do you think the impact of this debate is going to be? I mean, I think the narrative tonight is that Kamala Harris won and she looked strong and that he just looked off. And you're seeing that in the snap polling.

You're seeing it in the kind of like instant focus groups on CNN and other places. And so you can tell that the Harris campaign thinks they're coming from a place of strength and Trump's coming from a place of weakness because Trump made this unscheduled visit to the spin room. Which is not good. Not good. We saw that after the last debate. Biden visited the spin room and that's how we knew. Bad. Shit has gone down.

Bad times. Yeah, it's not good. He went on Sean Hannity's show for a little therapy session, you know, hung out on the couch. Apparently he's going on Fox and Friends, I think, at 640 next morning. Yeah. So, like, he's in all his safe spaces. Yeah. So I think what the Republicans are going to try to do, and you're already seeing this on social media, is blame the moderators and say it was three on one and that's why Trump didn't do well.

But the pundits will be looking for some huge debate bounce. That's very unlikely to happen, I think. But, you know, like there'sits will be looking for some huge debate bounce. That's very unlikely to happen, I think. But you know, like there's like, what, 50 some odd days left. So Kamala Harris won September 10th. Yeah. It's never good when you're yelling about the refs. Never good. It's never good. Especially when the refs say things like, actually, sir, infanticide is illegal. Yeah. And it's also interesting, especially because the Harris campaign has said, let's do it again. Let's do another debate. And Trump was kind of like, well, maybe on Fox News with friendly people who like me.

With Don Jr. doing the moderation. Yeah, he actually went on Hannity and was asked about this. And he wouldn't commit to another debate yet. So it's just not clear that they want to do it. Interesting. If I'm Kamala Harris, I would probably eagerly do another debate. Absolutely. Anyone who's losing should want a debate. Yeah. I think my last question for you, what are you going to remember from this debate? Are there specific moments? I mean, I think that there are going to be a couple of moments of just Kamala Harris looking baffled, where I'm just like, yeah, that's kind of how I felt for eight something years. And I also am going to remember Trump once again, promising

a beautiful health care plan to which I just keep being like, it's been nine years. What was the exact line? He said, we have concepts of a plan. Yeah, concepts of a plan. Look, I've had concepts of a plan before. And that generally has ended poorly for me. That is not going to wear well over time. I think you're right that Kamala Harris had a mastery of the cut shot tonight. She knew that what she said was important, but it was also important how you look when you're not speaking. And she looked amused, which I think is the right way to handle it, of looking kind of just like you're interested and amused.

And then towards the end, she got concerned eyebrows. I've seen concerned eyebrows before and it's not good it's scary yeah there's a clip going around where she blinks 10 times and just kind of looks at him and smiles and it you know she called bullshit with her face and her facial expressions and she laughed and he said some like truly heinous things right Right. You know, like when you really unpack the insane ranting about people in Ohio eating dogs, it's this like fundamentally racist attack on Haitian migrants. And when you unpack the claims

he makes about abortion access, where he's accusing Democrats of infanticide, like that's dangerous rhetoric that's led to violence in the past. So I think I'll remember those lines for how just depraved they sound and how baffling it was that he would bring it up at a debate.

But also, you know, her answer on abortion was as close to perfect as an answer could be. You know, she told a story. It was emotional. She underscored the stakes. She just was so good.

No, I think that that was a debate in which you came out of it being like, oh, there was a clear winner here and I know who it was. And it's the person who absolutely wants to do it again. Can you just imagine how you felt at the last debate? Yeah. Compared to tonight?

You're aware that if the old debate schedule had been in place, this would have been the first debate. And we'd still have Joe Biden. Yeah. And things would be different. Things would be very, very different. Let's not think about that too much. I'm glad we don't have to. Tommy Vitor, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me.

That was my conversation with Tommy Vitor, co-host of Pod Save America. Now, I'm sure we could have gone another hour recapping every weird thing we heard tonight, but let's hear about what we're going to see online. Yes, as they say, a debate is one evening, but the memes really do last forever. So let's take a walk down memory lane to revisit some of the most memorable moments from years past. Yeah, like during the second U.S. presidential debate in 2012, when Republican nominee Mitt Romney touted his recruitment of women during his time as governor of Massachusetts in the weirdest way possible. We took a concerted effort to go out

and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women's groups and said, can you help us find folks? And they brought us whole binders full of women. Then there was the 2020 vice presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence when they were just a fly sitting on his head. Which, to everyone's credit, no one mentioned, but it was all over social. But there was that moment where she made it clear she did not want to be interrupted. But Susan, this is important. And I want to add, Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.

And Trump did his own rendition last night. In Minnesota, she went out. Wait a minute. I'm talking now. If you don't mind, please. Does that sound familiar? Certainly, certainly does. He's digging through the archives.

And like the debates that came before, this one also had some very memeable moments, the biggest of which seems to be Vice President Harris making what can best be described as what the fuck faces as Trump gave some very what the fuck were the answers throughout the night. It's the phase that we will all be trying to make. If you haven't seen this already, you almost certainly will soon. It was an instantly iconic reaction, perhaps the perfect replacement for the gif of the white man blinking. I'm going to be using it all the time. I know that. There were also some other memorable lines.

I have concepts of a plan. I'm not president right now. Bitch, it's been nine years. You have had nine years to come up with a beautiful health care plan. George R.R. Martin thinks you're taking a long-ass time to come up with something. Come on! And all of that aside, just an instantly iconic line. Thank you so much for that.

I would like to hear nothing more from him. But to leave us with that is perfect. One more thing before you go. Does scrolling through your news feed make you feel as confused and overwhelmed as Trump reading policy ever? We got you. Crooked just launched Crooked News, a new social destination for our 100% correct news and analysis. Put real news back in your news feed. Follow Real Crooked News at Real Crooked News on Instagram, Threads, and X, formerly Twitter.

That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, get the world's most famous childless cat lead to endorse your presidential campaign, and tell all your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just the transcripts of the moderators fact-checking Trump, like me, well, today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston.

I'm Priyanka Arabindi. Thanks for listening. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded by Jarek Centeno and mixed by Bill Lance. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michelle Aloy. We had production help today from Ethan Oberman, Tyler Hill, Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adrienne Hill.

Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.