Democrats muted euphoria after Kamala Harris’ debate win

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump had never met in person before Tuesday’s Philadelphia debate. On Wednesday morning, just hours after the televised face-to-face, they shook hands again, this time in New York, at the tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. They were both there, a short distance away and with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, between them. The three protagonists of the last two presidential debates, together. Although only two and a half months have passed since the meeting that pitted Biden against Trump, the mood, especially among Democrats, could not be more different. The alarm unleashed by the president’s collapse in Atlanta has given way to euphoria, albeit contained, after Harris’ victory over the Republican in Tuesday’s face-to-face.

Biden had already had the opportunity to congratulate his vice president through social networks after the debate: “Tonight, America got to see the leader I have been proud to work with for three and a half years. It was not even a fight. Vice President Harris showed that she is the best choice to lead our country forward. We will not turn back,” he wrote, echoing one of his campaign slogans. This Wednesday, he was able to congratulate her in person and the gestures and smiles of both in their exchanges denoted both complicity and joy.

Harris achieved all her objectives in the debate. She threw baits that Trump took again and again. Drawing on her experience in the courts, she behaved at times like the prosecutor trying to convince the jury, this time made up of millions of American voters. With a well-prepared debate, she alternated messages of optimism with attacks on the former president, who was on the defensive all night, falling for his rival’s provocations. She did everything that Biden was unable to achieve in June, with the advantage of being able to present herself as a generational replacement, as a candidate for change.

“The good news is what Kamala Harris did tonight, revealing Donald Trump for the chaotic figure that he is,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told reporters in Philadelphia after the debate. “I think she has the wind at her back and she helped herself in a big way tonight.”

“Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face at the ballot box this fall: moving forward with Kamala Harris or moving backward with Trump,” her campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, said in a statement. “That’s what they saw tonight and what they should see in a second debate in October. Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” she added.

Trump, for his part, is dodging the issue and says that Harris wants to debate again because she was defeated. “When a boxer loses, she says: ‘I want a rematch.’ I don’t know if I want to do another debate,” he said Wednesday in an interview on Fox News.

The former president has insisted that he won the debate “by a lot.” His attitude contrasts with his post-Atlanta debate attitude, when he retreated into the background and let the Democrats stew in their own juices. In retrospect, however, it may be concluded that — by causing Biden to be replaced by Harris — Trump effectively lost the first debate as well.

Among loyal Republicans, there have been few voices of criticism against the former president. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham did call the debate a “missed opportunity” because the Republican had not been able to defend his thesis about how badly he thinks the United States is doing in the face of Harris’s “happy talk.” What there has been is one broadside after another against the ABC News moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis. Normally, the winning team does not complain about the referee.

Another (very relative) indicator of Trump’s defeat is the collapse on Wednesday on Wall Street of Trump Media, the company that publishes his social network, Truth, which fell 16% on the stock market. The debate has cost the former president dearly, literally. The fall of bitcoin and the rise of securities linked to green energy reinforce the idea.

New push in the campaign

Harris’ success on Tuesday came as the honeymoon with voters that came with her nomination as the candidate and her coronation at the Democratic convention seemed to be ending. Trump was closing the gap in the polls and this was the last major date scheduled – lacking a possible second debate between the two – before the elections on November 5, which actually began on Wednesday with the launch of mail-in voting in Alabama. Harris seized the opportunity and has reinvigorated her campaign.

Despite Harris’s good performance in the debate, her campaign continues to insist that they are not the favourites. This message is good for the Democrats to mobilise their electorate. In addition, they are aware that there is a technical tie between the two and that it will likely be tens of thousands of votes in the decisive states that will tip the balance.

Not even the support of singer Taylor Swift has swayed them, although they have received it with undisguised joy. Trump, meanwhile, has played down the importance of it. “It seems that he always supports a Democrat. And he will probably pay a price for it in the market,” Trump said on Fox News on Wednesday.

Democrats, who had been so full of regret after the June duel, have unanimously celebrated their candidate’s performance. “The previous debate was not good. In this debate, Kamala Harris showed that she is going to be a strong president,” said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper in the press room where the debate was being followed in Philadelphia.

“Tonight we saw firsthand who has the vision and strength to move this country forward instead of dividing us. Kamala Harris will be a president for all Americans,” former President Barack Obama tweeted Tuesday. “After tonight’s debate there should be no doubt — there is no room for argument — that Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race who is prepared to be president,” He was joined by his wife, Michelle Obama.