Trump’s Televised Debate with Harris: A Tug of War for Support

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump faced significant repercussions after losing the first televised debate with US Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Democratic Party attacked candidate Trump’s comments, such as “Illegal immigrants eat people’s dogs and cats” and “(In some states that support the Democratic Party) ‘abortions after birth’ are performed,” saying, “He needs a mental evaluation.” After the debate, candidate Harris raised a large amount of donations, and major donors who supported candidate Trump expressed their disappointment.

However, according to a poll conducted by CNN immediately after the debate, only 4% responded that they “changed the candidate they supported after watching.” This is interpreted to mean that candidate Trump’s ‘definite support base’ remains strong regardless of whether he wins or loses the debate.

Trump’s “Mental Emotion” Offense of the Democratic Party

After the debate, Harris’ presidential campaign posted the entire video and key parts on social media and attacked Trump, saying, “Trump has difficulty even handling simple questions.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries commented on candidate Trump’s comments about his dog and said, “Can’t somebody check this person’s cognitive ability?” “It seems unclear whether he is mentally healthy enough to take the presidency,” he said.

According to the online donation platform ‘Act Blue’, just a few hours after the debate began, the Democratic Party raised $43 million (about 58 billion won) here alone. This is the highest daily fundraising amount recorded by ActBlue since Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz was selected as Harris’ running mate on the 6th of last month.

2nd Tug of War Discussion

Candidate Trump’s side mentions then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who were evaluated as “winnable” during the 2012 and 2016 presidential debates, respectively, but were lost in the actual presidential election.

The two candidates engaged in a tense tug-of-war over whether to hold additional debates. Candidate Trump’s side drew a line on Candidate Harris’ motion for an additional debate, saying, “We have no intention of doing that because we won a lot of debates.” However, he left room for a second debate, saying, “I also want to have (discussions) with NBC and Fox News.”

“We are open to debate in October,” the Harris campaign said. Candidate Trump, who has a solid support base, is likely to see his approval rating rise in the near future despite the short-term negative news about ‘debate loss’, so he plans to hold an additional debate shortly before the presidential election on November 5 and win there to put a wedge in the presidential race.