The media is hailing Harris’ performance as a success. This was expected. She certainly exceeded expectations. She was given talking points, many of which were designed to provoke Trump into losing his cool, and she deftly executed them. Although Trump was never rattled, he did take the bait a few times, for example talking about the crowd sizes of the respective campaigns.
Harris’s performance was riddled with debunked claims and distortions. Her repeated insistence on the false narrative that Trump praised white supremacists in Charlottesville and incited the January 6 riot were only a few examples. She avoided direct answers on topics like abortion restrictions, opting instead for broad, sweeping statements. Harris’ attempt to distance herself from previous comments on defunding the police came off as disingenuous. Her tendency to overstate and sidestep key issues gave the impression of a candidate more focused on scoring political points than delivering substantive policy ideas.
Vice President Kamala Harris has made several claims during her public appearances and debates, many of which have been contested or debunked. She said several things at the debate last night that are false or misleading. Although moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis went out of their way to factcheck Trump in real time, they did not do the same with Harris. This left the impression that Trump was lying and Harris wasn’t. I want to review some of Harris’ lies and distortions in this essay. (I reviewed some of these before. See Three Big Lies About Trump—and Promising Developments in the Transatlantic Space.)
Harris asserted that Trump would implement Project 2025 if elected, despite Trump’s repeated denials that he has any involvement with the initiative. She also claimed that Trump would implement a sales tax if he wins, but Trump has not promised to introduce such a tax.
Regarding the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Harris argued that Trump incited the violence, yet the former president specifically instructed his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make [their] voices heard.” Additionally, Harris suggested that police officers died due to the events of January 6, which is inaccurate. For example, medical examiners confirmed that Officer Brian Sicknick died of natural causes. Harris also labeled the riot the “worst attack on democracy since the Civil War,” but the riot did not pose the same threat to the nation as events like 9/11 or Pearl Harbor and what they represented.
Harris repeated the misleading claim that Trump praised white supremacists during the 2017 Charlottesville rally when he said there were “fine people on both sides.” In fact, Trump was referring to individuals on both sides of the debate regarding the preservation of historical monuments, not to extremists. He repeatedly condemned neo-nazis and white supremacists at that press conference.
Harris mischaracterized Trump’s comments by suggesting he had warned of a “bloodbath” in the event of his electoral defeat, implying that he was advocating or predicting violence. Like the “fine people on both sides” narrative, this interpretation distorts the original context of Trump’s remarks. In reality, Trump was addressing the potential economic downturn and hardships that he believed would follow if Democrats were to win the election, specifically referring to the importation of Chinese electric vehicles. His comments centered around the notion that a Democratic victory would lead to significant financial instability, rather than a call for physical conflict. Harris’s portrayal of this as a violent threat undermined the substantive economic warning Trump was attempting to convey.
In terms of Trump’s stance on abortion, Harris warned that Trump would sign a national abortion ban and appoint an “abortion monitor” to oversee pregnancies. However, Trump has consistently stated that decisions about abortion should be left to individual states. Harris also claimed that several states have “Trump abortion bans” that criminalize medical professionals and offer no exceptions for rape or incest. In reality, such laws generally include exceptions for situations where a pregnant woman’s life is at risk. Additionally, Harris denied that women are seeking late-term abortions, but data from the CDC shows that thousands of abortions are performed after 21 weeks, and this figure does not include states where abortion reporting is not mandated. Harris also inaccurately linked Trump’s abortion policies to restrictions on in vitro fertilization (IVF), claiming that Trump’s abortion bans deny couples the chance to undergo IVF. However, Trump has previously voiced support for IVF and promised to expand access to the treatment.
Harris’ denials of late-term abortions is especially problematic because under a 2015 Minnesota law, the state was previously required to report when abortions resulted in a live birth, detailing the actions taken to preserve the infant’s life and whether the child survived. Data from January 1 to December 31, 2021, revealed that five abortions resulted in live births. In three cases, no measures were taken to assist the infants, while the remaining two were provided with “comfort care measures” before they passed away. Governor Tim Walz, who is Harris’ running mate, presided over the changes to the reporting requirements.
When challenged on her position regarding law enforcement, Harris denied supporting defunding the police. Yet, she has previously advocated for “reimagining” policing and redirecting resources to other areas of government, including education and small businesses. She further denied fundraising efforts to bail out protesters following George Floyd’s death, but Harris did promote a bail fund that helped release rioters and others arrested during the 2020 unrest. As for the claim that crime rates have declined under Biden-Harris, what has actually happened is that crime reporting by police agencies and city governments has decline. Lastly, on the matter of Second Amendment rights, which protects citizen’s ability to effect the foundational right of self-defense, Harris denied supporting mandatory gun confiscation, though she has expressed support for such measures in the past.
On national security, Harris claimed that Trump’s policies weakened the United States, yet under his administration, the US southern border was more secure, and several peace agreements were brokered between Israel and Arab states. Under the Biden-Harris administration, geopolitical tensions have escalated, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and increased hostility from Iran-backed Hamas, as well as China’s aggressive posturing towards Taiwan and other neighboring countries.
I want to close noting Trump’s missed opportunity. Here is what he should have done: It’s his first turn to speak. He says he will answer the question, but first he needs to remind viewers at home that tomorrow is the day terrorists flew planes into the twin towers of his beloved City of New York. He reminds viewers that George Bush and Dick Cheney were on watch that day and they failed to protect America from the worst attack on United States territory since Pearl Harbor. Trump then points out that Bush refuses to endorse him and that Cheney endorses her. These are the same two men, he tells viewers, who lied the nation into war and that the President under whom she currently serves was one of the Senators who authorized the criminal invasion of Iraq. Trump finishes by telling viewers that Biden-Harris regime has thrown the world in turmoil, that they are of the class of the warmongers, and that he, Trump, will be a peace president.
Readers will note that Trump lacks the discipline to do something like this. Perhaps. Those praising Harris say she has the discipline he lacks. However, what we see in Harris are performances. Her performances are poorly performed. She is inauthentic. To be sure, it takes some discipline to memorize talking points. And she was able to push through them despite her nerves. But she is a construct. There is no actual substance there. Trump, on the other hand, is authentic. Rosanne Barr puts the matter well in this tweet:
freedom and reason 