In the immediate aftermath of the presidential debate earlier this week, many people believe that Vice President Kamala Harris came away as the clear winner.
But, looking back and taking a more in-depth look at it, one will see that Harris dodged some key questions that were asked of her by the ABC moderators on Tuesday night.
Surprisingly, Jake Tapper, a host of the liberal media outlet CNN, took Harris to task for evading some of the night’s key questions.
One day after the debate, Tapper said Harris wasn’t very forthcoming regarding what her policies actually are. He said she even started the debate “by punting the first question on the economy.”
As Tapper continue:
“It went on from there. Despite the economy being the number one issue facing the country, the sitting vice president generally reverted to talking points about a few of her policy proposals. Even Harris allies today are saying that she needs to talk more about what she will do for Americans if elected.”
Perhaps the second biggest issue of November’s presidential election is immigration, and that’s another area where Tapper believes that Harris avoided answering questions.
Instead of responding directly to a question about how she would’ve handled the immigration crisis better than her boss, President Joe Biden, Harris said:
“So, I’m the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs and human beings.”
But, as Tapper pointed out, “that wasn’t the question.”
The CNN host then later played a clip of Harris’ response was when asked how she would break through the stalemate in the Israel-Hamas war, in which she said:
“We need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out, and so we will continue to work around the clock on that.”
To which Tapper responded:
“OK. But again, how?”
Tapper was quick to caution viewers that he wasn’t equating Harris’ performance at the debate to that of GOP nominee Donald Trump, who he has frequently criticized. In fact, Tapper said:
“While by no means are we equating the two performances last night, it is also true that at times both Trump and Harris fell short of giving straightforward answers to questions about how exactly they would run the country.”
Tapper was the moderator of the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden that was held in June. Biden’s disastrous performance in that ultimately led to him stepping aside, which allowed Harris to become the Democratic nominee.
While she was initially named the victor of Tuesday’s debate, a lot of savvy people have pointed out some huge flaws in her performance. Some of the things that Tapper pointed out certainly are among them.
She didn’t do well at all to win people over on the economy or immigration, two issues that are of the utmost importance to voters and two issues on which Trump enjoys a clear advantage over Harris.
