Post Debate Analysis: State Rep. Nate Schatzline and Will Tanner of American Tribune

The presidential debate between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was defined by tough and tense interactions between the two candidates — and an avalanche of complaints of bias from ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. 

These themes were immediately present in early exchanges over immigration. “In Springfield… they are eating the dogs, the cats, the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said, referencing the recent flurry of unsubstantiated stories online about roughly 20,000 Haitian immigrants who have moved to Ohio under the Biden presidency and have eaten nongame animals. 

Moderator David Muir said ABC talked to the city manager in Springfield and that he said there was no evidence of animals being eaten. Trump retorted by pointing to videos of residents saying that their pets had been eaten and he implied that there was “really nothing else” a city manager could say. 

ABC LIES AGAIN! Trump didn’t say they’re eating cats in “Springfield” – so whatever Springfield “leaders” told David Muir is irrelevant. Here’s the video of a woman eating a cat, admitting it and police interviews with her neighbors:https://t.co/z5BuiGFuUp

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 11, 2024

There have also been images of Geese being carried off by men, reportedly in Columbus, Ohio. 

Self-proclaimed fact-checkers have not been able to make any determination about whether the people committing these acts are Haitian or American.  

However, police reports posted by Old Row appear to indicate that a group of Haitians did indeed eat several geese, although this appears to be a separate instance from the man carrying the goose in Columbus.

Fake News ABC “fact checked” Trump despite police reports existing that PROVE his claims about his claims about Springfield Ohio. pic.twitter.com/R5tqXcrt4a

— Old Row (@OldRowOfficial) September 11, 2024

Harris guffawed and appeared incensed at Trump’s statement. She then leaned into her prosecutorial record which she implied included prosecutors of shady drug cartels and human trafficking related organizations.  

The moderators did not ask her about the alleged elements of her record that devastated her presidential bid in 2020 when Tulsi Gabbard accused her of prosecutorial misconduct. That moment was widely regarded as having derailed Harris’s campaign in that cycle.

Muir asked Trump about how he would deliver “the largest deportation effort in history,” using both the National Guard and local police. Trump responded that this would be necessary because the Biden-Harris administration let in an elevated degree of criminals from foreign countries. 

“I think this is so rich for someone who has been prosecuted,” Harris responded. She criticized him for wanting to shrink the FBI, a stark contrast from her efforts to aid Defund The Police movements during the second summer of rage in 2020. 

Trump reminded her that many of the cases against him have been overturned or gummed up in concerns about prosecutorial misconduct which he described as “weaponization… [of] of fake cases.”  

ABORTION 

Trump attacked Harris for her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s permissive abortion record which included supporting abortion until birth. Although abortion laws have been in flux nationally since the Supreme Court case returned control over abortion laws to the states, Minnesota laws now reaffirm state court decisions that allow abortion any stage. 

Harris attacked Trump for appointing several of the members of the Supreme Court whose ruling formed the majority in the so-called Dobbs case, which found the Constitution does not confer the right to an abortion. 

Regarding federal action, Trump said because he believed the proper decision about abortion remained in the states. He also noted that federal action on abortion was unlikely given the split control of both the House and Senate. “I am not signing a ban, there is no reason to,” he said. 

Harris said she wanted to reinstate Roe v Wade when asked if she supported any restrictions on abortions. 

Abortion was an issue they both spent considerable time on. The exchange concluded on Trump’s reminder that the former Governor of Virginia supported letting abortions occur shortly after a viable baby is born. 

This is horrific.

Dem Gov. Ralph Northam, a pediatrician himself, is defending born-alive abortions:

“The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired.”pic.twitter.com/3AxXlBhImQ

— Ronna McDaniel (@RonnaMcDaniel) January 30, 2019

ECONOMICS 

 Harris’s opening remarks focused on building an “opportunity economy” which she said included building new houses and cutting taxes for young families. She contrasted this with Trump’s alleged tax plan that she says would mostly benefit billionaires. 

Trump rebutted these remarks by saying he would hit trade predators such as China with tariffs and said he would control inflation. He then turned his remarks to immigration, using recent events in Colorado and Ohio to buttress his point, and said immigration was hurting black workers “and also unions” by driving down wages. 

On manufacturing, these points were echoed again when Harris promised more auto plants in the US. Trump said auto jobs had been shipped overseas under the Biden-Harris Administration and laid out a plan and re-emphasized his tariff plan.  

FOREIGN POLICY 

 Another instance of apparent moderator bias came in the section focusing on foreign policy.

After the commercial break, Trump reopened by pointing to his record of getting other NATO member nations to increase their spending on mutual defense. He used this as a jumping-off point to describe how he would use pressure on both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky to come to an agreement. 

Harris responded by touting the Biden-Harris Administration’s foreign policy record. “Ukraine stands as an independent and free country,” she said. Muir did not push back on this and failed to mention that portions of Ukraine have been effectively annexed by Russia. 

The moderator then tried to change the subject but Trump interjected. Trump hammered Harris on her foreign policy record, identifying that her role as emissary to NATO failed to fend off the war, just days before Russians crossed their western border. 

The next section focused on the Afghanistan withdrawal. Muir asked Harris if she supported the way Biden conducted the end of the U.S.’s military presence in the nation that left 13 service members dead following a suicide attack outside the Kabul airport. She did not address this element of the question, but did say she agreed with the notion that the U.S. needed to leave. 

“For 18 months we had nobody killed,” Trump said of the Afghanistan presence during his tenure, “and we wouldn’t have left $85 billion of brand new beautiful equipment behind.” 

 MEMORABLE QUOTES
“I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things they say about me… [and] democracy.” 

-Trump

“I will not ban fracking.”

– Harris

“I am talking, does that sound familiar?”

– Trump (referncing Harris’s line against her predecessor in the 2020 debate)

“Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the civil war.” 

– Harris

“It’s like four sentences. Like ‘run spot run.’ She doesn’t have a plan.” 

– Trump (on Harris’s economic plan)

CLOSING REMARKS

As the debate drew to a close, Harris promised to chart a new way forward” which she described as “giving hardworking folks a break” and letting a woman make “[decisions] about her own body.” 

Trump said, “They’ve had 3 and a half years to fix the border and create jobs, why hasn’t she done it… They haven’t done it and you won’t do it.” 

“We are a failing nation and we are being laughed at all over the world,” he added.

POST-DEBATE

In typical fashion, both sides have largely declared victory in the post-debate statements and spin room appearances.

In one twist of history, former presidential primary debate moderator Megyn Kelly, whom Trump famously sparred with in 2016, called out the bias from Muir and Davis. “These moderators are a disgraceful failure and this is one of the most biased, unfair debates I have ever seen. Shame on you @ABC,” Kelly posted on X.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes saw it differently, tweeting, “ABC moderators doing an *excellent* job.”

Just minutes after both figures walked off the stage, the Harris campaign challenged Trump to another debate. Trump told Fox News pundit Sean Hannity that he would “think about it.”