Watching the Debate with Inmates- 9/11/2024

All,
Last night was the first, and in my opinion hopefully last, debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump. I wanted to share a few of my key take always.

I watched the debate in a room full of people. Right out of the gate, when Kamala was asked about her flip flopping on her positions and then asked, are people better off then they were 4 years ago? Her non answer, answer drew multiple sneers from the audience. After the very first answer, a lot of people turned their chairs to watch other TVs with sports or movies on. My thought, after the very first question was answered was, ‘this is over’, Trump won. That first question was the most important question.

I actually thought ABC made a knockout punch, and she fell totally flat.

The second takeaway was Trump had at least 3 moments that drew audible laughter from the crowd. The biggest being “I was going to send her a MAGA hat, because she has copied so many of my policies, but she will take it off on day 1”. This made people roll. In one sentence he highlighted her flip flopping, lying, taking his policies (because they work) and that she will not follow through. One single line, very memorable.

This morning people are still laughing about it. I need to remind you, these are not political junkies like myself. Just normal dudes. The other line that got a lot of laughs, was when Trump highlighted that illegal immigrants are eating ‘dogs and cats and people’s pets’. This has gone viral the last few days with residents of Springfield, OH going to town halls complaining about this behavior. It is also happening in other communities. ABC tried to fact check Trump saying ‘the city manager said this isn’t happening’. Trump’s response was fine, but basically, yes, the city manager isn’t doing anything about it, so that is why THE PEOPLE are complaining. Who do you trust, the Gov worker whose job it is to fix this…who isn’t? Or the people videoing Cats and dogs and local Geese being killed? This was a memorable moment in the debate, highlighting the worst aspects of open boarder immigration.

No one at those bus stops, water coolers or job sites are talking about ‘opportunity economies’ or anything else. They remember Trump asked if she supported abortion in the 8, 7 or 9th month…and she couldn’t and wouldn’t answer… This was also a big highlight.

I personally didn’t notice that ABC was only fact checking Trump (inaccurately at that) as much, because I felt like they knocked Harris out with the first question, and I felt like my expectations for them were so low. To me, and a lot of American’s, Trumps hyperbolic rhetoric doesn’t bother me.

Pundits this morning on left wing news kept talking about how Harris was getting under Trumps skin. They omit, that when she baited him with a jab, he responded with a hard left hook. For example, when she talked about his ‘crowd size’ and ‘people leaving early’, he responded ‘you have to bus people in and pay them to be there’. That is being talked about, Trumps crowd sizes are a fact, nothing compares to it. Democrats need to bring guitar players and rappers to draw a crowd. Famously at the DNC they planted a rumor that Beyonce was going to perform to fill the stadium. People on social media leaving the arena were upset that they waited around all night for Beyonce and were lied to that she would be there.

This is what sticks in peoples minds, who are not glued to the news, but see their social media feeds.

I was impressed at Trump’s full throated defense of his stance on the 2020 election and J6, even mentioning Ashli Babbitt’s name. That was pretty impressive. It might be lost on a lot of people, but it was a really big deal.

So my final take-a-way is that in one week, people will only remember this debate as ‘the one where Trump said he was going to send Kamala a MAGA hat’. Similar to the lines he delivered in 2016: “you’d be in jail”, “that makes me smart” and “only Rossie O’Donnell”.

Pundits are generally disconnected from the people who watch their shows. They are in the tightest echo chambers of all. Don’t be discouraged, if you are. Listen to what people say, and what they actually remember about the debate in the days to come. People know, Gas is Double, Interest Rates are Triple, the Dollar doesn’t buy what it used to at the grocery store, even just a few years ago. There are homeless camps everywhere, migrants in a lot of communities, jobs for citizens are down. These are things that are felt. These are things that can’t be glossed over. People are smarter than the pundits.

Taylor