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Kamala got under Trump's skin. Trump had good zingers but is forced to fight against Kamala and the 'host' at the same time. The mics are live and Kamala was talking over Trump when it was Trump's turn. He should have pointed out how Kamala claimed she was the 'president of democracy and not name calling' and proceeded to name call Trump.
Trump did one of the three things he needed to do in the debate: Kamala and Biden's weakness and failure on immigration.
The other things he needed to do is remind viewers how unpopular and useless she was as Vice President and how much we wasted government tax dollars on projects which yielded nothing. If he wasn't emotionally suckered into Kamala's attacks, he would easily dominate the debate.
Kamala is performing better than I thought. Trump is performing about par compared to his other debates.
I would prefer a Trump presidency vastly compared to a Kamala presidency.
Kamals' voice is not particularly pleasant to listen to.
It is funny. Trump let Kamala get away with it. The moderators asked her about flip flopping. She said nothing and then just said Trump rallies suck. He spent most of his time going off about how his rallies are awesome.
The right answer would be: notice how she couldn’t explain her position? I’ll give up my time because I want to hear how she changed so radically in such a short period of time.
I think this is the one really big and inexcusable Trump missed opportunity. The mods ask about flip-flopping, everyone knew they were. Harris didn't pivot, she just didn't answer. That's a golden opportunity and Trump completely missed it. That's Debate 101 or 102 levels of easy.
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I agree, Trump had a lot of attack vectors. Debates are stressful. If your body was in full adrenaline mode, it's hard to fully concentrate and really have the calm analytical mindset. As soon as Trump is in control he dominates, but Kamala really prepared well and was able to match Trump's energy, preventing from giving him time to calm down. Having to debate the moderator as well didn't help.
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Trump getting suckered into getting emotional and raising his voice and rambling and focusing on things that do not help him has dogged him in every general election debate I can remember him having, other than the super-easy one against Biden the other month. For some reason he was great in the 2016 primary debates, but he seems to struggle in debating Democrats.
He's a very extroverted and present focused individual, I think he probably feels emotions and slights acutely which causes him to overreact when attacked. I would argue it is a strength in many situations, but a weakness in prepared debate prep, especially when the 'moderator' is actively causing a further hassle for him.
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