What the Debate Means for the Candidates

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump entered Tuesday’s debate tied in some polls—but whether their performances might have swayed undecided voters remains to be seen. Harris was able to drive Trump off the rails, triggering him with talk of crowd sizes, but will that success help her earn more votes?

Observers have largely pointed to Harris as the winner of what could be the final presidential debate before the election. This partly came down to how, rather than responding directly to Trump’s arguments, Harris inspired “a level of ridicule in the audience,” Jerusalem Demsas said last night on Washington Week With The Atlantic.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to paint a dystopian picture of the country, and his comments during the debate about cats and dogs serve as another example of this rhetoric. One of the reasons Trump has struggled in this reelection race is because he is not pointing to specific achievements he made as president, Demsas explained. Trump “does well when he inspires fear in the electorate,” she said. He’s attempting to portray himself as a “change candidate,” and he does that by “talking about how dark things are.”

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Ashley Parker, a senior national political correspondent at The Washington Post; Eugene Daniels, a White House correspondent for Politico; Jerusalem Demsas, a staff writer at The Atlantic; and Asma Khalid, a White House correspondent for NPR and a political contributor for ABC News.

Watch the full episode here.