I don’t think I’ve seen one combatant bait the other so well since Muhammad Ali used the rope-a-dope to defeat George Foreman fifty years ago. But that’s what Kamala Harris did to Donald Trump last night — and it worked perfectly.
It was enough to get Taylor Swift to finally announce her endorsement of Kamala on Instagram. She’s no Kid Rock, but Taylor has a few followers here and there. Just look at how many young women became NFL fans because of her.
It was clear that from the moment Kamala entered, crossed the stage, put out her hand, and introduced herself to Trump, his wires became crossed. For the next ninety minutes, she had the dope on the ropes, flailing, enraged, and in dumb defensive mode. He never even looked at her the whole time because he’s not used to being woman-handled that way. Meanwhile, she used her prosecutor voice to keep baiting him to make what tennis players call unforced errors.
Kamala and her prep squad clearly had some attack lines ready, and — in one of the greatest debate performances ever — she executed them flawlessly. It wasn’t just the words, it was the way she said them, and when he was speaking, her facial expression could best be described as a pitying smirk. She had to be thinking about how well she’d laid out the leaves and twigs over the hole that he fell right into, again and again.
She reminded viewers: “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people and is clearly having a hard time processing that.” She answered his false claim that “everyone wanted Roe v. Wade overturned” by giving examples of women who have suffered in the states where abortion is now illegal, adding, “They didn’t want that.” She poked a needle right into Trump’s ego by inviting viewers to attend one of his rallies to watch all the people walking out. She looked straight into the camera and reminded Americans that Trump’s verbal barrages are “always about him, never about you.”
You know every member of Trump’s staff had to be doing a simultaneous face-palm when he brought up the racist bullshit about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating other people’s dogs and cats. The ABC cameras caught Kamala’s eyes widening as if she couldn’t believe she had rattled him so much he brought up the clearly bogus story.
The cherry on this crap sundae came when moderator David Muir pointed out to the audience that there haven’t been any credible reports from Springfield about immigrants stealing and eating pets — to which Trump argued, “But I saw it on television.”
At that moment, I thought I had accidentally changed the channel and caught a scene from “Being There,” with Peter Sellers as Chance The Gardener, an uneducated man who only knows things he’s seen on TV. Ironically, that movie ends with several high-powered rich guys discussing who they should make the next president — and they unanimously agree upon Chance, believing everything the simpleton says is profound.
Unfortunately, America made that mistake in 2016. Here’s hoping it won’t green-light a remake this year.