"Vice President Harris...promising a $6,000 tax cut to young families, a $50,000 tax deduction to startup small businesses, $25,000 in down-payment assistance..."
Trump could have blown the debate wide open by replying that he agrees with her on these giveaways but that she was being too stingy. He should have upped the ante and counter proposed a $12,000 tax cut to young families, a $100,000 tax deduction to startup small businesses and $50,000 in down-payment assistance.
Trump missed some major opportunities to deflate Harris:
1. On the subject of Harris' policy changes, Trump failed to quote Bernie Sanders' answer to a question as to whether Harris abandoned her progressive ideals "No, I don’t think she’s abandoning her ideals, I think she’s trying to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election." Trump said much the same thing, but it is far more effective to quote Sanders saying it. This quote was highlighted for days by talk show hosts for this reason, but Trump failed to use it.
2. Trump failed to point out that that the Harris proposal to tax unrealized capital gains of the wealthy would reduce the savings of everyone, a point made very well in the WSJ op-ed "You Would Pay Harris’s Wealth Tax The selloff caused by a levy on unrealized capital gains would devastate ordinary investors and 401(k)s."
3. As in the Biden debate, Trump did not effectively counter the Charlottesville "Fine People Hoax". Trump said it was debunked, but did not explain why it was false. Although Trump’s critics accused him of not denouncing the supremacists forcefully enough, in fact Trump declared from the beginning that “they should be condemned totally” and the fine people Trump mentioned were the separate group protesting in a park against removal of the Lee statue. Even the NYT covered these non-racist demonstrators, for example in a 16 August 2017 story "“Good people can go to Charlottesville,” said Michelle Piercy, a night shift worker at a Wichita, Kan., retirement home, who drove all night with a conservative group that opposed the planned removal of a statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. After listening to Mr. Trump on Tuesday, she said it was as if he had channeled her and her friends — all gun-loving defenders of free speech, she said, who had no interest in standing with Nazis or white supremacists: “It’s almost like he talked to one of our people.”"
Failing to drive home these 3 points was a missed opportunity.
One more Trump missed opportunity: The best line I heard about Harris' race was that she is Black when looking for votes and Indian when looking for money. I thought this comment was attributed to Trump, which would make sense because Trump's earliest exposure to Harris was about money and the current exposure is looking for votes, so Harris comes across to Trump as switching identity.
If Trump had told this story it would have made Harris' use of race look sleazy.
"Vice President Harris...promising a $6,000 tax cut to young families, a $50,000 tax deduction to startup small businesses, $25,000 in down-payment assistance..."
Trump could have blown the debate wide open by replying that he agrees with her on these giveaways but that she was being too stingy. He should have upped the ante and counter proposed a $12,000 tax cut to young families, a $100,000 tax deduction to startup small businesses and $50,000 in down-payment assistance.
Trump missed some major opportunities to deflate Harris:
1. On the subject of Harris' policy changes, Trump failed to quote Bernie Sanders' answer to a question as to whether Harris abandoned her progressive ideals "No, I don’t think she’s abandoning her ideals, I think she’s trying to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election." Trump said much the same thing, but it is far more effective to quote Sanders saying it. This quote was highlighted for days by talk show hosts for this reason, but Trump failed to use it.
2. Trump failed to point out that that the Harris proposal to tax unrealized capital gains of the wealthy would reduce the savings of everyone, a point made very well in the WSJ op-ed "You Would Pay Harris’s Wealth Tax The selloff caused by a levy on unrealized capital gains would devastate ordinary investors and 401(k)s."
3. As in the Biden debate, Trump did not effectively counter the Charlottesville "Fine People Hoax". Trump said it was debunked, but did not explain why it was false. Although Trump’s critics accused him of not denouncing the supremacists forcefully enough, in fact Trump declared from the beginning that “they should be condemned totally” and the fine people Trump mentioned were the separate group protesting in a park against removal of the Lee statue. Even the NYT covered these non-racist demonstrators, for example in a 16 August 2017 story "“Good people can go to Charlottesville,” said Michelle Piercy, a night shift worker at a Wichita, Kan., retirement home, who drove all night with a conservative group that opposed the planned removal of a statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. After listening to Mr. Trump on Tuesday, she said it was as if he had channeled her and her friends — all gun-loving defenders of free speech, she said, who had no interest in standing with Nazis or white supremacists: “It’s almost like he talked to one of our people.”"
Failing to drive home these 3 points was a missed opportunity.
One more Trump missed opportunity: The best line I heard about Harris' race was that she is Black when looking for votes and Indian when looking for money. I thought this comment was attributed to Trump, which would make sense because Trump's earliest exposure to Harris was about money and the current exposure is looking for votes, so Harris comes across to Trump as switching identity.
If Trump had told this story it would have made Harris' use of race look sleazy.