After the presidential debate, one clear winner remained standing — Kamala Harris.
Harris dissected Trump’s responses, countering his incoherent statements with cold hard facts. While Trump bragged about his past presidency, Harris brought policies to the table. Although Harris may not be the best candidate, her performance outdid Trump, who spouted the same easily debunkable lies.
ULM assistant economics professor Tammy Johnston explained that Harris’s plan to give first-time home buyers a $25K tax credit would drive up housing costs. She also points out that Trump’s proposed tariffs would raise the prices of imported goods. Johnston used a current example of a tariff on Chinese EVs to show the issue with Trump’s strategy.
“The tariff is meant to discourage U.S. people from buying Chinese EVs and rather buy U.S. EVs. However, tariffs raise the prices of goods,” Johnson said. “And if the goal is to increase EV usage, anything raising the price is counterproductive. However, we also want to protect U.S. manufacturers.”
‘Though Harris’s plan seems more appealing, neither candidate appears to have an effective solution for the economy.
Johnston said the recent influx of migrants is “causing strains on our social systems (schools, hospitals, police) and causing increased demand for housing, causing prices to rise and shortages to be greater.”
Trump should have capitalized on the Biden administration’s struggling immigration policy. Instead, he faltered.
On abortion, Trump claimed the states should make the decision. Harris rebutted, saying Trump hand-picked three conservative Supreme Court Justices to repeal Roe v. Wade. She pointed out that Trump’s ban on abortion doesn’t make the exceptions for rape and incest that he claims it does.
Instead, Trump said that “crime in countries all over the world is way down because they’ve taken their criminals off the street, and they’ve given them to her to put into our country.”
When your opponent runs a campaign based on tall tales, it is obvious who should win the election. The path to peace is not perfect, and Harris is not. But during the debate, she exuded great confidence and tactfulness, demonstrating how poor Trump is for president. After that debate, Harris emerges as the victor.