On the evening of what would’ve/could’ve been the first of a few head-to-head debate matchups between Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump and Democrat fill-in next-in-line presidential nominee cackling Kamala Harris, only one of them showed up.
That would be Trump, who took advantage of an opportunity to give American voters yet another (somewhat brief) look at the former president and 2020 Republican close up, and, on the whole, seemed to enjoy himself in the doing and further his cause at the same time. You may recall this town hall forum came about because Trump, as part of a challenge to senile Joe Biden, originally proposed adding this date to a couple others he’d picked out, its purpose intended to smoke the faltering old dolt out of his comfortable campaign confines into the open where his awful policies could be exposed.
After the disastrous June 27th first debate, however, there never was any hint that senile Joe intended to agree to any “proposed” events in addition to the two the campaigns had already inked on the calendar. Then, when cackling Kamala Harris stepped in for the recently capitulated Biden (we’ve still never received an adequate explanation for why Biden quit, either), it wasn’t clear that Harris would show up for next week’s ABC debate between the two top candidates, much less this one.
The campaigns went back and forth with Kamala eventually settling on “no” for this meeting, and all other interviews too, save for the one last week on CNN where she and annoying communist sidekick “Tampon Tim” Walz spoke briefly with the biased network’s Dana Bash about her background and what she supposedly believes, offering precious little essence and a ton of fluff, and leaving no one satisfied.
So, to no one’s surprise, Kamala didn’t appear in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where Trump met with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday/Thursday night (the show was recorded on Wednesday and shown over two nights, one and a half hours total).
Trump barely seemed to notice Kamala’s nose thumbing gesture. He’s done so many of these made-for-TV appearances over his decade in politics that he knows the routine and the presentation quite well. Trump’s familiarity with answering unscripted questions from a host like Sean Hannity in front of live audiences must be intimidating to poor Kamala.
Besides, Trump, if given the chance, would insist that his presence alone would provide all the “meat” and entertainment value the people desire. Even so, here’s guessing Trump probably would’ve preferred Kamala to be there to trade ideas in front of the voters live.
Impressions
Wednesday’s/Thursday’s event wasn’t a true town hall forum.
In these types of forums, the candidate is usually positioned in front of an audience and a media personality flits from person to person to field questions from interested onlookers supposedly chosen at random. The topics are not announced in advance and the responses aren’t canned. It’s rarely exciting, but there’s something authentic and genuine about it.
In Harrisburg, the only questions taken from the audience came on the Thursday night portion. It’s safe to say there were a decent number of people who probably didn’t even know there was a “part II” of the program and missed what I thought was the best part – Trump taking queries from “real” people. In fact, on the whole, host Sean Hannity did the balance of the talking in part I, proposing topics and steering the conversation with Trump added to supply additional input. Trump was seated on a stool opposite Hannity with a very boisterous crowd positioned all around.
For his part, Trump looked spiffed up for the occasion. Did he get a haircut? I wondered.
I don’t know if they decided to ditch the “town hall” aspect from the first part of the program because of time constraints or other logistical reasons, but it was odd to have this type of interview conducted in front of such a large audience without more citizen input. The people interrupted Trump and Hannity a number of times and at other times it was hard to hear either of them speak. It was more like a one-on-one at a pep rally than a town hall forum for the first sixty minutes of airtime.
I kept waiting for the producers to bring in “Joe Smith from fracking country” to seek input from the candidate himself. It didn’t happen. The only question that involved the audience was where Hannity asked them, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” The attendees shouted “NO!”
The rally goers finally got a chance to speak after the program broke for about 24 hours, Pennsylvania Republican senate candidate Dave McCormick receiving the first question – “How do we restore strength and deterrence with the U.S. military?”
The average people are worried
Once the audience got to participate, the program improved, allowing Trump to come more into his element interacting with the average folks. He received a question about what he learned from his first go-round in the Oval Office that will help him in the second term.
Trump replied “We need to get the right people” and then proceeded to detail how he got to know “the good ones [in DC], bad ones, weak ones, dumb ones… I know ‘em all… I know them better than anyone would know ‘em.”
The question was followed up by a lady who asked about Trump’s plans to help small business owners, something people actually want to know. Trump mentioned lowering taxes, cutting regulations, etc.
That was the thread in Harrisburg. The Trump backers were enthusiastic for his final campaign, but they wanted results, too.
Trump still has trouble condensing his answers.
Most observers would probably give Trump high marks for communication skills, but he’s not a great off-the-cuff speaker. On the first topic that Hannity presented, which had something to do with the school shooting earlier that day in Georgia, Trump successfully brought in immigration to his argument.
Check!
As he’s done many, many times in this campaign, Trump talked about how terrorists and criminals are exploiting breaches in the basically open border and specifically made reference to the shocking recent video from Aurora, Colorado, purportedly of a criminal Venezuelan gang with rifles having taken over an apartment building.
He made reference to the citizens not feeling safe under the current leadership and issued his standard promises for fixing the problem. “We’re not going to let them (the alien invaders) ruin our country,” and, “Our criminals are nice people by comparison,” Trump explained. The candidate also referred to the illegal immigrants getting social security and other benefits from the government and promised to end the practice if he’s elected.
I didn’t count, but I lost track of how many times Trump switched the emphasis of his answer from the original “what’s going on in the world” subject.
Trump’s speeches are always entertaining, but sometimes hard to follow.
Videos of cackling Kamala provided many of the best semi-spontaneous moments on TV.
There were at least two lengthy commercial interruptions in the Wednesday portion, and when the program returned, the TV audience was brought back to the present by showing Kamala Harris, at some point in the past, making a statement via video that contradicted one of her current positions.
Seeing as this was Pennsylvania, video showed Harris, multiple times, mentioning how she intended to ban fracking if she were elected president. Energy exploration and fracking are both huge issues in 2024 and the Trump campaign wants it to be understood that Harris is on the wrong side of the matter.
“You’ll have no choice; you’ve got to vote for me. Even if you don’t like me. You have to have fracking.”
Trump also briefly referred to members of Tim Walz’s family’s recent public support of Trump, seeming to take delight in bringing up the fact that the Minnesota governor’s kin doesn’t even like him. Much has been made about Walz calling Trump – and especially J.D. Vance – “weird”, so a little turnabout is fair play, right?
Trump also highlighted that Harris had notes during her “interview” with CNN’s Dana Bash, which would not be permitted during next week’s ABC debate. Trump appeared to be okay with the way CNN and Bash handled their interview, but evidently the same Trumpian courtesy will not extend to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who Trump labeled a “nasty person.”
It seemed to me as though Trump is looking forward to competing with Harris in an environment where the debate moderators are antagonistic to him. Whereas cackling Kamala Harris stays as far away from the media as she can get, a potentially hostile setting seems to bring out the best in Trump.
Maybe that’s why he likes professional wrestling so much? Now I get it.
There also was a video clip of Harris saying we shouldn’t use the terms “radical Islamic terrorism” or “illegal aliens” as labels. How will Kamala explain away these inconsistencies when she’s presented the video clips right in front of her face?
No wonder the Democrats work so hard to keep Kamala Harris away from the media.
World War III on the way?
Due to the lengthy commercial interruptions, there wasn’t a heck of a lot of substance in the first part of the forum, but one area that did catch my attention – and seemed to get the audience to calm down -- was Trump’s forecast that a Kamala Harris presidency could lead to World War III. I don’t know if this was Trump being Trump with his usual exaggerations, but nuclear war’s not a topic to trifle with.
Interested presidential race watchers have heard Trump say, many times, that the current strife in the Middle East and war in Ukraine would not be raging now if he’d been president, a theory that must drive the neoconservative Never Trump Republican establishmentarians berserk with fury. But while Trump’s assurance that he would end the Ukraine war on “day one” of his administration may be a bit hyperbolic, clearly his leadership would make a difference with a change in foreign policy direction.
Or, to be more succinct, it would help to have a direction – any direction. Nowhere does the leadership void under Biden/Harris reveal itself more than in the foreign policy sphere. But suggesting that World War III would break out if he’s not elected… that’s a bit over the top. “Everybody was afraid of Trump. Bring him back and you’re not going to have any problems,” he promised.
We can only hope so.
The rest of the program.
In the final segment of the first part of the program, Hannity did ask the candidate about what would happen if the Trump tax cuts were allowed to lapse or expire, and Trump indicated that there would be dire consequences for the country if this were to take place.
And Trump talked a little bit about his approach headed into next week’s debate with Harris, a topic he came back to on night two (which, of course, was just the last portion of Wednesday’s program). Trump indicated that his work every day offers the most valuable kind of preparation and he would elaborate on what his strategy would be in terms of dealing with Kamala.
Trump said a big part of the way he approaches the debate will be determined by his reception from ABC – how he’s treated by the hosts and moderators. This seemingly reserves his right to object in any case. It’s clear that Trump isn’t fond of ABC. Will it come through?
Summing it up.
Donald Trump has already got a solid lock on the conservative Republican base, and there probably wasn’t anything garnered from Wednesday night’s Hannity Fox News program that would appeal to non-Trump fans. Hearing Trump and the Fox Host criticize cackling Kamala for the light-on-substance “interview” that she had with CNN last week, you might suppose they’d try a little harder to supply more “meat” for people to chew on in this latest attempt.
Trump deserves credit for his willingness to appear on any program that will have him, and it’s quite a contrast to the media shy nature of Harris, but couldn’t there have been more? How about letting citizens handle a larger portion of the questions? Trump excels in those situations, as he did in Pennsylvania.
This was fun. But it didn’t move the needle much.
Joe Biden economy
inflation
Biden cognitive decline
gas prices,
Nancy Pelosi
Biden senile
Kamala Harris candidacy
Donald Trump campaign
Harris Trump debates
J.D. Vance
Kamala vice president
Speaker Mike Johnson
Donald Trump assassination
2022 elections
Donald Trump
2024 presidential election
Tim Walz
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