When Democrats talk about Tuesday night's presidential debate, one tack employed by Kamala Harris keeps coming up: How she successfully baited former President Trump over and over again.
On his rallies. On his criminal trials. On world leaders calling him a “disgrace.”
Time and again, Trump fell into Harris's traps, spiraling off message and going off on tangents.
Instead of spending more time attacking Harris on inflation or her own shifting positions, Trump found himself defending the size of his rallies and the enthusiasm of his fans. He often appeared irritated or angry, and at one point began railing over unsubstantiated reports about immigrants eating dogs and cats.
“The ground is rich and he is completely susceptible to it,” said Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, who served as Harris's communications director until last year. “It's almost like someone throwing out toys for a cat.”
“You keep making those points and he gets consumed in them and it's a day lost for him. And eventually, you run out of days.”
Harris allies say they expect Harris to continue to employ the tactic even if there is no second debate between the candidates. Trump on Thursday said he would not hold a second debate with Harris.
On Wednesday, her campaign posted on Twitter the entirety of the debate, a move that seemed to both troll and bait the former president into a fight that Harris want to have.
The Democratic National Committee plans to run an ad featuring statements Harris made about rally sizes during her face-off with Trump. The ad is expected to play on a mobile billboard that will be featured during Trump’s campaign stop in Arizona on Thursday.
This follows another new ad put out by the Harris campaign which features comments made by former President Obama at the Democratic National Convention in which he taunts Trump for his obsession with crowd size while using a hand gesture about Trump’s manhood.
In the lead up to the event, the Harris campaign paid for billboards across Philadelphia — where the match-up was held — and taunted Trump.
“When u want a quick coffee: WAWA,” one billboard read referring to the Pennsylvania based chain. “When people don’t show up to ur rally: WAAA WAAA,” it continued with a photo of an animated Trump.
The Harris campaign is telling reporters it will get more aggressive in the weeks to come. Sources close to Harris’s team say the campaign is expected to seize opportunities to bait Trump when opportunities arise. They say it will underscore a larger message they are trying to push about the competing visions between the two candidates.
Trump’s campaign argues that what Harris is showing is desperation. They maintain that their candidate will win in November, in part because voters see Harris, not Trump, as the more ideologically extreme candidate.
The Trump team is also confident that voters will decide they would rather have the Republican in charge of the economy than Harris. The Pew Research Center ahead of the debate found 55 percent of voters are very or somewhat confident that Trump would make good decisions about economic policy, compared with 45 percent who say the same thing about Harris.
“The Harris campaign is deploying desperate tactics because they have a losing candidate as evidenced by polling of undecided voters who watched the debate and saw President Trump as the only candidate with an actual plan to bring down inflation and secure the southern border,” said Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson. “Kamala's stupid billboards won’t rewrite the last 43 months of misery as her time as vice president.”
The former president has insisted he won the first debate, and he and other Republicans have slammed the debate’s ABC moderators for not asking Harris both tougher and more follow-up questions.
Democrats, however, believe Harris won the debate and that she is making the case against Trump in a way past opponents have failed to do.
The party has long craved a candidate who could deride the former president and his bombastic statements and rhetoric.
“What a welcome shift that is,” said Tracy Sefl, the longtime Democratic consultant. “It’s high time to respond to his outrageousness and lies in the direct, pointed way she did [at the debate] and his reaction shots were fascinating.”
Harris repeatedly took a question about one subject, and instead of giving a comprehensive answer, said what she wanted to say about Trump, often baiting him into a different topic in the process.
For example, after being asked a question about Biden’s immigration record — a topic which could highlight Trump’s strengths — Harris quickly pivoted to Trump rallies.
“I’m going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies because it’s a really interesting thing to watch,” Harris said, looking directly at the camera to speak directly to viewers at home. “You will see during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about [how] windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.”
Susan Del Percio, the longtime Republican strategist who does not support Trump, said the strategy puts Harris in a position of strength.
“He’s the classic bully. You give him one shot at the nose and he’s startled,” Del Percio said. “If you looked at his face during the debate, he was irate. He can’t take criticism. The debate had to completely throw him off. And now she’s living in his head rent free.”
It’s also effective for Harris because she hasn’t overplayed her hand or gone too far, Del Percio said.
“She’s not going for the jugular like Trump would. She’s having a little fun at his expense,” she added. “It’s something America has been waiting for, or at least half of America.”
