By CALVIN WOODWARD
WASHINGTON (AP) — To many Democrats, Kamala Harris was the whole lot Joe Biden was not in confronting Donald Trump on the debate stage: forceful, fleet of foot, relentless in going after her opponent.
In a pivot from Biden’s debate meltdown in June, Democrats who gathered in bars, watch events and different venues Tuesday evening discovered heaps to cheer in her drive to rattle the Republican.
In a race for the White House that surveys say is exceptionally shut, with each side in search of an edge, it was the Democrats who got here away extra exuberant after the nationally televised debate.
“She prosecuted Donald Trump tonight,” stated Alina Taylor, 51, a highschool particular training instructor who joined a whole lot of individuals on a soccer area of the traditionally Black Salem Baptist Church of Abington in a suburb of Philadelphia, the place folks watched on a 33-foot (10 meter) display screen.
As for Trump, she stated, “I used to be appalled” by his efficiency. “Folks had been laughing at him as a result of he wasn’t making very a lot sense.”
In Seattle, folks gathered at Large, a queer nightclub the place scores watched the controversy on a projector arrange in entrance of the membership’s massive disco ball. The group laughed and cheered when Trump branded Harris a Marxist. Extra cheers when the controversy moderator referred to as out Trump’s false declare that some states legalize the killing of infants after delivery.
“He’s getting smoked,” one stated.
However in Brentwood, Tennessee, Sarah Frances Morris heard nothing at her watch celebration to shake her assist of Trump.
“I believe he beat her on the border,” she stated. “I believe he additionally beat her on really having plans and letting the American folks know what these are. And I believe that Kamala Harris likes to say that she has plans for issues, however she doesn’t really ever elaborate on what these plans are.”
Morris conceded she was watching historical past being made, “as a result of we have now our first Black lady working for president.” However, she added, “I don’t assume she delivered to get her to that place she wanted to be.”
Harris supporter Dushant Puri, 19, a UC Berkeley pupil, stated the vice chairman took command earlier than the primary phrases had been spoken — when she crossed the stage to shake Trump’s hand. “I assumed that was fairly vital,” Puri stated. “It was their first interplay, and I assumed Harris was asserting herself.”
On the identical watch celebration, fellow pupil Angel Aldaco, 21, stated that not like Biden, Harris “got here in with a plan and was extra concise.”
Aldaco was struck by one of many evening’s oddest moments, when Trump “went on that rampage about consuming pets.” That’s when Trump endorsed a baseless conspiracy concept that immigrants had been stealing and consuming folks’s canines ands cats. Harris was incredulous. “That was good,” the scholar stated.
It’s questionable how a lot viewers realized about what Harris would do as president or whether or not she gained over independents or wavering Republicans. However for some Democrats, despondent if not panicked after Biden’s fumbling debate efficiency, it was sufficient to see a Democratic candidate getting severely below Trump’s pores and skin.
“He’s fairly incapable when he’s riled up,” stated Ikenna Amilo, an accountant at a Democratic watch celebration in a small live performance venue in downtown Portland, Maine.
“Once you poke him, he’s actually reactive and he doesn’t present the temperament you need in a president, so I believe Kamala has proven she’s doing an excellent job.”
Annetta Clark, 50, a Harris supporter from Vallejo, California, watched at a home celebration hosted by the Oakland Bay Space chapter of the Nationwide Coalition of 100 Black Girls. To her, the second presidential debate was a mighty aid from the one in June.
“I couldn’t abdomen the primary one, if I’m being trustworthy,” Clark stated. “I attempted to look at it and it was a bit of an excessive amount of. This one I used to be in a position to take pleasure in.” On Trump’s efficiency: “It was virtually like speaking to a baby with him.” Harris? “Fabulous job.”
Democrat Natasha Salas, 63, of Highland, Indiana, noticed the controversy from an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority watch celebration at a bistro in Markham, Illinois, and welcomed Harris’ name to chill the political temperature — even because the vice chairman denounced Trump at each flip.
“All of us need the identical issues, Democrats and Republicans,” Salas stated. “We’re extra alike than completely different. I need to see the nation transfer ahead and fewer divisiveness.”
Curiosity within the debate transcended nationwide borders. From a shelter for migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, the place dozens watched a translated model of the debates on a tv, Rakan al Muhana, 40, an asylum-seeker from Gaza, turned animated when the candidates mentioned Israel and Palestine.
“We’re working from the struggle,” he stated. “We’re working from the Israeli bombs. He (Trump) doesn’t see us as human. My daughter, who’s 4 months — for him, she’s a terrorist.”
Al Muhana has been on a four-month journey from Gaza to this border metropolis, together with his spouse and 4 kids. They left when each his mom and father had been killed in a bombing.
Related Press journalists Michael Rubinkam in Philadelphia; George Walker in Nashville; Robert Bukaty in Portland, Maine; Lindsey Wasson in Seattle; Godofredo Vasquez in Berkeley, California; and Gregory Bull in Tijuana, Mexico, contributed to this report.
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