Hello Tfc! We can say without ambiguity that this debate was lost by Donald Trump. The entire American press notes this, including conservative media, even if the latter complain about the interventions deemed partisan by the two journalist-hosts of the ABC channel. However, we must be very careful about the consequences of this debate. Let’s wait a few days to observe a possible impact in the polls, which in any case are fragile and moderately reliable instruments.
A large majority of Americans already have a clear opinion about former President Trump. For some, he is the transgressive agent, the man who speaks clearly and loudly against the political and cultural elites, the one who carries their identity resentment or their sense of downgrading. For others, he is the divider-in-chief, the author of an attempted coup d’état after his electoral defeat, the man with 91 charges in four criminal cases, found responsible in civil court for sexual assault, convicted in criminal court for falsifying accounting documents. In the middle, between these two large blocs, there is a narrow but decisive band of hesitant voters, independents who, depending on the election, voted for one camp or the other, and finally moderate conservatives.
These voters are particularly courted in key states (Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina) because their vote could be decisive. From this point of view, Kamala Harris has made much more strategic efforts to seduce them, by trying to open up her coalition. We saw this at the Democratic convention in Chicago in August, with the presence of several anti-Trump Republican figures. We saw it again last night during the debate, where she was careful not to take very marked left-wing positions. She stuck to a story, that of American optimism, of an economy benefiting the greatest number, defending America’s unique place in the world. Donald Trump, for his part, has hardly addressed these hesitant voters. We saw this with the choice of Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate. We also saw it with his inability to include his last rival in the primaries, Nikki Haley, in his campaign.
Piotr Smolar (Washington, correspondant)
