Well the first debate between 2024 presidential candidate & current US Vice-President Kamala Harris and 2024 presidential candidate & former one-term US president Donald Trump came and went yesterday.
The full debate can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgsC_aBquUE
beginning at 5:59 minutes and ending at 1:49:25.
Here is a brief dive into a takeaway article on the debate at CNN Politics, 11 September 2024:
Harris came onstage with a clear plan: Throw Trump off his game.
It was, by any measure, a dramatic success. When the vice president mentioned Trump’s criminal conviction and outstanding legal issues, he bit. When she called him out for sinking a bipartisan immigration bill, he bit harder. And when Harris suggested Trump’s rallies were boring, he nearly choked on the bait.
Rather than engage on the issues raised by the moderators, including a few that Trump considers some of his political strengths, the former president went on at length about the entertainment value of his rallies, claims the Biden administration was legally targeting him and, in a long, bizarre spell, insisted – against all available evidence, that migrants were eating Americans’ pets.
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said, after Harris criticized him for tanking the immigration bill.
Harris looked on as though she was puzzled, but rarely returned to the claims, apparently content to allow Trump go off.
Trump seemed especially aggrieved by the vice president’s aside about his campaign events. Even after Muir sought to redirect the debate to immigration – again, one of Trump’s preferred topics – the former president refused to let it go.
“First, let me respond as to the rallies,” Trump said, mocking Harris’ crowds before returning to his own. “People don’t leave my rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”
The first hour of the debate then ended much like it began – with Trump off on a long, narrowcast tangent about the 2020 election, which he claimed, falsely once again, was stolen from him.
Despite signals from even his running mate, Trump did not refrain from repeating the conspiracy theory du jour during the debate.
The former president brought up the unfounded conspiracy theory that migrants from Haiti living in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s cats and dogs.
The former president brought up the unfounded conspiracy theory that migrants from Haiti living in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s cats and dogs. He said at one point “in Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of people who live there.”
When ABC News moderator David Muir pointed out that city officials denied any evidence that migrants in Springfield were actually eating pets, Trump doubled down, saying “the people on television” were saying it. When pressed, Trump just said, “We’ll find out.”
When the debate moved to crime, Trump claimed that crime was up in the United States contrary to the rest of the world. There too Muir pointed out that, according to FBI data, crime had actually declined in the past few years.
Trump, again, deferred to a different conspiracy theory that the FBI is deeply corrupt and issuing “defrauding statements.” He argued “it was a fraud.”....
Trump repeated several of the arguments he made about abortion during his June debate with Biden. He argued that “everyone” wanted the issue returned to the states, despite widespread resistance from Democrats and some independents. He argued inaccurately that a former governor of Virginia said that babies should be executed – a reference to comments former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, a doctor, made about care for births after nonviable pregnancies.
And Trump repeated the false claim that some states allow abortions to be performed after a baby has been born, which drew a fact check from ABC News’ Linsey Davis.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis said.
Later in the debate, Trump argued that US elections are “a mess” and claimed that Democrats are trying to get undocumented immigrants to vote in elections....
Among many disturbing statements made by Trump during the debate was his declaration that if he wins the presidential election he is intending to take control of foreign policy/international relations during the president-elect phase before his inauguration.
However, here in Australia the online audience wasn't always taking a serious approach - the response to Trump sometimes took a humorous turn.
Particularly as this Trump assertion was on many Aussie bingo cards before it actually happened.
In America.
Trump goes off the rails: “THEY’RE EATING THE PETS” #Debate2024 pic.twitter.com/tmba7AXiLK
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 11, 2024
Has he mentioned cats yet? #Debate2024
— Mister Bailey OAM (@MissBaileyWoof) September 11, 2024
OMIDOG, HE WENT THERE! #Debate2024 pic.twitter.com/pg6gMpE9bq
— Mister Bailey OAM (@MissBaileyWoof) September 11, 2024
Then Aussie cartoonist Matt Golding grabbed his pencils.
Over in the UK even the Number 10 Downing Street Cat was alerted to this threat.
As a high profile cat I've suddenly had messages warning me about Haitians eating pet cats in Ohio. This seemed weird so I assumed it was something to do with the Trump campaign; sure enough: https://t.co/6l4tGZalt8
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) September 9, 2024
And the memes began.
.webp)
I imagine Donald Trump would have expected post-debate criticism for many of his comments and that the word racist would be used. However, I suspect that Trump never thought he would be laughed at all around the world for his use of a racist rumour weaponised for the 2024 presidential election campaign.
