The first, and potentially only, 2024 US presidential debate between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump was held yesterday. Over the course of the evening, Harris’ performance went from “stilted and nervous” to “fairly solid”. Trump, meanwhile, resembled a glitching AI recreation of himself, repeating online urban myths about Haitian immigrants eating middle America’s pets, and claiming Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison”.
While the majority of coverage assigned the win to Harris, most of it came with some version of the caveat that while she had gotten under Trump’s skin, she had not landed a “knockout blow” (the media has learnt that no matter what he says, Trump never seems to land a knockout blow on himself)
In our latest Paint by Numbers, Crikey breaks down a strange and ugly debate by the raw figures.
Minutes Kamala Harris spoke for: 37.1
Minutes Donald Trump spoke for: 41.9
False claims made by Trump, according to CNN: At least 33
False claims by Harris, according to CNN: At least 1 (a further 6 designated as “misleading” or “lacking context”)
Shady tweets by Trump’s niece Mary: Many
Number of times the candidates mentioned abortion: 16
Number of times Trump called Harris’ racial background into question: 1
Amount of time, collectively, the candidates spent discussing the January 6, 2021 attacks on Capitol Hill: 3 minutes 23 seconds
Number of visitors to voter information site vote.gov referred via Taylor Swift’s Instagram endorsement of Kamala Harris: 337,826 in less than 24 hours
Reports made to police in Springfield, Ohio of pets being stolen and eaten by immigrants: 0
Number of memes inspired by Donald Trumps claim that pets are being stolen and eaten by immigrants in Springfield, Ohio: Incalculable
