Michigan voters say Tuesday's Harris-Trump debate was likely not a game-changer

Michigan residents said they enjoyed Tuesday's presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump but didn't see it as a cataclysmic game-changer like the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Biden's lack of sharpness in his June 27 debate with Trum p was the most significant event in Biden's decision to not seek a second term , as he had intended, and instead throw his support to Harris.

Tuesday's debate, held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and hosted by ABC TV, was the first and possibly last debate between Trump and Harris. Even Trump supporters interviewed by the Free Press said Harris did a good job of rattling Trump, though they at the same time complained they thought the debate moderators were biased against the former president.

Jesse Randle, a retired heavy equipment operator from Saginaw, said Harris “gave better answers” and appeared to have Trump reacting to criticism in unflattering ways.

“It wasn’t a good debate for him,” Randle said of Trump. “He played the same game as he usually does.”

Randle, a lifelong Democrat, said he wonders how such a large percentage of the country can support Trump, given his history and his apparent admiration for dictators such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

“What are the people thinking?” he asked.

Though most people have already made up their minds about who they will vote for, Randle said there were moments in the debate that might cause "a lightbulb" to go off for those who are still undecided.

Eric Rosenberg, a Novi attorney, said Trump did what he needed to do in a debate that he described as “three against one,” with the former president up against not just Harris but the two ABC moderators.

Rosenberg, a political conservative, said the moderators fact-checked Trump but did not call out Harris on her “fine people on both sides” reference to the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, when multiple media fact checkers have concluded that Trump was not referencing neo-Nazis and white supremacists with that remark, but those on both sides of a debate over removing Confederate statues from public spaces.

Trump “clearly established that she was Joe Biden” in terms of policy, and that was likely all he could be expected to do under the circumstances, he said.

Claudette Shaffer, a semi-retired business executive and small business owner who lives near Beal City in central Michigan, said Harris is a good debater while Trump “just speaks with impunity,” regardless of truth.

“No one spoke about the existential disaster that is headed our way, which is our (national) deficit,” Shaffer said.

Shaffer, who has voted for both parties over the years, said she hopes Harris will be better on the deficit because she is more competent and rational.

“I wouldn’t vote for Donald Trump if he was the last man on Earth,” she said.

More: 3 Michigan takeaways from the Harris-Trump debate

For Mark Sinacola, a single dad of two school-age children in Highland Township, inflation is the No. 1 issue.

That’s a major reason he’s supporting Trump, said Sinacola, who works as a sales representative for a vodka company and is struggling with high prices. His life was better when Trump was president, said Sinacola, who added that he has not always supported Republicans and voted for former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in 2008.

Harris didn’t put forward as much “word salad” as he expected and did a good job of throwing Trump off his game by referencing crowd sizes, Sinacola said.

But he felt it was inappropriate for Harris to bring up rallies in light of the recent assassination attempt on Trump. “He’s a billionaire. He could be doing anything else in the world right now.”

Peggy Van Dyke, a retired teacher in the southwest Michigan city of Niles, said the two candidates' closing remarks showed Harris "with clear, fact-based policies of a vision forward," and Trump with "a continuation of fear-mongering not based in reality."

Her favorite line was when Harris told Trump he has been "fired" by 81 million people, referencing the number of votes Biden received in 2020.

"It is my hope that those undecided voters saw the profound difference I did as well as the clear and present danger Trump presents," said Van Dyke, who normally votes Democrat but said she tries to keep an open mind.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan voters say Tuesday's Harris-Trump debate was likely not a game-changer