The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial board deemed Vice President Harris as the winner of Tuesday’s presidential debate against former President Trump, while also contending she skirted around directly defining her policy vision.
“Ms. Harris, less well known than the former President, had the most to gain and our guess is she helped herself,” the editorial board wrote Wednesday. “She clearly won the debate, though not because she made a powerful case for her vision or the record of the last four years.”
“She won the debate because she came in with a strategy to taunt and goad Mr. Trump into diving down rabbit holes of personal grievance and vanity that left her policies and history largely untouched,” they added.
The board also suggested that Trump “always takes the bait” and fell for the “trap” Harris laid by focusing on the past, President Biden or falsely claiming immigrants are eating pets in Ohio.
In doing so, Harris “sailed along on the same unspecific promises about ‘the future’ that she has since Democrats made her the nominee,” the post argued.
Harris was widely expected to provoke Trump to lose his composure, a strategy that appeared successful at various points of the evening. During the forum , the former president appeared visibly irritated and refused to look at his Democratic rival. He was also visibly angry at times, suggesting the vice president successfully got under his skin.
While Trump appeared rattled during much of the debate, Harris delivered a consistently confident performance in contrast.
The WSJ board contended Harris “had help” from the ABC News moderators who were “clearly on her side,” the board claimed.
“They fact-checked only Mr. Trump, several times, though Ms. Harris offered numerous whoppers—on Mr. Trump’s alleged support for Project 2025, Mr. Trump’s views on in-vitro fertilization, and that no American troops are in a combat zone overseas,” the board wrote.
“Tell that last one to the Americans killed by Iranian proxies in Jordan this year or the U.S. Navy commanders tasked with intercepting Houthi missiles in the Red Sea,” the board added.
ABC journalists and debate moderators David Muir and Linsey David came under scrutiny by Trump’s inner circle for how they handled the debate. Some argued their fact-checks were deliberately only for Trump.
Nonetheless, Trump “did not help himself,” and allowed Harris to “put him on the defensive,” the board contended.
“We don’t have the transcript as we write this, but it’s safe to say he enjoyed talking about Mr. Biden more than he did Ms. Harris,” it wrote. “That let the Veep keep saying she isn’t Joe Biden without having to explain how, or whether, she differs from Mr. Biden’s policies. Mr. Trump didn’t press the point.”
The WSJ board was likely referring to the moment when Harris positioned herself as a new generational leader and stated, “Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump.”
Harris has repeatedly faced scrutiny over her authenticity and changing policy stances in recent years. As Trump took the “bait,” he also let Harris “off the hook” when it came to her policy views, the board argued.
“One of his weaknesses is that he can rarely marshal policy details or arguments that explain an issue beyond a slogan,” it wrote. “He resorts instead to over-the-top claims like she’s a Marxist, or the ‘worst Vice President in history.’ He didn’t even say she wants to raise taxes by $5 trillion, which happens to be true.”
The Hill reached out to the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment.
Most voters in a CNN flash poll released early Wednesday said Harris outperformed Trump during the debate — around 63 percent. The performance may have given the Democratic nominee a boost but did not appear to move the needle on thoughts regarding the former president, according to the poll.
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