On Wednesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Chief Political Correspondent Phillip M. Bailey gives his major takeaways from Tuesday's presidential debate in Philadelphia . Taylor Swift endorses Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name will not appear on North Carolina ballots this year. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken demands an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the occupied West Bank after the fatal shooting of Turkish-American Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. Would limits on alcohol service on planes and in airports prevent unruly behavior by intoxicated travelers? USA TODAY Consumer Travel Reporter Zach Wichter discusses. It's been 23 years since the September 11 terror attacks. Here's a gallery of photos that capture a day etched in world history .
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Wednesday, September 11th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, we look back on last night's presidential debate and discuss how the candidates performed, plus Blinken decries the fatal shooting of an American protester by Israel, and should there be limits on alcohol in airports and on planes.
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They started the night with a handshake, but ended with gloves off. Former President Donald Trump squared off with Vice President Kamala Harris on the debate stage last night in Philadelphia. I spoke with USA TODAY chief political correspondent, Phillip M. Bailey for some of the night's biggest takeaways. Phillip, thanks for making some time after this debate.
Phillip M. Bailey:
Taylor, thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Phillip, the debate really took a turn about 30 minutes in when former President Donald Trump seemed to get defensive and reactionary. Can you talk us through the moment when things changed? What happened and how did it shift the dynamic on the stage?
Phillip M. Bailey:
Part of the aim of the vice president was to get under Trump's skin. Things might have started off with a handshake, but she worked overtime to put Trump on the defensive. She goaded him often talking about how foreign leaders look at him as a disgrace. She brought up January 6th repeatedly saying he's going to make misleading statements throughout the debate. She even teased the former president about his rallies saying that a lot of his supporters are leaving early out of boredom. Trump took the bait on that. He immediately started talking about his rallies and his crowd support. So I think in that way, the most effective thing the vice president did in this debate in Philadelphia was show how easily Donald Trump has taken off message.
Taylor Wilson:
Phillip, we discussed coming into tonight how crucial it was for Vice President Kamala Harris to really establish some firm policy aims and introduce herself to the country. Did she pull that off?
Phillip M. Bailey:
Well, look, one of the things that voters consistently are now saying about this race is how little they know about what the vice president believes in and what she wants to do if elected. She couldn't answer, for example, on CNN, what she wants to do as day one as president. She's trickled out a few policy prescriptions here and there, but for the most part, I think voters get broad-based value differences between her and former President Trump.
But specifically, we know where she stands on reproductive rights, but when the moderators asked her is there any restriction that she favors, she completely dodged that question, for example. So I think coming out of this debate, there still are going to be some questions about what specifically Vice President Kamala Harris believes in.
I think one of the stronger points for former President Trump was at the end of the debate during the closing remarks where he asked and pressed on the fact, look, she wants to do all these beautiful and wonderful things, well, she's been the vice president for three and a half years. If she wanted to fix the border, if she wanted to create jobs, if she wanted to do all these things, why hasn't she done them already, pressing her on what is your differences between you and your boss, President Biden?
So I think in a lot of ways that might be the one area in this debate where the vice president didn't shine through on those policy ideas and prescriptions. But I talked to her supporters and Democrats at large, they're saying, "Look, this is more of a broad values-based campaign rather than a sort of issue-specific campaign." Put it this way, if the two parties wanted a deep policy dive from their candidates, they probably would've nominated Elizabeth Warren and Mitt Romney.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, well, they did run through a few issues on the night. Donald Trump in particular seemed keen on bringing so much of the conversation, especially early, Phillip, back to immigration. We know Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for its approach to illegal immigration at various points. How did this issue play out on the night?
Phillip M. Bailey:
Donald Trump has made immigration and the policy of the US-Mexico border the cornerstone really of his political career. It's really what launched his political career back in 2016. He has long attacked undocumented immigrants. He's promised wide-reaching deportations, including getting local law enforcement in that massive deportation plan that he's talked about doing if reelected. He's faced major criticisms over that.
Particularly one thing he leans into, which I think invigorates his base, but also the country is when someone who comes into the country illegally commits a crime. He hammered Harris on immigration throughout the debate, but she responded as well saying that look, if President Trump cared so much about immigration, why did he torpedo that bipartisan immigration deal, which would've added security to the border, which would've done all these other things?
Inflation as well, the inflation hangover that a lot of Americans are suffering from and feeling about the economy. Even though all the macro levels of the US economy are doing very well under Joe Biden, the way Americans feel about the economy does not add up to that. Out the gate, the vice president was asked, are Americans doing better than they were four years ago? And she pivoted right back to Donald Trump.
His surrogates and others said, "Look, the best thing for him to do is to remain an issues-focused candidate." Americans are frustrated with inflation. They do not like what they see what's going on at the border. There's certainly frustration over migrants in some of these more urban areas. But the question is, can Donald Trump remain disciplined enough? And I think this debate answered that he cannot remain focused enough to make that argument.
Taylor Wilson:
Just another issue to touch on from the night, Phillip, things did get heated on abortion. This has of course been a marquee issue for Democrats since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. How did the candidates approach abortion rights?
Phillip M. Bailey:
Harris chastised Trump. She talked about him falsely claiming that there are states that allow women to kill a child that has already been born. She said, quote, "That's insulting to the women of America." Again remember, the vice president has made this a very important issue. Very much in the same way that Trump has talked about immigration and the crisis of the border, I think Harris has done the same thing with abortion and reproductive rights.
Trump tried to distance himself from a possible national abortion ban, but he also, Taylor, bragged about helping overturn Roe v. Wade. He praised the conservative justices on the high court, three of whom he appointed by the way, said they "did a great service," by overturning Roe, the Dobbs decision in 2022.
So I think this will remain a cornerstone issue of the 2024 campaign. Trump has put himself in a little bit of a pretzel, upsetting some anti-abortion activists with his comments on the Florida ballot initiative. He later clarified that he supports the six-week ban, although he has articulated various different positions on abortion in his life and his political career. But this is certainly where I think Harris feels the wind in her back.
Taylor Wilson:
Of course, there was a lot more in this debate, which we just don't have the time to cover here, Phillip. I'd refer our listeners to a link in today's show notes for more. Phillip, what's your really final big takeaway from this debate?
Phillip M. Bailey:
There were some very bizarre moments here, particularly when Donald Trump started talking about people eating dogs and their cats. And I think Harris showed here that Donald Trump does not know how to stay on message. It is a clear weakness of his and she exploited. Harris has weaknesses too, but the problem for Donald Trump is that he can't really get to exploiting those for her. I think he knows he was put on his heels. And I think if there's anyone who wants to have another debate, it's probably going to be Donald Trump of the two.
Taylor Wilson:
Phillip M. Bailey is USA TODAY's chief political correspondent joining us late night from Philadelphia. Thank you, Phillip.
Phillip M. Bailey:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Following last night's debate, you can be sure to see a flurry of new polls each claiming to show you exactly what impact the night had on voters, but what are they really telling us and which ones can we trust? My colleague, Dana Taylor, recently sat down with David Paleologos, the director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk University, a partner of USA TODAY, to find out what polls really mean. Tune into this feed after 4:00 PM Eastern Time today to hear that conversation.
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One very well-known voter who had previously been silent on the issue, made her opinion known via her Instagram account, Taylor Swift. The pop star revealed last night that she's endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election. Swift's endorsement was posted just a few minutes after the debate ended, and she also urged fans to register to vote. Swift has more than 283 million followers on Instagram and has used the platform in the past to encourage her fan base to register and vote. In the fall of 2023, she helped get more than 30,000 voters registered in just one day. Some swing states in 2020 were decided by less than that margin.
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Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Junior's name will not appear on North Carolina ballots this year. The decision is seen as helpful to Republican nominee Donald Trump's chances in the battleground state. The North Carolina Supreme Court ordered state election officials on September 9th to remove Kennedy's name from ballots and reprint them, which will likely cut weeks off the state's mail-in voting period. Its decision came a day after Michigan's Supreme Court ruled Kennedy's name must stay on that state's ballot in turn helping Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as we discussed in yesterday's show. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday demanded an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the occupied West Bank as he decried the fatal shooting of a Turkish-American protester against settlement expansion. Aysenur Eygi was shot dead last Friday at a protest march near Nablus, where Palestinians have been repeatedly attacked by far-right Jewish settlers.
Israel's military said yesterday that its initial inquiry found it highly likely its troops had fired the shot that killed her, but that her death was unintentional. Blinken described Eygi's killing as unprovoked and unjustified, and he said Washington would insist the Israeli government make changes to how its forces operate in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, Israel continues its war in Gaza and struck a tent camp designated safe zone before dawn yesterday killing at least 19 people. Israeli military said it had struck a command center for Hamas fighters it said had infiltrated the designated humanitarian area.
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The CEO of European budget airline, Ryanair recently suggested that airlines and airports should have a hard limit on alcohol service, but would it work? I spoke with USA TODAY consumer travel reporter, Zach Wichter for more. Zach, thanks for hopping on today.
Zach Wichter:
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
Taylor Wilson:
So Zach, what did Ryanair's CEO say recently about drinking on flights or in airports?
Zach Wichter:
So Ryanair's CEO confirmed something that I've seen in my reporting over the past few years, which is that unruly passenger behavior has become a bigger and bigger issue for airlines. We saw this especially during the height of the pandemic. It has gotten a little bit better since then, but it's something that airlines globally are still dealing with.
The CEO of Ryanair, which is a large low-cost airline in Europe, said that he thinks one way to address this would be to limit the amount of alcohol that people can get served in airports and on airplanes. He proposed a two-drink maximum in airports.
Taylor Wilson:
So I want to talk about that proposed limit here in a second Zach, but can you first just help us understand the science here, how alcohol interacts with the body when we're up in the air?
Zach Wichter:
So I spoke to a professor at Rutgers University who studies this exact issue, and what she told me is that when you're flying, because of the pressure changes and the humidity changes, alcohol frequently has a stronger effect. So you would probably have to drink more on the ground to feel the same as you would if you were drinking at altitude. It's something that's a pretty well-known scientific fact. We do see it time and again with travelers and often alcohol and over-consumption is at the heart of a lot of this unruly behavior.
Taylor Wilson:
You mentioned these proposed limits. What do the experts really say here about possible limits on airplane and airport alcohol service?
Zach Wichter:
I think a lot of people who are involved in the aviation industry support this idea in theory, but the folks who I spoke to also acknowledge that it would be really hard to enforce in practice for a whole number of reasons. First of all, different people have different tolerances. So having a single set limit that applies to everyone on a plane might not make sense because one person may be able to have one drink and be fine, and another person may have one strong drink and be completely lost. And so that's part of it.
And then also, a lot of people acknowledged, especially to the Ryanair CEO's comments, which had more to do with drinking in airports, that it would be really hard to track that. There are multiple bars in most airports, and so a person can go from one bar to the other bar and it would be really hard to figure out how much they've had overall before getting on the plane.
What the flight attendant, who I spoke to for this piece, encouraged is that people really just need to be responsible for themselves. Know your limits, don't overindulge before you get on a plane. And be aware that if you are intoxicated and you go to board a plane, it's very likely that you're going to be denied boarding because you just can't be drunk on planes.
Taylor Wilson:
I'm curious really, Zach, how the public feels about this. Having an airport beer or maybe a spirit up in the air is kind of a ritual for some travelers. Other travelers really want to keep unruly travelers away from them as much as possible, and as you mentioned, alcohol certainly plays into that. Have you heard from other travelers or just the public in terms of where they land on either alcohol limits or alcohol bans and where they're at on this conversation?
Zach Wichter:
I haven't heard from the public yet, although I'm certain that I will when the column publishes. I think we all acknowledge what you just said, that especially when people are going on vacation, they like to sometimes get that vacation started early. And I don't think anyone, including the flight attendants, including the people who I spoke to, are trying to take that away. People want people who are traveling to have fun, but you also have to be safe and responsible.
And so if you're going to drink before or during a flight, it's important to do that in a way that won't impair your ability to be on that flight or to react safely, frankly, if something goes wrong because everything in flying comes down to safety. And if the worst happens, you want to be in a position to get yourself to safety as quickly as possible.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, Zach Wichter covers consumer travel and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. Thank you, Zach.
Zach Wichter:
Yep, my pleasure.
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Taylor Wilson:
Today marks 23 years since the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001. Today, various memorials will be held in communities across the country to help remember the nearly 3,000 people who were killed. The imagery of that day remains etched into the memory of so many Americans. And you can find a link to a photo gallery in today's show notes showing the pictures that captured a stunned country and planet after 9/11. Be sure to take a moment today also to remember those lost 23 years ago and the emergence of so many heroes from first responders to community leaders who stepped up in the face of tragedy.
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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris' forceful performance rattles a defensive Trump at debate | The Excerpt
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