Kamala Harris won.
She didn't need ABC's help.
In a debate that begged for fair referees, the vice president remained calm on a night when a bombastic former President Donald Trump turned every question into a tirade.
Harris took on Trump from the start. She approached him and insisted on shaking his hand during their first face-to-face meeting. He did so, but didn’t look at her again until he gave her a sidelong glance nearly an hour into the debate.
By then, ABC anchors Linzey Davis and David Muir had fact-checked him half a dozen times, almost always in her favor.
It was as if Davis and Muir only watched ABC.
They have completely dismissed as foolish nonsense the possibility that the former president (1) might feel cheated in the 2020 election, (2) might not have meant that white supremacists in Charlottesville were actually “decent people,” (3) that the harmful Project 2025 was actually created for another Republican candidate, or that (4) someone in Ohio might have eaten someone else’s cat.
Harris didn’t help herself with a series of smirks and glares that undermined her defense. But Trump shouted his usual rambling attacks about “World War III,” called Harris and her father Marxists and condescendingly called President Joe Biden “her boss.”
If you listened to it on audio, this debate was as one-sided for Harris as the first half of the Dallas Cowboys vs. Cleveland Browns.
But if you paid close attention, Harris' double-takes when Trump spoke seemed as practiced and plastic as candidate Al Gore's gestures to George W. Bush in 2000, or Hillary Clinton's grimaces and frowns to Trump in 2016.
Trump had his own plastic moment, when Harris chuckled softly to herself and Trump thundered, “I’m talking now!” and added the needle: “Sound familiar?”
Trump was expected to focus on immigration and fracking, which is apparently the second most important issue in western Pennsylvania after who should quarterback the Steelers.
He criticized Harris's reversal of position, but appeared to shout only “Fracking!” as well as “communism!” and “World War III!” and “Joe Biden!”
Harris was expected to focus on abortion. She did.
Trump, however, kept switching to student loans, as if paying back a loan is just as emotional. Maybe it is for him.
It has been 24 years since Trump first ran for president as the Reform Party candidate, and 12 years since an angry Trump watched Barack Obama get re-elected and filed a petition to “Make America Great Again” the next day.
Whether he won or lost, this may have been his last night on the debate stage.
He made the most of it and filled every response with 24 years of anger and resentment, shouting once again at the country that everyone should see things their own way.
Harris can look ahead for another 24 years and contribute to shaping a country.
But it will be a long time before everyone agrees to another debate on ABC.
If you want to know who had the best night, the answer is undoubtedly Joe Biden.
