By Don C. Reed
“Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face”, boxer Mike Tyson, quoted by Donald J. Trump, shortly before his debate with Kamala Harris, September 10th, 2024
“Shall I be nice, or nasty?”— Trump
Note: I believe the debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will go down in history as a pivotal moment; after which, everything changed… Cited transcript was originally recorded by Riley Hoffman (1). Initial commentary (and any errors) are mine.
On September 10th, 2024. the night of the great American debate, on ABC-TV: former President Donald J. Trump tangled with vice President Kamala Harris.
As the show was about to begin, vice President Harris approached Donald Trump on the stage, there where he stood behind the lectern with its microphone, water pitcher, pad and pen. She thrust out her hand. For an instant Trump seemed to hesitate, as if he might refuse the courtesy. But there were cameras everywhere.
Their hands gripped.
“Kamala Harris,” she said, pronouncing it like “comma-la”. Trump often mis-pronounced her name.
“Have fun,” said Donald J. Trump.
“Thank you, “ she said. I thought I heard her say “I will”, but I could be wrong.
They separated, like boxers to their corners.
The two had a height differential. I learned later Trump is reportedly six feet three inches tall; Harris is five feet four. Yet she does not walk short. During the next 105 minutes, it would become increasingly clear how un-small she was.
I had read several bits of advice offered to Kamala. One suggested for her not to be aggressive, but rather to use the time to get acquainted with America. My own belief was the opposite: that she had to come on strong right away, with the full force of her personality –- we had to know, could she defend herself, could she fight? If he could dominate her, people would not respect that.
I remembered the first time I saw Trump on TV. He and a bunch of other Republicans were competing for the GOP nomination. Trump had grossly insulted Ted Cruz’s father, falsely claiming the man had a connection to the John F. Kennedy assassination. (!) All of them had been given a mocking nickname by Trump, like “little Marco”. But they did not attack him back. They all seemed willing to let someone else have that honor.
I had heard Kamala be interviewed once, the where/why/when I don’t recall. But her voice came out thin and raspy—until she corrected herself. “Let me try that again,” she said. Her throat seemed to relax, and the words came more easily , the second time.
Trump had shown up just two hours before the debate began, as if to show how confident he was, how he did not need to take Kamala seriously. She, however, had flown in the night before, to get a good night’s rest, and be completely ready.
The moderators were David Muir and Linsey Davis. I did not envy them their task. Based on his debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump seemed to feel that rules were for others. He would talk as loud and long as it suited him. That was his reputation, and he did not disappoint.
Below is a portion of the Great Debate.
David Muir: “Madame vice-President, do you believe Americans are better off now, then they were four years ago?”
Kamala Harris: “I have a plan about lifting up the middle class and working people of America, which I call an opportunity economy.
“We know that we have a shortage of homes and housing and the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people. A young family needs support to raise their children. And I intend on extending a tax cut for those families– $6000– so these young families can afford to buy a crib, a car seat, clothes for their children.
“My passion (one of them) … is small businesses. My plan is to give a $50,000 tax deduction to start-up small businesses, knowing they’re part of the backbone of America’s economy. My opponent’s plan is to do what he has done before … to provide tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.( This) will result in $5 trillion to America’s deficit. My opponent has a plan that I call the Trump sales tax which made a 20% tax on everyday goods… economists have said that Trump’s sales tax would actually result in (a cost to middle class families) about $4000 more a year…”
Donald J. Trump: “First of all, I have no sales tax. She knows that we’re doing tariffs on other countries. I took in billions and billions of dollars from China, yet I had no inflation. Now we have inflation like very few people have ever seen before, probably the worst in our nation’s history. This has been a disaster for people, not just the middle class but for every class.
“On top of that we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re taking the jobs that are occupied right now by African-Americans and Hispanics and also unions. Unions are going to be affected very soon.
“You see what’s happening with towns throughout the United States. They’re taking over the towns; they’re taking over buildings; they’re going in violently. These are the people she and Biden let into our country and they’re destroying our country. They’re dangerous; they’re at the highest level of criminality. We have to get them out; we have to get them out fast.”
Kamala Harris: “Let’s talk about what Donald Trump left us. Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century. Donald Trump left us with the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War and what we have(had to do) is clean up Donald Trump’s mess.
“In this debate tonight you’re going to hear from the same old tired playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling. You’re gonna hear…a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again. I believe very strongly that the American people want a president who understands the importance of bringing us together: knowing we have so much more in common than what separates us.
“And I pledge to you to be a president for all Americans.”
Donald Trump: “Number one I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I haven’t read it. I don’t wanna read it purposely; I’m not gonna read it. This was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do (with it)… everybody knows I’m an open book. Everybody knows what I’m going to do: cut taxes substantially, very substantially, and create a great economy like I did before when the greatest economy…(?)
“We are here with a pandemic. Not since 1917 where 100 million people died has there been anything like it. People give me credit for rebuilding the military; they gave me credit for a lot of things but not enough credit for the great job we did with the pandemic. The only jobs they got were bounced back jobs… there were jobs bounced back and went to their benefit but I was the one that created them. They know it, so does everybody else.”
Kamala Harris.” So, Donald Trump has no plan for you. And when you look at his economic plan, it’s all about tax breaks for the richest people. I’m offering what I described as an opportunity economy. The best economists in our country, if not the world, have reviewed our relative plans for the future of America.
“What Goldman Sachs has said is that Donald Trump’s plan would make the economy worse. My plan would strengthen the economy . But the Wharton School of Economics has said Donald Trump’s plan would actually explode the deficit. 16 Nobel laureates have described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation and by the middle of next year would invite a recession.
“…Donald Trump actually has no plan for you because he is more interested in defending himself than he is (in) looking out for you. “
Donald Trump: “That’s just a sound bite. They gave her that to say. Look, I went to the Wharton school of finance and many of those professors, the top professors, think my plans are brilliant. It’s a great plan. The plan is gonna bring up our worth, our value as a country. It’s gonna make people want to be able to go to work and create jobs and create a lot of good selling (products?) for our country and just to finish off she doesn’t have a plan. She copied Biden’s plan. It’s like 4 sentences, like “run spot run”, 4 sentences that are just “ohh, we’ll try and lower taxes.” She doesn’t have a plan. Take a look at her plan; she doesn’t have a plan.”
David Muir “Mr. President, I wanted to drill down on something you both brought up. The vice president brought up your tariffs… what she called essentially a national sales tax. Your proposal calls for tariffs as you pointed out here on foreign imports across the board. You recently said you might double your plan imposing tariffs up to 20% on goods coming into this country. As you know, many economists say that with tariffs at that level costs are then passed on to the consumer. Vice President Harris has argued they’ll be higher prices on gas, food, clothing, medication …costs (for a) typical family nearly $4000 a year. Do you believe the Americans could afford higher prices because of tariffs?”
Donald Trump: “They aren’t gonna get higher prices. What’s gonna happen, who’s gonna have higher prices is China and all the other countries (that) have been ripping us off for years. I was the only president ever that China was paying us hundreds of billions of dollars and so other countries and you know she( Xi?) doesn’t like him. That should have gone out; they should immediately cut the tariffs. Those tariffs are there right now. We’re talking billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars. I had no inflation, virtually no inflation, they had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of our country.
“Because I’ve never seen a worse period of time. People can’t go out and buy cereal, bacon or eggs or anything else. These people of our country are absolutely dying with what they’ve done. They’ve destroyed the economy. All you have to do is look at all the polls (which?) say 80 and 85 % so the Trump economy was great. Their economy was terrible. “
Kamala Harris: “Let’s be clear. The Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit …the highest we have ever seen in the history of America. He invited trade wars. You know he talked about his deal with China but … under Donald Trump’s presidency he ended up selling American chips in China. They’ll then improve and modernize their military. He basically sold us out. The policy about China should be making sure the United States of America wins the competition for the 21st century which means focusing on the details so … we don’t end up on the short end of the stick in terms of workers’ rights. What Donald Trump did– let’s talk about this with COVID– he actually thanked President Xi for what he did during COVID. Look at his tweets: “Thank you Mr. President, President Xi!” But we know that Xi was responsible for (…) not giving us transparency about the origins of COVID.”
Donald J. Trump:” First of all, they bought their chips from Taiwan. We hardly make chips anymore because of the philosophies like they have, in policies like they have. Actually her, because she has no policy. Everything she lived three years ago and four years ago, it’s out the window… she’s going to my (philosophy?) right now. In fact I was going to send her a MAGA hat. She’s going to my philosophy. If she ever got elected … it’ll be end of our country. She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist. Her father’s a Marxist professor in economics; he taught her well.
But when you look at what she’s done to our country, you look at these millions and millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly, whereas I believe 21 million not 15 million– people say it’s a lot higher than 21 million– that’s bigger than New York, like pouring in just like what they got; they’re criminals. Many of those people coming in, criminals and that’s bad for our economy too… Integration is the worst thing you have in our economy.
“She has destroyed our country with policies insane. I am almost positive… they have to hate our country.”
1. Harris-Trump Presidential Debate Transcript, by Riley Hoffman, September 10, 2024
Don C. Reed is the author of four books on the California stem cell program, including most recently: Science, Politics, Stem Cells and Genes: CALIFORNIA’S WAR ON CHRONIC DISEASE, from World Scientific Publishers Inc., available at a discount from:
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12997#t=aboutBook
Visit his website at: https:www.stemcellbattles.net
Reed has also written numerous books and award-winning articles on sharks, dolphins, eels, seals and killer whales, based on 15 years as a professional diver for Marine World Africa USA. His books are available at Amazon.com.