With Donald Trump declaring Thursday there isn’t “any need” to debate Kamala Harris again, Tuesday night’s encounter may end up the sole sparring match of the presidential race.
So how did the faceoff help undecided voters in the battleground states that will determine the election? It didn’t, The Post found, talking to these unaligned swing-staters.
Kevin James, 28, Somerset County, Pa., freelance photographer
James voted for Trump in 2020; he went into the debate undecided but again leaning toward the ex-president.
After the debate? “Honestly, it left me more undecided. I wanted to hear how we are going to make our country better, and obviously it wasn’t that,” he said. “I didn’t like either of them.”
He wanted to hear policy solutions, but it was “just like they were throwing jabs,” he said. “Whichever way we go and whoever we pick, these two aren’t going to unify the country.”
His biggest disappointment: Border czar Harris denying responsibility for the border crisis. “Honesty will go further with America right now than anything,” he said. “We need answers about the border . . . [It’s the] “biggest thing over her head right now.”
Ethan Whitney, 25, Phoenix, musician
The sparring didn’t move the needle for this Arizonan.
“I feel defeated watching this debate,” he admitted Tuesday evening.
“There were blatant lies coming from both sides,” he said. “Trump said some things that were absolutely unhinged. Harris started the debate by attacking Trump with things that were untrue.”
Neither candidate impressed: “Trump flopped miserably, and there’s something sinister, in my opinion, about Kamala Harris.
Yet she “clearly won this debate. She was more eloquent, and she spoke about what she is going to do in office better than Trump did.
The veep didn’t win Whitney’s heart, though. “She’s using the rhetoric to convince swing state voters to vote for her, not giving her true opinions or ideas on policies, specifically in regards to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Vince Palermo, 45, Millcreek Township, Pa., small business owner
This Erie County voter checked his ballot for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Trump in 2020 — but he’s still undecided this year.
“Harris did not acknowledge any of her progressive flip-flopping on issues she once stood for in 2020 and now she runs away from,” he said, adding, “I didn’t appreciate her facial expressions.”
But Trump wasn’t satisfying, either: “I would’ve liked to have him fight back a little bit harder,” he said, “with more facts and figures on when he was in office.”
Heavenly, 57, Surprise, Ariz., higher-education administrative professional
“I thought Trump may have held it together enough to gain some RFK voters. I don’t think he gained anybody other than that,” the self-described moderate said.
“Kamala was well prepared, spoke and looked pleasant. Trump looked grouchy and even though he did not go completely crazy, he failed to answer questions for which he had good answers. He acts a bit like a teenage boy who thinks putting others down makes him look better.”
David Kapanke, 65, Sun Prairie, Wis., retired commercial- insurance underwriter
Kapanke started out this campaign cycle an undecided voter whose top issues are immigration and reducing crime and gun violence.
Days before the debate, he resolved not to vote: “First time for me. Too much danger present on both sides of the aisle.”
Watching the faceoff didn’t change his mind. “I have been alienated by Trump and Republicans and Biden-Harris and the DNC. I have no credibility with any of them, and they have no credibility with me. Sad to say, the media has no credibility, either.”
