The presidential debate exposed Trump as an aspiring emperor with no clothes - opinion

At last night’s debate, the American people saw the greatest contrast between two presidential candidates in our nation’s history. Vice President Harris demonstrated steady leadership, moral clarity, and command of the issues. She provided solutions to the challenges facing the American people and a forward-looking vision for our future. In the shadow of Harris’s strength, Donald Trump was exposed as a weak, aspiring emperor with no clothes. Trump was untethered to the truth, utterly devoid of substance, and detached from reality.

Their exchanges on national security and foreign policy underscored Trump’s weaknesses and Harris’s strengths. Touting her experience as vice president with more than 20 international trips and 150 meetings with world leaders, Harris began by baiting Trump with the observation that “world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump” and military leaders “say [he’s] a disgrace.” Trump took the bait and cited the support of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an autocrat aligned with antisemites whom he lauded as a “strong man” and “tough person.” Trump called Orban “smart,” which is the same accolade he attributed to Hezbollah – an Iranian proxy and terrorist organization on Israel’s northern border – in the immediate aftermath of October 7.

On Israel, Harris began with an unequivocal condemnation of the horrific terror perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. She then affirmed that “Israel has the right to defend itself” and called for a ceasefire that includes the release of the hostages. She conveyed her support of a two-state solution that includes security for Israel and self-determination for Palestinians and provided explicit assurance that she would “always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.”

Trump's silence on Hamas

Donald Trump failed to condemn Hamas. He said nothing about the hostages, similar to how he failed to demonstrate any empathy after the horrific execution of six hostages, including an American, earlier this month. He falsely accused Harris of not meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu in July, when in reality they met for more than an hour at the White House. He then provided an ominous and empty threat that “Israel will not exist within two years” and “the whole place is going to get blown up” if he’s not elected president. For good measure, he added a ridiculous assertion that he would “settle” the situation in the Middle East and end the war in Ukraine if he’s the president-elect “before even becoming president.” Good luck with that.

Trump had the audacity to falsely accuse Harris of “hating” Israel twice during the debate. In response, Harris made clear something that I saw firsthand while serving as her national security advisor in the Senate, including traveling with her to Israel in November 2017, and in the seven years since. She said, “I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people.” Kamala Harris has never wavered in her commitment to Israel’s security, support of US military aid to Israel, or her firm belief that Israel has the right to self-defense – all things that Donald Trump failed to mention once during the course of the 90-minute debate.

Playing the victim, Trump accused Democrats, including Harris, of leading a “fake Russia investigation that went nowhere.” To the contrary, a bipartisan investigation of Russia’s interference in our 2016 election, which Harris participated in as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, revealed that Vladimir Putin interfered in our democracy on Trump’s behalf. Department of Justice indictments last week indicate that Russia is doing it again, with a specific targeting of Jewish voters whom they are attempting to mislead with disinformation.

While Donald Trump hopes this disinformation – including his own antisemitic vitriol denigrating millions of Jewish voters, which he repeated last night – will help him make inroads with Jewish voters, recent polling demonstrates that’s not the case. According to a September poll commissioned by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, 72% of Jewish voters support Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in a direct matchup. Trump has made zero inroads with Jewish Americans in eight years – he garners the exact same 25% of the Jewish vote that he did in 2016.

Maybe this is because he harbors deep animus toward the vast majority of American Jews, and – according to the same poll – four out of five Jewish voters who disagree with his repeated insults view them as antisemitic. He and mainstream Republicans have also embraced the white supremacist Great Replacement Theory, which is the antisemitic ideology chanted by neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville in August 2017. These are the extremists Donald Trump infamously equated with peaceful protesters, dangerously identifying “very fine people on both sides.”

While Harris asserted at the debate that the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville were “spewing antisemitic hate,” Trump refused to condemn them at the time, pointedly refused four years ago on the 2020 debate stage, and again failed to condemn their antisemitism last night.

Last night’s debate likely shored up support for Trump among his right-wing extremist base. As for everyone else, we are still in shock that someone as unprepared and unhinged as Donald Trump could even have set foot on that stage, let alone be the Republican presidential nominee. Trump is a self-proclaimed aspiring “dictator on day one,” and last night he was exposed as an emperor with no clothes. For Jewish Americans, this is even more reason we’re going to play a critical role in electing Kamala Harris because of where we live and how we vote. We know dictators pose a distinct threat to our community, and understand that our democracy and democratic allies – including Israel – cannot afford another four years of Donald Trump.

Halie Soifer is CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. She previously served as national security adviser to then-sen. Kamala Harris, senior policy adviser in the Obama administration, and foreign policy adviser to Sen. Chris Coons.