WASHINGTON, 11 Sep (AP) \u2014 To many Democrats, Kamala Harris was everything Joe Biden was not in confronting Donald Trump on the debate stage: forceful, fleet of foot, relentless in going after her opponent.<\/p>\n
In a pivot from Biden\u2019s debate meltdown in June, Democrats who gathered in bars, watch parties and other venues Tuesday night found lots to cheer in her drive to rattle the Republican.<\/p>\n
In a race for the White House that surveys say is exceptionally close, with both sides looking for an edge, it was the Democrats who came away more exuberant after the nationally televised debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe prosecuted Donald Trump tonight,\u201d said Alina Taylor, 51, a high school special education teacher who joined hundreds of people on a football field of the historically Black Salem Baptist Church of Abington in a suburb of Philadelphia, where people watched on a 33-foot (10 meter) screen.<\/p>\n
As for Trump, she said, \u201cI was appalled\u201d by his performance. \u201cPeople were laughing at him because he wasn\u2019t making very much sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Seattle, people gathered at Massive, a queer nightclub where scores watched the debate on a projector set up in front of the club\u2019s large disco ball. The crowd laughed and cheered when Trump branded Harris a Marxist. More cheers when the debate moderator called out Trump\u2019s false claim that some states legalize the killing of babies after birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s getting smoked,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n
But in Brentwood, Tennessee, Sarah Frances Morris heard nothing at her watch party to shake her support of Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he beat her on the border,\u201d she said. \u201cI think he also beat her on actually having plans and letting the American people know what those are. And I think that Kamala Harris likes to mention that she has plans for things, but she doesn\u2019t actually ever elaborate on what those plans are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morris conceded she was watching history being made, \u201cbecause we have our first Black woman running for president.\u201d But, she added, \u201cI don\u2019t think she delivered to get her to that place she needed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris supporter Dushant Puri, 19, a UC Berkeley student, said the vice president took command before the first words were spoken \u2014 when she crossed the stage to shake Trump\u2019s hand. \u201cI thought that was pretty significant,\u201d Puri said. \u201cIt was their first interaction, and I thought Harris was asserting herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same watch party, fellow student Angel Aldaco, 21, said that unlike Biden, Harris \u201ccame in with a plan and was more concise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aldaco was struck by one of the night\u2019s oddest moments, when Trump \u201cwent on that rampage about eating pets.\u201d That\u2019s when Trump endorsed a baseless conspiracy theory that immigrants were stealing and eating people\u2019s dogs ands cats. Harris was incredulous. \u201cThat was good,\u201d the student said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s questionable how much viewers learned about what Harris would do as president or whether she won over independents or wavering Republicans. But for some Democrats, despondent if not panicked after Biden\u2019s fumbling debate performance, it was enough to see a Democratic candidate getting seriously under Trump\u2019s skin.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is pretty incapable when he is riled up,\u201d said Ikenna Amilo, an accountant at a Democratic watch party in a small concert venue in downtown Portland, Maine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you poke him, he is really reactive and he doesn\u2019t show the temperament you want in a president, so I think Kamala has shown she\u2019s doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annetta Clark, 50, a Harris supporter from Vallejo, California, watched at a party hosted by the Oakland Bay Area chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. To her, the second presidential debate was a mighty relief from the one in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t stomach the first one, if I\u2019m being honest,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI tried to watch it and it was a little too much. This one I was able to enjoy.\u201d On Trump\u2019s performance: \u201cIt was almost like talking to a child with him.\u201d Harris? \u201cFabulous job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrat Natasha Salas, 63, of Highland, Indiana, saw the debate from an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority watch party at a bistro in Markham, Illinois, and welcomed Harris\u2019 call to cool the political temperature \u2014 even as the vice president denounced Trump at every turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all want the same things, Democrats and Republicans,\u201d Salas said. \u201cWe are more alike than different. I want to see the country move forward and less divisiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interest in the debate transcended national borders. From a shelter for migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, where dozens watched a translated version of the debates on a television, Rakan al Muhana, 40, an asylum-seeker from Gaza, became animated when the candidates discussed Israel and Palestine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are running from the war,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are running from the Israeli bombs. He (Trump) doesn\u2019t see us as human. My daughter, who is four months \u2014 for him, she\u2019s a terrorist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Muhana has been on a four-month journey from Gaza to this border city, with his wife and four children. They left when both his mother and father were killed in a bombing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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