Erika D. Smith, Columnist

Harris Knew Exactly How to Rattle Trump at the Debate

In their first face-to-face meeting, the vice president played offense, knocking the former president off his game in a way previous opponents could not.

September 11, 2024 at 9:00 AM UTC

By Erika D. Smith

Erika D. Smith is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She is a former Los Angeles Times columnist and Sacramento Bee editorial board member.

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Going into Tuesday night’s debate in Philadelphia, Vice President Kamala Harris needed to do two things: Prosecute the case against her opponent, former President Donald Trump, and more importantly, make the case for why voters should elect her president.

Let’s just say she understood the assignment.