The Most Satisfying Moment of the Harris-Trump Debate

It was about as close to perfect as Kamala Harris has come in a debate, and it was as close to self-parody as Donald Trump—who doesn’t comprehend parody—can manage. Trump intoned his familiar pitch that “for 52 years they’ve been trying to get Roe v. Wade into the states,” and that “every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted this issue to be brought back to the states where the people could vote.” The word “woman” appeared nowhere in his answer, by the way, because in his imaginary construction of the problem, the imaginary “scholars” get to decide for the rest of us. In other words, Trump’s answer to why women should trust him was quite literally that “scholars” and the Supreme Court got to decide—and they sent it to the states to decide. Related From Slate If You Want to Know Who Won the Debate, Watch Fox News the Moment It Ended Harris’ response highlighted who loses because their bodily autonomy was vaulted over “into the states” after Dobbs: In over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care. And that is why in every state where this issue has been on the ballot, in red and blue states both, the people of America have voted for freedom.” There is a robust minority of American voters so infatuated with Donald Trump that his solipsism affords them great comfort: If Donald Trump says Haitian immigrants in Ohio feast on domestic pets, it must be true; if Donald Trump says there would not be a war in Ukraine today if he were president, it must be true; if Donald Trump says that every single American expert, Republican or Democrat, believes that your most intimate health care decisions should be voted upon by randos in the state legislatures, it must be true.