AA Edit | Kamala puts Trump on the mat in debate clash

Kamala Harris slew Donald Trump in the first and what could be the final debate before the November 5 US presidential election. The former President did himself no favours by appearing to lose his way as Ms Harris hammered him over his criminal convictions and the size of his rallies while criticising his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and how Republican seniors were stepping out to endorse her campaign.

The tables were truly turned on the June 28 debate in which the ageing President Joe Biden was on the defensive to the point of incoherence and was said to have lost the debate 33-67 on one count in public opinion surveys while Kamala has been given a 63-37 victory in the ABC News debate trap into which Mr Trump had willingly walked.

Before the 90-minute debate had ended, Mr Trump was seen as the ageing former President who was tending to ramble and who could not resist his campaign playbook of personal attacks on his opponent, ranging from her mixed-race lineage and her political leanings which he termed Marxist, though Ms Harris may have invited it by getting personal against Mr Trump as well.

As the night wore on, the Democrats had another reason to smile as the pop icon Taylor Swift endorsed Ms Harris and her running mate Mr Tim Walz, cheekily signing her recommendation as “childless cat lady”, a reference to Mr Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance’s derogatory description of women who have not borne a child. The impact of “Swifties” being asked to vote for the Democratic duo was clear as the diva’s post gathered 2.3 million likes in less than 30 minutes.

From what seemed a certain defeat in the immediate aftermath of an assassination attempt by a sniper on Mr Trump at a campaign rally has turned to Ms Harris now holding a wafer-thin advantage in opinion polls, besides a positive forecast from the “Mr Nostradamus” of US elections, Allen Lichtman, who has never failed in predicting modern US presidential elections.

Any fears of a repeat Democratic debate debacle were annihilated by Ms Harris’ crisp responses and her ability to distract her opponent from raging hot button issues like abortion, migration, healthcare and the economy by hurting her opponent at every turn and backing it up with energetic facial responses as Mr Trump sank further into making it a personal battle. So much so, even the betting markets favour Ms Harris now.

Notwithstanding all the positives that the Democrats drew from the debate, including Ms Harris revealing more of what she stands for to the people, most of to the undecided voters who wished to know more about the candidate emerging late in the race from Joe Biden’s shadow, the poll is not about who will be first past the post in the popular vote count. The contest is expected to go down to the wire in the electoral college system that the US follows.

How the voters of the seven swing states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in the northeast, North Carolina and Georgia in the Deep South and Nevada and Arizona in the west — exercise their choice will decide who gets the right to reside in the White House from January 2025 and assume the seat of the avowedly most powerful person in the world.