In a cringe-inducing moment during the 2024 presidential debate hosted by ABC News on Tuesday, September 10 between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the vice president refused to answer the opening question she received during the debate, which is if Americans are better off now, under the Biden-Harris Administration, than they were under the Trump Administration.
The question, which Kamala refused to give a direct answer to, was posed by ABC News moderator David Muir, who asked her the simple question of if Americans are better off now than they were under Trump. Harris, instead of saying “yes” and explaining why, rambled about her childhood and how she believes in “the ambition, the aspirations, [and] the dreams of the American people.” She then lied about the Trump economic agenda.
Muir asked, “Vice President Harris, you and President Trump [Biden] were elected four years ago, and your opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, are you better off than you were four years ago when it comes to the economy? Do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?”
Kamala, not answering the question, first said, “So I was raised as a middle class kid, and I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America. I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people, and that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy.”
Continuing, she rambled about housing, ignoring that the problem has gotten worse under the Biden-Harris Administration and its inflation crisis, which has in turn made mortgages more expensice. She said, “Because here’s the thing, we know that we have a shortage of homes and housing, and the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people.”
Adding to that, she rambled about a tax cut for families with children, which is a reasonable idea but didn’t answer the question, saying, “We know that young families need support to raise their children, and I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000 which is the largest child tax credit that we have given in a long time so that those young families can afford to buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy clothes for their children.”
She then rambled about small businesses, still not answering the question, “My passion, one of them is small businesses. I was actually my mother. Raised my sister and me, but there was a woman who helped raise us. We call her our second mother. She was a small business owner. I love our small businesses. My plan is to give a $50,000 tax deduction to start up small businesses, knowing they are part of the backbone of America’s economy.”
Then, attacking Trump for wanting to decrease taxes and insisting that his tariff idea is really a sales tax, she said, “My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations, which will result in $5 trillion to America’s deficit. My opponent has a plan that I call the Trump sales tax, which would be a 20% tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month. Economists have said that that Trump sales tax would actually result for middle class families and about $4,000 more a year because of his policies and his ideas about what should be the backs of middle class people paying for tax cuts for billionaires President Trump.”
Watch her here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
"*" indicates required fields