If considered one of Donald Trump’s targets throughout Tuesday’s debate was to point out that Kamala Harris can be a weak world chief, he failed.
She managed, in spite of everything, to carry her personal towards him whereas navigating subjects unusually tough for a Biden administration official, such because the chaotic U.S. army withdrawal from Afghanistan and the politically dicey Israel-Hamas warfare. On the second, Harris repeatedly pressured the necessity for a two-state answer, as an illustration — exhibiting her help for Palestinians whereas additionally insisting she’ll defend Israel.
Overseas officers watching the Philadelphia faceoff weren’t anticipating — and didn’t get — many coverage specifics from both candidate. However a lot of these I spoke to stated they needed to see if Harris may stand as much as a person who generally is a bully, particularly towards girls, and rattle his political opponents.
Some Trump critics had argued previous to the showdown that he was a stand-in for the autocrats a future President Harris could encounter — the Vladimir Putins and Xi Jinpings of the world.
By the point the talk was over, a number of overseas officers from each U.S. allies and extra impartial international locations informed me they felt extra assured that Harris may deal with the tough personalities she’d encounter whereas on the earth’s strongest job.
“Composed, authoritative, and presidential,” one European diplomat raved.
“She even managed to giggle at him,” a senior European official marveled.
Her capacity to handle Trump provided assurance that she may navigate robust private relationships. Provided that worldwide relations typically come all the way down to the character of non-public relations, this issues.
Since Harris has turn into the candidate, overseas officers I speak to have described her as a little bit of an unknown, a minimum of when in comparison with President Joe Biden or Trump. To a level, they’re uncertain the place Biden’s overseas coverage views finish and hers start.
By the tip of the talk, the overseas officers I used to be in contact with got here throughout as extra sure that Harris was her personal lady, though they pressured they nonetheless needed to know extra about her coverage concepts. (All had been granted anonymity to debate a delicate problem.)
The primary overseas affairs points that got here up had been the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Afghanistan, together with the deaths and chaos that accompanied the 2021 full U.S. army withdrawal from the latter.
Trump and Harris each known as the opposite “weak” on nearly each considered one of these fronts.
However Trump’s claims had been extra exaggerated. He alleged that Israel would stop to exist inside two years if Harris turns into president and that he’d resolve the Russia-Ukraine warfare whereas nonetheless president-elect. Trump additionally tried to hyperlink border safety and immigration, that are extra historically seen as home issues, in along with his critiques of Harris on overseas coverage.
The Republican didn’t instantly reply when requested if he needed Ukraine to win the warfare Russia launched towards it. “I would like the warfare to cease,” he stated in a solution that may solely invite extra allegations that he’s too pleasant to Russia, and Putin specifically.
In between throwing brutal glances at Trump, Harris appeared well-prepped for the moderators’ questions and the previous president’s barbs.
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was one of many lowest factors of Biden’s tenure. Harris firmly backed the broader choice to go away, but in addition used the chance guilty Trump for negotiating a doomed peace settlement with the Taliban.
On Israel and the Palestinians, Harris started by noting that it was the Palestinian militants of Hamas who launched the most recent warfare and insisted that she would at all times assist Israel defend itself. She made no suggestion she’d maintain up army support to Israel.
However the Democrat additionally known as for a cease-fire to the warfare in Gaza and used a phrase that many within the higher echelons of the Biden administration have stopped utilizing: “two-state answer.” It was a promise to Muslim American, Arab American and different voters who’ve been infuriated by Biden’s dealing with of the warfare that Harris believes Palestinians ought to have their very own nation.
Trump at instances would bash Biden, his former opponent within the race. He known as Biden a “weak, pathetic man” and even claimed Biden “hates” his vp as a result of she changed him because the Democrats’ presidential nominee.
“You’re not operating towards Joe Biden. You’re operating towards me,” Harris stated at one level.
Trump’s maneuvers and claims didn’t shock the overseas officers. They’re accustomed to his unpredictability, ire towards U.S. allies and courting of strongmen — all of which got here by at numerous factors Tuesday night time. Officers from American allies abroad stay perturbed by Trump’s guarantees of imposing new tariffs.
Some had been impressed by how Harris managed to bait Trump. Her mentions of individuals leaving his rallies or his alma mater — “DT took the chunk each time,” the senior European official stated.
However tough world leaders should not all alike, they usually’re definitely not all like Trump. A withering gaze or a loaded remark from Harris could not rattle a Putin.
“I believe individuals have a way Putin is a cooler and scarier buyer,” a Latin American official informed me.
Nonetheless, Harris’ efficiency jogged my memory a little bit of a second in one of many 2008 presidential debates between John McCain and Barack Obama.
McCain, after all, had an extended monitor file of standing as much as tyrants; he’d spent years as a prisoner of warfare throughout Vietnam. However the youthful, much less skilled Obama tried to point out that he, too, was no shrinking violet — particularly when it got here to al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
When Obama stated, “We are going to kill bin Laden. We are going to crush al-Qaeda,” on the talk stage that night time, I out of the blue may see him operating the present within the Scenario Room.
To a lot of the world, Harris made a robust case Tuesday that she has the identical potential.
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