How Swing Voters Reacted to the Debate

Sara Longwell: “I conduct focus groups with voters every week, and I’ve heard one theme come up again and again: They often worry about Harris’s ability to stand up to dictators such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.”

“Last night, Trump was, in a certain sense, a stand-in for strongmen like Putin and Xi, and the voters I spoke with right after the debate said that Harris held her own. They appreciated her ability to bait Trump, counter his lies, and look calm while doing it. Her decision to point out how easily foreign despots use flattery to influence Trump also did her a lot of good.”