At the Sept. 10 presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, one important topic received short shrift. ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis allotted little attention to an issue that today simmers close to boiling for Americans. Missing was an in-depth probing of the candidates' positions on national security, mostly half-thoughts and fragments of ideas.
While the moderators mentioned Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, and Afghanistan, absent was any discussion on what is perhaps the number one military threat to the United States: the People's Republic of China’s (PRC) aggressive operations against Taiwan. Harris raised the topic of North Korea, but only derisively, mocking Trump's "love letter" from Kim Jong Un, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Did this prompt a question from the moderators about what contact the Biden-Harris administration has had with the DPRK leadership to lessen tensions in the Indo-Pacific? No.
Regarding Hamas, Davis asked Harris: “Just last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there's not a deal in the making. Biden has not been able to break through the stalemate, how would you do it?" Harris explained that “[w]e need a ceasefire deal, and we need the hostages out." And the Biden-Harris administration will continue to work "around the clock" toward that end … We must chart a course to a two-state solution." So, the White House wants a two-state solution, but that’s described as national suicide for Israel. And Harris never said how she would end the war in Gaza. Apparently, she doesn’t know.
Debate Exposed Danger of Open Border Policy
Trump drew a connection between the Biden-Harris open border policy and national security, explaining, "They're the ones – and she's the one that caused it, that's weak on national security by allowing every nation last month for the year, 168 different countries sending people into our country." But he could have tied this observation to illegal aliens crossing the US border being potential terrorists, like the recently detained eight illegals from Tajikistan on the terrorist watch list or the busloads of military-age illegals from China welcomed into the United States by the Biden-Harris administration. He could have refered to the Chinese illegals caught on US military installations as a persistent threat to national security, but he didn't.
On Ukraine, Trump scored with the statement, "I know [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky very well, and I know [Russian President Vladimir} Putin very well. I have a good relationship. And they respect your president. Okay? They respect me. They don't respect Biden. How would you respect him? Why? For what reason? He hasn't even made a phone call in two years to Putin." Harris countered with her having been dispatched in early 2022 to talk with Zelensky and NATO to discuss the "importance of sovereignty and territorial integrity." That was a timely topic for a country ready to be invaded. In fact, Russia penetrated Ukraine a few days later – so much for the effectiveness of Harris' diplomatic outreach.
On Afghanistan, Muir asked Harris, "Do you believe you bear any responsibility in the way that the withdrawal played out?" The vice president responded with a non-answer: "I agreed with President Biden's decision to pull out of Afghanistan." Harris went on to say, “And as of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world, the first time this century.” That is categorically not true. There are two US Navy carrier task forces in the Gulf region and 2,500 military servicemembers in Iraq under persistent attack from Iran proxy militias. Three young US Army reservists were killed at an outpost in Jordan last year; others are still there. Those are combat zones. The fact that Harris doesn’t acknowledge that fact is instructive.
On Sept. 8, the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a blistering report on the Biden-Harris administration's planning and execution of the Afghanistan withdrawal. In her answer to Muir's question, Harris blamed Trump for the debacle in Afghanistan. When the former president attempted to describe the unbelievable disaster of the Biden-Harris operation, the departure timeline, and the Biden-Harris chaos in Kabul, Muir moved on to another subject.
The debate was the perfect forum for the candidates to expound on their national security priorities for the next four years, but substantive details were lacking. Americans face dangers on the international stage but have little understanding of what the candidates might do to end those perils. Trump did not claim opportunities to do so, and Harris was revealed to be nothing more than Biden-lite.
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