【中美创新时报2024 年 9 月 11 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）第二场总统辩论可能没有像第一场那样彻底颠覆竞选，但它产生了许多令人难忘的时刻和声音片段，为这场重新塑造的竞选定下了方向，并巩固了这将是一场多么痛苦、丑陋和艰苦的比赛。对此，《波士顿环球报》记者萨姆·布罗迪（Sam Brodey）作了下述报道。
6 月拜登总统和前总统唐纳德·特朗普之间的总统辩论的前五分钟，竞选的轨迹完全改变了。
在周二辩论的前 40 分钟内，特朗普指责民主党支持处决婴儿，指责海地移民吃宠物，指责副总统卡马拉·哈里斯参与暗杀他。
第二场总统辩论可能没有像第一场那样彻底颠覆竞选，但它产生了许多令人难忘的时刻和声音片段，为这场重新塑造的竞选定下了方向，并巩固了这将是一场多么痛苦、丑陋和艰苦的比赛。
有时，会有一些关于经济和外交政策问题的相对实质性的政策讨论。在会议开始的几分钟里，哈里斯谈到了她对中产阶级的计划，而特朗普则为他在执政期间使用关税的做法辩护。
但哈里斯挑衅特朗普的策略可能定义了这场辩论。这位副总统表现出了惹恼前总统的本领，而他的对手可能从未这样做过。
例如，在面对移民问题时，哈里斯挖苦特朗普，称人们因为无聊而提前离开他的集会。特朗普显然被冒犯了，他没有抨击哈里斯的重大政治弱点，而是谈论了他的集会——“他们去的原因是他们喜欢我说的话”——然后开始根据右翼社交媒体账户推动的毫无根据的指控发表长篇大论，称海地移民正在吃俄亥俄州公民的宠物。
值得注意的是，ABC 新闻主持人大卫·穆尔一度不得不提醒特朗普重新谈论他自己的标志性问题。
那段内容——以及整个辩论——明确了为什么民主党人让哈里斯击败特朗普比让拜登获胜更有利，因为民意调查显示，她已经抹平了前任对共和党候选人的差距。在 6 月份的辩论中，拜登证明自己无法反驳特朗普的一系列误导性言论，更不用说表达自己的观点和愿景了。
在讨论堕胎问题时——民主党人认为拜登在他们的第一次辩论中放弃了这个问题——哈里斯表示民主党人站在自由一边，并承诺如果国会向她发送一项保护全国堕胎权的法案，她将签署该法案。
“人们不必放弃自己的信仰和根深蒂固的信念就可以相信政府，唐纳德·特朗普当然不应该告诉女性如何对待自己的身体，”哈里斯说。
特朗普试图将民主党人定性为这一问题上的“极端分子”，毫无根据地指控一些民主党领导人支持怀孕九个月甚至出生后的堕胎，这在任何州都是非法的。尽管他因推翻罗诉韦德案而受到赞扬，但他并没有直接回答有关他是否会允许全国范围内的堕胎禁令的问题。
有时，哈里斯会微笑、大笑，甚至愁眉苦脸，而前总统则会转而大发牢骚，这往往是由她尖锐的个人讽刺引发的。有一次，副总统声称世界各国领导人都在“嘲笑”他；还有一次，她说“显然他很难接受”他在 2020 年大选中的失败。
在哈里斯的嘲讽之后，这位前总统发动了典型的猛烈攻击，指控拜登“讨厌”哈里斯，她“讨厌以色列”，等等。 “她将成为我们国家历史上最糟糕的副总统，”他说。
特朗普还面临 ABC 新闻主持人的尖锐问题，他们提到了他在 1 月 6 日国会大厦袭击事件中扮演的角色，以及他猜测黑人和南亚裔的哈里斯实际上不是黑人。 （特朗普在辩论台上回答这个问题时说：“我不在乎她是什么人。”）
与此同时，哈里斯面临着关于她在美国撤军阿富汗中扮演的角色以及她过去支持 2020 年最终结束私人医疗保险运动的问题。
辩论结束后，共和党人抱怨 ABC 主持人存在偏见，佛罗里达州众议员迈克·沃尔兹告诉记者，“ABC 自己编造了故事。”特朗普本人似乎无意中走到附近的“新闻发布室”，直接对着镜头讲话。他没有戴麦克风，在庞大的新闻发布会之外很难听到他的声音，但值得注意的是，他并没有承诺第二次与哈里斯辩论。
特朗普和哈里斯在费城的这次亮相不仅是他们第一次辩论，也是这两位新对手第一次面对面会面。这位前总统没有出席 2021 年的就职典礼，这是他在 1 月 6 日试图继续执政后拒绝遵守的另一项权力过渡惯例。据 Axios 报道，两人在特朗普对国会的任何讲话中也从未见过面。
但哈里斯多年来——首先是在 2020 年民主党初选，现在是民主党候选人——一直表达她愿意直接与特朗普交锋的意愿。在取代拜登成为民主党候选人后，哈里斯立即向特朗普发起辩论挑战，7 月他对佐治亚州的人群说：“如果你有什么话要说，就当着我的面说。”此后，特朗普开始在辩论中攻击哈里斯，称她“完全无能”等。
周二晚上，两位候选人登上了总统竞选的舞台，在经历了历史上不可预测的动荡夏季后，这场竞选已经趋于稳定。一系列民意调查显示，在拜登与特朗普的灾难性辩论之后，哈里斯弥补了拜登的大部分失地。
但最近的调查，尤其是来自《纽约时报》和锡耶纳学院的调查，表明哈里斯的势头自民主党全国代表大会以来有所放缓。两人似乎在关键战场州不相上下。
双方竞选团队都将辩论视为获得优势并为大选活动定下基调的关键机会，大选活动通常在劳动节后进入高潮。周二公布的美国国家公共电台和马里斯特学院民意调查显示，三分之一的登记选民认为辩论将帮助他们决定如何投票。
费城决战的重要性在于，这可能是两位候选人在选举中唯一的辩论。竞选团队尚未同意进行任何其他辩论。然而，他们的竞选搭档州长蒂姆·沃尔兹和参议员 J.D. 万斯定于 10 月 1 日在纽约市参加由哥伦比亚广播公司新闻台主办的辩论。
辩论刚结束，泰勒·斯威夫特就宣布支持哈里斯——这是副总统期待已久的胜利。对她表现高度评价的民主党人在辩论结束后与记者交谈时，对斯威夫特的消息感到非常高兴，其中包括哈里斯竞选团队全国联合主席、加州众议员罗伯特·加西亚。
“每个人都很高兴看到这件事发生，”加西亚告诉《波士顿环球报》。“我认为这种支持恰恰说明了人们今晚所看到的情况。我敢肯定她今晚也在看。”
加西亚津津有味地注意到斯威夫特在留言的结尾写道：“泰勒·斯威夫特。没有孩子的猫女士。”
题图：副总统卡马拉·哈里斯和前总统唐纳德·特朗普于周二晚上在费城登台，这是 2024 年选举周期的第一次对决。((ABC News))
附原英文报道：
The first presidential debate completely upended the race. The second set the course for the election.
By Sam Brodey Globe Staff,Updated September 11, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump took the stage in Philadelphia Tuesday night in their first matchup of the 2024 election cycle. ((ABC News))
PHILADELPHIA — Within the first five minutes of the presidential debate between President Biden and former president Donald Trump in June, the trajectory of the race completely changed.
Within the first 40 minutes of Tuesday’s debate, Trump had accused Democrats of supporting the execution of infants, Haitian immigrants of eating pets, and Vice President Kamala Harris of contributing to his assassination attempt.
The second presidential debate may not have completely upended the race in the way the first did, but it generated a number of memorable moments and sound bites, setting the course of this reshaped contest and solidifying what a bitter, ugly, and hard-fought stretch it will be.
There were, at times, moments of relatively substantive policy discussion on issues relating to the economy and foreign policy. In the early minutes, Harris talked up her plan for the middle class, while Trump defended his use of tariffs during his administration.
But it may have been Harris’s tactic to bait Trump that defined this debate. The vice president proved adept at getting under the former president’s skin in a way that perhaps none of his adversaries have before.
Facing a question on immigration, for instance, Harris worked in a dig that Trump could not resist, claiming that people leave his rallies early due to boredom. Instead of hammering Harris on a major political vulnerability, a clearly offended Trump talked about his rallies — ”the reason they go is they like what I say” — before embarking on a riff based on unfounded claims pushed by right-wing social media accounts that Haitian immigrants are eating Ohio citizens’ pets.
Tellingly, at one point, ABC News moderator David Muir had to prompt Trump to get back to talking about his own signature issue.
That segment — and the debate overall — crystalized why Democrats are in a much stronger position to defeat Trump with Harris than with Biden, as polls show she has erased the deficit her predecessor has against the Republican nominee. In their June debate, Biden proved unable to counter a raft of misleading statements from Trump, let alone articulate his own views and vision.
During a discussion of abortion — an issue Democrats felt Biden dropped in their first debate — Harris made the case that Democrats are on the side of freedom, pledging to sign a bill protecting abortion rights nationwide if Congress sends her one.
“One does not have to abandon their faith and deeply held beliefs to believe the government and Donald Trump certainly shouldn’t be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said.
Trump sought to characterize Democrats as “extreme” on the issue, baselessly alleging some Democratic leaders of supporting abortion into the ninth month of pregnancy — or even after birth, which would be illegal in any state. But while he took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade, he did not directly respond to questions about whether he would allow a national abortion ban.
At times, Harris smiled and laughed, or even grimaced, while the former president veered into tangents and rants, often sparked by her sharp and personal barbs. At one point, the vice president claimed world leaders were “laughing” at him; at another, she said “clearly he has had a difficult time processing” his 2020 election defeat.
In the wake of Harris’s taunts, the former president unleashed characteristically bludgeoning attacks, alleging that Biden “hates” Harris and that she “hates Israel,” among other things. “She goes down as the worst vice president in the history of our country,” he said.
Trump also faced pointed questions from the ABC News moderators, who brought up his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and his speculation that Harris, who is of Black and South Asian descent, was not actually Black. (“I don’t care what she is,” Trump said on the debate stage, in response to the question.)
Harris, meanwhile, faced questions about her role in the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and her past support from the 2020 campaign to eventually end private health insurance.
After the debate, Republicans complained of bias on the part of ABC’s moderators, with Representative Mike Waltz of Florida telling reporters, “ABC made themselves the story.” In a seemingly unplanned move, Trump himself visited the nearby “spin room” to talk to the cameras directly. He was not wearing a microphone and was difficult to hear outside the massive press scrum, but he notably did not commit to debating Harris a second time.
Trump and Harris’s appearance together in Philadelphia marked not only the first time they had debated but the first time the newfound opponents had ever met in person. The former president did not attend the inauguration in 2021, another custom of the transition of power he refused to observe after attempting to stay in office on Jan. 6. The two also never met at any of Trump’s addresses to Congress, according to Axios.
But Harris has spent years — first in the 2020 Democratic primary and now as the Democratic nominee — conveying her willingness to spar with Trump directly. Right after replacing Biden on the Democratic ticket, Harris challenged Trump to debate, saying to a Georgia crowd in July, “If you have something to say, say it to my face.” Since then, Trump built up to the debate by attacking Harris in personal terms, calling her “totally inept,” among other things.
The candidates took the stage Tuesday night locked in a presidential contest that has stabilized after a historically unpredictable and turbulent summer. A range of public opinion polls showed Harris made up much of the ground Biden lost in the aftermath of his disastrous debate against Trump.
But recent surveys, most notably from The New York Times and Siena College, indicate that Harris’s momentum has slowed since the Democratic National Convention. The two appear to be neck-and-neck in key battleground states.
Both campaigns viewed the debate as a crucial opportunity to gain an edge and set the tone for the general election campaign, which traditionally kicks into high gear after Labor Day. A poll from NPR and Marist College, released Tuesday, found that one in three registered voters believes the debate will help them decide how to vote.
The importance of the Philadelphia showdown was heightened by the possibility that it could be the candidates’ only debate of the election. The campaigns have not yet agreed to any other debates. However, their running mates, Governor Tim Walz and Senator J.D. Vance, are slated to meet for an Oct. 1 debate hosted in New York City by CBS News.
Just as the debate wrapped, Taylor Swift announced her endorsement of Harris — a long-awaited win for the vice president. Democrats who were riding high on her performance were positively giddy to see the Swift news break while they were speaking to reporters after the debate, including Representative Robert Garcia of California, a national cochair of the Harris campaign.
“Everyone was happy to see it happen,” Garcia told the Globe. “And I think that endorsement just speaks to what people saw tonight. I’m sure she was watching tonight as well.”
Garcia noted with relish how Swift signed off her message. “Taylor Swift. Childless Cat Lady.”
