Political debates have long been arenas where truth often takes a back seat to persuasive storytelling, but NBC suggests Harris elevated this tactic to a new level, impressing even veteran political strategists. During the debate, the fact-checkers’ “Lie-O-Meter”—a tool tailored to detect political falsehoods—was tested to its limits. One fact-checker commented, “We’ve covered countless debates, but we’ve never seen anything like this. Our machine overheated within minutes of Harris’s first response.”
The first major falsehood identified was Harris’s claim that “The Biden administration has single-handedly saved America from a recession.” Fact-checkers quickly noted the exaggeration, considering ongoing economic challenges, including inflation. This was merely a prelude to what followed.
Throughout the debate, Harris’s imaginative approach to facts became the focal point. Whether addressing Trump’s rally sizes or his environmental policies, she artfully stretched the truth. NBC described her performance as “an impressive feat of misdirection,” suggesting her tactics left viewers unsure of the reality by the debate’s end.
Harris’s strategy was apparent: when confronted with challenging questions or vulnerabilities in her record, she skillfully employed personal attacks, irrelevant anecdotes, and strategic misinformation. This approach resembled the political equivalent of a smoke bomb, diverting attention from the issues at hand.
