MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Republican and Democratic party chairs, John Wahl and Randy Kelly, respectively, both claimed their respective presidential candidate won Tuesday night’s debate, the first between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Both party chairs also accused their nominee’s opponent of sharing falsehoods, with Kelly accusing Trump of painting a false picture of high crime and violent immigrants, and Wahl accusing Harris of backpedaling on former policy positions.
“She delivered Trump a TKO – in boxing language, a technical knockout – utilizing his own lies,” Kelly told Alabama Daily News Tuesday.
“The interesting thing is that the moderators consistently caught him in lies. The man is a pathological liar.”
Specifically, Kelly pointed to Trump’s claim that crime had increased under the Joe Biden administration. According to preliminary data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, violent crime spiked in 2020 due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has trended downward since, and in 2023 was down by 6% when compared to the previous year.
Kelly also highlighted Trump’s claim that Haitian immigrants have been “eating dogs” in Springfield, Ohio.
The city of Springfield has seen an influx of Haitian migrants in a short period of time, approximately 15,000 after being given temporary protected status from the U.S. government due to the current political instability in Haiti.
While Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost did say that the large influx of migrants was putting a strain on resources, as does the city’s own website, there have been no credible reports of dogs or any pets being eaten, per a Springfield spokesperson and local law enforcement.
Conversely, Wahl said that Trump’s performance was at its strongest when confronting Harris on illegal immigration, a topic Trump has leaned heavily into during his campaign.
The Trump administration saw an estimated 1.6 million illegal immigrant border encounters, whereas the Biden administration saw more than 7.2 million as of January of this year, a statistic Trump highlighted frequently given Harris’ assigned task of handling illegal immigration.
Wahl also spoke at length about Harris’ performance, labeling her stated policy positions Tuesday night as “disingenuous” when compared to her record.
“I found tonight’s debate fascinating because I watched Kamala Harris backpedal on the policy of the Democratic Party, and she talked much more centrist and almost Republican on a lot of the values she brought up,” Wahl told ADN.
“What I find disingenuous and disrespectful to the American public is that is not her track record. We saw a politician tonight on stage, we saw someone who is willing to twist the truth, make stuff up, and present a message that was popular, rather than what she actually believes, and I think that’s very clear if you go back and look at her voting record.”
More specifically, Harris was asked during the debate why she had shifted her positions on several key issues. Positions Harris has shifted on include banning fracking, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, mandatory buy-back programs for assault weapons, and single-payer health care.
Harris ultimately did not explain why some of her positions had shifted, and instead stressed that her “values” had not changed.
A second presidential debate has yet to be scheduled, however, the Harris campaign has called for one.