At a packed bar in the US capital, Tuesday night’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris could have been mistaken for a prize boxing match.
With pitchers of beer flowing, the crowd of mostly young professionals hit capacity well before the show got started.
“Let’s get ready to rumble,” someone shouted amid cheers as TVs showed the two candidates took the stage.
When Harris prepared to make her first statement, a hushed silence came over the largely Democratic crowd at Union Pub, near Congress.
There were no big cheers after she finished laying out a prepared list of her campaign promises.
Trump however elicited a wave of chuckles when he began his remarks in a starkly contrasting tone, harshly attacking Harris and quickly pivoting to false exaggerations about the economy and immigration.
The first roar of cheers did not come until Harris slammed Trump for his actions during the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol, which lies just a few hundred yards (meters) away from the pub.
The crowd had been waiting for this kind of verbal punch, something President Joe Biden was unable to do during his June debate against Trump — a disastrous performance that largely prompted his exit from the race and replacement by Harris.
Anthony, 26, said Biden’s performance in that debate was like “watching an old dog get hit with a stick.”
Harris in contrast was “performing more coherently,” and she and Trump were both “much more fast paced,” the federal employee, who did not want to give his last name, told AFP.
Remy Salinas, a lifelong Republican in town for a work event, said he’d “felt bad” for 81-year-old Biden after the June debate debacle.
He said he hoped that Trump, a “master negotiator,” would “chill” during the debate against Harris.
But clearly the 78-year-old billionaire decided on a different tack, repeatedly raising his voice and appearing angry throughout.
Drinking game
One table of political revelers surprisingly cheered when Trump attacked Harris over immigration, calling her the “border czar.”
AFP later learned that the term was part of a drinking game for the event, with specialty “coconut” and “orange” cocktails also on the menu.
Salinas admitted Trump “slipped a couple times,” and “took the bait” when he was attacked by Harris, but argued the vice president was nonetheless kept “on the defensive.”
He seemed not too upset to be among a crowd of Democrats, laughing at the roaring cheers for Harris and jeers for Trump.
As the debate was wrapping up, the sentiment among a group of women in their mid-20s was unanimous: Harris clearly came out on top, they said.
Shannon, 23, a federal government employee, said Harris’s debate performance left her “hyped.”
“I definitely feel better” than after the Trump-Biden duel, she said.
It was a “discombobulated” Trump versus a “polished” Harris, she added.
Her 24-year-old friend Olivia, a non-proft worker, agreed, saying Harris had given her new enthusiasm for the election.
“You’re not just voting for someone because you have to, but because you actually want to,” she said.
