COMMENTARY

"I went to the Wharton School of Finance": Harris getting Trump flustered makes for great TV

Apparently, people are out there just eating cats and stuff? Harris' reactions to Trump at the debate launch memes

By Nardos Haile

Staff Writer

Published September 10, 2024 10:16PM (EDT)

U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris listens to former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speak during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024 (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris listens to former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speak during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024 (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris flexed her knowledge on domestic economic policy while aiming at Donald Trump's education at their first debate on Tuesday evening. And it was hilarious.

Early on in the debate, moderator and ABC News anchor David Muir asked Harris and Trump whether the American economy was better off now versus four years ago.

The opponents snarled their teeth at each other, with Harris making a dig at Trump's alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. The former president and Republican nominee graduated from Wharton in 1968. The Washington Post reported that Trump's brother Fred Trump Jr. and his father Fred Trump Sr. helped Trump get into the prestigious business school. Harris went to undergraduate college at Howard University.

Harris started, "What I'm offering is an opportunity economy, and the best economists in the country — if not in the world — have reviewed our relative plans for the future of America. What Goldman Sachs has said is that Donald Trump would make the economy worse. Mine would strengthen the economy."

She looked mostly like this while saying it — eyes askance, either pre-or-post hand on chin — a vibe, nay, a mood that she carried throughout most of the debate.

At that point, she continued, "What the Wharton School said is Donald Trump's plan would actually explode the deficit. Sixteen Nobel Laureates described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation by the middle of next year and would invite a recession."

However, Trump responded, "I went to the Wharton School of Finance, and many of those professors — the top professors — think my plan is a brilliant plan. It's a great plan."

Katy Milkman, a Wharton professor, tweeted on X after the back-and-forth between the opponents, "Hi! @wharton Prof here. Show me the many colleagues who say Trump’s plan is any good? I count 0!"

And if that doesn't sound as wild as it was, factor in Trump rambling on about people eating cats, executing babies, "transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison" and no fracking in Pennsylvania.

A24 could never.


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