Tuesday night’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris focused heavily on immigration, with the Republican nominee attacking the current administration for not closing the border, and spreading xenophobic and racist conspiracy theories about asylum seekers. “Donald Trump resorted to the same deranged and despicable rhetoric that is meant to divide people. From his very first answer, he was demonizing immigrants,” says journalist Jean Guerrero, who has written extensively about immigration, including the book Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda. Guerrero says that while Harris “was able to project strength on the border” and undermine Trump on his “signature issue,” she did not do enough to challenge the narrative about immigrants bringing crime and disorder to the country. “I wish that she had countered him on immigration in a more sustained way.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.