Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won the TV debate held in the early hours of 11 September, Norwegian time. This is the verdict of US expert Alf Tomas Tønnessen after the first debate between the two candidates.
The polls so far show that the candidates are evenly matched. The trend immediately after the debate showed a slight lead for Harris.
Associate Professor Alf Tomas Tønnessen at UiA says the election will be decided in the so-called swing states – states that do not have a strong connection to either side.
"Up until this debate, Trump had an advantage among voters, but during the debate, he seemed unprepared and imprecise in his answers," says Tønnessen about the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump appeared without solutions
This time, Trump talked little about his own policies and presented few concrete solutions for the future. Instead, he spent a large part of the debate defending himself while criticising the current administration, of which Harris is a part.
He had few plans, but said, for example, that he has "concepts for a plan" to replace Obama's 2010 healthcare reform, a federal funding of health insurance.
On the other hand, Harris responded well and had strong body language, according to Tønnessen.
"But she strategically avoided some of the difficult questions. She dodged the question of whether the American people are in a better economic situation after nearly four years of Democratic rule. Instead, she talked about what the plan is going forward."
Tønnessen emphasises that this is a natural point for Trump to attack Harris on, but he did not do so during the debate.
"It wasn't until Trump's closing statement that he referred to the fact that the Democrats have not been able to accomplish any of the things they talked about doing in the years they have been in power."
Trump was weak but can bounce back
Although Trump appeared weak in this debate, he has historically been strongest towards the end in his previous campaigns. For example, it wasn't until the very end of the 2016 campaign that he gained the last important votes.
There are still eight weeks left in this current campaign, and a lot can happen during that time, according to Tønnessen.
Harris appears to be targeting new, young voters. The issues she highlighted as important in the debate were money for parents of newborns and support for new businesses.
"These are concrete proposals that Trump could have questioned her about. 'Where are you going to get the money for these programmes?' He could have also pointed out his own successes in these areas during his presidency," says Tønnessen.
Tønnessen says he is surprised by the presidential debate. He expected Trump to perform better.
"All in all, Harris proved to be stronger and better prepared during the debate than I expected, while Trump was worse and more unprepared than I had anticipated."