Harris vs Trump Presidential Debate 🇺🇸 Learn English with the News

Today, we're going to review a news  article about the 2024 presidential  

debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

And from this, you are going to  improve all areas of your fluency.

Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course, I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

First, I'll read the headline Who won  the Harris Trump presidential debate?

On the left we have Kamala Harris and  on the right we have Donald Trump.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris  met for the first time on the  

presidential debate stage in  Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

Now, of course here notice the importance of  saying for the first time, this means that  

prior to the debate, for before the debate,  these two people had not met in person.

Most likely they had phone calls with each other,  but they had not seen each other in person.

So that's meant for the first time.

Let's review these sentences.

I'm meeting my boss tonight so you can meet.

The verb is meet is in the present continuous  because it's a planned action in the near future.

I'm meeting my boss tonight, but you can  use this for social purposes as well.

I'm meeting my friends tonight,  so you can use the verb to meet  

someone in a professional or social  context, but let's review this one.

I have a meeting notice here.

What do you notice about this  word compared to this word?

A meeting.

This is a noun.

And you know it's a noun because  you have an article, a meeting,  

and the main verb is have I have  a meeting with my boss tonight.

You don't have to specify with my boss,  which is why this is in parentheses.

It's optional.

You could simply say I have a meeting tonight.

And then someone might ask you,  oh, who are you meeting with?

Who are you meeting?

But notice that this is not  used in social situations.

If you have a meeting, it's  for a professional purpose.

So you can only use this  in professional situations.

On meeting the noun.

But you can use the verb meet in both  social and professional situations.

Don't worry about taking these notes because  I summarize everything in a free lesson PDF.

You can find the link in the description.

So they met for the first time on the presidential  debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

Always pay attention to prepositions because  

notice we have on and then day  of the week on Tuesday night.

If it included a time, what preposition  would you use with the time?

The preposition is at at 8:00 PM Eastern Time.

In a situation like this where there's  a global audience, it's important and  

helpful to include the time zone, which is  usually just an initial ET Eastern Time.

They may have shaken hands,  but they did not hit it off.

This is a very clever thing to say.

Do you understand the meaning of this?

Do you understand what is being communicated here?

So they may have shaken hands.

This means they shook hands.

So although they used the modal verb may, which  is often used for possibility, it may rain.

In this case it isn't a  possibility they shook hands.

So shaken is the third form of the verb.

The past simple is shook.

So when you go like this with  someone, you shake hands.

So Kamala Harris and Donald Trump shook  hands, but they did not hit it off.

Do you understand the meaning of to hit it off?

To hit it off is an idiom.

It means to quickly have a good connection  or bond with someone that you met.

So you might say my new Co worker is awesome.

We really hit it off.

So you met your new Co worker for  the first time and very quickly  

you felt a close connection to that Co worker.

You felt like you had a lot in  common or this is a person you  

can easily, we talk to, spend a lot of time with.

Basically you like that person, you hit it off.

We really hit it off.

So as an idiom, we just use hit it off the IT  represents your relationship with each other.

So hopefully you think Jennifer and I hit it off.

Jennifer and I hit it off.

Now I know we haven't met each other in person,  

but we can still have a good  relationship or a close connection.

And hopefully you felt that way when  you first started watching my videos.

If so, you can say Jennifer and I hit it off.

If you agree with that, that we  hit it off, put that's right.

That's right.

I certainly hope you feel that way.

Put that's right in the comments.

Are you enjoying this lesson?

If you are, then I want to tell you  about the finally fluent Academy.

This is my premium training program where  we study native English speakers from TV,  

the movies, YouTube and the news.

So you can improve your listening  skills of fast English, expand your  

vocabulary with natural expressions,  and learn advanced grammar easily.

Plus, you'll have me as your personal coach.

You can look in the for the link to learn more,  

or you can go to my website and  click on finally fluent Academy.

Now let's continue with our  lesson in a fiery 90 minutes.

Harris frequently rattled the  former president with personal  

attacks that threw him off message  First, let's look at fiery fiery.

This sounds like it was an  intense, energetic, fiery.

So this is an adjective.

You could say we had a fiery conversation,  you had a conversation with someone,  

but it was intense, full of energy, and  it could also be very passionate as well.

So it makes sense they would use this adjective  to describe the debate in a fiery 90 minutes.

90 minutes being the length of  the debate in a fiery 90 minutes.

Harris frequently so adverb of frequency.

It means it happened a lot  more than it didn't happen.

Harris frequently rattled.

Do you know what this means to rattle someone?

This is a verb to rattle, rattle.

This means to make someone feel  nervous, unsettled, or confused.

Now notice the sentence structure here.

Harris rattled the former president,  the former president being Donald Trump.

So Harris rattled Donald Trump.

Harris made Donald Trump feel  nervous, unsettled, or confused.

This is commonly used in the passive voice.

For example, the presenter.

The person presenting the presenter  was rattled by the unexpected question.

So they received the question and  they became nervous or unsettled.

They lost their ability to communicate  because of this unexpected question.

But you can use it in the active  voice and say the unexpected question.

This is the subject rattled the presenter.

So your verb is rattle, and  you need to conjugate that.

It's very likely that you could  get rattled in a job interview or  

Nils exam or anytime you're speaking in English.

And that's why I'm here to help.

So again, put that's right,  that's right in the comments.

Harris frequently rattled the former  president with personal attacks.

So this is how she made him feel  nervous or unsettled or confused.

It was with personal attacks  that threw him off message here.

This threw him off message means that the  personal attacks made him become off message.

Now off message represents that  in a debate Trump has prepared  

just like you would prepare for  a job interview or you're IELTS.

He knows what he wants to say on a  specific issue, let's say the economy.

He has the specific points he wants  to make, but because he was rattled,  

he didn't talk about those specific  points, which were his message.

He talked about other points  which were not his message.

So that is off message when  he talked about things that  

he shouldn't have been talking  about at that moment in time.

Let's continue.

Her pointed digs on the size of his  rally crowns his conduct during the  

capital riot and on the officials who served in  

his administration who have since become  outspoken and critics of his campaign.

Repeatedly left Trump on the back foot.

This isn't the most common  expression, to be honest,  

But repeatedly left Trump on the back foot.

You can think of it as repeatedly rattled Trump,  

repeatedly threw him off message  words that we already reviewed.

You could replace that here.

Repeatedly made him defensive.

You could think of as well, and you might  be wondering what pointed digs means.

To be honest, this also is not that commonly  used, but the replacement words are.

So criticism would represent digs.

Her digs on the size, her criticism on the size.

So criticism is a noun form.

Criticize is the verb to criticize.

So when you criticize someone or  something, you talk about it negatively.

So if you say Jennifer, this video was not good,  

you criticized my video, you  said something negative about it.

So that is criticism.

So I could say, wow, that criticism,  

it hurt my feelings, but I will  use it to make my videos better.

Now pointed means direct.

So you can indirectly criticize someone.

You might say, well, Jennifer, you your  other videos were better than this one.

So you're indirectly saying  you didn't like this video.

So indirect, your other videos were better direct.

This video is not good.

So she was directly criticizing  Trump, her pointed digs.

This is the noun form.

But again, I think using the word  criticism or criticize as the verb  

and using direct or indirect would be more common.

Although now you know what this  means if you see it in the future.

So her criticism and then this is  what she was criticizing him on.

You criticize someone on something.

That's the preposition.

Let's continue the pattern for much  of this debate was Harris provoking  

her Republican rival into making extended  defenses of his past conduct and comments.

So this extended defenses of  his past conduct and comments,  

you could say provoking her Republican  rival, this is Donald Trump, provoking  

Donald Trump into the back foot, which  would be into this defensive stance.

But again, it would probably be more common just  to say the word defensive to become defensive.

Let's review these two words because they are very  

commonly used in both professional  and social everyday situations.

So to provoke, this is a verb  and this means to deliberately,  

deliberately means on purpose to deliberately  cause a negative reaction in someone.

This is something that siblings do with each other  when they're young and even when they're old.

Friends do this, Co workers do this.

It exists in both professional  and social situations.

So a parent might say stop provoking your sister.

So stop doing things on purpose to make your  sister angry, upset, annoyed or frustrated.

Some sort of negative reaction.

Now here defenses.

This is a noun, but the verb form  is to be defensive, to be defensive.

So the verb is be, and then  defensive is the adjective.

You can have the verb to defend like a  soldier or even a mother defends her children,  

an animal defends their territory, for example.

But to be defensive, this is  defensive is an adjective.

And this is when you protect yourself  from criticism or attack, usually by  

justifying your actions or behaviors.

So remember, you criticized my video,  

and you said you directly criticized my video  and said, Jennifer, this video is not good.

Now, maybe you were trying to provoke me.

Maybe you said this on purpose to make  me angry or upset for whatever reason.

But regardless, maybe I become defensive  and I tried to justify this video and say,  

well, you don't know what you're talking about.

You don't understand what a good video is.

This video is amazing.

You're just an idiot.

That could be how I'm trying to defend  myself and that is being defensive.

So that is how 1 can be defensive, which is  a common reaction in that situation, which is  

why I'm sharing it because it's very commonly  used in personal and professional situations.

Let's move on.

He gladly obliged.

OK, So he gladly obliged if he obliged.

Remember, Kamala Harris was trying to  provoke him to make defenses about his  

past conduct and comments comments  rather than staying on message.

And he obliged, which means he  did what she wanted him to do.

He gladly obliged, raising his voice.

So to raise one's voice means to speak  louder at times and shaking his head.

So what I'm doing now is I'm shaking my head.

We commonly do this when we're angry or annoyed.

We shake our heads.

So you can imagine he's raising  his voice and shaking his head,  

both of which are taking him off  message, which is what she wanted to do.

If debates are won and lost on which  candidate best takes advantage of issues  

where they are strong and defends  or deflects on areas of weakness.

Tuesday night tilted in  favor of the vice president.

Let's review the sentence structure for to take  

advantage of something because  this is very commonly used.

So of course, your verb is take.

That's what you'll conjugate  advantage doesn't change and  

then of and you can have a noun or a gerund verb.

Here we have a noun issues, but  if you have a verb it would be the  

gerund because you have a preposition  of which is part of the expression.

The expression expression is to take  advantage of something or doing something.

And this means to use a situation, the  something or doing something to your benefit.

So for example, he took advantage of.

So take is our verb.

This is in the past simple.

He took advantage of working.

So this is the gerund verb of working from home.

So he benefited from this situation.

The situation is working from home and how did  he benefit to spend more time with his family?

You don't have to include this part.

The sentence is complete right here.

He took advantage of working from  home and it might be obvious how  

he benefited from that situation, but you  can provide the specific reason as well.

Now we talked about defend.

Let's look at deflect.

When you deflect, it means you avoid usually  answering a question and you do it on purpose.

So to purposely avoid.

And you might do that by changing the topic.

So in a job interview, if they ask you  a question but you don't want to answer  

the question for whatever reason, you could  try to change the topic to something else.

So that is you deflecting the question.

So in this case, deflecting on areas of  weakness so to try to avoid talking about  

your areas of weakness, which seems  like a good strategy in a job interview  

and high health a conversation you're  having with your friend or Co worker.

Any situation you might want to use this tactic  of deflecting Tuesday night tilted in favor.

So imagine we have these represent  the people who are voting.

So we have the people voting for Kamala  Harris, the people voting for Donald Trump.

So if it tilts in her favor, it means  that more people support Kamala Harris.

So it's even, but then it tilts in her favor.

But it could be the opposite.

It's even and it tilts in Trump's favor.

So it means that the more people  are supporting or accepting one  

person over another or 1 issue over another.

Let's continue.

A snap CNN poll of voters watching said  

that Harris performed better and  betting markets said the same.

So CNN, this is a different news outlet.

The article we're reviewing is from the BBC,  

but this article from the BBC  is referencing a poll from CNN.

Let's review Snap because this is commonly used.

So this means suddenly or quickly,  

but so suddenly or quickly that there isn't  enough time for careful consideration.

So it's letting you know that this poll  where voters say I think Harris won,  

I think Trump won, it was a snap.

So that is to snap, the verb to snap.

And it happens very quickly, right?

So it was a snap poll, meaning that the voters  

didn't have a lot of time to carefully  consider who won or who lost.

Let's review these example sentences  because this is commonly used.

First impressions are important, so when  you meet someone for the first time,  

how they think of you after their first  impression is important because people make  

snap judgements, so they judge you quickly  and suddenly without carefully considering.

It's a snap judgement.

This is also used with decisions.

You can make a snap decision, which means  you do it careful, quickly or suddenly.

Not carefully, quickly or suddenly  without careful consideration.

I made a snap decision and accepted the job.

So you didn't carefully consider it.

It was a snap decision.

Debate watchers said 63% to 37% that Harris turned  in a better performance on stage in Philadelphia.

So turned in a better performance.

I don't think this is the  most common way to say this.

I would just say that Harris performed  better on stage in Philadelphia.

I think that's a clearer way.

And it's not very common to say  I turned in a great performance.

That isn't an expression I hear too much.

You can turn in an assignment, which  means you submit an assignment.

So if you turn in a presentation, to me that  sounds like you submit a presentation for review.

So honestly, I wouldn't say this.

I would just say performed better.

I think that's a lot clearer prior to the debate.

So notice when you use prior,  you need the preposition to.

So you have prior to and this  means before before the debate.

Prior to.

This is important because if you have  a verb, you need the gerund verb.

But the same with before, because  before is also a preposition.

So you could use a verb and say  prior to watching the debate or  

before watching the debate or before the  debate because they mean the same thing.

Prior to the debate, the same  voters were evenly split.

So evenly split means like this.

So about 5050, not exactly.

It could be a little more, a little less, but  then remember it tilted in Kamala's favor,  

so more people supported or  favored Kamala as the winner.

But prior to the debate, the same voters were  evenly split on which candidate would perform  

more strongly, with 50% saying Harris  would do so and 50% that Trump would.

So that's the split.

The vast majority, vast makes it sound stronger.

Majority means the biggest part,  but that could be 51% to 49 percent.

51 is still the majority because it's bigger, but  the vast majority sounds more like 80% or 75%.

So it makes it stronger.

The vast majority who tuned in, if you  tune in to something on TV, YouTube,  

social media, if you tune in, it means you watch.

So I could say make sure you  tune in to my next lesson.

Make sure you watch my next lesson.

So the vast majority who watched, who tuned in,  

said it had no effect on  their presidential decision.

OK, so the people who watched the debate,  

even though it tilted in Kamala's  favor, more people thought she won.

It had no effect on their presidential decision.

Which means just because they  thought she won the debate  

doesn't mean they're going  to vote for her necessarily.

Although among the debate watchers,  Trump supporters were more likely than  

Harris supporters to say the event, The  debate gave them reason to reconsider.

OK, so if you reconsider, remember  when you add re before a verb and  

the pronunciation is a long E re reconsider.

It means you do the verb again.

So this means to consider again.

So if you make a snap decision later, you  might want to reconsider that decision.

You might want to think about  it more because in reality,  

you didn't consider it in the first  place because it was a snap decision.

I wrote that example for  you because snap decision,  

snap judgement is very commonly used  so you can get comfortable using it.

And that's the end of our article.

So what I'll do now is I'll read  the article from start to finish,  

and this time you can focus on my pronunciation.

Who won the Harris, Trump presidential debate?

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris  met for the first time on the  

presidential debate stage in  Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

They may have shaken hands, but they did  not hit it off in a fiery 90 minutes.

Harris frequently rattled the former president  with personal attacks that threw him off message.

Her pointed digs on the size of his rally  crowns, his conduct during the capital  

riot and on the officials who served  in his administration who have since  

become outspoken critics of his campaign,  repeatedly left Trump on the back foot.

The pattern for much of this  debate was Harris provoking  

her Republican rival into making extended  defenses of his past conduct and comments.

He gladly obliged, raising his  voice at times and shaking his head.

If debates are won and lost on which  candidate best takes advantage of issues  

where they are strong and defends  or deflects on areas of weakness.

Tuesday night tilted in  favor of the vice president.

A snap CNN pool of voters watching said that  

Harris performed better and  betting market said the same.

Debate watchers said 63% to 37% that Harris turned  in a better performance on stage in Philadelphia.

Prior to the debate, the same voters  were evenly split on which candidate  

would perform more strongly, with 50% saying  Harris would do so and 50% that Trump would.

The vast majority who tuned in said it had  no effect on the presidential decision,  

although among the debate watchers,  Trump supporters were more likely  

than Harris supporters to say the  event gave them reason to reconsider.

Do you want me to make more  lessons just like this?

If you do, then put more,  more, more, more, more, more.

Put more, more, more in the comments below.

And, of course, make sure you like this lesson,  

share it with your friends and subscribe so  you're notified every time I post a new lesson.

And you can get this free speaking  guide where I share 6 tips on how  

to speak English fluently and confidently.

You can click here to download it or  look for the link in the description.

And I have another news review about  the 2024 presidential election.

You can watch watch it right now.