…
She set a tone at the very start when she walked right into his space to shake his hand and made him almost pull back into himself in response. She was in charge and never stopped being in charge.
Harris also managed what neither Joe Biden nor Hillary Clinton nor any of the 2016 Republicans managed to do which is successfully bait Donald Trump and get under his skin. Within a few minutes Trump was visibly angry and not in a way that empowered him but in a way that made him lose focus, go down rabbit holes and generally go off onto damaging tangents. Spittle anger, not righteous anger, shall we say.
“Your system is so bad, terrible! Anyone can do better!”
“And yet you couldn’t in your term and still don’t have an idea how to do it even now? So you admit you can’t fix what you believe to be an easy problem to solve? That’s a weird stance to take during a debate you’re trying to win but ok.”