Who actually answered questions in the Harris-Trump debate?
Bring back "no comment". Don't just pretend to answer.
Bring back "no comment". Don't just pretend to answer.
I like public figures who answer the questions they are asked. Don’t want to answer? At least respect our intelligence enough to say “I am not going to answer that”, rather than gaslighting with unrelated content.
From watching old movies and listening to the 2000 year old man bits I know there used to be a legitimate response: “No comment”. I’m OK with that.
Did Trump and Harris answer the questions they were asked?
I uploaded the debate transcript and asked Anthropic’s Claude. Here’s a link to the prompts and responses. It’s not fully ‘scientific’: I think it only looked at about 10 questions each. But still informative.
Highlights
Below, all content is copied from Claude’s responses.
Key Findings:
Harris mostly answered 67% of the questions and partially answered 33%.
She did not fully answer any questions but provided more complete responses compared to Trump.
Donald Trump
Some examples:
When asked if he acknowledges losing in 2020, Trump said "No, I don't acknowledge that at all" but also said he was being sarcastic when he said he lost by a whisker. This only partially addresses the question.
When asked about his health care plan, Trump said "I have concepts of a plan" but provided no details, only partially answering.
Trump did not answer the questions about regretting his actions on Jan 6, why he killed the border security bill, or his climate change plans.
Kamala Harris
Some examples:
On if Americans are better off, Harris pointed to her middle class tax cut plan, small business support, and housing plans, mostly answering the question though not directly saying yes or no.
On Afghanistan, she agreed with the withdrawal decision and critiqued Trump's Taliban deal, mostly answering her role and views.
On climate change, Harris cited investments in clean energy and criticized Trump's stance, mostly answering what she would do.
On immigration, Harris criticized Trump's policies but only partially outlined her own plans.
On negotiating peace between Israel and Hamas, Harris emphasized the need for a ceasefire and two-state solution but didn't provide many specifics on how she would broker a deal.
When asked about abortion restrictions, Harris reiterated her support for codifying Roe v. Wade but did not directly state her position on any restrictions.
Conclusion (from Claude)
Our analysis of the 2024 presidential debate transcript reveals that both candidates often provided partial or incomplete answers to the questions posed to them. However, Kamala Harris generally offered more thorough responses compared to Donald Trump. It's important for voters to critically examine each candidate's positions and the depth of their answers when making their decision in the upcoming election.
My conclusion
Neither candidate did a great job of being explicit about recognizing and answering the questions. But Trump was worse.
A proposal: the ‘debate/interview judge’
Debate moderators should not only ‘fact check’ but they should ‘did you answer the question’ check. I expect this could be automated with an AI for impartiality, and done in real time.
E.g.,
Moderator question: Will you raise taxes on ghost hunters?
Senator Huffenpoof: I’m not the friendly ghost, but the holy ghost. Dig?
Judge: That gets a 1.4% score on our ‘answer-o-meter’. You did not answer the question.
This could work for interviews too. If any politicians want to come on my podcast, I’m happy to test this out.
@alangblake on X noted that Harris didn't really answer the first question. I think this quick Q&A with Claude leaves a lot to be desired would. Weed to train and fine tune this better, to have a good 'did you answer the question' bot.