Four For Friday: Post-Debate Edition

Three days after what appears to be the only presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the internet is still reverberating with pet-eating memes and snarkily captioned stills of Harris' bemused expressions. 

Proportionally, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were the top markets nationally for viewers for the ABC debate broadcast, according to Nielsen ratings released today. Nearly half the potential viewers in both cities tuned in to watch, including some 825,000 Southeast Pennsylvanians who caught the event on ABC's local affiliate. At times, both candidates appeared to be addressing the audience directly, referencing Pennsylvania repeatedly and proffering thoughts aplenty on issues of particular interest to the commonwealth. Here are four that caught our attention.

Fracking Fracas 

Trump, a fulsome fan of fossil fuels, took advantage of this Pennsylvania-centered issue to put Harris on the defensive – the vice president was publicly against fracking during her 2020 run before she was for it as Biden’s second-in-command and in the current campaign. 

Declaring that Harris “would never allow fracking in Pennsylvania” and that if she were elected president, the gas-producing practice “will end on Day One,” Trump overlooked the fact that presidents cannot ban fracking – and that in any case, Harris has since pledged not to block drilling. The vice president defended her record of bolstering the Biden administration's support for oil and natural gas drilling, spotlighting her tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which freed up fracking leases. 

Slavic Sensitivities 

Pennsylvanians of Polish descent were among those listening most closely to the candidates’ thoughts on Russia – Poland's former imperial overlord and historical arch-enemy – and the war in neighboring Ukraine, which has sent tens of thousands of refugees across the Polish border. This time, it was Trump on the defensive, as he repeatedly dodged questions about his support for Ukraine, while Harris pointedly referenced “the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania” and Russia’s threat to their homeland. 

Without firm American and NATO backing for Ukraine, Harris warned, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe – starting with Poland.” Given that Poland is a NATO ally – and that any Russian incursion would cause the U.S. to defend its ally with military force – the line was designed to hammer home both the importance of this key voting bloc and the looming security threat of a potential second Trump term.

Housing Hits Home

Anyone doubting that housing is a top priority for Pennsylvania need look no further than the governor’s office: Just days after the debate, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order to create the state's first comprehensive housing plan, addressing a widespread crisis of both supply and affordability. 

While the skyrocketing cost of domiciles is a bipartisan concern, it was Vice President Harris who repeatedly brought up the issue on Tuesday, referencing her own family's middle-class journey to homeownership and declaring that “the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people.” Trump didn't have much to say about housing at the debate, but it’s familiar territory: The erstwhile New Yorker got his start as a real estate developer, erecting (and living in) some of Manhattan’s most famous buildings. More recently, he has said he supports overturning regulation to spur more housing construction – including opening federal lands for what he calls large-scale, low-tax housing development.

Migrant Meals and More

Roughly 10% of Pennsylvania's labor force consists of immigrants, so Trump's stridently anti-immigrant rhetoric, while hilarious to some – notably his meme-inducing falsehoods about Haitian migrants “eating the pets” of Springfield, Ohio – unnerved not just the commonwealth’s nearly 1 million foreign-born residents, who start small businesses in disproportionately high numbers, but also the legions of commonwealth outfits whose operations would crater were Trump to make good on his vow of mass deportations.