Trump vs. Kamala through the eyes of Ben Shapiro and Sam Harris

Sam Harris and Ben Shapiro sat down this week with Free Press’ Bari Weiss to debate the upcoming election.
Sam Harris, a neuroscientist, philosopher and host of “Making Sense,” is a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, labeling him “the most dangerous cult leader on Earth,” per the Free Press.
In a recent debate, he challenged Ben Shapiro — lawyer, bestselling author and co-founder of The Daily Wire — who argued that Vice President Kamala Harris is “incompetent and unqualified” and “defined by radicalism.”
The debate captured the tension of the upcoming election and why supporters are backing their candidates.
“I’m voting for Harris. The truth is I would vote for almost anyone over Trump. I think I would be voting against Trump with more or less anyone because what I want is normal politics,” Sam Harris said.
His main concern was the need to return to “normal” politics. He noted that both he and Shapiro would agree that many issues within the Democratic Party could be corrected by a “normal” Republican administration. However, Harris argued, Trump is not the solution, as his presidency worsens everything about the left. Harris said he believes that four more years of Trump would only deepen the current political divides.
Meanwhile for Shapiro, the question is: “Were you better off in 2019 or are you better off in 2024?”
Shapiro’s response was, “In 2019, what I got was a solid economy, the best foreign policy of my lifetime, a president whose rhetoric I very often didn’t like but who had made the country stronger in a variety of ways.”
He continued to comment on the current presidential administration, which he claims “has produced a world that is on fire in a myriad of ways, has produced 40-year highs in inflation, and has not, in fact, calmed the waters.”
He said that while Harris wants “normalcy,” the reality is that the former president hasn’t been in office for the past 3½ years, and things have not returned to normal — they’ve gotten worse.
“And so the calculation for me is very simple. With all Donald Trump’s flaws, with all of his excesses, Trump was a better president than Kamala Harris would be. Also we have a very robust and durable constitutional system almost built to hem in his flaws and excesses. I get a lot of good policy that I wouldn’t get with Kamala Harris. I get a stronger American presence on the world scene with regard to America’s allies. I get a better economy. And I think it would serve as a corrective to a Democratic Party that seems to have spun out into a world of damaging wokeness,” Shapiro said.
“Let’s try to put this in some sense of proportion. Trump is, I think, the biggest liar, perhaps in human history, but certainly the biggest liar anyone can name. There’s simply something wrong with his mind. It is pathological,” Harris said.
“If we believe the character of the American people is the future of the country, the question becomes, how do we delegate the most power back to the American people to live lives of virtue? And to my mind, there’s only one party that is even attempting to talk about doing that and that is the Republican Party at this point with all of its flaws and with all of its myriad excesses,” Shapiro said.
To watch full debate click here.