“Chutzpah” in the Presidential Debate

The Yiddish word chutzpah, related to the Hebrew word huspãh has a strong negative connotation. It means “insolence,” “cheek” or “audacity.” It became part of American English vernacular with a broader, less pejorative meaning, but in Hebrew it is used to describe a person who has overstepped the boundaries of respectful behavior.

In the The Joys of Yiddish Leo Rosten, the late American journalist, defines chutzpah as “gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible ‘guts’, presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to.”

Some examples of chutzpah were evident in the recent US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Although Donald Trump was instrumental in killing Roe v. Wade, last month he said that his administration would be great for women and their reproductive rights. According to Trump, Tim Waltz stated that abortion after the nine-month period would be absolutely fine and stressed during the debate with Kamala Harris, “…it is execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born, is okay. And that is not okay with me.” Linsey Davis, one of the two moderators of the debate remarked, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born.”

During the debate Trump referred to a discredited social media rumor that immigrants were eating pets in an Ohio town saying, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” David Muir, one of the moderators of the debate told Trump that ABC had called the city manager: “He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community — that the reports of immigrants eating animals were unfounded.” Trump remained unfazed.

When Trump accused Harris and the Democrats of lacking an effective policy to control illegal immigration, Harris responded that she supported a bill, which included some of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate, that would have effectively controlled the flow of immigrants and fentanyl to the United States. Harris said, “That bill would have put more resources to allow us to prosecute transnational criminal organizations for trafficking in guns, drugs and human beings. But you know what happened to that bill? Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress, and said kill the bill. And you know why? Because he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”

Trump accused Harris of having conducted a disastrous retreat from Afghanistan. However, according to FOX News, just before the debate between them, a group of 10 former generals and admirals which included Admiral Steve Abbot, a former advisor to George W. Bush; Gen. Lloyd W. Newton, and Gen. Larry R. Ellis, who had never endorsed a political candidate until this week, wrote in a National Security Leaders for America letter, “Vice President Kamala Harris is the best –and only—presidential candidate in this race who is fit to serve as our commander-in-chief.”

They also said, “He [Trump] left President Biden and Vice President Harris with no plans to execute a withdrawal, and with little time to do so. This chaotic approach severely hindered the Biden-Harris Administration’s ability to execute the most orderly withdrawal possible and put our service members and our allies at risk. Nevertheless, President Biden with the support of Vice President Harris ended America’s longest war, oversaw the largest airlift in U.S. history, and brought our troops home.”

By hurling unproved accusations against Vice President Kamala Harris –who has a remarkably honest record of public service– Donald Trump has shown that he is a bray without a donkey. Which, coming to think of it, is a good definition of chutzpah.

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