Democratic
Vice President Kamala Harris put
Republican Donald Trump on
the defensive at a combative presidential debate on Tuesday with a stream of
attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes,
as both candidates sought a campaign-altering moment in their closely fought
election.
A former prosecutor,
Harris, 59, appeared to get under the former president's skin repeatedly,
prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to deliver a series of falsehood-filled
retorts.
At one
point, she brought up Trump's campaign rallies, goading him by saying that people
often leave early "out of exhaustion and boredom."
Trump, who
has been frustrated by the size of Harris' own crowds, said, "My rallies,
we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of
politics." He then pivoted to an unsubstantiated claim that Haitian
immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are "eating the pets" of residents.
"Talk
about extreme," Harris said, laughing.
The
candidates clashed over issues such as immigration, foreign policy and
healthcare, but the debate was light on specific policy details. Instead,
Harris' aggressive approach succeeded in putting the focus on Trump.
Trump, who
has spent weeks launching personal
attacks on Harris that have included racist and sexist insults,
largely avoided insults during the debate's early moments but became
increasingly agitated under Harris' offensive.
Trump was
asked by the moderators about one of those attacks, when he told an event with
Black journalists in July that Harris had recently "become a Black
person."
"I
couldn't care less," he said. "Whatever she wants to be is OK with
me."
Harris, who
has both Black and South Asian heritage, responded, "I think it's a
tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently
over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American
people."
She
criticized Trump over his criminal conviction for covering up hush money
payments to a porn star as well as his other indictments and a civil judgment
finding him liable for sexual assault. Trump has denied wrongdoing and again
accused Harris and the Democrats of orchestrating all of the cases without
evidence.
Trump also
repeated his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was due to fraud, called
Harris a "Marxist" and asserted falsely that migrants have caused a
violent crime spree.
With eight
weeks to go before the Nov. 5
election, and days until early voting starts in some states, the
debate - the only one scheduled - presented both opportunities and risks for
each candidate in front of a televised audience of tens of millions of voters.
A SURPRISE
HANDSHAKE
The debate got
under way at 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Wednesday) with a surprise
handshake between the two opponents, who had never met before.
Harris approached Trump at his lectern, introducing herself by name, in what
was the first handshake at a presidential debate since 2016.
The
encounter was particularly important for Harris, with opinion polls showing
that more than a
quarter of likely voters feel they do not know enough about
her. Harris entered the race only seven weeks ago after President Joe Biden's exit.
Harris
delivered a lengthy attack on abortion limits, speaking passionately about
women denied emergency care and victims of incest unable to terminate their
pregnancies due to statewide bans that have proliferated since the U.S. Supreme
Court eliminated a nationwide right in 2022. Three Trump appointees were in the
majority of that ruling.
She also
claimed Trump would support a national ban, an assertion Trump called a lie.
Trump, who
has sometimes struggled with messaging on abortion, claimed falsely that Harris
and Democrats support infanticide, which - as moderator Linsey Davis noted - is
illegal in every state.
"As I
said, you're going to hear a bunch of lies," Harris said.
Harris also
sought to tie Trump to Project 2025,
a conservative policy blueprint that proposes expanding executive power,
eliminating environmental regulations and making it illegal to ship abortion
pills across state lines, among other right-wing goals.
Trump
retorted that he has "nothing to do" with Project 2025, though some
of his advisers were involved in its creation.
CLASHES ON
ECONOMY, FOREIGN POLICY
The
candidates opened the debate by focusing on the economy, an issue that opinion
polls show favors Trump.
Harris
attacked Trump's intention to impose high tariffs on foreign goods - a proposal
she has likened to a sales tax on the middle class - while touting her plan to
offer tax benefits to families and small businesses.
"Donald
Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression," Harris
said, referring to his years as president from 2017-2021. Unemployment peaked
at 14.8% in April 2020 and at 6.4% when he left office. It was far higher in
the Great Depression.
Trump
criticized Harris for the persistent inflation during the Biden
administration's term, though he overstated the level of price increases. He
also pivoted quickly to his top issue, immigration, claiming again without
evidence that immigrants from "insane asylums" are crossing the U.S. southern
border with Mexico.
Inflation,
he said, "has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, for every
class."
The
candidates also exchanged barbs over the Israel-Gaza war and the Russian
invasion of Ukraine, though neither offered specifics on how they would seek to
end each conflict.
Harris
accused Trump of being willing to abandon U.S. support for Ukraine to curry
favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling Trump a
"disgrace," while Trump claimed Harris "hates" Israel - an
assertion she rejected.
Presidential
debates do not necessarily change voters' minds, but they can transform the
dynamics of a race. Biden's poor performance against Trump in June led him to
abandon his campaign on July 21.
In a contest
that could again come down to tens of thousands of votes in a handful of
states, even a small shift in public opinion could alter the outcome. The two
candidates are effectively tied in the seven battleground states likely to
decide the election, according to polling averages compiled by the New York
Times.
The debate,
hosted by ABC News, was taking place at the National Constitution Center in
Philadelphia. As agreed by the campaigns, there was no live audience and
candidates' microphones were muted when it was not their turn to speak.