Harris puts Trump on defensive in fiery presidential debate

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.”

Key quotes from debate

ECONOMY

“Look, we’ve had a terrible economy, because inflation, which is really known as a country buster,” said Trump.

“People can’t go out and buy cereal or bacon or eggs or anything else. The people of our country are absolutely dying with what they’ve done. They’ve destroyed the economy,” said Trump.

“I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people, and that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy,” said Harris.

“My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations,” said Harris.

ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT

“It must end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal, and we need the hostages out,” said Harris.

“She hates Israel. If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now,” said Trump to which Harris responded: “That’s absolutely not true. I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people.”

WORLD LEADERS

“World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump,” said Harris.

“(Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orban said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president,” said Trump.

UKRAINE

“I want the war to stop. I want to save lives,” Trump said, when asked if he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia.

“If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now,” said Harris.

JABS

“Wait a minute, I’m talking now, if you don’t mind, please, does that sound familiar?” said Trump, appearing to refer to Harris’ use of “I’m speaking” during the 2020 vice presidential debate against former Vice President Mike Pence.

“It’s important to remind the former president, you’re not running against Joe Biden, you are running against me,” said Harris.

“So she just started by saying she’s going to do this, she’s going to do that, she’s going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there for three and a half years,” said Trump following Harris’ closing remarks.

ABORTION

“I pledge to you, when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v Wade as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law,” said Harris.

“Now, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. … Now states are voting on it. … Each individual state is voting. It’s the vote of the people. Now it’s not tied up in the federal government,” said Trump.

IMMIGRATION

“I’ll tell you something, he’s going to talk about immigration a lot tonight, even when it’s not the subject that is being raised,” said Harris.

“Our country is being lost, we’re a failing nation,” Trump said, referring to people crossing into the country illegally.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

“I probably took a bullet to the head for the things they say about me,” said Trump.

TRUTHFULNESS

“As I said, you’re gonna hear a bunch of lies, and that’s not actually a surprising fact,” said Harris.

“There she goes again. It’s a lie,” said Trump after Harris said he would sign a national abortion ban were he to win office.

JOE BIDEN

“Remember this, she is Biden. She’s trying to get away from Biden,” said Trump, referring to Harris.

“Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and certainly not Donald Trump, and what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country,” said Harris.

GUNS

“She has a plan to confiscate everybody’s gun,” said Trump.

“(Democratic Vice Presidential nominee) Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away,” said Harris.

JAN. 6, 2021, CAPITOL ATTACK

“I had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech,” said Trump, when asked if he regretted anything that day.

“I was at the Capitol. I was the vice president-elect. I was also a senator and on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s capital, to desecrate our nation’s capital,” said Harris.

COVID-19

“But what Donald Trump did, let’s talk about this, with COVID, is he actually thanked President Xi for what he did during COVID,” said Harris.

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.

Reactions to Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s debate performances

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VP PENCE

“Trump missed an opportunity to stay focused prosecuting the case against Biden-Harris on the economy and border and instead took her bait and chased down rabbit holes on election denialism and immigrants eating our pets. Harris passed the test of looking presidential and Trump didn’t expose her historically radical positions. The impact will likely extend to competitive House races.”

KAREN FINNEY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST

“This is going to be remembered as the one of the most impressive debate performances in modern politics. The VP is doing exactly what she needed to do: talk about her vision and policy ideas, illustrate the contrast between herself and Trump and stay out the way of his unraveling. He is rambling, making things up and spouting lies and nonsense faster than the fact checkers can keep up.”

MALCOLM KENYATTA, A STATEWIDE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE IN PENNSYLVANIA

“Donald Trump is radically unhinged, and the entire world is witnessing a confused old man unravel before our eyes. It’s time to turn the page on Trump, and tonight Vice President Harris is making it clear she’s the person to do it.”

CHRIS BORICK, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR AND POLLSTER AT MUHLENBERG COLLEGE IN PENNSYLVANIA

“I suspect the debate won’t lead to much movement in the polls. They both held pretty tight to their game plans. Harris baited Trump with some degree of success, but I don’t think he ever departed far from the messages he wanted to deliver.”

RON BONJEAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST

“While Harris was able to get under Trump’s skin with her well-prepared attacks, it’s still not clear that she overwhelmingly convinced these voters to finally make up their minds from this exchange. The question now is how much she actually moved the needle. However, Trump didn’t do himself any favors by agreeing to do this debate.”

AMY KOCH, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST

“It is clear Trump prepped for this debate. It’s the most on message – save eating dogs departure – he has ever been. He missed (an) opportunity on immigration because of dogs and he should try to bring it back at some point.”

DAN EBERHART, REPUBLICAN DONOR

“I only saw one commander in chief on the stage. Trump looked focused, strong and in command of the issues.”

ERICK ERICKSON, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR

“Trump lost the debate and whining about the moderators doesn’t change it. He didn’t lose because of their behavior. He lost because of his own performance while his lips were moving, not theirs.”

WHIT AYRES, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER

“After tonight, I don’t think Donald Trump will be insisting on another debate.”

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.