Democrat Kamala Harris And the Republicans Donald Trump The two leaders sparred fiercely during their first debate, with the former president often taking the defensive on issues of abortion rights, the January 6 insurrection and foreign policy.
In the debate, Harris made remarks designed to provoke Trump, including referring to her past in a hearing with a prosecutor, and taunting him about the size of his rallies. Meanwhile, Trump attempted to link Harris to her past more liberal policy positions, attacking her for saying she no longer supports a fracking ban, and explicitly calling her a Marxist.
Broadly speaking, the debate was a stark contrast to the last debate in June, when President Joe Biden’s failings led to voices that eventually led him to drop out of the race and endorse Harris as the Democrats’ new nominee.
Trump’s allies criticized the moderators, while betting markets moved in Harris’ favor, a sign that many expect Tuesday’s proceedings to boost her candidacy. Harris’ campaign called for a second debate shortly after the forum concluded.
At a debate hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia, Harris said “it’s time to turn the page,” at one point appealing to disaffected Republicans to support her candidacy.
Early exchanges in the debate focused on the economy and immigration, with Trump attacking Harris over the porous border and warning that migrants would take over cities across the US.
Harris said her agenda is to “lift up the middle class and working people of America,” addressing one of her biggest electoral vulnerabilities: high prices and costs, which have hammered American families and left voters skeptical about Biden’s economic agenda.
The vice president touted his plans to expand the tax credit for children, extend mortgage assistance to new homebuyers and provide cuts for small businesses — while attacking Trump over proposed tariffs. He defended the administration’s efforts on the economy, saying he and Biden “have to clean up Donald Trump’s mess.”
“I had tariffs, yet I had no inflation,” Trump responded. “Look, we have a terrible economy because inflation — which is actually called a country breaker, it breaks countries — we have inflation that very few people have ever seen before.”
Trump criticized Harris over the border in his opening remarks, and pointed to the city of Springfield, Ohio, where there has been extensive coverage, particularly in conservative media, of the arrival of Haitian migrants.
Migrants are “taking over cities. They’re taking over buildings. They’re moving in a violent way,” he said, trying to focus the conversation on immigration policy, another issue where polls show voters disapprove of the Biden administration’s response.
Trump returned to town later in the debate — pushing an unproven conspiracy theory that migrants are eating pets, and drawing laughter from Harris.
“There’s people on television saying, ‘My dog was taken and used for food,'” Trump said. “There’s people on television saying my dog was eaten by the people that went there.”
“Talk about extremism,” Harris responded.
In global financial markets, the reaction was relatively calm an hour after the debate. Risky assets declined, with Hong Kong stocks falling in early trade. The dollar declined, while safe-haven currencies such as the yen and Swiss franc gained.
Bitcoin fell as much as 1.5% but was trading at $56,983 at 10:10 p.m. in New York on Tuesday after paring some losses. U.S. equity futures and a dollar gauge fell, while Treasuries held steady.
Harris’s odds of winning the election on betting website PredictIt increased from 53% before the debate to 56%.
The former president has found himself on the defensive with regard to Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for his second term written by some of his closest allies — but which he has rejected in the face of Democratic attacks.
“I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it,” Trump said after Harris took a dig at the initiative. “It was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas, I guess. Some good, some bad. But it doesn’t matter.”
Abortion rights
Trump and Harris sparred at length over abortion — an issue that Democrats believe will mobilize suburban women and independents since the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade — a decision that struck down restrictions on the procedure in states across the country.
Harris dubbed the abortion restrictions adopted by states after the decision the “Trump abortion ban” and said the former president was responsible for situations where women were denied access to abortion care or in vitro fertilization. She repeatedly pressed Trump on whether he would veto a bill imposing a national ban on abortion.
Harris said “there are no exceptions to Trump’s abortion ban, even for rape and incest”, to which Trump called her a liar.
Trump said that while he is not in favor of abortion, the issue is now up to the states. Asked by the moderator if he would veto a national abortion ban, Trump said, “I don’t have to.”
Trump praised the high court’s decision, saying, “They wanted to take it out of Congress and the federal government, and we did something that everybody said couldn’t be done.”
Trump, for his part, claimed that Harris would allow late-term or even post-birth abortions, to which he was rebuked by the moderator, who said no state allows the killing of a baby after birth.
“There is no woman anywhere in America who is seeking an abortion after pregnancy,” Harris said. “This is an insult to the women of America and understand what is happening under Donald Trump’s abortion ban.”
Trump nominated three justices who voted to overturn the Roe decision and used the decision to solidify his hold on evangelical voters and the Republican Party. But he has also sought to neutralize abortion as an election issue to boost his electoral appeal.
Both retreated from their previous stances on health care, with Trump not explicitly promising to repeal Obamacare, something he has frequently promised. He said his team is looking at alternatives that are cheaper and provide better coverage.
“Until then I’ll run it as best I can,” he said. When asked if he had a plan, Trump said, “I have ideas for a plan.”
Harris was pressed on her past calls to support a plan or some version of it to provide government-funded health care to all Americans. “What we need to do is maintain and expand the Affordable Care Act,” she said, using Obamacare’s formal name. She also said she supports private insurance.
to retort to each other
Trump spoke at length about the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in which supporters tried to stop the certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump called the shooting of protester Ashli Babbitt “disgraceful” and blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not doing more to secure the situation, but dodged repeated questions about whether he regretted his actions that day.
Trump also accused Harris of backtracking on some of his past policies. The vice president has distanced herself from policies she supported during her party’s nomination in the 2020 presidential election.
“Everything she believed three years ago or four years ago is out the window,” Trump said. “She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist.”
As Trump attacked, Harris placed her hand on her chin and looked questioningly at the former president.
Harris took aim at Trump, saying his iconic political rallies no longer hold the same appeal — even among his supporters.
“I’m going to invite you to join me at a Donald Trump rally,” she said, noting that he regularly talks about fictional characters such as Hannibal Lecter. “You’ll also notice people leave his rallies early due to exhaustion and boredom. And let me tell you, the one thing you won’t hear him talk about is you.”
Trump, when asked about the border, turned to rallies in response. He said, “People don’t go to his rallies; there’s no reason to go.”
Trump escalated his attacks to harass Harris — he claimed Biden “hates” Harris, whom he had endorsed; he said Biden “doesn’t know she’s alive”; and borrowed one of Harris’s own infamous lines.
He said, “I’m speaking right now, if you don’t mind. Does this sound familiar?” Trump’s comment was a reference to a viral moment in Harris’ 2020 vice presidential debate with Republican Mike Pence, where he told Harris, “I’m speaking.”
Harris was also asked about Trump’s comments that repeatedly questioned her racial identity as Black and Asian American and attempted to deflect attention away from himself.
The vice president described Trump as someone who “throughout his career has consistently attempted to use race to divide the American people,” including by questioning the birth and citizenship of former President Barack Obama.
“I don’t care who he is,” Trump said during the debate, also saying without evidence that he had “read” an example of the biracial vice president claiming he wasn’t black. “Either one was fine with me,” he added.
Breakthrough debate
During one conversation, Trump said Harris “hates Israel” and added that she “hates the Arab population too” because of her suggestion that Israel needed to be more careful in the war in Gaza.
“That’s simply not true. He’s again trying to distract from the truth and divide people,” Harris responded.
Harris said Trump supports dictators and is easily influenced by their “flattery and favors.”
Harris dodged a question about whether she was responsible for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which took place during the Biden-Harris administration under a timeline set by the Trump administration.
“Four presidents said they would do it, and Joe Biden did it,” Harris said of withdrawing US troops from the country.
The debate is potentially the only head-to-head contest between Harris and Trump this cycle, with early voting set to begin in some states in a few days and polls showing the two candidates neck-and-neck.
The shadow of one of the most important debates in modern American history loomed over Tuesday’s event, a debate in June in which Biden delivered a catastrophic performance against Trump that resulted in Harris replacing him on the Democratic ticket.
During one conversation, Trump attacked Democrats for knocking Biden out of the race. “They kicked Biden out of the campaign like a dog,” Trump said.
“You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me,” Harris replied, looking Trump straight in the eye.
In the debate, Harris made remarks designed to provoke Trump, including referring to her past in a hearing with a prosecutor, and taunting him about the size of his rallies. Meanwhile, Trump attempted to link Harris to her past more liberal policy positions, attacking her for saying she no longer supports a fracking ban, and explicitly calling her a Marxist.
Broadly speaking, the debate was a stark contrast to the last debate in June, when President Joe Biden’s failings led to voices that eventually led him to drop out of the race and endorse Harris as the Democrats’ new nominee.
Trump’s allies criticized the moderators, while betting markets moved in Harris’ favor, a sign that many expect Tuesday’s proceedings to boost her candidacy. Harris’ campaign called for a second debate shortly after the forum concluded.
At a debate hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia, Harris said “it’s time to turn the page,” at one point appealing to disaffected Republicans to support her candidacy.
Early exchanges in the debate focused on the economy and immigration, with Trump attacking Harris over the porous border and warning that migrants would take over cities across the US.
Harris said her agenda is to “lift up the middle class and working people of America,” addressing one of her biggest electoral vulnerabilities: high prices and costs, which have hammered American families and left voters skeptical about Biden’s economic agenda.
The vice president touted his plans to expand the tax credit for children, extend mortgage assistance to new homebuyers and provide cuts for small businesses — while attacking Trump over proposed tariffs. He defended the administration’s efforts on the economy, saying he and Biden “have to clean up Donald Trump’s mess.”
“I had tariffs, yet I had no inflation,” Trump responded. “Look, we have a terrible economy because inflation — which is actually called a country breaker, it breaks countries — we have inflation that very few people have ever seen before.”
Trump criticized Harris over the border in his opening remarks, and pointed to the city of Springfield, Ohio, where there has been extensive coverage, particularly in conservative media, of the arrival of Haitian migrants.
Migrants are “taking over cities. They’re taking over buildings. They’re moving in a violent way,” he said, trying to focus the conversation on immigration policy, another issue where polls show voters disapprove of the Biden administration’s response.
Trump returned to town later in the debate — pushing an unproven conspiracy theory that migrants are eating pets, and drawing laughter from Harris.
“There’s people on television saying, ‘My dog was taken and used for food,'” Trump said. “There’s people on television saying my dog was eaten by the people that went there.”
“Talk about extremism,” Harris responded.
In global financial markets, the reaction was relatively calm an hour after the debate. Risky assets declined, with Hong Kong stocks falling in early trade. The dollar declined, while safe-haven currencies such as the yen and Swiss franc gained.
Bitcoin fell as much as 1.5% but was trading at $56,983 at 10:10 p.m. in New York on Tuesday after paring some losses. U.S. equity futures and a dollar gauge fell, while Treasuries held steady.
Harris’s odds of winning the election on betting website PredictIt increased from 53% before the debate to 56%.
The former president has found himself on the defensive with regard to Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for his second term written by some of his closest allies — but which he has rejected in the face of Democratic attacks.
“I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it,” Trump said after Harris took a dig at the initiative. “It was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas, I guess. Some good, some bad. But it doesn’t matter.”
Abortion rights
Trump and Harris sparred at length over abortion — an issue that Democrats believe will mobilize suburban women and independents since the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade — a decision that struck down restrictions on the procedure in states across the country.
Harris dubbed the abortion restrictions adopted by states after the decision the “Trump abortion ban” and said the former president was responsible for situations where women were denied access to abortion care or in vitro fertilization. She repeatedly pressed Trump on whether he would veto a bill imposing a national ban on abortion.
Harris said “there are no exceptions to Trump’s abortion ban, even for rape and incest”, to which Trump called her a liar.
Trump said that while he is not in favor of abortion, the issue is now up to the states. Asked by the moderator if he would veto a national abortion ban, Trump said, “I don’t have to.”
Trump praised the high court’s decision, saying, “They wanted to take it out of Congress and the federal government, and we did something that everybody said couldn’t be done.”
Trump, for his part, claimed that Harris would allow late-term or even post-birth abortions, to which he was rebuked by the moderator, who said no state allows the killing of a baby after birth.
“There is no woman anywhere in America who is seeking an abortion after pregnancy,” Harris said. “This is an insult to the women of America and understand what is happening under Donald Trump’s abortion ban.”
Trump nominated three justices who voted to overturn the Roe decision and used the decision to solidify his hold on evangelical voters and the Republican Party. But he has also sought to neutralize abortion as an election issue to boost his electoral appeal.
Both retreated from their previous stances on health care, with Trump not explicitly promising to repeal Obamacare, something he has frequently promised. He said his team is looking at alternatives that are cheaper and provide better coverage.
“Until then I’ll run it as best I can,” he said. When asked if he had a plan, Trump said, “I have ideas for a plan.”
Harris was pressed on her past calls to support a plan or some version of it to provide government-funded health care to all Americans. “What we need to do is maintain and expand the Affordable Care Act,” she said, using Obamacare’s formal name. She also said she supports private insurance.
to retort to each other
Trump spoke at length about the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in which supporters tried to stop the certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump called the shooting of protester Ashli Babbitt “disgraceful” and blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not doing more to secure the situation, but dodged repeated questions about whether he regretted his actions that day.
Trump also accused Harris of backtracking on some of his past policies. The vice president has distanced herself from policies she supported during her party’s nomination in the 2020 presidential election.
“Everything she believed three years ago or four years ago is out the window,” Trump said. “She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist.”
As Trump attacked, Harris placed her hand on her chin and looked questioningly at the former president.
Harris took aim at Trump, saying his iconic political rallies no longer hold the same appeal — even among his supporters.
“I’m going to invite you to join me at a Donald Trump rally,” she said, noting that he regularly talks about fictional characters such as Hannibal Lecter. “You’ll also notice people leave his rallies early due to exhaustion and boredom. And let me tell you, the one thing you won’t hear him talk about is you.”
Trump, when asked about the border, turned to rallies in response. He said, “People don’t go to his rallies; there’s no reason to go.”
Trump escalated his attacks to harass Harris — he claimed Biden “hates” Harris, whom he had endorsed; he said Biden “doesn’t know she’s alive”; and borrowed one of Harris’s own infamous lines.
He said, “I’m speaking right now, if you don’t mind. Does this sound familiar?” Trump’s comment was a reference to a viral moment in Harris’ 2020 vice presidential debate with Republican Mike Pence, where he told Harris, “I’m speaking.”
Harris was also asked about Trump’s comments that repeatedly questioned her racial identity as Black and Asian American and attempted to deflect attention away from himself.
The vice president described Trump as someone who “throughout his career has consistently attempted to use race to divide the American people,” including by questioning the birth and citizenship of former President Barack Obama.
“I don’t care who he is,” Trump said during the debate, also saying without evidence that he had “read” an example of the biracial vice president claiming he wasn’t black. “Either one was fine with me,” he added.
Breakthrough debate
During one conversation, Trump said Harris “hates Israel” and added that she “hates the Arab population too” because of her suggestion that Israel needed to be more careful in the war in Gaza.
“That’s simply not true. He’s again trying to distract from the truth and divide people,” Harris responded.
Harris said Trump supports dictators and is easily influenced by their “flattery and favors.”
Harris dodged a question about whether she was responsible for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which took place during the Biden-Harris administration under a timeline set by the Trump administration.
“Four presidents said they would do it, and Joe Biden did it,” Harris said of withdrawing US troops from the country.
The debate is potentially the only head-to-head contest between Harris and Trump this cycle, with early voting set to begin in some states in a few days and polls showing the two candidates neck-and-neck.
The shadow of one of the most important debates in modern American history loomed over Tuesday’s event, a debate in June in which Biden delivered a catastrophic performance against Trump that resulted in Harris replacing him on the Democratic ticket.
During one conversation, Trump attacked Democrats for knocking Biden out of the race. “They kicked Biden out of the campaign like a dog,” Trump said.
“You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me,” Harris replied, looking Trump straight in the eye.
