Vice President Kamala Harris sought to lay out her vision for the country and warned of the dangers of electing former President Donald Trump again, while he attacked her immigration and economic record, repeatedly casting her as too liberal in their first presidential debate.
The debate Tuesday, hosted by ABC News at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, came after weeks of bickering over debate rules, which were set before Harris became the nominee. The previous debate, in late June, resulted in President Biden’s exit from the race after his halting debate performance against Trump.
Unlike the Biden-Trump debate, this one began on a civilized note, with the vice president initiating a handshake with the former president. Their exchanges grew progressively more combative, with the candidates shaking their heads at each other’s answers. Trump at one point grew irritated when the vice president suggested that people leave his political rallies early out of boredom. He responded by claiming that America is on the verge of World War III and its citizens are living in squalor under the Biden-Harris administration.
Harris from the start contrasted her economic agenda and middle-class upbringing with Trump’s, calling the former president’s proposal to raise tariffs a “Trump sales tax” and criticizing his plans to extend tax cuts for the wealthy.
Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visits a watch party after participating in a presidential debate with Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 10, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
“I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America,” she said, adding: “ Donald Trump actually has no plan for you, because he’s more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you.”
Later in the debate, Trump was asked about his repeated criticism of the Affordable Care Act and whether he had an alternative plan to offer. “I have a concept of a plan,” he said.
The former president painted a picture of a nation that has plunged into chaos and despair since he left office. He aggressively pinned Harris to the Biden-era migrant crisis, reiterating his unsupported claim that the administration is allowing people from prisons, mental institutions and “insane asylums” to enter the country illegally.
“They’re coming in, and they’re taking jobs that are occupied right now by African-Americans and Hispanics and also unions,” Trump asserted. “They’re going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country, and they’re destroying our country.”
On abortion, Trump declined to say if he would veto a national ban on the procedure, though he said he wouldn’t support one. “It doesn’t matter, because this issue has now been taken over by the states,” Trump added.
Asked if she would support any restrictions on access to abortion, Harris said she would “absolutely support reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
Trump was asked to revisit previous comments he made questioning Harris’s racial identity, saying, “I don’t care” how she identifies. In July, he suggested that Harris, whose mother is originally from India and whose father emigrated from Jamaica, “turned Black.” On Tuesday, he said, “Whatever she wants to be is OK with me,” but added that he read somewhere that she isn’t Black.
Harris responded that it is a tragedy that Trump has used “race to try to divide” the country.
Screens show the presidential debate between Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris outside the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City, U.S., September 10, 2024. REUTERS/Adam Gray
Although the candidates agreed to muting the mics of their opponents while they were speaking as part of the debate rules, Harris could be heard saying, “Come on,” as Trump questioned whether Harris would restrict abortions at all.
The idea that women would ask for abortions after a full pregnancy term, Harris said, is “insulting to the women of America.”
Trump, who at times meandered off topic, repeated an unfounded social-media claim—previously amplified by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance—that Haitian migrants are traveling to places like Springfield, Ohio, and “eating the dogs…They’re eating the pets of the people that live there and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
Harris reiterated her support for a bipartisan Senate border deal negotiated earlier this year that was blocked by Republicans after Trump asked members of his party to oppose it. That bill would have given the president the authority to stop processing asylum seekers if crossings rose too high. At the same time, that measure would have increased legal immigration to the U.S. “He’d prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem,” Harris said of Trump.
After repeated attempts by Trump to tie her to Biden, Harris reminded Trump: “You’re not running against Joe Biden , you’re running against me.”
But the former president continued to press Harris on why she hadn’t enacted any of her policies during the current administration: “I just ask one simple question, why didn’t she do it?” he asked.
Trump dismissed the moderator’s suggestion that he should have acted differently on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol. He suggested the rioters had been prosecuted unfairly.
Harris, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, said Trump’s response to the attack wasn’t an “isolated situation,” bringing up incidents when the former president has refused to condemn hate groups. “For everyone watching who remembers Jan. 6, I say, we don’t have to go back,” she said.
Trump continued to assert that the 2020 election was rigged against him and brushed off the fact that dozens of court challenges failed, and reviews, recounts and audits in battleground states all affirmed Biden’s win.
“There’s so much proof—all you have to do is look at it,” he said. “Our elections are bad.”
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a presidential debate hosted by ABC with Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 10, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Harris used Trump’s continued false allegations about the 2020 election to make her case that he didn’t have the temperament to be president. “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, so let’s be clear about that, and clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that,” she said.
The two candidates also exchanged heated accusations about foreign policy—particularly the continuing war between Israel and Hamas. “She hates Israel,” Trump accused. “If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now.”
Harris said that in her travels overseas, “World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump,” adding: “He’s trying to again divide and distract from reality, which is very well known, that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy,” she said.
Trump repeatedly refused to answer whether he wanted Ukraine to win its war against Russia. He touted his ability to negotiate a peace deal between the two countries and asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine because he doesn’t respect Biden. Trump added the hypothetical assertion that Putin wouldn’t have gone through with the invasion if he were in office.
Harris said the Ukraine war would end quickly under Trump because he would “just give it up” to Putin, who, she told Trump, “would eat you for lunch.”
Patrons watch the presidential debate watch party at the Black-owned 7th + Grove restaurant in Tampa, Florida, U.S. September 10, 2024. REUTERS/Octavio Jones
The vice president also defended Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and said that Trump had cut a bad deal with the Taliban.
Harris, 59, presented a starker contrast on the debate stage with Trump, 78, than the octogenarian Biden did. The vice president has offered herself as the change candidate and has made a subtle attempt to distinguish herself from Biden on certain issues while also celebrating their joint accomplishments since taking office in January 2021.
Her performance Tuesday night quickly earned her one of the most coveted endorsements—that of megastar Taylor Swift, who posted on Instagram that she would be voting for the vice president.
Trump, who was thrown off by Biden’s exit, has struggled to form a consistent line of attack against Harris even as polls show the race essentially tied.
It remains unclear whether Harris and Trump will have another debate, given how contentious negotiations over the terms of the event were, although both candidates have stressed their view that presidential debates are an important part of the electoral process.
The Trump campaign previously said it wanted more debates, and the Harris campaign said Tuesday night it wants another debate in October.
The vice presidential contenders—Vance and Democratic nominee Tim Walz —are scheduled to debate Oct. 1.
Write to Tarini Parti at tarini.parti@wsj.com and Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com
