By all accounts, the Harris-Trump debate was extremely intense. It was marked by conspiracy theories, personal attacks, avoiding clear answers and more, making it nothing like the phone battle between the former president and Biden that led to his decision to drop out of the presidential race and endorse the vice president as a candidate.
The two presidential candidates were asked to answer questions about the economy, abortion, foreign policy and the size of their campaign rallies in terms of attendance. The line that stood out was when Harris declared "You're not coming down on Joe Biden, you're coming down on me." In this way, he wanted to symbolize how much the character of the match has changed after the departure of President Biden.
It is noted that after the end of the telefight, the vice president's staff requested a new debate in October, while Donald Trump stated that it was his best appearance and that he believes he won.
The following are the moments that shaped the debate one by one
At the start of the showdown, Trump and Harris shook hands, a formality the former president had skipped in June's debate with Biden. The two quickly kicked things off with a heated exchange about the economy, with Harris championing the middle class and Trump pushing his plans for tariffs. He accused her, along with President Biden, of overseeing a period of runaway inflation that has subsided but left many Americans still struggling.
Trump insisted he had built a strong economy before the Covid pandemic. "She's a Marxist," he argued. "Everyone knows she's a Marxist. Her father is a Marxist economics professor." As Trump spoke, Harris continued to look at him and shake her head. He said Trump would only offer tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. "Donald Trump has no plans for you," Harris said at one point.
Trump Insisted On Immigration – What's Kamala Harris's Position?
It was clear from the first moments of the debate that Trump focused exclusively on this issue. He mentioned Aurora and Springfield almost immediately and repeatedly brought the conversation back to the subject. "They allowed criminals in," Trump said, claiming without evidence that there were "many millions" of criminals. “They allowed terrorists. They allowed common street criminals. They allowed drug dealers to come into our country."
Trump added at another point: “Bad immigration is the worst thing that can happen to our economy. They destroyed and destroyed our country with their politics. This is absurd." But Trump's claims were often undermined by false evidence.
In response to the above accusations, Harris tried to steer clear of the issue by talking about the immigration deal, accusing Trump of preferring to address a problem rather than fix it. The details of that bill — which even several Republicans said was a good deal and fairly conservative — were brought up in the debate, which could help Harris.
How they responded to the hot topic of abortion
When asked about abortion, Trump said the issue is best left to the states, but did not say whether he would veto a national ban on the procedure as president. "I won't have to," Trump argued, implying that it would never find enough support to pass Congress.
Abortion is a top issue for many voters after the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Last month Trump suggested he would support a ballot measure that would overturn Florida's six-week abortion ban, but later retracted that statement amid criticism from anti-abortion activists.
Harris said the Supreme Court ruling has prompted bans in many states, speaking out for women who could not get abortion care even after rape. "Donald Trump certainly shouldn't be telling a woman what to do with her body," she said.
Trump, who has boasted of appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe, has offered a more nuanced position recently as he seeks to defuse an issue that has been one of Republicans' biggest political burdens over the past two years. . He also said that Harris would allow abortions after birth, which is false.
The debate attracted a large audience
Personal attacks
There were also many personal attacks during the debate. "I'm talking now, if you don't mind," Trump said to Harris about halfway through the debate. “Does that remind you of anything?” the former president said.
Trump mimicked a comment Harris made to his former vice president Mike Pence during their 2020 debate. The comment underscored how personal the candidates' attacks became in the empty Philadelphia studio.
On Trump's legal issues
Also, Harris listed Trump's legal issues at length, calling him: "as a person who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, financial crimes, election interference, has been convicted of sexual assault, and his next big court appearance is November, upon his own criminal conviction."
The comment drew an emotional response from Trump, who said the prosecutions were politically motivated. "I probably took a bullet in the head because of the things they say about me," Trump said, referring to the attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.
For the election rallies
Elsewhere, clearly wanting to challenge Trump, Harris said of Trump's rallies: "People are starting to leave his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom."
Trump, who has long prided himself on his large, exuberant rallies, testily responded that people don't watch Harris' rallies. "People don't leave my rallies," he said. "The biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics."
The slogan for the 2020 elections
Asked if he would admit he lost the 2020 election, Trump declined. "No, I don't recognize that at all," he said. Harris said Trump "fired 81 million people, so let's get that straight, and he clearly had a hard time processing it."
Trump also did not immediately respond to a question about whether he regretted his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when crowds of supporters stormed the US Capitol.
Kamala Harris' remarks that angered Trump
The conflict between Harris and Trump over Ukraine
Asked whether he believed it was in the US's interest for Ukraine to win its war against Russia, Trump declined to answer. "I want the war to stop," he said.
Trump has often touted his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He claimed he could talk to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and resolve the conflict, but gave no details on how that would work.
Harris hit back, questioning his ability to lead, saying: "If Donald Trump was president, Putin would be sitting in Kiev right now." He praised the work the US has done with NATO allies to support Ukraine and told Trump: "You worship strongmen instead of caring about democracy."
Trump's mistake – How Harris took advantage of it
"I read somewhere that she wasn't black," Trump said during the debate. He added, "Then I read that she was black and that's okay. Both were fine with me."
Trump made the statement after being asked about comments he made at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists this summer, unfoundedly implying that his election opponent only started identifying as a black woman in recent years.
Harris managed to use Trump's comments to address issues of race and diversity, calling it "a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who, consistently throughout his career, has tried to use race to divide the American people," he said.
Hamas and Israel
Asked about Hamas, the war in Israel and the hostages, Kamala Harris said: "We want a ceasefire agreement and an agreement to release the hostages", while adding that "we want a two-state solution where it leads to reconstruction of Gaza"
"If I were president, Putin would never have entered Ukraine," Trump repeated. Regarding the war in Israel, the former US president said that "Harris hated Netanyahu. If he becomes president, Israel will not exist. He also hates Arabs"
Harris countered that Trump "wants to be a dictator one day." "He is known to have said that when Russia entered Ukraine, it was brilliant," he added. “He is known to have exchanged letters with Kim Jong Un.
It is absolutely known that these dictators and emperors want you to be president again because it is so clear that they can manipulate you with flattery and favors,” the Democratic candidate said.
Trump's advisers launched an attack on the moderators of the telefight
Trump's attack on ABC moderators
Just hours after the teleconference ended, allies and advisers of the former president are publicly attacking ABC News and its moderators over its fact-checking of the former president and the lines of questioning during it.
"This debate was three to one — the ABC moderators are clearly helping Kamala Harris," former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who supported Trump and helped him prepare for Tuesday's debate, told X.
A person close to Trump acknowledged that Harris "intermittently went on the offensive, baiting Trump." But they also argued that ABC's fact-checking appeared to anger and disorient Trump, and argued that Harris was not subjected to the same scrutiny.
A Trump adviser told CNN they believe Harris didn't get enough questions about inflation and the economy, though they acknowledged Trump could have done a better job of steering the conversation back to what they believe is the most important issue. important ahead of November.
Trump adviser Tim Murtaugh told CNN that Harris' response to her shift in policy positions, her answers on how she would fix inflation and her handling of the southern border were some of the most powerful moments of the night.
Immediately after the end of the debate, the citizens voted which of the candidates won the impressions
What are the citizens saying?
Registered voters are closely divided over which candidate best understands the issues they face, according to the first CNN poll since Tuesday's debate. This is also visible in the numbers, where 44% say Harris knows the issues better, while 40% continue to choose Trump.
That shows a shift in favor of the US vice president from before the debate, when 43% said Trump better understood their issues, while 39% said Harris did. But voters who watched the debate give Trump a 20-point advantage over Harris after the debate on his handling of the economy, 55 percent to 35 percent — a margin that's slightly wider than before they took the stage in Philadelphia.
Poll results reflect views on the debate only among voters who tuned in and are not representative of the views of the entire voting public. Debate viewers in the poll were 6 points more likely to be Republican than Democrat, making the audience about 4 percentage points more GOP-centric than all registered voters nationwide.
A majority of 82% of registered voters who watched Tuesday's debate said it did not influence their choice for president. Another 14% said it made them reconsider but didn't change their minds, while 4% said it changed their minds about who they would vote for. Viewers who supported Trump before Tuesday night were slightly more likely than those who supported Harris to say the debate made them reconsider.
Watch the debate of the two presidential candidates
Source: protothema.gr