Key takeaways from a debate that featured tense clashes over abortion, race and the economy
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump And Kamala Harris stood opposite each other on the debate stage for the first time – and possibly for the last time – on Tuesday evening.
The Democratic vice president opened the confrontation with a power grab by walking across the stage to Trump’s lectern to shake his hand.
“Kamala Harris,” she said, introducing herself when the pair first met. “Let’s have a good debate.”
“Good to see you. Have fun,” the former Republican president responded.
The exchange set the tone for the 90-minute debate that followed, with Harris dominating the conversation at times, taking aim at Trump with comments about his economic policies, his refusal to concede defeat in the 2020 election and even his performance at rallies.
Trump was initially reserved, but as the evening progressed, he became increasingly irritated.
Some conclusions from a historical debate:
In her first response, the former prosecutor said Trump’s tariffs would effectively create a sales tax on the middle class. She quickly accused Trump of presiding over the worst attack on American democracy since the Civil War: the Jan. 6, 2021, riots on the Capitol. She accused him of telling women what they could do with their bodies. And she mocked Trump’s praise of dictators “who would eat you for lunch.”
Harris effectively controlled much of the conversation with such attacks, provoking Trump into responses that sometimes provided an outlet but at other times served as a reminder of his wild rhetoric and fixation on the past.
“You did lose that election,” Harris said of the 2020 race, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, but he continues to maintain he won. “Donald Trump was unseated by 81 million people,” she said, referring to Biden’s winning vote total.
But Harris perhaps most unnerved her opponent when she criticized his performance at his rallies, noting that people often leave early.
Trump became visibly irritated, insisting that his rallies were bigger than hers.
Harris delivered her message from Trump to the American people with a smile over and over again.
“You’re not going to hear him talk about your needs and your dreams and your wants and your desires,” Harris said. “And I’ll tell you, I believe you deserve a president who actually puts you first.”
Trump often defended himself, but he delivered the core message of his campaign: inflation and immigration are taking a heavy toll on Americans.
Immigrants, Trump said, have “destroyed the fabric of our country.”
He repeatedly linked Harris to Biden.
“She is Biden,” he said.
“The worst inflation we’ve ever had,” Trump added. “A terrible economy because inflation has made it so bad. And they can’t get away with it.”
Harris responded: “Clearly, I am not Joe Biden and I am certainly not Donald Trump. And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country.”
ABC host David Muir bluntly asked Trump about his claim last month that Harris had “gone black” too late. Harris is Black and South Asian and a graduate of Howard University, a historically black school in Washington.
Trump tried to downplay the issue. “I don’t care what it is, if you make a big deal out of something, I don’t give a damn,” Trump said.
Harris had her chance, though, and she rattled off a long list of Trump’s racial controversies: his legal settlement for discrimination against potential black tenants in his New York apartment buildings in the 1970s; his ad calling for the execution of black and Hispanic teenagers — who had been wrongly arrested — in the Central Park jogger case in the 1980s; and his false claims that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
“I think the American people want something better than that, something better than this,” Harris said.
Trump accused Harris of trying to “divide” people and dismissed her claims as dated and irrelevant.
“This is someone who has to go back 40, 50 years in time, because now there is nothing left,” he said.
Harris came out with a flourish to defend abortion rights, perhaps the strongest case for Democrats since Trump’s nominees created a Supreme Court majority designed to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Her sharp arguments were a vivid contrast to President Joe Biden’s rambling remarks on the issue during his debate with Trump in June.
“The government and Donald Trump should certainly not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said, painting a vivid picture of women facing medical complications, heartbreaking decisions and having to travel to another state for an abortion.
Trump was equally vehement in his defense, saying he was returning the issue to the states, an outcome he said many Americans wanted. He struggled with accuracy, however, repeating the false claim that Democrats support abortion even after babies are born. He stuck to that claim even after being corrected by moderator Lynsey Davis.
“I did a great service by doing that. It took courage to do it,” Trump said of overturning Roe v. Wade and constitutional protections for abortion. “And the Supreme Court had a lot of courage to do it. And I give those six justices a tremendous amount of credit.”
Polls show there is a lot of resistance to reversing Roe, and voters punished Republicans for it in recent elections.
Trump declined to say whether he would veto a bill banning abortion nationwide, saying such legislation would never get through Congress and reach the president. He also broke with his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, suggesting Vance was out of character when he said Trump would veto a nationwide abortion ban.
“I haven’t discussed it with JD,” Trump said.
Trump picked up on a comment from Harris and aimed it directly at her.
That happened when he objected after Harris interrupted him. He could hear it, but viewers could not, because her microphone was muted under the rules of the debate.
“Hold on, I’m talking now,” Trump said, putting his spin on a line she famously used against Mike Pence in the 2020 vice presidential debate.
“Does that sound familiar?” Trump added.
Four years ago, Harris rebuked Pence for interrupting him, saying, “Mr. Vice President, it’s my turn to speak.”
Democrats hoped and Republicans feared that Trump would lose his cool on stage. He generally didn’t, but when Harris irritated him, he went to dark places.
Trump amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating pets. According to ABC’s Muir, local officials say that’s not happening. He argued that the Biden-Harris administration is allowing dangerous immigrants.
When Harris pressed him about the raft of criminal and civil cases against him, Trump was similarly furious, accusing Harris and Biden of engineering the cases.
“I probably got a bullet in the head because of the things they said about me,” Trump said, referring to the July assassination attempt by a gunman whose motives are unknown.
When asked if he was responsible for the Capitol riots, Trump raised his voice and blamed both Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who was then the speaker of the House, and the Democratic mayor of Washington. He said the rioters were “treated so badly” and again denied that he had lost the 2020 election.
Harris responded: “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, let’s be clear about that, and he’s clearly having a very hard time processing that.”
The debate began with an unexpectedly odd discussion of the economy, with Harris attacking Trump for his plan to impose steep tariffs and for the trade deficit he ran as president; Trump criticized Harris for inflation, which he wrongly called the highest in the country’s history.
The back-and-forth ended with some of Trump’s traditional bombast. He said Harris was a “Marxist” even though she had just won rave reviews of her economic plans from Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. But it was notable for Harris’s attempt to turn the tide on Trump.
Trump noted that people look back on the economy of his presidency with nostalgia. “I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country,” he said. Harris bluntly told viewers: “Donald Trump has no plan for you.”
Americans trust Trump slightly more than Harris when it comes to handling the economy, a Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll, August.
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Riccardi reported from Denver.