Kamala Harris and Donald Trump began talking about their respective talking points, and she threw the first punch.
Asked by hosts David Muir and Lindsay Davis during the ABC debate if the country was better off than four years ago, the vice president said he was “raised a middle-class kid,” that he wants to build that electorate, that he wants to address the housing shortage and that he's “passionate” about small business. The vice president said Trump's plan is to cut taxes for his billionaire friends and big corporations.
Debate challenge: Kamala and Trump trade accusations, putting pressure on her
The former president began with aplomb, talking about the tariffs he imposed on China.
But he quickly resorted to personal attacks: “Everything she believed in four years ago, she's a Marxist.”
And, “she hates Israel” and if she wins, “Israel will no longer exist in two years.”
Trump also baselessly said about Joe Biden, “He hates her. He can't stand her.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US President Donald Trump are pictured during the second presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, Tuesday, September 10, 2024. (Getty Images)
Trump spread a completely false rumor that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were “eating dogs and pets.” Muir said the mayor confirmed there were no such reports.
Trump appeared to grow increasingly annoyed as the debate dragged on, and Harris laughed at him at one point. She alternated between looking at him and the camera, while Trump barely looked at her.
“We've done a great job with the pandemic,” Trump said, but that's up for debate.
Harris became most excited when asked about abortion, declaring that Trump would sign a nationwide abortion ban.
With both sides in the debate, chances of Trump or Kamala winning
“You're going to hear a lot of lies,” the vice president said, including a pregnant woman being denied emergency medical treatment and a 12-year-old incest victim being forced to nurse her baby until birth.
Trump, as he told me at Mar-a-Lago, said that “every legal scholar” wants to return abortion to the states. This is not true.
Trump said Democrats are extremists because they support abortion up to nine months into a pregnancy, and cited a former Virginia governor's foolish comments that it is illegal to make the decision after birth.
“This conduct by an individual allegedly responsible for sexual assault is outrageous,” Harris said, listing the various charges against her, referring to the E. Jean Carroll case.
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris speak during their first presidential campaign debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Trump repeatedly accused the administration of “weaponizing” law enforcement against him, adding, without providing evidence, that “the administration set them up to come after me.”
In a separate, unsubstantiated accusation, the former president accused Harris of “paying people” to attend her rallies.
“Maybe they got a bullet in their head because of what they said,” Trump said of the assassination attempt. He then said “Russia, Russia, Russia,” a shorthand that was likely to confuse general audiences.
Harris also said things that weren't true: in 2020 she said she wasn't against fracking, when in fact she said Biden wouldn't ban it, and she said Biden threatened “catastrophe” if he lost, when in fact he was talking about the US auto industry.
Trump and Kamala have sought a middle ground, with varying degrees of success
ABC pressed Trump on why he didn't make a video earlier about January 6 asking protesters to go home, saying he'd left out a part of his speech asking protesters to be “peaceful and patriotic.”
Harris countered that Trump “incited a mob” that injured 150 police officers, “several of whom died.”
ABC pressed Harris about her past opposition to fracking and her attempts to end private health insurance, but she stuck to various versions of the phrase “my values haven't changed.”
On another key issue, ABC asked twice: “Do you want Ukraine to win this war?” Trump did not answer “yes.” “I want to stop the war,” he said. “I believe it's in the best interest of the United States to end this war and come to a negotiated settlement.”
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (R) and former U.S. President Donald Trump attend the second presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Tuesday, September 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kiev right now,” Harris replied, noting that she met with Volodomyr Zelenskiy to share U.S. intelligence a few days before the invasion.
My scorecard:
Kamala Harris did everything reasonably possible to deflect Trump's attacks, make her case, and remain calm while repeatedly attacking him.
While Trump delivered a strong performance and landed a number of blows, Harris only served to frustrate him more.
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ABC responded by pushing back against Trump with a barrage of tough questions, more follow-ups, more fact-checks and more corrections — justifying Trump's pre-game criticism of ABC as the “meanest” broadcaster.
Now the partisan information manipulation begins in earnest.
