Harris and Trump ride debate buzz into election sprint

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump set out Wednesday to ride the momentum from their high-stakes White House debate into the two-month final sprint to November as they sought to mop up undecided voters and shake up a presidential race that has ground to a dead heat.

The Democratic vice president and her Republican rival remain neck-and-neck in both nationwide and swing state polling, days before first ballots are mailed out and early in-person voting begins in several key states.

Both candidates declared victory after coming face to face for the first time on the biggest night so far of the campaign -- although any boost or dent in support is unlikely to show up in polling for several days.

The ABC News-hosted debate in Philadelphia was punctuated by tense exchanges, although Harris focused on policy while Trump's answers were littered with wild falsehoods and were often about his past grievances.

"She focused on the major thematic contrasts between her and Trump.... For his part, Trump didn't hurt himself with his loyal followers but he likely didn't make any inroads with undecided voters either," said PR expert Andrew Koneschusky, a former press secretary to Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer.

Republican strategist Liam Donovan said while Harris scored points on Trump, the Republican "largely whiffed" in his efforts to tie his opponent to President Joe Biden's more unpopular policies, instead accusing her of Marxism "and going on angry tirades about migrants run amok."

"Don't expect this debate to have an immediate impact in the polls, but it will surely boost morale at a time when Democrats are getting anxious," he told AFP.

After replacing Biden as the candidate in July, Harris rode a wave of enthusiasm through the Democratic convention that hugely boosted her popularity and gave her record fundraising numbers.

And with Biden gone, 78-year-old Trump finds himself as the candidate facing questions about his advanced age and mental acuity, with renewed focus on his eccentric and often rambling speeches.

But Harris, 59, had seen her polling momentum begin to stall ahead of the debate.

- 'Fraudulent' -

The Democrat has been reaching to the center, showcasing a parade of anti-Trump Republicans -- most recently former vice president Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz, who was thrown out of the House leadership over her opposition to the tycoon.

Trump has been largely appealing to his own base, with apocalyptic warnings about migrant criminals and painting a dark picture of a country in "decline" that only he can save.

In a threatening social media post at the weekend, Trump vowed to prosecute Democratic donors, lawyers and elections officials who engage in behavior he deems "unscrupulous" in November.

He used the debate on Tuesday to double down on his bogus voter fraud claims from 2020.

Trump and Harris could cross paths again Wednesday when they attend ceremonies marking the 23rd anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda. It wasn't clear if they would come face-to-face.

Trump was also due to talk up his debate performance in the morning on conservative-leaning Fox News.

Harris heads Thursday to North Carolina -- one of a handful of closely run states expected to decide the election, where Harris has erased a six-point Trump lead over the last month to draw level -- before returning to the key swing state of Pennsylvania on Friday.

Trump is due onstage in Tucson, Arizona on Thursday focusing on "our struggling economy and the rising cost of housing" and will deliver remarks in Las Vegas on Friday on the cost of living.

Harris's running mate Tim Walz will travel to Michigan and Wisconsin from Thursday to Saturday, as his gaffe-prone Republican opposite number J.D. Vance deals with the fallout from another round of controversial remarks.

The Republican vice presidential nominee -- who angered women earlier in the campaign with resurfaced comments about "childless cat ladies" -- amplified a false claim Monday that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating pets in Ohio.

In the debate, Trump repeated the bizarre claim, which has been debunked by local authorities.