Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off Tuesday night for their first — and possibly only — presidential debate before the November election.
The showdown in Philadelphia was fiery, with both candidates attempting to appeal to voters in a close race.
Here are six significant moments from the event:
Harris had Trump shake her hand during their first-ever meeting.
The ABC News presidential debate Tuesday was the first time Harris and Trump had ever met in person or appeared in the same room together. Though Trump has largely eschewed a handshake or greeting in past debates, Harris quickly walked up to him, stuck her hand out and introduced herself.
Trump has repeatedly mispronounced her name on the campaign trail — and has taken to insulting her as Kamabla .
Harris effectively baited the former president on crowd sizes and his 2020 election loss.
Despite a relatively tempered start, Harris quickly got under Trump’s skin after saying his supporters often get bored at his rallies and even leave early “out of exhaustion.”
The quip prompted a fierce retort from the former president, who claimed — as he often does — that he has the “biggest” and “most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”
“People don’t leave my rallies,” he said. “People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go. The people that do go, she’s busing them in and paying them to be there and showing them in a different light.”
During another fiery moment, Harris said Trump was “fired by 81 million people” during the last election and said world leaders were laughing at him. Trump went on to tout his cozy relationships with strongman leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Harris used those remarks later to point to Trump’s pledge to be a dictator only on day one of a future presidency.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump shake hands before the ABC News presidential debate Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
Trump went on wild tangents focused on false claims.
The wildest claim of the night came when Trump repeated bizarre, racist lies that Haitian immigrants have been eating Americans’ cats and dogs.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said Tuesday night. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. 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.”
Those claims grew from a debunked internet tale about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, which has seen an increase in Haitian refugees in recent years.
There is nothing to bac k up those claims, which have been refuted by Springfield city officials. But Trump repeated them multiple times on the debate stage.
The moderators fact-checked some of Trump’s wildest claims.
Trump’s appearance featured a slate of rapid-fire lies and mistruths, but the moderators did address some of his more outlandish claims in real time.
At one point, Trump repeated his completely false statement that some women were getting abortions “up until the moment of birth” — including killing babies after they were born. Moderator Linsey Davis stepped in to refute those remarks.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” she said.
Harris routinely attacked Trump’s role in undoing the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and pointed to the slate of “Trump abortion bans” that have since been passed in nearly two dozen states.
“One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government and Donald Trump, certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” the vice president said.
Conservative pundits were not happy with Trump’s performance.
“Let’s make no mistake. Trump had a bad night,” Fox News host Brit Hume declared after the debate ended. “We just heard so many of the old grievances that we all know aren’t winners politically.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) praised Harris’ performance as “exquisitely well-prepared” before calling on whoever aided Trump in his debate preparations to be “fired.”
“He was not good tonight at all,” Christie said.
Harris wants a second debate. Trump hasn’t committed.
The Harris campaign immediately called for another matchup before the November election, suggesting the two candidates meet again in October.
“Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris or going backwards with Trump,” Harris’ campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, said in a statement.
Trump, for his part, wouldn’t commit to one.
“She wants a second debate because she lost,” he said in the media “spin room” after the debate.
Local News
