Starting with a handshake, ending with gloves off: 7 takeaways from Harris-Trump debate

PHILADELPHIA — They might have started the night with a handshake , but Kamala Harris worked overtime to put Donald Trump on the defensive when the two collided at the National Constitution Center in their first face-to-face encounter on Tuesday .

There was little love shown in Philadelphia between the two in arguably the most consequential moment of the 2024 presidential election, which election forecasters say will be a decided by a razor-thin margin.

Both contenders are under an intense national spotlight in the final eight weeks of the campaign, but the debate largely served as a first major test for Harris, who has surged in the polls to be neck-to-neck with the Republican nominee after inheriting the Democratic mantle from President Joe Biden.

The VP used her closing statement to make the case that her vision for the country is focused on the future while Trump is focused on the past. The American people "have so much more in common than what separates us," she said.

“We can chart a new way forward,” Harris said, by "understanding the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes, the ambition of the American people."

But many voters say they still don't know where Harris stands on important subjects as she introduces herself to the country.

Trump pounced on that point in his closing remarks, which painted a much darker picture of the U.S., which he said is in, "serious decline" and being mocked across the globe. He returned jabs by pressing the Biden administration's No. 2 on why many of the things she wants to do, if elected, haven't been accomplished.

"She's going to do all these wonderful things. She's been there for three and a half years," Trump said. "They've had three and a half years to fix the border. They've had three and a half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasn't she done it?"

Here are the key moments from Tuesday's debate.

Trump and Harris shake hands, then take the gloves came off

They might have started the night with a handshake, but there was no hiding the animosity between the two candidates as the evening wore on.

Harris, hobbled by a muted mic when she was speaking, telegraphed her disdain for Trump by repeatedly shaking her head when he was speaking and mouthing, “That’s not true.”

“What she says is an absolute lie,” Trump fired back when Harris warned he would sign a national abortion ban.

And on and on it went.

Trump, referring to an assassination attempt against him in July, claimed he “probably took a bullet to the head because of the things they say about me.” Harris, slamming Trump for working to kill a border security bill, said Trump would “prefer to run on a problem than fix a problem.”

Harris said military leaders consider Trump a disgrace.

“Wait a minute, I’m talking now, if you don’t mind, please,” Trump said at one point as Harris spoke off mic. “Does that sound familiar?”

It should. Harris used the same line in her debate with then-Vice President Mike Pence four years ago.

Inflation and immigration: Policy differences take center stage

Personal animosity aside, Trump and Harris sparred over various issues that have engulfed the nation such as inflation, international conflicts and the crisis at the southern border, with Trump saying high prices have been a disaster for Americans, especially for the middle class.

One area that has dogged the Biden administration − and by extension the Harris campaign − are Americans lingering dissatisfaction with their pocketbooks.

Asked if the country is better off than four years ago, when she and Biden took office, leaned into her middle-class upbringing while ripping her GOP rival's record. But Trump didn't let the VP off the hook, accusing her of picking up some of his economic proposals and then joked that he almost bought her one of one of his signature red Make America Great Again hat.

Harris shot back that Trump left the country with the worst unemployment since the Great Depression and that his economic plan would make inflation worse and could possibly lead to a recession.

"Donald Trump actually has no plan for you,” Harris said, “because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you.”

“They’re not going to have higher prices,” Trump insisted, saying that it’s China that would pay more.

He had pledged to slap a tariff of at least 10% on imported goods. He said in August that he could increase the across the board rate to as much as 20%. Trump says he’ll put a 60% tariff on China, the United States’ largest economic competitor.

Harris has repeatedly said that Trump’s plan is tantamount to a national sales tax on average Americans.

At the debate, Trump said that if Harris "doesn’t like them" then she should have gotten rid of them, referring to the Biden administration’s decision to keep Trump’s previous tariffs on China in place.

'Insulting to women': Harris gets tough on abortion

Things got heated when the conversation turned to reproductive rights, which has become a pivotal issue for Democrats since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Harris chastised Trump for falsely claiming that there are states that allow a woman to kill a child that has already been born. It's "insulting to the women of America," she said.

Trump distanced himself from a possible national abortion ban, but bragged about helping overturn Roe v. Wade when he praised the conservative justices on the high court, three of whom he appointed.

“I did a great service in doing it, it took courage to do it,” Trump said.

'Nothing radical about it': Harris campaign trots out ex-Trump aides

Part of the Harris campaign's strategy in combating Trump's blitz over the past several weeks is showing off the Republicans who don't think she's a scary California liberal.

There is a noticeable gulf between more traditional GOP brands and the MAGA-fueled populist movement that makes up his fervent base. The vice president's campaign, for example, now welcomes support from former Vice President Dick Cheney , who for decades has been loathed by progressives.

Ahead of the debate, the Harris team showcased Republicans Anthony Scaramucci , a former Trump communications director, and Olivia Troye, who worked as a national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence before leaving Trump administration after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Scaramucci, who famously served less than two weeks , suggested to reporters that Harris' economic agenda and national security ideas would appeal to "normal Republicans" this fall.

"There’s nothing radical about it," he said.

Troye told reporters Tuesday that her conservative values haven't changed but that many who think like her feel uneasy about her old boss coming back to the White House.

"I think I’m seeing a sea change," she said. "I'm hearing from Republicans across the country. I’m traveling to the swing states. I’m talking to them directly, and they’re saying, ‘I don’t identify with that.’"

Moderators fact checking in real time

During the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden in June, many scrutinized the lack of fact checking by CNN moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper.

That didn't happen this time as ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis not only kept the debate moving, but called out Trump in real time.

When Trump repeated an unfounded claim that illegal migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating residents’ dogs and cats, for instance, Muir noted that ABC had reached out to City Manager Bryan Heck. "He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Muir said.

Davis corrected Trump when he claimed that babies are being executed after birth. “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill the baby after it's born,” she said.

Moderators didn't fact-check Harris, which led to grumbling of favoritism by Trump and his supporters, who claimed the debate had been three against one.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Starting with a handshake, ending with gloves off: 7 takeaways from Harris-Trump debate