Harris puts Trump on the defensive in heated debate, while Taylor Swift supports Harris

PHILADELPHIA, USA — Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris put Republican Donald Trump on the defensive during a combative presidential debate on Tuesday, Sept. 10, with a series of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal troubles as both candidates searched for a moment that would turn their campaigns into their closely fought elections.

In support of Harris’ campaign, pop megastar Taylor Swift told her 283 million Instagram followers in a post immediately after the debate that she would be supporting Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the Nov. 5 election. The post had been liked nearly 2 million times within 25 minutes.

A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, appeared to repeatedly grill the former president, prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to spout a series of falsehoods.

At one point she brought up Trump’s campaign rallies, challenging him by saying that people often leave early “out of exhaustion and boredom.”

Trump, frustrated by the size of Harris’s own crowds, said, “My rallies, we have the largest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” He then pivoted to an unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets” of residents.

“What an extreme fuss,” Harris said, laughing.

The candidates clashed over issues including immigration, foreign policy and health care, but little was said about specific policy details.

Instead, Harris managed to focus on Trump with her forceful approach, delighting her allies and leading some Republicans to acknowledge Trump’s problems.

“Trump missed an opportunity to focus on prosecuting the Biden-Harris case on the economy and the border, and instead took its bait and went down the rabbit hole of election denial and immigrants eating our pets,” said Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence.

Online prediction market PredictIt’s 2024 presidential general election market showed Trump’s odds of winning decreased during the debate, from 52% to 47%. Harris’ odds improved from 53% to 55%.

In a sign of confidence in the outcome of the debate, Harris’ campaign immediately challenged Trump to a second debate.

Trump, who for weeks had made personal attacks on Harris, including racist and sexist insults, largely avoided that pattern during the early moments of the debate but quickly grew irritated by Harris’s attacks.

Trump was questioned by moderators about one of those attacks, when he told an event with black journalists in July that Harris had recently “become a black person.”

“I don’t give a damn,” he said. “Whatever she wants to be, it’s okay with me.”

Harris, who has both Black and South Asian ancestry, responded: “I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president but has consistently tried to use race over the course of his career to divide the American people.”

She criticized Trump for his criminal conviction for covering up hush-money payments to a porn star, as well as his other charges and a civil judgment that found him liable for sexual assault. Trump denies wrongdoing and again accuses Harris and Democrats of orchestrating the affair without evidence.

Trump also repeated his false claim that his defeat in the 2020 election was the result of fraud, called Harris a “Marxist” and falsely claimed that migrants have caused a wave of violent crime.

With eight weeks to go before the election and days until early voting starts in some states, the debate — the only one scheduled — offered both opportunities and risks for each candidate, before a television audience of tens of millions of voters.

Surprising handshake

The debate began at 9 p.m. ET (01:00 GMT on Wednesday; 9 a.m. Philippines time) with a surprise handshake between the two opponents, who had never met before. Harris approached Trump at his lectern and introduced herself by name, marking the first handshake at a presidential debate since 2016.

The meeting was especially important for Harris, as polls show more than a quarter of likely voters don’t know enough about her. Harris entered the race just seven weeks ago, after President Joe Biden left office.

Harris launched a lengthy attack on abortion restrictions, speaking passionately about women being denied emergency care and incest victims being unable to terminate their pregnancies because of state bans that have proliferated since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a nationwide right in 2022. Three Trump appointees formed the majority in that ruling.

She also claimed that Trump would support a nationwide ban. Trump called that claim false, but refused to explicitly say he would veto such a bill.

Trump, who has sometimes struggled with the abortion message, falsely claimed that Harris and the Democrats support infanticide. As ABC News anchor Linsey Davis noted, infanticide is illegal in every state.

Harris also tried to tie Trump to Project 2025, a conservative policy that would, among other things, expand executive power, abolish environmental regulations and make it illegal to ship abortion pills across state lines.

Trump responded that he had “nothing to do” with Project 2025, although some of his advisers were involved in its creation.

Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist, said Trump “has done himself no favors,” but added that it remains unclear whether Harris’ performance will change the dynamics of the race. Polls show a large majority of Americans have made up their minds, leaving a small number of undecided voters.

Clashes on economic and foreign policy

The candidates opened the debate by focusing on the economy, an issue that polls show favors Trump.

Harris attacked Trump’s plan to impose high tariffs on foreign goods — a proposal she likens to a sales tax on the middle class — while praising her plan to provide tax breaks to families and small businesses.

Trump criticized Harris for the persistent inflation during Biden’s term, though he exaggerated the extent of price increases. Inflation, he said, “is a disaster for people, for the middle class, for every class.”

The candidates also exchanged criticisms of the Israel-Gaza war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but neither gave specific information on how they would end each conflict.

Harris accused Trump of being willing to abandon U.S. aid to Ukraine to curry favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin. She called Trump a “disgrace,” while Trump claimed Harris has a “hatred” for Israel. She rejected this claim.

Presidential debates don’t necessarily change voters’ minds, but they can have a big impact. Biden’s poor showing against Trump in June led him to suspend his campaign on July 21.

In a race that could once again hinge on tens of thousands of votes in a handful of states, even a small shift in public opinion could change the outcome. The two candidates are effectively tied in the seven swing states that are likely to decide the election, according to polling averages compiled by The New York Times.

The debate, hosted by ABC News, took place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As agreed by the campaigns, there was no live audience and the candidates’ microphones were muted when it was not their turn to speak. – Rappler.com