Trump and Harris clash on foreign policy, economy, border security and abortion during presidential debate

PTI, Sep 11, 2024, 11:30 AM IST

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris during an ABC News presidential debate at the National Constitution Center, Tuesday, Sept.10, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Washington: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have sparred over all major issues, including US foreign policy, economy, border security and abortion, during their first presidential debate that could alter the course of the race for the White House.

The matchup on Tuesday began with a handshake but later descended into acrimony.

During the 90-minute debate in Pennsylvania, Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, and Harris, the Democratic nominee, presented a different vision they wanted to implement over the next four years.

“I think you’ve heard tonight two very different visions for our country, one that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past and an attempt to take us backwards. But we’re not going back,” Vice President Harris, 59, said in her concluding remarks.

“And I do believe that the American people know we all have so much more in common than what separates us, and we can chart a new way forward,” she said.

Trump, 78, asked why Harris had not done those things in these three and half years of the Biden-Harris administration. “She just started by saying she’s going to do this, she’s going to do that. She’s going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there for three and a half years. 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?” Trump asked in his concluding remarks.

This was the second presidential debate, but the first between Trump and Harris. The first presidential debate in Atlanta on June 27 was between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Following his terrible performance, Biden withdrew from the race and paved the way for Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the November elections.

“I believe very strongly that the American people want a president who understands the importance of bringing us together and that we have so much more in common than what separates us. And I pledge to you to be a president for all Americans,” Harris said.

“Everybody knows what I’m going to do, cut taxes very substantially and create a great economy like I did before. We had the greatest economy. We got hit with a pandemic. We did a phenomenal job with the pandemic,” Trump said.

But soon the debate took a nasty turn with both Trump and Harris accusing each other of telling lies.

Trump alleged that Harris is a Marxist, while Harris called the former president a disgrace and someone who wants to take the country backwards.

“Everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out the window. She’s going to my philosophy now…But if she ever got elected, she’d change it, and it will be the end of our country. She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist. Her father is a Marxist professor in economics, and he taught her well,” Trump alleged.

Trump claimed that Harris has been the Biden administration’s “border czar.” “But when you look at what she’s done to our country and when you look at these millions and millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly, where it’s, I believe, 21 million people, not the 15 million that people say, and I think it’s a lot higher than the 21 million, that’s bigger than New York State pouring in,” he claimed.

Many of these people coming in are criminals, and that’s bad for America’s economy, he said.

“Well, bad immigration is the worst thing that can happen to our economy. They have and she has destroyed our country with a policy that’s insane,” he alleged.

The debate moderators from ABC News had to inject fact-checks multiple times during the debate.

“As I said, you’re going to hear a bunch of lies, and that’s not actually a surprising fact,” Harris said.

Harris said if Trump was re-elected, he would sign a national abortion ban bill. “There would be a national abortion monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages,” she alleged.

“I think the American people believe that certain freedoms, in particular, the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body, should not be made by the government,” she said.

Trump countered her and said that abortion policy should be determined by the states. “There she goes again. It’s a lie. I’m not signing a ban, and there’s no reason to sign a ban because we’ve gotten what everybody wanted. Democrats, Republicans, and everybody else and every legal scholar wanted it to be brought back into the states, and the states are voting. And it may take a little time, but for 52 years, this issue has torn our country apart, and they’ve wanted it back in the states,” Trump said.

Harris said the US needs a leader who engages in solutions and addresses the problems at hand. “But what we have in the former president is someone who would prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem. And I’ll tell you something,” she said.

Harris was seen interrupting Trump multiple times during the debate. It was not heard as the mikes of the non-speakers were muted during the debate. Trump multiple times taunted Harris and fought with her over whether people leave his rallies early.

He accused Harris- without providing evidence – of paying people to attend her campaign events. “We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. That’s because people want to take their country back. Our country is being lost,” Trump said.

Trump vowed that he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine in Ukraine if he wins the November 5 general elections.

The former president, who raised Afghanistan several times during the debate, called the withdrawal of American troops “the most embarrassing moment in the history of the United States”.

President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in 2021 has been criticized – mostly by Republicans – as an embarrassment to the US military and an avoidable failure.

Harris said she agreed with Biden’s commitment to get the US out of the country. But she said that it’s important to remember how the withdrawal came to be.

“Donald Trump as president negotiated one of the weakest deals you can imagine,” she says, referencing his negotiations with the Taliban.

Trump claimed that Harris “hates Israel” while she fired back that he “admires dictators.” He claimed Israel would be destroyed within two years if he lost the election and Harris assumed office as president.

Harris attacked Trump for his favourable past statements about Putin and claimed that in meetings she had with world leaders they made fun of Trump.