WASHINGTON – Kamala Harris pressed a forceful case against Donald Trump on Tuesday in their first and perhaps only debate before the presidential election, repeatedly goading him in an event that showcased their starkly different visions for the country on abortion, immigration and American democracy.
The Democratic vice president provoked Trump with reminders about the 2020 election loss that he still denies, delivered derisive asides at his false claims and sought to underscore the Republican former president's role in the Supreme Court's overturning of a national right to abortion two years ago. Trump tore into Harris as too liberal and a continuation of Biden's unpopular administration, as he launched into the sort of freewheeling personal attacks and digressions from which his advisers and supporters have tried to steer him away.
Less than two months from Election Day and hours before the first early ballots will begin to be mailed Wednesday in Alabama, the debate offered the clearest look yet at a presidential race that has been repeatedly upended.
Harris’ performance by nearly every measure seemed to be the opposite of President Joe Biden’s in June, with sharp, focused answers designed to showcase the contrast between her and Trump, whereas Biden at times was muddled, halting and incoherent. Harris used her body language and facial expressions to confront Trump and express that she found his answers ridiculous, amusing or both — a pronounced change from Biden's slack-jawed expression when Trump attacked him.
Harris appeared intent on casting herself as a relief for voters seeking a break from Trump’s acerbic politics — a contrast highlighted as Trump appeared to be set on his back foot by her needling.
In one moment, Harris turned to Trump and said that as vice president, she had spoken to foreign leaders who “are laughing at Donald Trump,” and said she had spoken to military leaders, “and they say you’re a disgrace.”
As Trump, 78, again questioned her racial identity, the 59-year-old Harris, the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president, pointedly gestured to Trump and responded, “I think the American people want better than that, want better than this.”
Trump in turn tried to link Harris to the still-unpopular Biden, questioning why she hadn’t acted on her proposed ideas while serving as vice president. Trump also focused his attacks on Harris over her assignment by Biden to deal with the root causes of illegal migration.
“Why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there for three and a half years,” he said.
Harris promised tax cuts aimed at the middle class and said she would push to restore a federally guaranteed right to abortion overturned by the Supreme Court two years ago. Trump said his proposed tariffs would help the U.S. stop being cheated by allies on trade and said he would work to swiftly end the Russia-Ukraine war — though he twice refused to say he believed it was in America's interest for Ukraine, which bipartisan majorities in Congress have backed, to win the war.
Trump again denied that he lost to Biden four years ago, when a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the certification of his loss based on false or unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. He tried to reverse the question of threats to American democracy and suggested criticism of him could be linked to the assassination attempt he survived in July.
“I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me,” he said. “They talk about democracy, I’m a threat to democracy. They’re the threat to democracy.”
Trump has in recent days ramped up his threats of retribution if he returns to the White House, saying he would prosecute lawyers, donors, and other officials whom he deems to “cheat” in the election.
“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people," Harris said, "So let’s be clear about that. And clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that.”
Her campaign ended the debate by expressing openness to another meeting in October — and welcomed an endorsement from megastar Taylor Swift, who labeled herself a “ childless cat lady ” in a dig at Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as she encouraged her fans to vote.
Harris defends shifts to the center, puts abortion front and center
Harris sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism.
Asked about her changing positions on a number of issues, she twice repeated a phrase she has used to try to explain it away, saying, “My values have not changed.”
Trump, meanwhile, quickly went after Harris for abandoning some of her past liberal positions and said: “She’s going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat.” Harris smiled broadly and laughed.
Harris, in zeroing in on one of Trump’s biggest electoral vulnerabilities, laid the end of a federally guaranteed right to abortion at Trump’s feet for his role in appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving more than 20 states in the country with what she called “Trump abortion bans.”
Harris gave one of her most impassioned answers as she described the ways women have been denied abortion care and other emergency care since that ruling, and said Trump would sign a national abortion ban if he wins.
Trump declared it “a lie,” and said, “I’m not signing a ban and there’s no reason to sign a ban.”
The Republican has said he wants the issue left to the states.
Trump, who is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House, continued to call Harris a “Marxist” and said, “Everyone knows she’s a Marxist.”
Harris’ eyebrows shot up and she made an amused face, bringing her hand to her chin and staring at him.
Trump leaned on familiar falsehoods and signaled a shift on Ukraine
Trump attacked Harris for the inflation seen under the Biden-Harris administration, a major liability for the vice president. He quickly turned his answer to warning about immigrants coming into the country — one of the subjects he’s focused on most heavily in his campaign.
He called his proposed tariffs a straightforward way to make other countries pay up for what he has long argued is an imbalance that hurts the U.S. Harris called the tariffs an effective national sales tax. Trump reacted swiftly and called that “an incorrect statement.”
Throughout his campaign, Trump has leaned on illegal immigration, an issue that has bedeviled Biden and Harris with rising numbers of illegal border crossings and the arrivals of thousands of people needing shelter in Democratic-led cities. He accused Democrats of abetting large numbers of unauthorized crossings — though they have dropped in recent months in part due to new asylum restrictions by the Biden administration.
But as he often does in his rallies and on his social media account, Trump reeled off a series of falsehoods or unproven claims about migrants. One of those claims was a debunked rumor that Trump and his allies have spread online in recent days, alleging Haitian immigrants in an Ohio town are hunting and eating pets. Officials in Springfield, Ohio, say they have no evidence of that happening.
“Talk about extreme,” Harris said after Trump talked about dogs and cats being eaten.
Harris' expressions filled their split-screen
As the debate opened, Harris walked up to Trump’s lectern to introduce herself, marking the first time the two had ever met, since Trump skipped her 2021 inauguration. “Kamala Harris,” she said, extending her hand to Trump, who received it in a handshake — the first presidential debate handshake since the 2016 campaign.
Trump has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes and falsely claiming that Harris, who attended a historically Black university, hid her race during her career.
“I read where she was not Black,” Trump said when asked about comments questioning Harris' race, adding a minute later, “and then I read that she was Black.” He seemed to suggest her race was a choice, saying twice, “That’s up to her.”
“I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people,” Harris responded.
While Tuesday’s meeting might be the last time the candidates cross paths on the debate stage, they may cross paths again Wednesday when they both mark the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Harris, Trump and Biden plan to all be at ground zero in lower Manhattan and the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. Harris and Biden will also visit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, later in the day for a ceremony there.
Trump at one point launched into an attack on Biden, questioning his mental acuity by making the claim that Biden “doesn’t even know he’s alive.”
Harris quickly tried to turn it around to make Trump look less than sharp.
“First of all, I think it’s important to remind the former president, you’re not running against Joe Biden. You’re running against me,” she said.
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Price and Miller reported from Washington. AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.