It was a beautiful September night in the nation’s first capital as the stage was set for the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Sept. 10.
It was fitting that the debate was held there, in the shadow of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, where the Declaration of Independence was drafted and the Constitution was signed, as both parties insist the very issues cited in those founding documents are at stake in this election: personal freedom and democracy itself.
The debate began with a declarative action by the vice president that set the tone for the remainder of the mostly contentious 90-minute encounter between the two politicians who had never met previously. Harris strode across the stage, hand outstretched in a gesture of comity, grace and diplomacy and introduced herself: “Kamala Harris. Let’s have a good debate.” Trump failed to meet her halfway and appeared to miss how her action and his inaction read to the millions watching the much-anticipated debate. He replied, “Nice to see you. Have fun.”
Pundits had queried which version of Trump would show up for the debate—the strong, restrained messenger for far-right policy who had felled President Joe Biden in the last debate and forced him to withdraw from the race, or the combative verbal pugilist who talks through other people and goes off on tangents, including some that appear unhinged to many viewers.
For the first few minutes, it appeared Trump was on message. That changed quickly.
Thoughtful deliberative questions from moderators David Muir, anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight, and Linsey Davis, the news show’s weekend anchor, were met with similar responses by Harris. But Trump became increasingly combative and argumentative, first with Harris, then with Muir and Davis. Several times, the moderators had to shut Trump down entirely and he was corrected by Muir at least four times and by Davis at least twice. By debate’s end, Trump had gotten five full minutes more speaking time than Harris as a result, though it appeared to be more as Trump often demanded rebuttal to Harris’s comments and fought for those, occasionally appearing to overwhelm the moderators trying to maintain both the balance and tone of the debate.
The Issues
The issues the candidates spent the most time debating were not always those posed in questions by the moderators, but were those dominating the headlines and polling. Top in the exchanges were the economy, inflation, abortion, immigration and crime. There was also time spent discussing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and U.S. involvement. Some time was given over to the Israel-Gaza-Palestine conflict, though not as much as to Ukraine and Russia.
Pivotal issues for key voting demographics went unmentioned. Glaring omissions were Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, housing and the courts. There was no mention of LGBTQ+ rights nor actual immigration reform. There was only a passing reference to student debt relief and that was only in an argumentative reference by Trump to efforts by the Biden-Harris administration to circumvent both Congress and the courts on the issue.
And except for a few passing references in which Trump declared “We did a phenomenal job with the pandemic,” there was limited discussion of the incomparable impact of the pandemic on the economy and none about its impact on the nation’s healthcare system. Nor was there discussion of how Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic resulted in a catastrophic number of deaths — the world’s highest. There was also limited discussion of the climate crisis, despite a major heatwave out West and a series of uncontained wildfires over several states and moderators pressing Harris on her changing views on fracking.
Project 2025 Looms Large
Harris mentioned Project 2025 in the first few minutes. Trump denied any knowledge of it stating “I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.” (Harris has it on her policy page as a counterpoint to her own.) Harris returned to the document several times over the course of the debate and the breadth of it, particularly as it relates to reproductive rights and to the weaponization of the presidency, which Trump has repeatedly declared he will activate as president.
Immigration Conspiracies
Trump repeatedly referenced immigration and migrant crime, which was a consistent loop for him throughout the debate, more than any single subject, although there is no factual basis for the claims of increased crime related to immigrants.
Trump asserted, “There’s never been anything done like this at all. They’ve destroyed the fabric of our country. Millions of people let in. And all over the world crime is down. All over the world except here. Crime here is up and through the roof. Despite their fraudulent statements that they made, crime in this country is through the roof. And we have a new form of crime. It’s called migrant crime. And it’s happening at levels that nobody thought possible.”
Muir said, “President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country, but Vice President the…” And Trump once again got into an argument with the moderator asserting “excuse me, the FBI — they were defrauding statements.”
In another exchange on immigration where Muir asked him why he—as Harris charged—got House GOP leadership to kill the bipartisan border bill, Trump launched into a diatribe about a conspiracy being promoted by Trump’s Vice Presidential pick JD Vance. Trump said, “In Springfield [Ohio], Vance’s state where he is senator], they’re [migrants] eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — 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.”
Muir stopped Trump and said, “I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. 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—”
At that point, Trump interrupted and got into a heated exchange with Muir in which he said he had seen reports of this “on television” to which Muir replied that this was coming from the city manager and Trump said he would have reason to say that. Finally Muir cut Trump off and moved on to the next question, but Trump was both angered and rattled, stating about the pet-eating controversy, “We’ll find out.”
Trump also said, “A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote. They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in practically and these people are trying to get them to vote, and that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”
Also a false, disproven claim. Voting by people who are not U.S. citizens is illegal in federal elections and punishable by fines, prison time and deportation.
Coup
Trump repeatedly implied or outright stated that Harris had fomented a coup against Biden to oust him from his place as presidential candidate, saying “they threw him out like a dog.” He added, “I’ll give you a little secret: He hates her. He can’t stand her, but he got 14 million votes. They threw him out. She got zero votes.”
Biden has endorsed and supported Harris’s candidacy and has campaigned with her in Pennsylvania.
The actual attempted coup at which Trump is at the center—the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol—became a topic raised by Muir who asked Trump about his role and about whether he now acknowledged he lost the election. In an increasingly loud exchange, Trump affirmed that he was the actual winner of the 2020 election and asserted that there was much evidence of fraud in many states.
Muir countered that courts had found that not to be true and Trump insisted it was. He also attempted to blame former Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the attack on the Capitol and falsely claimed that she refused the National Guard when only the president can make that decision. Muir was forced to cut Trump off.
Abortion
The lightning rod of abortion provided among the most heated comments in the debate. Reproductive freedom has been a key talking point for Harris for months, well before Biden withdrew from the race. At the DNC, a group of women spoke about how the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Trump Supreme Court had impacted them personally. Those speakers included an incest victim who discovered she was pregnant at 12 and a woman who nearly bled out from a miscarriage because she could not get care in her state due to restrictive abortion laws.
Harris stood firm on the dangers that have resulted from Roe being overturned while Trump asserted “everyone” wanted Roe overturned and for abortion to be governed by the states again. Trump claimed—falsely—that there are 9-month abortions and executions after birth.
Trump said, “Her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth, it’s execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born, is OK. We’ll execute the baby.”
Walz has made no such statements.
Davis, who posed the abortion question to Trump, said, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”
“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion. That isn’t happening; it’s insulting to the women of America,” Harris said.
Harris added, “I said, you’re going to hear a bunch of lies. And that’s not actually a surprising fact. Let’s understand how we got here. Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade. And they did exactly as he intended. And now in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care.”
Foreign policy
Issues of foreign policy provided some of the most complex exchanges in the debate and voters should refer to the transcript to get the full details of what Trump and Harris said on these points. Trump repeatedly said neither the war in Ukraine nor the war in Israel/Gaza would have happened under his watch and also asserted that the Biden-Harris administration was weak on the world stage.
Trump said as president-elect, he will end the war against Ukraine. In that same assertion, Trump said that “we don’t even know if Biden is president.”
Trump also attacked NATO, again highlighting his misunderstanding of what the organization does. Harris gave clear explanations of the U.S. role in Ukraine and also reminded voters that Vladimir Putin is a dictator who invaded Ukraine. Harris also referenced Trump’s legal issues on national security.
The complexity of the Israel-Gaza war has dogged the Biden administration and Trump pounced on that fact, saying that the administration’s weakness had led to the war itself and said Harris had failed to work with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump also said if Harris were elected, “Israel will cease to exist in two years” because “she hates Israel.” Trump also said she hates “all the Arab states.”
Closing Remarks
The starkest contrast between the two candidates came in the closing statements. Harris’s was a plan for the future, citing her policies that would build the economy for all and embrace unity and hope. Trump’s was an attack on Harris, Biden and America itself as a nation in decline, barely functional under the weight of what he had earlier claimed was 70% inflation and a migrant crime problem decimating America’s cities while migrants took the jobs of Black and Latino Americans.
The debate appeared to be a clear win for Harris despite some uncomfortable questions about her changed policy perspectives on fracking and on Green New Deal proposals she previously supported as well as her apparently changed views on Medicare for All. Harris remained calm throughout the debate and looked at Trump when he spoke. Trump raised his voice repeatedly and had to be stopped from arguing with the moderators, which Harris never did.
Whether the debate influences voters remains to be seen as polling is conducted post-debate, But with regard to temperament, Harris won, and fact checking found Trump misrepresented or outright lied about numerous claims he made throughout. The Trump base does remain solid, however, while going into the debate polls showed Harris was “unknown” to nearly a third of voters. The debate presented a clear picture of how Harris would lead. And a vivid reminder of how Trump has previously led and what his plans for the future will likely be.
