Vice President Kamala Harris made a sharp, fiery case against Republican nominee Donald Trump during a freewheeling debate Tuesday, blasting the former president’s character and preoccupation with himself while pressing him to task on issues including abortion, democracy and foreign policy.
Trump used the head-to-head event to attack Harris as a “Marxist” masquerading as a moderate and repeatedly turned the subject back to the U.S. southern border — an issue where polls show voters trust him more than Harris — often straying from the facts to embrace debunked conspiracy theories about immigration and the 2020 election.
Both sides went into their first debate, hosted by ABC in Philadelphia, spoiling for a fight after several weeks of attacking one another on the campaign trail and wasted little time launching into harsh attacks. Harris’s barbs landed crisply, while Trump often veered off-message in response to her attempts to bait him on sensitive topics like the size of his rally crowds, his 2020 election loss and his admiration for strongmen.
“In this debate tonight, you’re going to hear from the same old tired playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling,” Harris said early in the debate, one of several times that she turned to address viewers rather than her opponent. A few minutes later, she said, “Donald Trump actually has no plan for you, because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you.”
Trump dismissed the remark as “just a sound bite” and went on to accuse Harris of misleading the public about her positions.
“Everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out the window — she’s going to my philosophy now,” Trump said. “In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat. She’s going to my philosophy. But if she ever got elected, she’d change it and it will be the end of our country.”
Harris was able to deliver the Democratic case against Trump — that he is self-involved, unfit and consumed with his own interests — in a way that President Joe Biden struggled badly to do in the last debate, a little over two months ago. Her performance, and Trump’s often-frustrated reaction, underscored how much the dynamics of race have changed since Biden stepped aside.
Harris seemed to regularly get under the former president’s skin, sometimes prompting angry or meandering responses. He accused the vice president and the Biden administration of being responsible for inflation, high crime and illegal immigration, but he also went on tangents, such as repeating baseless assertions.
In one of the most aggressive exchanges from the night, Harris and Trump sparred over abortion, with each casting the other as holding extreme positions.
Harris said Trump was responsible for the worst of the fallout of abortion bans stemming from the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, blaming the former president for women “bleeding out” in parking lots and children having to carry a pregnancy resulting from incest.
Trump said it “took courage” to overturn Roe v. Wade and falsely claimed that “every legal scholar” wanted abortion policy to be left up to the states. He also falsely stated that Democrats support abortion after birth, which led to the first of several fact checks from the moderators.
Trump declared that he would not sign a national abortion ban but dodged when asked whether he would veto such a ban if it passed Congress, saying that would never happen. “I’m not signing a ban, and there’s no reason to sign a ban,” Trump said. As for vetoing it, he said, “I won’t have to.”
Harris passionately spoke about the need for government to stay out of decisions involving women’s bodies. But she did not answer directly whether she supported any restrictions on abortion, saying instead that she backed reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade.
Harris repeatedly goaded Trump with references to people leaving his rallies, his various bankruptcies, the money that he received from his father and other matters where he has shown sensitivity.
“He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter,” Harris said at one point. “He talks about [how] windmills cause cancer.”
At one point in the debate, Trump refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election, despite clear evidence that Biden defeated him. When asked about his recent statements that he had “lost by a whisker,” Trump said he was being sarcastic.
“I don’t acknowledge it at all,” Trump said. “I say that sarcastically. … Look, there’s so much proof. All you have to do is look at it.”
He then falsely claimed that “no judge looked at it,” even though several courts dismissed his claims of voter fraud as lacking merit.
Harris, meanwhile, took the opportunity to say Trump was “fired” by the American people in 2020. “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, so let’s be clear about that and clearly he’s having a very difficult time processing that,” Harris said. “We cannot afford to have a president of the United States who attempts as he did in the past to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election.”
It was one of several times Harris tried to get under Trump’s skin. She referenced people at his rallies experiencing “exhaustion and boredom,” saying that he seemed “confused” and that “he admires dictators.”
Trump often responded with defensive and unclear retorts, providing the kind of split-screen image the Harris campaign was hoping for.
Shortly after Harris taunted him about people leaving his rallies early, Trump warned of World War III, then brought up a false claim that immigrants in Ohio are eating Americans’ pets.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there and this is what’s happening,” Trump said, as Harris began to laugh. “As far as rallies are concerned … the reason they go, they like what I say.”
David Muir interjected, saying the city manager had told ABC that there have been “no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Trump interjected: “I’ve seen people on television. The people on television say, ‘My dog was taken and used for food.’”
Harris laughed and said: “Talk about extreme.”
Beyond the policy differences, both candidates faced pressure heading into the debate to present a reassuring demeanor. Polls suggest that Harris particularly remains little-known to many voters, and Tuesday was expected to give her a rare opportunity to showcase a presidential, moderate image.
Tuesday’s event was originally scheduled to be the second of two faceoffs between Trump and Biden, who was seeking reelection at the time and was viewed as the all-but-certain Democratic nominee. But Biden’s halting performance during the first debate in June amplified concerns among many Democrats about his age and mental acuity, ultimately leading him to drop out and endorse Harris.
Over the course of about 50 days, Harris claimed the Democratic nomination, selected a running mate, raised more than $540 million, filled large arenas, and closed the gap in polling that had opened up between Trump and Biden. The frenzy of activity has shaken up a race that has also been rocked by Trump’s felony conviction and an assassination attempt against him.
Polls now show a tight, margin-of-error race with the momentum of Harris’s candidacy appearing to settle in recent days. Her campaign has sought to present her as the “underdog,” and Trump’s campaign has declared that her “honeymoon” period is over.
Both candidates on Tuesday sought to appeal to undecided voters, a shrinking group of Americans who play an outsize role and tend to embrace more moderate positions than the party faithful on either side. Harris embraced a tougher position on immigration and expressed her support for small businesses while Trump said he supported in vitro fertilization, calling himself “a leader on fertilization IVF.”
Harris faced questions from the moderators — and attacks from Trump — over several liberal policy positions she once held. Her campaign has disavowed some of her more progressive positions from her presidential run in 2019, saying she no longer supports a ban on fracking, a Medicare-for-all policy, mandatory gun buyback initiatives or removing penalties for those who cross the border illegally.
She did not directly answer but turned her response into another attack on Trump.
“My values have not changed, and what is important is that there is a president who actually brings values and a perspective that is about lifting people up and not beating people down and name-calling,” she said.
She also sought to use a question about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to make a broader point about her push to move beyond the Trump-dominated era of American politics. “For everyone watching who remembers what January 6th was, I say, we don’t have to go back,” she said. “Let’s not go back. We’re not going back. We’re turning the page.”
Trump responded with his own harsh critiques of Harris. “She doesn’t have a plan. She copied Biden’s plan,” he said of Harris’s economic policies. “It’s like four sentences, like, ‘Run, Spot, run.’”
Harris responded to one of Trump’s attacks on crime by pointing out that the former president is being prosecuted on multiple charges. Trump said he had been the victim of a weaponized government, alleging without evidence that a July assassination attempt stemmed from Democrats’ rhetoric about him.
“I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me,” Trump said. Police have not found a political motive for the shooter.
At one point, the moderators asked Trump about his recent baseless comment that Harris had only recently begun embracing her Black heritage. Harris is Black and Indian American.
“Whatever she wants to be is okay with me,” Trump said.
Harris responded with a rare comment on racial issues, accusing Trump of using race to divide people throughout his career. “I think the American people want better than that, want better than this,” she said. “We see in each other a friend. We see in each other a neighbor. We don’t want a president who wants to constantly see Americans point a finger at each other.”
The debate began cordially, at least before the candidates began speaking. Harris walked on to the stage and approached Trump with an outstretched arm, ultimately making her way over to his podium.
“Kamala Harris,” she said, introducing herself and shaking his hand. “Let’s have a good debate.”
“Have fun,” Trump said.
The window for the candidates to make their case is closing fast, as mail-in ballots in some states will begin going out as soon as next week. Surrogates for both candidates wasted little time trying to put the most positive light on the evening.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said Harris failed to answer substantive questions about the shifts on her record or how she would govern.
“Did Kamala Harris answer the question of, do the Democrats have a nominee who looks the part? Yeah. But there was no substance,’ he told reporters in the spin room. ‘It was all fluff it was all shown it was all vibes, not concrete answers the American people need. It’s as if, frankly, I was re watching her convention speech. That’s what I saw.”
Both candidates planned to return to the campaign trail after taking time Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Harris will campaign in North Carolina and Pennsylvania this week while Trump plans to travel to Arizona, Nevada and California.
It is not clear if they will debate again, as neither candidate has committed yet to another meeting. Their running mates, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are slated to debate Oct. 1.
Maeve Reston, Cleve Wootson, Jeff Stein and Patrick Svitek contributed to this report.