LAST UPDATE | 11 Sep
DONALD TRUMP AND Kamala Harris have faced off in what could be their only debate of the 2024 US presidential campaign.
It was a fiery confrontation with some colourful claims and live factchecking from the moderators as Trump and Harris set out their contrasting visions for presidency.
Follow along here for The Journal’s coverage of the debate with Political Correspondent Jane Matthews bringing you the key moments and the early reaction as it came in.
We’ll be assessing the impact of the debate after things wrap, and our columnist Larry Donnelly will be giving his take on what it means for the campaign going forward.
Hello, Good morning/Happy witching hour.
It’s Jane Matthews here for the night to bring you the latest from the debate itself and all of the buzz, reaction and analysis surrounding it over the next few hours.
If, like me, you are staying up to watch live, RTÉ News and Channel 4 are both streaming the debate on television from 2am Irish time. Or if you are already cosied up in bed and would prefer to watch from the small, bright, addictive screen that you keep in your pocket, ABC News has a YouTube livestream here.
With Trump and Harris neck-and-neck in the polls, the stakes could not be higher going into this and tonight may well be a pivotal moment in the 2024 US Presidential election, and indeed in US and world history.
Buckle up.
A flavour of what’s happening on the ground in Philadelphia while we wait for things to kick off…
Trump flew into the state of Pennsylvania just barely two hours before the debate is set to start, shortly before midnight Irish time. His rival Kamala Harris arrived yesterday.
Despite former President Trump having the advantage of seven presidential election debates under his belt, sources close to Harris are reporting that the vice president is feeling “cool, calm and collected”.
Over 1,000 reporters are in the vicinity of the National Constitution Center, where the debate is being hosted – a fitting location for this important moment in US democracy which commemorates the signing of the US Declaration of Independence some 250 ago.
Pennsylvania is of course also one of the key battleground states, with some analysts saying it could decide the entire election.
Tonight’s debate is being moderated by ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis, who will be tasked with introducing the two candidates, asking the questions and generally ensuring things run smoothly and stay civilised.
Both have previously moderated presidential primary debates and between them have interviewed Harris and Trump as well as president Biden and former vice president Mike Pence.
Davis (46), has worked at ABC News since 2007 and is the anchor of “ABC News Live Prime” and “World News Tonight” on Sundays.
Muir (50) has worked at the network since 2003. He is the anchor and managing editor of ABC News’ “World News Tonight”.
Rules of engagement: Tonight’s debate is 90 minutes long. There will be no opening statements and both Trump and Harris will be allotted two-minutes to answer moderator questions, two-minutes for rebuttals, and one extra minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses. Mics will be muted when a candidate is not speaking.
“Nice to see you finally,” Trump says to Harris as they shake hands for the very first time (ever).
And we are straight into it – the first question is on the economy and is put to Harris first – are Americans better off now than they were four years ago?
Harris smoothly talks through her plans, which include a $50,000 tax break for new businesses, before targeting Trump’s policies.
It’s all started very civilised as Trump begins his turn – he pivots his answer to immigration and says “many of the people coming in are criminals”.
Harris rebuts him by talking about the impact Trump’s presidency had on the US economy.
A good line from her in the midst of it: “Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
She adds, in an effort to set the scene for the debate: “You’re going to hear from the same old tired playbook, a bunch of lies and name calling.”
She also references Project 2025 (a wishlist for a Trump presidency made by a think-thank with ties to the former-president), and dubs it dangerous.
Trump says he has nothing to do with Project 2025 and that he hasn’t read it and has no plans to.
A lot of head shaking from Harris, but so far both candidates are keeping their cool.
The next question is on abortion – Trump is asked why women in American should trust him when it comes to reproductive rights?
Trump takes the opportunity to take a pop at Harris’s running mate Tim Walz, claiming that he said “abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine” and that he is also in favour of “execution” after birth.
Even though the mics are turned off Harris can be heard disputing this.
Davis fact-checks Trump (the first of the night) before giving Harris her turn to speak – she clarifies that it is not legal in any state to kill a baby after it is born.
When it is her turn to speak she says she told viewers they would hear “a bunch of lies”.
Trump is adamant and says that under Harris there would be abortion in the seventh, eighth and ninth month of pregnancy “and probably after birth”.
Now onto border control.
Harris uses her two minutes here as a chance to invite people to go to a Trump rally and see how people leave them early because of “exhaustion and boredom”, she also notes how he has been referencing the fictional character Hannibal Lector.
“You deserve a president that will put you first and I pledge to you I will,” Harris says.
In response, Trump claims people don’t go to Harris’s rallies and that she has to “bus them in”.
Back on to immigration, Trump claims that illegal immigrants are “destroying the fabric of our country”.
He then claims immigrants are eating people’s pets.
Trump claims that in Springfield “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets that live there”.
Muir interjects here and clarifies that Springfield’s city manager says there is no evidence of that.
Harris’s response (with a laugh): “Talk about extreme”.
Harris uses Trump’s claims about migrant crime as an opportunity to attack his own criminal history.
“I think this is so rich coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference,” she says.
Trump hits back by saying the cases against him were “fake” and that the justice system was weaponised by the Democrats.
He then goes on to refer to the assassination attack on him:
“I probably took a bullet in the head because of the things they say about me.”
Turning to Israel’s war in Gaza, Harris is asked about how she would work to achieve a ceasefire if president.
In response, she says Israel has a right to defend itself but too many Palestinians have been killed.
“We need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out. We will continue to work around the clock for that,” Harris says.
She adds that there must be a two-state solution where Palestinians can have the dignity they “rightly deserved”.
When Trump is asked how he would achieve a ceasefire, he responds by saying it “never would have happened” if he was president before beginning to talk about Russia and Ukraine.
He then goes back to the Middle-East and claims Harris hates Israel and hates the Arab population “in her own way”.
Harris hits back and says she has supported Israel her entire life and says Trump is attempting to divide and distract.
She then accuses Trump of wanting to be a dictator and says the other dictators of the world are rooting for him to win the election because he can be “manipulated with flattery and favours”.
“That’s why so many millitary leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace,” Harris adds.
Okay, the ad break is over and at this point I would say Harris is winning.
She’s keeping her cool and allowing the moderators to pull Trump up on mistruths where needed. There has been a lot of clarifications by the moderators based on what Trump is saying tonight, in a way we haven’t really seen in some of the other debates Trump has participated in since 2016.
It’s clear Harris’s gameplan for this debate has been to not engage with some of the wackier things Trump says (at one point he claimed she wants to “do transgender operations on illegal aliens in prisons”) and instead call them out and deliver her own message that has been focused on the future and on being a president that “actually cares” about the American people.
She’s driving home a message that democracy is at stake and has been pretty polished in her delivery, often looking amused at what Trump says. Trump on the other hand, started off calm but as the debate has gone on he has gone off on tangents, veering away from the topics at hand.
At one point he claimed President Biden “hates” Harris.
He hates her, he can’t stand her,” he said.
The Journal columnist Larry Donnelly is tweeting some analysis:
Trump is ranting and rambling. Keeps bringing it back to immigration no matter what. He mightn’t know it, but he’s having a bad night. #Debate2024
— Larry Donnelly (@LarryPDonnelly) September 11, 2024
Worth noting that on Russia’s war in Ukraine, Trump was asked directly if he wants Ukraine to win the war.
His response was: “It’s the US best interest to get this war finished and just get it done, all right, negotiate a deal, because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed.”
In her answer, Harris claimed that if Trump were president “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now”.
She added that he would have his eyes on the rest of Europe, “starting with Poland”.
Closing statements now. Trump won a coin flip so he gets to close out the debate with his.
Harris begins hers by saying: “You’ve heard very different visions for our country, one focused on the future and one focused on the past.
“But we’re not going back.”
She talks about sustaining America’s standing in the world and ensuring it has the “most lethal fighting force in the world”. She talks about reproductive rights, her time as a prosecutor. She says she intends to be a president for all Americans and “build back up the country by investing in the American people”.
Trump opens his by asking why hasn’t Harris done “all the great things” she mentioned in the three years she has been in power as vice president.
He hits out at her for her stance on fracking in particular and asks again why she hasn’t done what she has set out to do tonight.
He claims the US is being “laughed at all over the world”.
“We’re not a leader…We have wars going on in the Middle East. We have wars going on with Russia and Ukraine. We’re going to end up in a third world war, and it will be a war like no other ,” Trump says.
He claims he rebuilt the US military while president and again hits out at immigrants coming into the country, claiming “many of them are criminals”.
A memorable moment from earlier when Trump used one of Harris’s prior debate successes against her.
When he accused her of being in favour of defunding the police, Harris interjected to deny it.
Trump responds: “Wait a minute, I’m talking now if you don’t mind, please. Does that sound familiar?”
This came as a reference to Harris’s viral “I’m speaking” moment during her 2020 vice presidential debate with Mike Pence.
While Trump was trying to claim Harris supports defunding the police, she could be seen with her mic muted saying his statement was "not true."
— ABC News (@ABC) September 11, 2024
“Wait a minute. I'm talking now. If you don't mind, please. Does that sound familiar?” Trump said. https://t.co/eSOiWyTGja#ABCDebate pic.twitter.com/AiWhnlNgZQ
I’m going to close down the liveblog now to finish a round up of what has been a fiery debate, but two things before I go:
1. Trump’s campaign has claimed a victory in the debate (before it was even over).
2. Taylor Swift has endorsed Kamala Harris after the debate
Okay I lied, one final thing:
In a surprise move, Trump just showed up in what’s known as the “spin room” at the debate centre. Answering questions from reporters Trump claimed he won the debate and was very happy with how it went.
“I thought it was my best debate ever,” he said.
Harris’s team have come out and said they want another debate. Trump was asked about this while in the spin room and his response was that he “doesn’t know” if they will do another.
And with that I am away. We will have lots more coverage of the debate and it’s fallout on The Journal over the next few hours.
Thanks for joining us for the night, I hope you have time to catch up on some sleep. Goodnight!
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