THE FIRST DEBATE between US presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has taken place, with both camps claiming victory within minutes of it ending.
Over the course of the 90 minute broadcast on ABC News, former president Trump and vice president Harris threw out their share of insults, with both repeatedly accusing the other side of lying.
Harris referred to Trump as “extreme” on more than one occasion and noted that military leaders had told her he is a “disgrace”. She claimed world leaders laugh at him and dictators find him easy to manipulate “with flattery and favour”.
Trump in return labelled Harris a “Marxist”, “worse than Biden” and a “horrible negotiator”.
It was unsurprisingly a heated affair, with Harris successfully baiting Trump at multiple points throughout, with the former president frequently diverging from his point and ranting.
At the time of writing, a CNN viewers poll has crowned Harris the winner of the debate at 63% to Trump’s 37%.
Here are the standout moments:
One of the strangest and most memorable moments of the debate came during a question on immigration, when Trump falsely claimed immigrants in Ohio are eating people’s pets.
“Look at what’s happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don’t want to talk, it’s not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it.
In Springfield, they’re 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,” Trump said as Harris looked on at him with an amused and bewildered expression on her face.
Before passing the floor to Harris, one of the moderators, David Muir, interjected to clarify to viewers that there is no evidence to support Trump’s claim about pets, cats or dogs being eaten by migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
When asked to respond to what Trump has said Harris simply laughed and said: “Talk about extreme. I think this is why in this election I have the endorsement of 200 Republicans who have formerly worked with President Bush, Mitt Romney and John McCain, including the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Congress member Liz Cheney.”
Aside from the moment, Trump also repeatedly brought up immigration while responding to other unrelated questions.
At one point, while answering a question about the January 6th riots and the peaceful transfer of power after elections, Trump said immigrants entering the US via the Mexican border are “killing many people, unlike J6″. J6 is an apparent abbreviation for the riots at the US Capitol on January 6 2021.
One of Harris’s strongest moments in the debate was when she challenged Trump on his stance on abortion and the overturning of Roe v Wade.
Trump claimed that Harris’s running mate Tim Walz is in favour of allowing abortion at nine months and “even says execution after birth…when the baby is born is okay”.
It was at this point that moderator Linsey David made the first clarification of the night, telling the TV audience that it is not legal in any US state to kill a baby after it is born.
Harris responded to Trump’s claim by speaking directly to viewers of the debate, saying she told them they would “hear a bunch of lies”.
She reaffirmed that she will “proudly” sign a bill to reinstate Roe v Wade if passed by Congress.
Trump on the other hand reiterated his belief that individual states should be allowed to make their own abortion policies.
It was 30 minutes into the debate before Harris chose to remind the audience that Trump is a convicted felon awaiting sentencing.
Responding to a question on his plans to deport undocumented migrants, Trump claimed the Democrats allowed “millions of criminals” to enter the country and “destroy the fabric of our country”.
“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,” Trump claimed.
In response to this, Muir interjected to state that according to the FBI violent crime is coming down in the US.
When it was her opportunity to respond to Trump’s comments, Harris said:
“I think this is so rich coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference. Has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance is in November, his own criminal sentencing.”
In response, Trump claimed the cases against him were “fake” and that the Justice Department was being “weaponised” against him.
Further on in the conversation, he referred to his attempted assassination in July, during which one person was killed, and implied that the Democrats were responsible.
“This is the one that weaponised, not me. She [Harris] weaponised. I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me.
“They talk about democracy. I’m a threat to democracy. They’re the threat to democracy,” the former president said.
During the debate both candidates were asked how they would work to implement a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of hostages from Hamas if they became president.
Harris reiterated her stance that a two-state solution is needed and that too many Palestinians have died but that Israel has a right to defend itself.
Trump responded by saying that if he was president “it would never of started” before beginning to talk about Russia and Ukraine.
He then returned to the topic of the Middle-East and claimed Harris hates Israel and “at the same time” hates the Arab population “in her own way”, “because the whole place is going to get blown up”.
Harris hit back and said she has supported Israel her entire life and that Trump is attempting to divide and distract.
Immediately after the exchange on Israel, Harris attacked Trump’s record on international affairs and claimed world leaders are laughing at him.
She said Trump wants to be a dictator and claimed that it is well-known that dictators and autocrats like Putin and Kim Jong Un are rooting for him to win the election because he can be “manipulated with flattery and favours”.
“That’s why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace,” Harris added.
Although there were no questions on gun control specifically, Trump still found an opportunity to go on the offensive, accusing Harris of being a “radical liberal” who wants to “confiscate your guns”.
In response Harris said: “This business about taking everyone’s guns away. Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.”
This was the only discussion verging close to the topic of gun control during the entire debate.
Trump was asked directly if he wants Ukraine to win the war against Russia, but he would not provide a straight answer.
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”.
This part of the debate was notably weak from both candidates.
When asked what each would do to fight climate change, Harris answered first and pointed out that Trump has previously called climate change a hoax.
She pointed to investments made by the Biden administration to fight climate change and talked about investments made in the clean economy, but also noted that at the same time the country has also “increased domestic gas production to historic levels”.
When it came to Trump’s turn he did not address climate change during his two minute speaking allocation, instead choosing to respond to a jibe from Harris about overseas manufacturing.
Taking to Instagram immediately after the debate, international popstar Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris.
“I’m voting for Kamala Harris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift wrote under a picture of herself holding a cat.
In a reference to JD Vance’s derogatory comments about childless women, Swift signed her message to her 283 million followers: “With love and hope, Taylor Swift Childless Cat Lady”.
Swift also addressed AI-generated images shared by Trump recently that falsly depicted Swift endorsing his campaign.
She said it “conjured up” her fears around AI and misinformation and that it brought her to the conclusion that she had to be “very transparent” about her actual plans as a voter.
10. Everyone’s a winner
Once the debate ended both campaign teams were quick to claim a win, but in a surprise move, Trump paid a visit to the debate centre’s spinroom for a victory lap very shortly after the debate ended.
He was promptly mobbed by reporters, telling them it was his “best debate ever” but adding that he felt the moderators were “unfair”.
But while Harris’s team has already expressed an interest in a second debate, Trump has given no such commitments.
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