By Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch
“Donald Trump has no plan for you,” she told debate viewers while summarizing her recent proposals for small businesses, families and affordable housing.
Harris used Trump’s past statements to criticize his temperament as ill-suited to the presidency, accused him of divisive lies, pounced on his criminal convictions and claimed he’s so susceptible to flattery from autocratic world leaders that he’d sell out US national security interests.
At one point, she claimed the former president’s supporters leave his campaign rallies early because of boredom, which sparked a heated denial, as she knew it would.
The vice president gazed directly into an ABC News camera in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center to intone, “It’s up to the American people to stop him.”
Trump, intent on hopscotching through his counterpunches, dismissed Harris as “a Marxist” and noted that she and President Biden opted to maintain some of his tariffs, which they now criticize.
He accused Harris of failed policies and predicted that on “day one,” if elected, she would “end fracking in Pennsylvania,” a reference to her recent about-face on an energy issue important to the swing state’s economy.
During their 105 minutes of jousting, Harris conceded her views on fracking had changed since she ran for president in 2019 because of what she says are today’s many energy producing options. She said she would not ban fracking and repeated that her “values” are unchanged.
“We’re a failing nation,” Trump added while criticizing the Biden-Harris government -and falsely claiming once again that he did not lose the 2020 election.
“We’re a nation that’s in serious decline. We’re being laughed at all over the world. All over the world, they laugh, I know the leaders very well. They’re coming to see me. They call me,” he continued.
“They don’t understand what happened to us as a nation. We’re not a leader. We don’t have any idea what’s going on. 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.”
Will the debate matter? In a contest that has effectively been deadlocked in battleground states, according to polls, it will take a week or so with new surveys to determine if Tuesday’s event moved the needle among the scant number of undecided and independent voters who plan to fill out ballots by Nov. 5.
Harris’s campaign team envisioned a debate performance that could go viral among the vice president’s supporters as the campaign also commits $370 million for digital and television advertising.
House Republicans were downbeat in their reviews of the party’s standard bearer.
“She talks to us like toddlers but is doing a good job provoking him. He [is] right on policy but can’t keep to a message,” one GOP lawmaker told The Hill.
“Many are disappointed he couldn’t stay focused or land a punch. Not sure much changes but it wasn’t a good performance.”
Harris landed a much-anticipated endorsement from Taylor Swift, announced late Tuesday on Instagram. One Republican analyst predicted last month that the entertainer’s imprimatur could serve as “rocket fuel” among younger voters.
Biden, who was his party’s nominee until his disastrous debate with Trump, praised the vice president on social media: “America got to see tonight the leader I’ve been proud to work alongside for three and a half years,” he wrote on X. “VP Harris proved she’s the best choice to lead our nation forward. We’re not going back.”
Harris’s campaign immediately called for a second debate with Trump, who bucked expectations and entered the “spin room” after the event to speak with the gathered throng of media.
What about policy? The ABC News moderators asked the candidates about reproductive rights, the economy, immigration, foreign policy, health care and race -although the answers leaned more toward generalities than detailed governing prescriptions.
Early in the debate when perhaps the largest audience was watching, Trump took credit for the end of Roe v. Wade, praising himself and the conservative Supreme Court justices he appointed who voted to end the national right to an abortion two years ago.
He said he would not commit to signing a national abortion ban. Harris, who vows to restore Roe and believes reproductive rights will help Democratic candidates win in November, attacked the former president for a patchwork of restrictive state laws she described as “Trump abortion bans.”
“The government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said.
Although voters tell pollsters the economy and inflation are the most important issues in this election, Trump spent little time explaining policy prescriptions for 2025 and beyond, but boasted about the health of the economy during his term.
Trump was eager to blame the White House and the vice president for the border crisis. Harris, who responded by detailing provisions of an abandoned bipartisan Senate border bill, said Trump lobbied GOP lawmakers to block it. She said she would sign it as president if Congress put it on her desk.
Trump would not answer whether he wants to see Ukraine win against Russia’s invasion, instead saying, “I want the war to stop. I want to save lives.” Instead, the former president said he would end the war before taking office by negotiating with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Harris reiterated her commitment to helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia with US and allied aid and military assistance, and mentioned her visits as vice president to NATO’s eastern flank.
“Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer president,” she told Trump, adding that Putin is a “dictator who would eat you for lunch.”
