Key quotes from the Trump-Harris 2024 U.S. presidential debate

CTV QP: Presidential debate debrief CTV News’ political analyst Eric Ham on if Kamala Harris can use the momentum of a strong debate performance to win swing states.

U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris and former U.S. president Donald Trump took the stage on Tuesday night for their first and only scheduled presidential debate before the Nov. 5 election.

Here are some key quotes:

Economy

"I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people, and that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy," said Harris.

"Look, we've had a terrible economy, because inflation, which is really known as a country buster," said Trump.

"People can't go out and buy cereal or bacon or eggs or anything else. The people of our country are absolutely dying with what they've done. They've destroyed the economy," said Trump.

Israel-Gaza conflict

"It must end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal, and we need the hostages out," said Harris.

"She hates Israel. If she's president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now," said Trump to which Harris responded: "That's absolutely not true. I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people."

World leaders

"World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump," said Harris.

"(Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orban said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president," said Trump.

Ukraine

"I want the war to stop. I want to save lives," Trump said, when asked if he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia.

"If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now," said Harris.

Jabs

"Wait a minute, I'm talking now, if you don't mind, please, does that sound familiar?" said Trump, appearing to refer to Harris' use of "I'm speaking" during the 2020 vice presidential debate against former Vice President Mike Pence.

"It's important to remind the former president, you're not running against Joe Biden, you are running against me," said Harris.

Abortion

"I pledge to you, when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v Wade as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law," said Harris.

"Now, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. ... Now states are voting on it. ... Each individual state is voting. It's the vote of the people. Now it's not tied up in the federal government," said Trump.

Immigration

"I'll tell you something, he's going to talk about immigration a lot tonight, even when it's not the subject that is being raised," said Harris.

"Our country is being lost, we're a failing nation," Trump said, referring to people crossing into the country illegally.

Assassination attempt

"I probably took a bullet to the head for the things they say about me," said Trump.

Truthfulness

"As I said, you're gonna hear a bunch of lies, and that's not actually a surprising fact," said Harris.

"There she goes again. It's a lie," said Trump after Harris said he would sign a national abortion ban were he to win office.

Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack

"I had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech," said Trump, when asked if he regretted anything that day.

"I was at the Capitol. I was the vice president-elect. I was also a senator and on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation's capital, to desecrate our nation's capital," said Harris.

Tariffs

"They are not going to have higher prices," Trump said, defending his tariffs proposal.

COVID-19

"But what Donald Trump did, let's talk about this, with COVID, is he actually thanked President Xi for what he did during COVID," said Harris.

Project 2025

"What you're going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again," said Harris