Democratic U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris put Republican Donald Trump on the defensive at a combative U.S. presidential debate on Tuesday with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes, as both candidates sought a campaign-altering moment in their closely fought election.
In a boost to the Harris campaign, pop megastar Taylor Swift told her 283 million followers on Instagram in a post immediately following the debate that she would back Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the Nov. 5 election. The post had been liked nearly two million times within 25 minutes.
A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, appeared to get under the former president's skin with a series of sharp attacks, prompting a visibly angry Trump to deliver a stream of falsehood-filled retorts.
At one point, she brought up Trump's campaign rallies, goading him by saying that people often leave early "out of exhaustion and boredom."
Trump, who has been frustrated by the size of Harris' own crowds, said, "My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics." He then pivoted to an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory claiming that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are "eating the pets" of residents.
"Talk about extreme," Harris said, laughing.
Harris criticized Trump over his criminal conviction for covering up hush money payments to a porn star as well as his other indictments and a civil judgment finding him liable for sexual assault. Trump has denied wrongdoing and again accused Harris and the Democrats of orchestrating all of the cases without evidence.
Trump also repeated his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was due to fraud, called Harris a "Marxist" and asserted falsely that migrants have caused a violent crime spree.
With eight weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election, and days until early voting starts in some states, the debate - the only one scheduled - presented both opportunities and risks for each candidate in front of a televised audience of tens of millions of voters.
The candidates opened the debate by focusing on the economy, an issue that polls show favors Trump.
Members of the press appear in the spin room during a presidential debate between former U.S. president Donald Trump, on screen at left, and U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, right, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Matt Slocum/AP Photo)
Harris attacked Trump's intention to impose high tariffs on foreign goods - a proposal she has likened to a sales tax on the middle class - while touting her plan to offer tax benefits to families and small businesses.
"Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression," Harris said, referring to his years as president from 2017-2021. Unemployment peaked at 14.8 per cent in April 2020 and at 6.4 per cent when he left office. It was far higher in the Great Depression.
Trump, 78, criticized Harris for the persistent inflation during the Biden administration's term, though he overstated the level of price increases. He also pivoted quickly to his top issue, immigration, claiming again without evidence that immigrants from "insane asylums" are crossing the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
Inflation, he said, "has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, for every class."
The debate got under way with a surprise handshake between the two opponents, who had never met before. Harris approached Trump at his lectern, introducing herself by name, in what was the first handshake at a presidential debate since 2016.
The encounter is particularly important for Harris, with opinion polls showing that more than a quarter of likely voters feel they do not know enough about her. Harris entered the race only seven weeks ago after President Joe Biden's exit.
Harris delivered a lengthy attack on abortion limits, speaking passionately about women denied emergency care and victims of incest unable to terminate their pregnancies due to statewide bans that have proliferated since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right in 2022. Three Trump appointees were in the majority of that ruling.
She also claimed Trump would support a national ban. Trump called that assertion untrue but declined to say explicitly that he would veto such a law.
Trump, who has sometimes struggled with messaging on abortion, claimed falsely that Harris and Democrats support infanticide, which - as moderator Linsey Davis noted - is illegal in every state.
"As I said, you're going to hear a bunch of lies," Harris said.
Harris also sought to tie Trump to Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint that proposes expanding executive power, eliminating environmental regulations and making it illegal to ship abortion pills across state lines, among other right-wing goals.
Trump retorted that he has "nothing to do" with Project 2025, though some of his advisers were involved in its creation.
The candidates also exchanged barbs over the Israel-Gaza war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, though neither offered specifics on how they would seek to end each conflict.
Harris accused Trump of being willing to abandon U.S. support for Ukraine to curry favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling Trump a "disgrace," while Trump claimed Harris "hates" Israel - an assertion she rejected.
Trump, who has spent weeks launching personal attacks on Harris that have included racist and sexist insults, largely avoided insults during the debate's early moments. But he called her a "Marxist" as he grew increasingly agitated.
Trump's advisers and fellow Republicans had urged him to focus on the high levels of inflation and immigration during Biden's presidency, though both have dropped dramatically this year.
Presidential debates do not necessarily change voters' minds, but they can transform the dynamics of a race. Biden's poor performance against Trump in June led him to abandon his campaign on July 21.
In a contest that could again come down to tens of thousands of votes in a handful of states, even a small shift in public opinion could alter the outcome. The two candidates are effectively tied in the seven battleground states likely to decide the election, according to polling averages compiled by the New York Times.
The 90-minute debate, hosted by ABC News, was taking place at the National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia. As agreed by the campaigns, there was no live audience and candidates' microphones were muted when it was not their turn to speak.
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