debate

The highly anticipated evening on ABC News began with Kamala Harris walking up to Donald Trump to introduce herself, marking the first time the two had ever met, shaking the former president’s hand. It was the first handshake at a presidential debate since the 2016 campaign.

The debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump last Tuesday night covered topics such as the economy, immigration, foreign policy, abortion, democracy and climate change. The two candidates clashed repeatedly, with Harris challenging Trump to respond to his conviction for a series of criminal offenses.

How Kamala Harris cornered Trump

Harris managed to … corner Trump, touching on issues such as his criminal trials, the January 6 riots and the former president’s stance on abortion rights, forcing Trump to defend his past rather than attack Harris directly. .

Harris passionately turned the conversation to abortion, highlighting the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, while Trump focused heavily on immigration and immigrant crime, presenting it as a central issue. Despite Trump’s efforts to control the debate, Harris has managed to project herself as a more stable and unifying alternative to a Trump presidency.

The Democratic nominee avoided being drawn into Trump’s attacks and focused on offering visionary leadership for a more stable and united nation, making her message clear in the hotly contested race. Unlike the June debate between President Joe Biden and Trump, ABC News moderators hit back at Trump’s false statementssuch as baseless accusations that Democrats support abortion after birth, and the false claim that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in an Ohio town.

Fire rants

Kamala Harris blasted her Republican rival Donald Trump for being “perijello” of foreign leadersemphasizing how “manipulated” by “dictators”during their first phone call in Philadelphia, monopolized by bitter and harsh accusations.

“I’ve been around the world as vice president of the United States and the leaders of the whole world are laughing at Donald Trump,” Ms Harris assured, insisting it was “notorious” that “dictators and authoritarian leaders want you to be president again because they know very well that they can to manipulate you by flattering you and doing you favors.”

For his part, Donald Trump once again accused his Democratic rival Kamala Harris of being a “Marxist”. “She is a Marxist. Everyone knows she is a Marxist. It has no schedule. He copied Biden’s program, which is summed up in four sentences. These are simply ‘we will try to reduce taxes’. He doesn’t have an agenda,” Trump insisted.

On immigration, Donald Trump repeated several times that the Haitian immigrants eat ‘cats and dogs’ in a city in the state of Ohio. “In Springfield, they eat dogs, the people who came, they eat cats. They eat domestic animals. This is happening in our country and it’s a shame,” the former US president asserted, despite denials from local authorities. ABC reporter David Muir refuted him on the spot.

Trump in turn sought to link Ms. Harris to President Biden, disputing that he had not acted on her proposed ideas while he was Vice President.

Harris lashed out at Trump for the state of the economy and democracy when he lost office, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country and after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn the presidential election. of 2020.
“What we’ve done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess”Ms. Harris said.

The vice president defended her shift to more moderate positions on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun programs, insisting her “values ​​remain the same.”

Ms. Harris, zeroing in on one of Trump’s biggest electoral vulnerabilities, blasted the former president for his role in appointing three US Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing more of 20 states in the country to ban them. He called it “Trump’s abortion ban.”

Ms. Harris gave one of her most forceful responses as she described the ways women were denied medical abortion care and other emergency services and said Trump would recognize a national abortion ban if he wins. Trump called it “a lie” and said, “I’m not signing a ban and there’s no reason to sign a ban.”

Republican Donald Trump stressed during the teleconference that he has “no doubt” that the reason for his assassination attempt in mid-July was the criticisms of his opponents. “I have no doubt that I was shot in the head because of what they said about me,” said the former president, who suffered an ear injury in the attack. “They talk about democracy”, they say that “I am a threat to democracy. But they are the threat,” Mr Trump insisted.

Kamala Harris has accused her rival Donald Trump of wanting to “divide” the country again on the issue of race relations. “I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president and has consistently, throughout his career, tried to use the issue of race relations to divide Americans,” he said. The former president responded, when asked about his earlier statement in which harris “became” black for electoral reasons, that she “read that she is black”.

Republican candidate Donald Trump said in his teleconference with Democratic rival Kamala Harris that “Israel will be lost” if she wins the November 5 US presidential election. “He hates Israel. If she becomes president, I believe Israel will no longer exist in two years.”he insisted.

After the debate ended, pop star Taylor Swift announced via Instagram that she would be voting for Harris, commenting on fake images that had circulated that claimed the singer had endorsed Trump.

How the American media saw the debate

The vice president took the opportunity to challenge the Republican Party nominee, showing how the dynamics of the election contest have changed since the departure of Joe Biden.

Harris took aim at Trump’s weaknesses, focusing on his legal adventures and controversial tenure as president, while Trump responded with strong statements, trying to defend his positions and diminish Harris.

The debate highlighted the new balances that have been formed since Biden withdrew from the presidential race, with the majority of American media calling Harris the winner of the night.