Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have taken the stage for their debate in Philadelphia in order to sway 2024 election voters in US politics. While this is the first presidential debate for Harris, it is the seventh for Trump.
The event offered Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June.
Trump and Harris offer a worlds-apart contrast on key issues in the race. Harris leaned into her middle-class background and her plans to create an “opportunity economy,” while Trump slammed Harris on her failure to deliver on student loan forgiveness.
Harris is sticking with familiar lines on how she’d handle the maelstrom in the Middle East, including steadfastly backing Israel’s defense while also pressing for Palestinian statehood.
Trump for his part says the Middle East was at relative peace under his watch and argued Iran-backed Hamas would have never launched the audacious October 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza if he were the president.
“It would have never happened,” Trump said. “Iran was broke under Donald Trump. Now Iran has $300 billion because they took off all the sanctions that I had. Iran had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah or any… spheres of terror.”
Trump repeats his frequent boast he would have a peace done between Ukraine and Russia within a day if he is elected. But he doesn’t say how.
The fear of supporters of Ukraine is that the kind of deal Trump is talking about would amount to Ukraine’s US-backed, democratic government capitulating to the harsh demands of its larger neighbor. Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted Ukraine must give up vast amounts of territory and give up on joining NATO. That’s simply as a condition to start talks to end Russia’s 2 1/2 year invasion of Ukraine.
Neither Harris nor Trump had a particular advantage when it comes to who Americans trust to more handle the war in Gaza, according to an August AP-NORC poll.
This topic is a potential point of weakness for Harris within her own party, though. Only about six in 10 Democrats trust Harris over Trump to do a better job handling the war in Gaza, her lowest rating of the issues asked about in that poll. About one-quarter of Democrats say they trust neither Trump nor Harris on this topic.
Harris and Trump have talked about issues related to the economy, abortion, fracking, crime, and immigration, to which Trump has pivoted several different answers. There was also a question about the January 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol, as well as Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
There hasn’t been much discussion about the environment, climate change, foreign affairs, the military or Biden’s departure from the campaign, less than two months ago.
Hosted by ABC News, the debate between Harris and Trump, which was originally scheduled to last 90 minutes with two commercial breaks, went on longer than expected. (With inputs from AP)
