They were able to confront their opposing visions of America, less than two months before a historic presidential election. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump clashed fiercely on Tuesday, September 10, during a televised debate with a very offensive tone. The Democratic vice-president and the Republican candidate, who had never met face-to-face, quickly turned this debate in Philadelphia into a free-for-all on the economy, abortion and immigration. The Express summarizes the highlights for you.
“Putting the mess in order”
Kamala Harris began by attacking his record as president. “What we did was clean up the mess that Donald Trump left behind,” the Democratic candidate said of her Republican rival, who was president between 2017 and 2021. In response, the Republican candidate accused his Democratic rival of not having a program and of having “copied” the program of outgoing President Joe Biden.
Trump says Harris is a “Marxist”
Donald Trump on Tuesday once again accused his Democratic rival Kamala Harris of being a “Marxist” during their first televised debate for the US presidential election. “She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist,” he said.
A War of Arms Over Abortion
The issue of abortion was the subject of a marked exchange of words between the two candidates for the American presidency during their first debate on Tuesday, with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris accusing her Republican rival Donald Trump of spreading a “web of lies” on the subject.
“I warned that we were going to hear a pack of lies and it’s actually not a surprise. You have to understand what we have here: Donald Trump hand-picked three members of the Supreme Court knowing that they would end protection (of abortion rights throughout the United States) and they did exactly what they expected,” said the Democratic candidate. Kamala Harris also considered that the Democratic candidate was “insulting to women” by claiming that women could have abortions close to the end of their pregnancy.
A debate in which ABC journalist Linsey Davis also interfered, recalling that “there is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after birth.”
“A bullet in the head” because of the attacks of his opponents
Republican candidate Donald Trump said he was “probably” the target of an assassination attempt in July because of attacks by his opponents. “I probably got shot in the head because of what they’re saying about me,” he said. They talk about democracy, […] “I am a threat to democracy. But they are the threat,” Donald Trump insisted.
Trump continues to refuse to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election
Donald Trump refused to acknowledge losing the 2020 presidential election Tuesday during his first debate with Democratic challenger Kamala Harris. “There’s so much evidence, all you have to do is look at it,” he said, repeating his unsubstantiated claims of fraud. “I got over 75 million votes, more than any incumbent president. I’ve been told that when you get 63 million, which I got in 2016, you’re unbeatable,” Trump said.
Trump believes ‘Israel will disappear’ under Harris presidency
Donald Trump said that “Israel will disappear” under a presidency of his rival Kamala Harris, Tuesday in Philadelphia during their first televised debate for the American presidential election. “She hates Israel. If she becomes president, I believe Israel will no longer exist within two years,” the former American president said about the vice president of the United States. “Israel will disappear,” he repeated.
For her part, Kamala Harris said that she would “always give Israel the ability to defend itself,” recalling nevertheless that “the way in which the country does it is important,” because innocent people, including mothers and children, are dying in this conflict.
Harris says Putin would ‘make short work’ of Trump
Russian President Vladimir Putin would “make short work” of Donald Trump and would already be settled in kyiv if the Republican candidate were in the White House, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris accused on Tuesday.
Vladimir “Putin would be sitting in kyiv right now, his eyes set on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland,” she said. “And why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for a favor and what you think is friendship with […] a dictator who would make short work of you.”
For his part, Trump says he is capable of ending this war which “should never have happened” “even before becoming president”, by bringing together the heads of state of the two countries.
Harris accuses Trump of trying to ‘divide’ the country over race
Kamala Harris accused her rival Donald Trump of wanting to “divide” the country on racial issues on Tuesday in Philadelphia during the first debate between the two candidates in the American presidential election.
“I think it’s a tragedy to have someone who wants to be president and has consistently, throughout his career, tried to use race to divide Americans,” she said. The former president responded Tuesday night to a question about previous comments in which he accused Harris of becoming black for electoral purposes, saying, “I read that she was black.”