Trump, Harris brawl over inflation, immigration, abortion at presidential debate
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris dueled over the economy, immigration, abortion and issues Tuesday as they engaged in a sometimes ugly, at times wild debate that will likely be crucial in determining which presidential candidate will win the White House.
Tuesday’s brawl is the only scheduled debate of the campaign, and the first time voters were able to see Harris in a lengthy, unscripted format against a determined foe.
Both candidates played familiar roles: Trump, as the aggressor appealing to voters’ emotions, and peppering his comments with familiar insults of Harris; Harris, fighting back in turn, but quickly pivoting to policy, trying to draw contrasts not only between their views, but also their temperaments.
Trump said Harris and President Joe Biden were presiding over a badly faltering economy. Harris pledged a program to boost middle and lower income people.
Trump said the Biden administration had allowed millions of undocumented immigrants to pour into the country. Harris, meanwhile, questioned why Trump was so eager to restrict abortions, forcing many women to travel elsewhere to seek material health care.
Economic differences
Are people better off than they were when Biden took office in January 2021? That’s a question whose answer could go a long way in determining who wins.
Stressing her roots as a “middle class kid,” Harris cited her proposal for a big expansion of the child tax credit and help for first time homeowners. Trump, she said, has no detailed plan other than to cut taxes for the wealthy.
“He has no plan for you. He’s more interested in defending himself than he is looking out for you,” Harris said.
Trump countered with his record as president, noting that as president prices went up 2.4% in 2018 and 1.8% in 2019, the economy grew, and monthly unemployment rates were 4% or less monthly during those two years, before the Covid pandemic hit.
“We had the greatest economy. We got hit with the pandemic,” Trump said.
Under the Biden administration, prices were up as much as 9% on an annual basis in June 2022 but have since settled to a 2.9% annual rate.
Abortion battle
Trump claimed during the debate that abortion rights advocates support abortion “in the ninth month.” Nowhere in the United States is abortion allowed after birth.
“The Democrats are radical in that,” Trump said.
Earlier this year, Trump said he would support a national ban on abortion after 16 weeks. Last month, he said, “there will not be a federal ban.”
He reiterated that view during the debate, saying “I’m not signing a ban and there’s no reason to sign a ban.”
Harris reminded viewers that Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices who were pivotal in overturning Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that said a woman had a right to an abortion. The new ruling has led to limits on abortion in many states.
“Donald Trump should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said.
Calling abortion restrictions that have taken effect since his presidency “Trump’s abortion ban,” Harris noted the effects that Trump’s policies have had on women’s ability to receive healthcare, including IVF treatment.
“Working people, working women who are working one or two jobs who can barely afford child care as it is, have to travel to another state…to go and get the health care she needs,” Harris said. “What you are putting her through is unconscionable.”
Undocumented immigrants
Harris was asked why the Biden administration waited until the election season to implement a tough new crackdown on illegal immigration in the U.S.-Mexico border.
Harris cited this year’s bipartisan Senate bill that would have implemented tougher border control measures. It died this spring after Trump urged its defeat.
Trump, Harris said, “preferred to run on a problem rather than fixing a problem.”
Trump argued back with familiar claims that the country faces an unchecked wave of undocumented immigration, claiming that in one town immigrants are “eating the pets of the people who live there.” Moderator David Muir said ABC checked and there was no evidence of that happening.
Asked about the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, Trump turned the question back to immigration, responding that undocumented immigrants have committed crimes routinely around the country.
The Biden administration has “destroyed the fabric of our country” and allowed criminals to flock to the U.S. from other countries, he said, adding, “migrant crime…is happening at levels no one thought possible.”
“This is so rich from somebody who has been prosecuted” on a variety of charges, Harris responded. Trump has been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Harris recalled that she was at the Capitol on January 6, and that Trump as been “indicted and impeached” for his actions that day.
Harris’ record
During her years in the Senate from 2017 until becoming vice president in 2021, Harris was regarded as one of the body’s most liberal members. Trump during the debate reiterated his view that Harris was a dangerous liberal.
He recalled how she backed Medicare for all, and that she has previously called for an overhaul of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Trump also charged that Harris “hates Israel,” noting she did not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress this summer.
Harris hit back. “That’s absolutely not true,” she said of Trump’s claim that she hates Israel. “I have my entire career and life supporting Israel and the Israeli people.” Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, is Jewish.
Candidates give their final thoughts
In concluding remarks, Harris got lofty, while Trump got glum.
“We have so much more in common than what separate us,” Harris said in her closing statement, adding “I intend to create an opportunity economy.”
As a prosecutor, Harris added, she never asked someone if they were Democrat or Republican.
“The only thing I ever asked them was ‘are you okay?’” she said.
Trump struck a very different tone. He talked almost exclusively about Harris in his closing statement, saying she and Biden have made empty promises.
“You haven’t done and you won’t do because you believe in things the American people don’t believe in,” he said. “We’re a failing nation. We’re a nation that’s in serious decline. We’re being laughed at all over the world.”
He warned that because of this diminished stature, the country is in danger of being engaged in a third world war. It’s the result, he said, of “the worst president, the worst vice president in the history of our country,” he said.
