US Vice President, Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off Tuesday evening in what could be their only debate before the November election, answering a variety of domestic and foreign policy issues while trading barbs and repeatedly accusing each other of lying.
Harris outlined “two very different visions for our country.
She stated that her own perspective is forward-looking, whereas Trump’s vision is backward and radical.
Harris made an especially strong case for women’s reproductive rights, criticising Trump’s successful efforts to undermine abortion care in states around the country through his Supreme Court choices.
She pledged an opportunity economy that would help Americans recover financially, including a $6,000 child tax credit and a $50,000 tax break for small enterprises.
Trump portrayed Harris as a failed liberal leader who had the opportunity to make improvements to aid Americans who were struggling financially under President Biden’s term but failed.
According to him, he would create an economy to help Americans and bring down costs, including by forcing other countries like China to pay tariffs.
The debate was defined in part by mistruths and bizarre tangents, especially from Trump.
Trump also said immigrants are causing crime to skyrocket across the country, which is not true, and repeated the conspiracy theory that immigrants are eating American pets, a claim for which there is no evidence.
In her closing statement, Vice President Kamala Harris summarised her first — and possibly only — debate with former President Trump as “two very different visions for our country: one that is focused on the future, and the other that is focused on the past and an attempt to take us backward.”
Harris said that, as president, she would “create an opportunity economy” by “investing in small business, in new families, in what can be done around protecting seniors,” and “giving hardworking folks a break and bringing down the cost of living.”
The vice president said she wanted to ensure the United States is respected internationally — and that it has “the most lethal fighting force in the world.”
And she said she would “be a president that will protect fundamental rights and freedoms including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.”
Harris and Trump also clashed on Israel and Gaza war with former President Trump declaring that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris hates Israel and Arabs, while the vice president stood up for Israel’s right to defend itself in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on the Jewish state nearly a year ago, but also called for protecting the lives of innocent Palestinians.
Roughly 30 minutes into a presidential debate that began with an awkward handshake, the candidates settled into a combative back and forth that produced several intense moments.
In many of Harris’ responses — especially those related to abortion — the vice president turned to Trump and spoke directly to him.
