By Tyler Arnold
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 11, 2024 / 08:50 am
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris debated abortion policy, contested each other’s records on the economy and immigration, and communicated different visions for American foreign policy during their first debate together on Tuesday night.
The Sept. 10 debate was hosted by ABC at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As polls continue to show a tight race nationally and within key swing states, the two candidates sought to appeal to middle-class voters and paint each other as extreme.
Trump accused Harris of being “a Marxist” and criticized the economy of the Biden-Harris administration.
“We have a nation in decline and they have put it into decline,” he said. “We have a nation that is dying.”
Harris alleged that Trump’s rhetoric contained “a bunch of lies, grievances, and name-calling.”
“The American people want a president who understands the importance of bringing us together knowing we have so much more in common than what separates us, and I pledge to you to be a president for all Americans,” she said.
Federal vs. state approach on abortion
The two candidates sparred over how abortion rules should be set in the country, with Trump arguing in favor of a state-by-state approach and Harris favoring a federal law that creates a legal right to abortion.
Trump refused to answer whether he would veto a national abortion ban as president and Harris dodged questions about whether she supports late-term abortion.
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“Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did exactly as he intended, and now in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans,” Harris said in the debate. The Supreme Court repealed the long-standing abortion rule in 2022.
If elected, Harris said she would “proudly sign” a law that would “put back the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
Trump maintained support for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, crediting “the genius and heart and strength of six Supreme Court justices” for the accomplishment.
“Each individual state is voting,” Trump said. “It’s the vote of the people now. It’s not tied up in the federal government. I did a great service in doing it. It took courage to do it and the Supreme Court had great courage in doing it.”
Harris did not directly answer a question from the moderators about whether she would support any restrictions on abortion but simply said she would support the standards set in Roe v. Wade.
When later pressed by Trump about whether “she [would] allow abortion in the eighth month, ninth month, seventh month,” Harris interjected with “come on.” Trump continued, saying: “That’s the problem because under Roe v. Wade, you could do abortions in the seventh month, the eighth month, the ninth month,” to which Harris responded: “That’s not true.”
Harris alleged that Trump would “sign a national abortion ban,” which the former president called “a lie,” adding: “There’s no reason to sign a ban because … the states are voting.”
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But when moderators pressed Trump about his running mate J.D. Vance’s comment that Trump would veto a national ban on abortion, Trump said he had never discussed it with Vance and never said he would veto it.
The vice president also criticized Trump for people “being denied IVF treatments,” to which the former president said, “I have been a leader on IVF.”
Immigration and the economy
Both candidates sought to defend their records on border security and the economy during the debate.
Trump accused the Biden-Harris administration of allowing “terrorists,” “common street criminals,” and “drug dealers” through the southern border, claiming that “millions” of immigrants have entered the country illegally, “taking jobs that are occupied by African Americans and Hispanics and by union [workers].”
“They are taking over the towns,” Trump said. “They are taking over buildings. They’re going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country.”
Harris criticized Trump for opposing a bipartisan immigration bill, saying he’d “prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.” She also said she “prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs, and human beings” while working as a prosecutor.
The candidates debated who had a stronger record on the economy, with Trump calling inflation during the Biden-Harris administration “probably the worst in our nation’s history” and alleging that “the only jobs they got were bounce-back jobs” that returned after the COVID-19 crisis.
Harris promoted her plan to establish a newborn tax credit of $6,000 and a tax deduction for start-up small businesses of $50,000. She also criticized Trump’s proposal to increase tariffs, alleging it would amount to a national “sales tax.”
Trump disputed the characterization, saying that only “China and all of the countries that have been ripping us off for years” would pay the tax.
Foreign policy
The candidates debated the effects of the Biden-Harris withdrawal from Afghanistan and the best way to approach the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts.
Trump called the withdrawal from Afghanistan “one of the most incompetently handled situations anybody has ever seen.” Although he expressed support for leaving Afghanistan, he opposed how the administration handled it.
“We were getting out … but we wouldn’t have lost the soldiers, we wouldn’t have left many Americans behind and we wouldn’t have left $85 billion of brand-new beautiful military equipment behind,” he said.
Harris expressed support for Biden’s decision to leave Afghanistan but did not directly answer a question from the moderators about whether she takes any responsibility for the lives lost during the withdrawal. She also criticized Trump for his negotiations with the Taliban.
“He does not … appreciate the role and responsibility of the president of the United States to be commander-in-chief with a level of respect,” Harris said.
On Israel, Harris said the country “has a right to defend itself ” but criticized the way the Israeli military has handled its invasion of the Gaza Strip, saying: “Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed — children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end. … We need a cease-fire deal and we need the hostages out.”
Trump asserted that if he were president, the war “would have never started” and criticized the Biden-Harris administration for lifting sanctions on Iran: “They had no money for terror. They were broke. Now they’re a rich nation.”
Harris advocated continued military aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia, saying: “Because of our support … Ukraine stands as an independent and free country.” She claimed that if Trump were in office, Russia would win the war.
Trump said he would “get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended if I’m president-elect, I’ll get it done before even becoming president.”
