Five takeaways from Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’s US presidential debate

The debate between United States Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump started with a handshake and ended with the candidates painting one another as awful leaders who should not be elected.

Harris and Trump traded barbs for more than 90 minutes on Tuesday, in a debate that was light on substantive policy and heavy on personal attacks.

Trump tried to portray Harris as a far-left candidate who would pursue open-border policies, ban fracking and confiscate people’s guns. He also pushed to link her to President Joe Biden, painting them as fundamentally the same type of politician.

Harris responded by questioning Trump’s fitness for office and calling him a “disgrace”. She also attempted to dismiss the former president as an object of ridicule. At several points, she appeared to be suppressing her laughter as Trump spoke.

Overall, Harris’s answers were more coherent and focused than Trump’s but it remains to be seen whether the debate performance will put a dent in the race.

Still, even pundits on conservative channels like Fox News observed that Harris seemed to leave Trump rattled. And in the minutes following the debate, pop star Taylor Swift offered Harris her endorsement, citing her debate performance.

Here are a few takeaways from the debate – the first meeting of the two candidates.

Trump rambles, repeatedly invokes immigration

Trump’s rhetoric throughout the debate zigzagged across an array of topics, rarely sticking with the topic presented in the moderators’ questions.

One moment Trump would be talking about the economy and the next, he would be talking about pipelines.

In one breath, he would talk about healthcare. In the next, he would bring up immigration. Then he would talk about something else, then immigration again.

Trump struggled to stay on message throughout the debate. His answers lacked focus and he appeared more concerned with landing blows against Harris.

Donald Trump speaks during the debate [Alex Brandon/AP Photo]

Again and again, he boomeranged back to immigration, hoping to score points by invoking Harris’s record on the issue. At several points, he also promoted the falsehood that Haitian migrants and refugees in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” he said.

City officials have dismissed these accounts as untrue.

Still, Trump has always been known for his rambling speaking style, so it is not certain that voters will view him more negatively after Tuesday’s debate performance.

Harris sharpens attacks on Trump

Harris, meanwhile, deployed pointed barbs at Trump and appeared to get under his skin, calling him a “disgrace” on several occasions.

The vice president also highlighted the Republicans and former aides who have turned against Trump after he won office in 2016.

Borrowing a leaf from Trump’s playbook, Harris also called the Republican candidate “weak” on multiple occasions. She also repurposed the Trumpian accusation that the world would laugh at US leadership and directed it back at the former president.

It is “absolutely well-known that… dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again”, Harris told Trump.

She added that it is “so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favours, and so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace”.

Both Republican and Democratic administrations, however, have maintained close ties to hardline governments and leaders across the world.

Kamala Harris listens and smiles during the debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [Alex Brandon/AP Photo]

Trump paints Harris as far left, distorting her record

In his rebuttals, the former president pushed to portray Harris as more left-wing than she actually is. He even called her a “Marxist”.

“She has a plan to confiscate everybody’s gun,” said Trump, in another exaggeration.

Harris responded that she and her vice presidential pick Tim Walz are, in fact, gun owners.

Trump also accused Harris of planning to defund the police.

As a senator in 2020, Harris voiced support for efforts to reexamine the budgets of police departments, but she has not called for defunding the police. The Biden administration has also backed increasing the number of police officers nationwide.

On healthcare, Trump said Harris “wants everybody to be on government insurance”. While Harris previously voiced support for universal, government-funded healthcare, she changed her position while running for president in 2020.

Trump’s charges at the debate fit into his larger campaign strategy of arguing that Harris is a far-left “radical” Democrat. That strategy, experts say, is designed to dissuade independent voters from backing her.

Candidates repeat familiar lines on Gaza

When asked about the war in Gaza, both candidates reached for their usual talking points.

Harris said she backs a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would see the release of Israeli captives, but she renewed her pledge to continue to arm Israel. She also voiced support for the two-state solution.

“Israel has a right to defend itself… and how it does so matters, because it is also true far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed – children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end,” she said.

“I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular, as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.”

The language she used echoes previous statements she and other Democratic officials have made, including at August’s Democratic National Convention.

Harris continues to regurgitate the same position on Israel from the DNC and her campaign website.

She must listen to voters— end Israel’s atrocities, impose an arms embargo, and enforce U.S. law. #Debate2024

— USCPR ACTION (@uscpr_action) September 11, 2024

For his part, Trump reiterated his position that the war in the Middle East would not have broken out if he were in office. He also accused Harris of having a bias against Israel.

“She hates Israel. At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population because the whole place is going to get blown up – Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone,” he said.

In addition, Trump falsely asserted that the Biden administration lifted US sanctions against Iran.

Candidates express differing views on Ukraine

More than two years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, support for the war has become a dividing line between the two major political parties in the US.

Many Republicans are wary of offering more aid, while Democrats largely support bolstering Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.

That division was visible on Tuesday’s debate stage. On the subject of Ukraine, the two candidates did not appear to be on the same page.

While Trump said he would push for a deal to end the conflict, Harris stressed the need to support Ukrainian forces to push back against the Russian invasion.

Asked whether he believed it was in the US’s interests for Ukraine to win the war, Trump said: “I think it’s in the US’s best interest to get this war finished and just get it done and negotiate a deal because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed.”

Trump argued that the lack of leadership in the Biden administration allowed Russia to invade Ukraine.

Harris slammed the former president’s reluctance to pledge full-fledged support for Ukraine, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be in Kyiv by now if Trump were in office.

“Understand, our European allies – NATO allies – are so thankful that you are no longer president and that we understand the importance of the greatest military the world has known, which is NATO,” she said.

“The reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up.”