Democratic candidate Kamala Harris put her Republican rival Donald Trump on the defensive in a combative presidential debate on Tuesday with a stream of attacks on his fitness for office, his support of abortion restrictions and his myriad legal woes.
A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, controlled the debate from the start, getting under her rival’s skin repeatedly and prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to deliver a series of falsehood-filled retorts.
At one point, she goaded the former president by saying that people often leave his campaign rallies early “out of exhaustion and boredom.”
Trump, who has been frustrated by the size of Harris’ own crowds, said, “My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”
He then pivoted to a false claim about immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, that has circulated on social media and was amplified by Trump’s vice presidential candidate, Senator JD Vance.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters.
“They’re eating the dogs!” he said, as Harris laughed in disbelief. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats! They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
“Talk about extreme,” Harris replied.
With eight weeks to go before the election, and days until early voting starts in some states, the debate – the only one scheduled – offered a rare opportunity for both candidates to make their case for a television audience of tens of millions of voters.
The candidates clashed over immigration, foreign policy and healthcare, but the debate was light on specific policy details.
Instead, Harris’ forceful approach succeeded in putting the focus on Trump, leaving her allies jubilant and some Republicans acknowledging Trump’s struggles.
Trump repeated his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was due to fraud, called Harris a “Marxist” and asserted falsely that migrants have caused a violent crime spree.
“Trump missed an opportunity to stay focused prosecuting the case against Biden-Harris on the economy and border, and instead took her bait and chased down rabbit holes on election denialism and immigrants eating our pets,” said Marc Short, who served as chief of staff for Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence.
Kamala Harris on stage at left, Doug Emhoff visit a watch party at Cherry Street Pier.
In a boost to the Harris campaign, pop megastar Taylor Swift told her 283 million followers on Instagram immediately following the debate that she would back Vice President Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the Nov. 5 election.
She signed it “childless cat lady,” a reference to controversial remarks made by Vance.
A SURPRISE HANDSHAKE
Trump, who has spent weeks launching personal attacks on Harris including racist and sexist insults, largely avoided that pattern during the debate’s early moments but quickly became agitated under Harris’ offensive.
Trump was asked by the moderators about one of those attacks, when he told an event with Black journalists in July that Harris had recently “become a Black person.”
“I couldn’t care less,” he said. “Whatever she wants to be is OK with me.”
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