In an aggressive TV duel, US presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump presented their plans for a term in office and directed sharp attacks against each other. For 90 minutes on Tuesday evening (local time), the Democratic vice president and the Republican former president debated top issues of the election campaign such as economic and migration policy, abortion and foreign policy. Shortly after the TV debate, there was an unexpected coup: superstar Taylor Swift declared her support for Harris.
While Harris tried to spread a hopeful message of a reunited country in the debate, Trump painted the image of the decline of the United States and a “failed state.”
Both rivals, who had not previously met in person, greeted each other with a quick handshake, then immediately proceeded to attack each other sharply.
“Donald Trump left us with the worst unemployment since the Great Depression,” Harris said of Trump’s term in office (2017-2021). The Republican is also responsible for “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” She and President Joe Biden then worked on “cleaning up Donald Trump’s mess.”
Trump once again accused the Democratic vice president of being “a Marxist” and not having a plan. “She copied Biden’s plan, and it’s four sentences that just say, ‘Oh, we’re going to try to cut taxes,'” the 78-year-old real estate billionaire said. He repeatedly accused his Democratic opponent of lying in her statements.
On the issue of abortion, Harris said Trump was spreading “a lot of lies” about it. As president, he “personally selected” three Supreme Court justices to then overturn the country’s right to abortion. By telling untruths about these events, “he is insulting American women,” the vice president said.
On foreign policy, Harris said of the Republican that he was an international laughingstock. “World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump,” Harris said. She accused Trump of pandering to people in power like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who would “eat you for lunch.” Dictators and autocrats would like to see Trump in the White House because they realize that they can manipulate the real estate billionaire “with flattery and favors.”
During the duel, Trump once again refused to acknowledge his election defeat in 2020. “Look, there’s so much evidence. All you have to do is look at it… I received almost 75 million votes, the most votes a sitting president has ever received,” Trump said.
After the election defeat against the current incumbent Joe Biden in 2020, the Republican Trump did not acknowledge this and, contrary to all the facts, claimed that he had been cheated out of his election victory. The 78-year-old is charged in two cases because of his attempts to subsequently overturn the result and convert it into a victory.
In this year’s election campaign, he made it clear that he would also not accept defeat in the 2024 presidential election and would take action against it. Harris criticized Trump for his various criminal cases and the fact that he has been a convicted felon since his guilty verdict in the hush money trial.
It was the first TV duel between Trump and Harris. Immediately after the debate ended, the Harris team asked the 78-year-old Republican to face a second debate. So far, both camps have not been able to agree on further dates.
Trump said it was his “best debate” and accused the two ABC hosts of being biased. “It was three against one,” Trump wrote on his online platform Truth Social.
A few minutes after the debate, megastar Taylor Swift scored a coup: The pop singer declared on Instagram that she would vote for Harris in the election on November 5th.
