HARRIS AND TRUMP DEBATE AMERICA’S STANDING IN THE WORLD, ECONOMY, WOMEN’S HEALTH AND MORE

By Rachel Williams and Miriam Raftery

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(Philadelphia, PA) -- In a fiery debate hosted by ABC on Sept. 11, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump clashed on issues ranging from foreign policy and climate change  to domestic issues including the economy, immigration and women’s health,  as well as protecting freedoms and preserving American democracy.

While Trump laid out a dark vision of a “failing nation” and pledges of mass deportations,  Harris focused on presenting a positive vision with several specific proposals to lift up middle class Americans and families. Harris slammed Trump’s handling of the COVID crisis, abortion, the January 6 capitol attack, and foreign policy, particularly his refusal to support Ukraine over Russia. Trump slammed the Biden-Harris record, particularly on inflation, immigration, and how the withdrawal from Afghanistan was handled.

The matchup pitted a seasoned prosecutor, ex-Senator and current Vice President against a former President, businessman, reality TV star and now, convicted felon. A split screen showed Harris largely poised as she methodically attacked Trump’s record,occasionally showing disbelief or laughter at his responses. Trump frequently scowled and fired back with criticisms of his own, occasional rambling off topic, and mocking barbs.

Who won?

All major polls found Harris won the debate, with the exception of Trump’s own Truth Social poll. Among ABC viewers polled, 58% said Harris won the debate and just 36% thought Trump won – a reversal from the Biden-Trump match in June, which Trump was seen as winning by 66-28%.

CNN found 63% of viewers polled believed Harris won the debate, with 37% favoring Trump.  That’s the  opposite of CNN’s poll after the prior debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, when Biden showed signs of aging and confusion before dropping out of the race and CNN’s poll showed 67% felt Trump had won.

Even a Fox News poll taken after the debate showed Harris surging in swing states, though it remains to be seen if that momentum will translate into electoral college votes.

THE ISSUES

Here are highlights of the candidates' remarks on key issues.

Economy

Harris promised an “opportunity economy” for the middle class, workers and families. She pledged to propose a childcare tax credit of $6,000, $25,000 to help first-time homebuyers afford a house, and a $50,000 tax deduction to start-up small businesses. She faulted Trump’s plan to provide “a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations” which would add “$5 million to America’s deficit.” She has pledged to go after grocery corporations on price-gouging to help bring prices down. Harris said Trump’s administration left behind the worst unemployment rates since the Great Depression.

Fact check:  Unemployment in 2020 did reach the worst since the 1930s Depression during Trump’s presidency, but started to taper off by the end of Trump’s term, as the pandemic eased. Unemployment under the Biden-Harris administration has continued to improve.

Trump claimed the Biden-Harris economy was “probably the worst in our nation’s history” and claimed his administration created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country.” He insisted that tariffs on foreign goods he wants to impose would lower inflation.

Fact check: Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 during the Biden administration and worldwide as nations emerged from the pandemic—but was also at that same high level several times during Trump’s presidency in June and July 2019—before the pandemic. Inflation, though still above pre-pandemic levels that boosted inflation worldwide, is now at 2.9%, the lowest since March 2021, NBC reports. Harris’ characterization of a “Trump tax” costing consumers thousands a year needs clarification; he has not proposed a national sales tax.  However, major economists have said Trump’s tariff plan would cost U.S. consumers thousands of dollars a year by raising costs of goods sold in the U.S., the same effect as a tax, and would increases the national debt.

Trump called his economic plan “brilliant” and slammed Harris’ plan as like four sentences, like run-Spot run...She doesn’t have a plan.”

Fact check: Harris has published her 79-page detailed plan, titled “A New Way Forward for the MIddle Class,” which you can read here.

Immigrants

Trump has pledged to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, the largest migrant deportation in U.S. history. He repeatedly claimed that migrants are pouring in from  prisons and insane asylums, with no evidence of this. He said immigrants are taking American jobs and blamed immigrants for increasing crime in America, though the moderator clarified that according to the FBI, violent crime has actually decreased. Nationwide.

Trump then made a bizarre claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield,Oho, are “eating the dogs...they’re eating the cats.” he moderator announced that Springfield’s city manager told ABC that this is false; there have been no reports of this. Trump’s false statement has since sparked threats including bomb scares that forced closures of hospitals and schools in Springfield.

Harris noted that she has prosecuted drug cartels and traffickers, and noted that Biden in June imposed tough asylum restrictions that have sharply reduced illegal border crossings. She said Biden was willing to sign a tough immigration and border protection bill supported by top Congressional conservatives as well as Democrats, but that Trump told Republicans in Congress to kill the bill for self-serving reasons. “He preferred to run on a problem, instead of fixing it.” Factcheck: It’s true that the bipartisan bill, which would have beefed up border security, added fentanyl screeners, and tightened immigration requirements was killed by Congressional Republicans who previously supported it, at the request of Trump.

Abortion and reproductive rights

Co-moderator Linsey Davis of ABC asked Trump why women should trust him on abortion issues when he has changed his position so many times, from calling himself the “most pro-life president” in history to  later saying he would oppose, then support a six-week abortion ban in Florida. 

Trump claimed Democrats including vice presidential nominee Tim Walz support “execution after birth.” The moderator noted that killing a baby after birth is illegal in all 50 states. Trump then doubled down to defend his appointment of Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe vs. Wade, which ended abortion protections nationwide and allows states to ban or restrict abortion. He said he personally supports exceptions only for rape,incest and to save a mother’s life.

Harris delivered a blistering response, noting that Trump hand-picked justices willing to allow states to criminalize abortion. “Now in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide healthcare. In one state ,it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exceptions even for rape and incest...a survivor of a crime...that is immoral.” She spoke of women suffering miscarriages “being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot....But understand, if  Donald Trump were to be re-elected, he will sign a national abortion ban. Understand in his Project 2025 there would be a national abortion ban.”

Trump claimed, “There’s no reason to sign a ban, because we’ve gotten what everybody wanted....I did something nobody thought was possible. The states are now voting.”  He insisted Congress wouldn’t have the votes to pass a national abortion ban so he wouldn’t have to decide whether to sign it or not.

Fact check:  Republicans currently control the House of Representatives and have enough votes to ban abortion nationwide. The Senate currently would block such an effort, but Democrats have only a slim margin. The outcome of the November Congressional elections could alter the balance of power in the House and/or Senate, determining whether or not a national abortion ban bill could pass both houses of Congress and head to the President’s desk for a signature or veto.

Harris, by contrast, said that “when Congress passes a bill to “put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade, as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law.”  Similarly, her projection that Congress would pass such a bill is dependent on the outcome of the Congressional elections.

Healthcare

Fact check:  Project 2025, described by its authors (including 140 Trump top officials) as a blueprint for a second Trump presidency, calls for all mention of “climate change” to be removed from all government websites and to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. 

Healthcare

Harris touted the Affordable Care Act enacted by the Obama administration as a success in eliminating insurance companies ability to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, built upon by the Biden administration’s actions such as allowing Medicare to negotiate for prescription drug prices, sharply dropping the cost of medications such as insulin.  “Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege,” she said.

Trump claimed it was his choice to keep the ACA (Obamacare) against his better judgment, because he thinks it’s too expensive for citizens.

Harris noted that President Trump in fact tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act when he had a Republican-controlled Congress and was blocked only by the decisive “no” vote of Republican Senator John McCain.  (Fact check: this is true).

Pressed as to why he has still not announced an alternative plan to the ACA, nine years after he first took office as President and called for repeal of Obamacare, Trump said he has “concepts of a plan” but did not divulge a single detail. 

Foreign policy

Harris took Trump to task over his support of dictators such as Russian president Vladimir Putin, his disparaging remarks about U.S. troops and fallen soldiers, and undermining America’s role as a leading force for democracy.

Nowhere was the contrast between the two candidates starker than when moderator David Muir asked Trump, “Do you want Ukraine to win this war?”

Trump said, “I want this war to stop,” and cited the many lives lost and economic cost of U.S. support for Ukraine.  “We’re playing with World War III,” he said, calling Biden a weak negotiator. But when pressed by the moderator on if he wanted Ukraine to win its war against Russia’s invasion, Trump repeatedly failed to answer.

Harris chided Trump, noting “You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me. I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours (if he is elected) is because he would just give it up. And that’s not who we are as Americans.”

She said she met with Ukraine’s president Vlodomyr Zelensky a few days before Russia invaded to warn him, based on U.S. intelligence, and advise how he could defend Ukraine. “Days later, I went to NATO’s eastern flank, to Poland and Romania. And through the work that and others did, we brought 50 countries together to support Ukraine in its righteous defense” including air defense, tanks, artillery and more.

“Putin’s agenda is not just about Ukraine. Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer president,” Harris told Trump, “and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known...otherwise Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland.”

Trump noted that Putin has nuclear weapons “and eventually, uh, maybe he’ll use them.”  He later said the U.S. was being “ripped off by NATO” and reiterated his message to NATO allies in Europe:”If you don’t pay, we’re not going to protect you.”

Asked about the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under Biden’s watch,  Harris blamed the Trump administration for negotiating “one of the weakest deals you can imagine” that included committing the U.S. to withdraw from Afghanistan by a date during the next President (Biden)’s  administration. She also criticized Trump for inviting the head of the Taliban to Camp David and agreeing to release 5,000 Taliban terrorists. “He bypassed the Afghan government, negotiating directly with a terrorist organization,” Harris said. 

Trump defended his actions. “Abdul is the head of the Taliban. He is still the head of the Taliban. And I told Abdul, don’t do it anymore” the said he showed the Taliban leader a picture of his house, implying retaliation against his family.  He called the agreement to pull out of Afghanistan “a good agreement”  but faulted the Biden administration for leaving behind some Americans and military equipment during the fall of Kabul following the U.S. withdrawal, when the Taliban violently seized control of Afghanistan.

Despite criticism of his praise for dictators, Trump praised Hungary’s racist dictator Viktor Orban as “one of the most respected men.”

On the Israel-Hamas war, Harris called for a cease-fire and release of hostages. She pledged support for Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks by Hamas, but also called for a “two state solution where we can rebuild Gaza” and assure security and self-determination for Palestinians.

Trump claimed the war never would have started if he were president. He faulted the Biden administration for removing some sanctions on Iran, which has backed Hezbollah, attacking Israel from the north while Hamas battles Israel in Gaza. “I will get that settled and fast,” he predicted, but provided no specifics on how he might accomplish this goal.

Climate Change

The moderator asked what each candidate would do to fight climate change.

“The former president has called climate change a hoax,” Harris said accurately. She spoke of the growing number of homeowners denied insurance in states hit by increasing natural disasters tied to climate change. She voiced pride in the Biden-Harris administration for investing a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy, creating 800,000 new manufacturing jobs in clean energy, while boosting oil and gas production to decrease dependence on foreign oil while the U.S. transitions to a clean energy economy, including electric vehicles, wind and solar. She noted that U.S. manufacturing has grown during the Biden-Harris administration, while auto plants shut down during Trump’s tenure in office.

Trump refused to name a single action to address the climate crisis. Instead, he pivoted to a disjointed rant on auto manufacturing  overseas and failed to discuss any of his own energy policies. Trump’s energy policies, touted in his stump speeches, include actions that would worsen climate change such as increasing drilling of oil and gas, coal production, and eliminating tax credits for electric vehicle purchases.

Protecting democracy

Harris, California’s former attorney general, drew a sharp contrast between her representation of the people in prosecutions of criminals versus Trump, “who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference, has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance in November at his own criminal sentencing” adding that the former president called for defunding federal law enforcement “on the day after he was arraigned on 34 felony counts” of which he was later found guilty.

She argued that Trump should not be trusted in a position of power again, especially after the Supreme Court ruled to provide broad immunity for any official acts while a president is in power.

The moderator noted that after refusing to accept defeat, on Jan. 6, 2021 Trump watched on TV  while a mob fired up by his  false claims of a stolen election tried to violently stop the peaceful transfer of power at the Capitol. “It was more than two hours before you sent out that video message telling your supporters to go home.   Is there anything you regret about what you did that day?” she asked Trump.

Trump referred to the insurrectionists, even those who harmed police officers, as “this group of people that have been treated so badly”  and did not express any regrets over his own actions. He claimed he offered National Guard troops that were rejected by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a claim that has previously been debunked as false; Trump made no such offer and Pelosi had no such power to order or refuse troops to protect the Capitol. Harris fired back that she was at the Capitol as Vice President Elect when the violent mob attacked the Capitol, injuring 140 police officers.

Harris reminded viewers that Trump has said there will be a “bloodbath” if he loses this November’ s election.  Moderator David Muir pressed Trump on his false claims of winning, despite 62 judges all finding no evidence of fraud, including judges Trump appointed.  He ignored the facts and instead denounced America as “a nation in decline. We have a nation that is dying.”

Harris noted that Trump has “openly said he would terminate, I’m quoting the Constitution of the United States. That he would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies.  Someone who has openly expressed disdain for members of our military...We know now the court won’t stop it...It’s up to the American people to stop him.”

Trump claimed his recent injury by a would-be assassin’s bullet was the fault of Harris and Democrats for saying he’s a threat to democracy.  “They’re the threat to democracy—with the fake Russia Russia Russia investigation that went nowhere.”

Closing statements

In closing, Vice President Harris promised a brighter future by charting “a new way forward” by investing in small businesses and families, protecting seniors, and “giving hard-working folks a break in bringing down the cost of living,:

She added, “I believe in what we can do together that is about sustaining America’s standing in the world” while respecting our military and protecting “fundamental rights and freedoms” including women’s reproductive rights.  As a prosecutor, Senator, and Vice President, she concluded, “I’ve only had one client: the people.” She pledged to be a president who puts the people first, not someone who is “putting themselves first. I intend to be a president for all Americans and focus on what we can do over the next 10 and 20 years to build back up our country by investing right now in you, the American people.”

Former President Trump offered not a single positive statement, vision or promise in his closing remarks.  He said of Harris’ promised reforms, “Why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there for three and a half years.” He failed to acknowledge that Harris is not president, nor that a Republican-controlled Congress has backed many of the Biden-Harris legislation.

He reiterated that he won’t backtrack on boosting production of fossil fuels, and claimed that after German tried shifting to a renewable energy system, “within one year they were back to building normal energy plants.” (Fact check:  German posted a Tweet calling this statement of Trump’s false.)

Trump claimed foreign leaders are “laughing at us” and then sought to stoke fear, predicting darkly, “We have wars going on with Russia and Ukraine. We’re going to end up in a third World War. And it will be a war like no other because of nuclear weapons.:

He ended by circling back to immigration, repeating his claim that many immigrants are “criminals, and they’re destroying our country” and called President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris “the worst president, the worst vice president in the history of our country.”

After the debate, Trump announced that he would not participate in a future debate with Harris, while Harris has said she would eagerly participate in another debate before voters choose the ultimate winner in the November election.