UPDATE: Kamala Harris insisted that “world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump,” as she noted the number of his administration’s national security officials who have been critical of his leadership.
Trump, though, cited a world leader for a reference: Victor Orban, the authoritarian ruler of Hungary.
“It is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because it’s so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors,” she said.
Trump insisted that Biden’s administration has been “weak and effective,” while insisting that the war in Ukraine and Israel would not have happened under his presidency.
PREVIOUSLY: Donald Trump still insists that he won the 2020 presidential election, even though he told a podcast host last week that he “lost by a whisker.”
ABC News‘ David Muir had asked Trump about the comment, comparing it to his long unfounded claims that the 2020 election was rigged. The former president, though, said that he must have been being sarcastic. Muir, though, said that he lost the sarcasm of the remark.
Trump then went on an extended rant about the 2020 election, insisting that there were irregularities in ket swing states before catching himself and saying, “That’s old news.”
Harris then said, “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people…and clearly he is having a difficult time processing that.”
PREVIOUSLY: Kamala Harris largely stuck with her explanation over why her positions have changed on issues like fracking, the border and immigration.
Harris said that her values had not changed, even if her policies have, just as she told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview last month.
PREVIOUSLY: ABC News’ David Muir has been stepping in with some fact checks, most prominently with the wild claim that migrants in Springfield, OH have been eating cats and dogs, with pets disappearing.
The accusation is unfounded, and even Trump’s vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, has acknowledged that it is unconfirmed.
Muir pointed out that ABC News has contacted the city manager of Springfield, and he said there was “no evidence of that.”
“The dogs were eaten,” Trump insisted.
PREVIOUSLY: Kamala Harris rattled Donald Trump on one of her comments — that his supporters end up leaving his rallies early because they are “bored.”
She said that people should attend one of his rallies and see that “the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams and your desires.”
He responded by denying it, and with the false claim that no one shows up to her rallies. When they do show up, he said, “she is busing them in and paying them to be there.”
PREVIOUSLY: Kamala Harris has been looking directly in the camera as she answers questions — talking to the viewers versus talking solely to the moderators.
“He ended up selling American chips to China to improve and modernize military. He sold us out,” Harris said of his policies toward China.
She hammered Trump for thanking President Xi Jinping for “what he did during Covid.”
“We know that Xi was responsible for not giving us transparency about the origins of Covid,” she said.
Trump has insisted his tariffs would result in China paying more for goods.
PREVIOUSLY: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump opened their debate with Harris shaking hands.
The vice president approached Trump and extended her hand, and they politely exchanged greetings.
The opening question was about the economy, with Harris hammering Trump for his proposal for widespread tariffs, saying that it would result in an across-the-board sales tax on Americans because the cost would be passed on to consumers. Trump denied that it was a tax, before shifting to criticism of the Biden administration over the border.
“They are destroying our country,” he said of undocumented immigrants.
The stakes of the debate are enormous: Harris and Trump are neck and neck in the polls, and this event may be their only match-up of the cycle.
Amazingly enough, Harris and Trump also had never met in person before. The most obvious place where they would have — during the transition from one administration to the next on January 20, 2021 — never happened because Trump refused to attend.
ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis are moderating the debate, their first time at the helm at such a general election event.
