It was in 2019 when Vice President Kamala Harris told her Democratic primary challengers at the time that her party needed a candidate “who has the ability to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump” during a debate when she first ran for president.
Harris, who easily secured the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination after President Joe Biden’s exit, did just that during her debate with Trump, political analysts say.
There were some firsts Tuesday evening in Philadelphia: the first time Harris and Trump had faced each other in an in-person debate and the first time they had even been in the same room.
When she first entered the stage, Harris seemed to catch Trump off guard when she walked over to his lectern to shake his hand and introduce herself. “Kamala Harris,” she said. Trump responded by saying, “have fun.”
The two battled over the economy, abortion, inflation, immigration, and Project 2025. They often went off subject, criticizing each other about their campaign rallies, various policies, and more. At one point, the Republican candidate even spread baseless claims of immigrants eating people’s pets in Ohio.
They both laid out their respective visions on running the country — with some interruptions, even though the rules stated that microphones were supposed to be muted while a candidate was speaking.
Health care was a subject during the debate in which Harris expressed her intention to grow the Affordable Care Act. Conversely, Trump said he wants to replace Obamacare but did not provide specific plans.
When asked about whether he had a health care plan, the former president responded that he had “concepts of a plan” to replace the ACA without offering details.
“If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our population, less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it,” Trump stated.
Two ABC News correspondents moderated the event. Here are seven key takeaways:
Harris took the first question about whether Americans are satisfied with the economy. She reiterated her recently released economic plan to build what she calls “an opportunity economy” and help cut the costs for families.
“I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people,” Harris said. “Here’s the thing, we know that we have a shortage of homes and housing and the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people.”
“We know that young families need support to raise their children and I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000, which is the largest child tax credit that we have given in a long time,” she added.
Trump has a plan to provide tax relief to billionaires and big corporations, as well as a tax on “everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month,” Harris said.
Trump denied those claims, saying “I have no sales tax, that’s an incorrect statement and she knows that.”
He said he plans to impose taxes on imported goods from other countries. “We’re doing tariffs on other countries,” Trump said. “Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world and the tariff will be substantial in some cases.”
He continued: “I took in billions and billions of dollars as, you know, from China. In fact, they never took the tariff off because there was so much money, they couldn’t. It would totally destroy everything.”
One big moment came when Trump doubled down on claims that immigrants in a small town in Ohio were eating people’s pets.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there and this is what’s happening in our country and it’s a shame.”
“A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it,” he said.
Debate moderator David Muir informed Trump that the network had fact-checked those claims and found no reports of pets being harmed by immigrants.
Local police have said there is no evidence to support those claims. The rumors began with a Facebook post that cited the poster’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend,” according to local police. The original poster did not provide firsthand knowledge of an incident, Springfield Police said in a statement.
Harris appeared to get under Trump’s skin by claiming that people attending his rallies leave “early out of exhaustion and boredom.”
The former president takes pride in his campaign rallies, often saying the media intentionally doesn’t turn the camera to show the large crowds he says he draws. Harris even invited voters to attend one of the former president’s rallies “because it’s a really interesting thing to watch.”
“You will not hear him talk about your needs,” she said.
But Trump made sure to respond about the crowd numbers. “People don’t leave my rallies,” he said. “People don’t go to her rallies, he said, adding that the Harris campaign is allegedly “paying” people to attend her rallies.
The controversial conservative agenda was brought up by Harris, who accused Trump of plans to implement Project 2025. She also pledged to be a president “for all Americans.”
“What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again,” she said. “I believe very strongly that the American people want a president who understands the importance of bringing us together.”
Trump pushed back against her comments, saying he has nothing to do with Project 2025. “I’ve never read it.”
Trump has publicly denounced Project 2025. However, he suggested that not all of the conservative ideas are bad.
“I don’t want to read it,” he said. “I’m not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas. I guess some good, some bad but it makes no difference. … everybody knows I’m an open book. Everybody knows what I’m going to do: cut taxes, very substantially and create a great economy like I did before.”
One of the moderators questioned Trump’s stance on abortion, noting that he has reversed his position on abortion bans multiple times.
Trump said he supports exceptions to abortion bans, including in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother.
“Ronald Reagan did also. 85 percent of Republicans do,” he said. “We were able to get it, and now states are voting on it. … Look, this is an issue that has torn our country apart for 52 years.”
Meanwhile, Harris declared that she’d protect abortion rights if elected. “I absolutely support reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
Trump accused Harris’ vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, of saying “abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine,” to which Harris responded, “That is not true.”
Harris also warned that if Trump is elected, he would sign a national abortion ban, but Trump denied this in his response.
“It’s a lie. I’m not signing a ban, and there is no reason to sign a ban because we’ve gotten what everybody wanted,” he said, adding that lawmakers wanted to leave abortion bans up to the states.
Trump later went on a rant about the Biden-Harris administration failing to implement its student loan forgiveness plan, calling it “a total catastrophe.” Biden’s plan to erase college student debt was repeatedly rejected by the high court, Trump said.
“They taunted young people,” Trump added. His campaign later released a statement in an email, saying “bailing out student loan debt could actually increase the cost of college and penalize Americans who responsibly paid their debt.”
After the debate, Harris secured an endorsement from a top pop artist. Singer Taylor Swift posted her endorsement to Instagram, with a picture of herself posing with her now-famous cat. In her IG caption, she appeared to take a jab at VP nominee Sen. JD Vance’s infamous “cat lady” comment: “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.”
She wrote on Instagram: “I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift said of Harris before encouraging her followers to do their own research on the candidates and register to vote.”
Trump insisted he won the debate against not only Harris, but the ABC News moderators David Muir and Lindsey Davis. Muir and Davis fact-checked and corrected Trump four times during the debate, but they did not fact-check Harris.
“I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s team complained that the moderators didn’t correct Harris when she made some alleged false statements.
It’s unclear right now whether Trump will agree to another debate. Multiple TV networks want to host a presidential debate in October, according to CNN. The Harris campaign immediately said she would agree to a second debate with Trump. But Trump has rejected a second debate, according to news outlets.
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