US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are facing off in the first — and perhaps only — debate ahead of the 2024 election and there’s a LOT to talk about.
The debate is hosted by the US television network ABC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — a key battleground that both candidates will hope to win over before America heads to the polls in just 56 days.
Now, sit back, relax, and let’s dive into the wildest moments from the debate. Warning: you probably won’t be able to relax by the time it’s done.
The wildest moments from the Donald Trump v Kamala Harris debate
1. Kamala Harris tells Americans to go to a Trump rally
Early in the debate, Harris urged voters to go to a Trump rally and see how unhinged things are for themselves.
“It’s a really interesting thing to watch,” she said.
“You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter, and [that] windmills cause cancer.
“You will notice that people leave early out of exhaustion and boredom.
“The one thing you will not hear him talk about is your needs, your dreams and your desires.
“I believe you deserve a president who actually puts you first. I pledge to you, I will.”
Trump responded that people “don’t leave [his] rallies”.
“We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible in the history of politics,” he says.
2. Trump claims Haitian immigrants are eating pets, Harris laughs
Trump has referenced a viral tweet in which an anonymous person claimed that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
“What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country, and look at what is happening to the towns all over the United States,” Trump said.
“In Springfield, they are eating the dogs, the people who came in, they are eating the cats. They are eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Harris laughed in confusion to this statement, which is fair considering Ohio police confirmed that nobody made reports about stolen and/or consumed pets.
Both Trump and VP candidate J.D. Vance have helped amplify these false claims.
3. Trump dodges question on whether he has regrets about January 6
Trump was asked if he had any regrets about his actions on January 6, 2021 — the day the Capitol was stormed.
He started by suggesting he encouraged peaceful protest.
“You just said a thing that isn’t covered: peacefully and patriotically. I said during my speech, not later on, ‘peacefully and patriotically’. And nobody on either side was killed,” he said.
He then proceeded to call Harris a “border tsar” before being directed back to the question. He then claimed he had “nothing to do with” the insurrection and blamed Nancy Pelosi with no real explanation as to why.
“I had nothing to do with that other than they asked me to make a speech. I showed up for a speech.”
4. Trump *still* refuses to acknowledge he lost the 2020 election
When asked about his recent comments about losing “by a whisker”, Trump claims this was sarcasm and continued to push the narrative that he did not lose the election. It goes without sayin that he, emphatically, did lose the election.
“There’s so much proof,” he said.
“I got almost 75 million votes, the most votes any sitting president ever got and I was told if I got 63 million, which is what I got in 2016, you can’t be beaten.”
5. Harris warns that America can’t afford to elect a president who will “upend” the election
Harris claimed that “world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump” when asked if she thinks Trump is trying to suppress the vote.
“I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you, and they say you’re a disgrace,” she said.
“And when you then talk in this way in a presidential debate and deny what over and over again are court cases you have lost because you did, in fact, lose that election, it leads one to believe that perhaps we do not have in the candidate to my right the temperament or the ability to not be confused about fact.
“That’s deeply troubling and the American people deserve better.”
6. Trump says Harris “hates” Israel
Now we’re talking about Palestine and Israel. Trump says Harris “hates” Israel.
“Israel won’t exist in two years if Kamala wins,” Trump says.
“At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up, Arabs, Jewish people, Israel, Israel will be gone.”
Harris refutes this, saying she has spent her whole life and career supporting Israel. She turns the conversation back to Trump’s foreign policy.
“He’s trying to, again, divide and distract from the reality, which is, it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy,” she said.
7. Trump dodges “simple question” about Ukraine
Before the break, Trump suggested he would solve the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. After the break, he was asked if he wanted Ukraine to win.
“I want the war to stop,” he said.
“It’s so much worse than the numbers that you’re getting, which are fake numbers.”
He refuses to side with Ukraine and tried to claim that Harris met with Putin (she didn’t) before the war broke out and Putin invaded days later.
“Let me tell you something, she is a horrible negotiator,” Trump said. “They sent her in to negotiate. As soon as they left, Putin did the invasion.”
Again, I must stress that she has never met Putin.
“Yet again, I said it at the beginning of this debate, you’re going to hear a bunch of lies coming from this fella and that is though one,” Harris confirmed.
8. Transgender operations on illegal aliens
In the middle of an answer about fracking and energy, Trump pivoted to perhaps the weirdest place possible, asserting that Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”
We didn’t get any real elaboration on this because, obviously, it was totally left of field, but the internet went wild for it.
9. Trump asked about comments on Harris’ race
Donald Trump was asked about his recent comments regarding Harris’ race. For those unfamiliar, he claimed that she “happened to turn Black”.
When asked why he thought these comments were appropriate, he said:
“I don’t. And I don’t care. I don’t care what she is. I don’t care. You make a big deal out of something,” he said.
“I couldn’t care less. Whatever she wants to be is OK with me.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. All I can say is I read where she was not Black, that she put out and I’ll say that and then I read that she was Black. And that’s OK. Either one was OK with me. That’s up to her.”
Harris responded by referencing his refusal to rent to Black families.
“He owned land, he owned buildings and he was investigated because he refused to rent property to Black families,” she says.
10. Harris closing statement
In Harris’ closing statement, she stressed that she intends “to be a president for all Americans.”
“I think you’ve heard tonight two very different visions for our country. One that is focused on the future, and the other that has focused on the past, in an attempt to take us backward.
“But we’re not going back.
“I do believe the American people know we all have so much more in common than what separates us and we can chart a new way forward.
“And a vision of that includes having a plan, understanding the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes, the ambition of the American people, which is why I intend to create an opportunity economy, investing in small businesses, in new families, in what we can do around protecting seniors. What we can do that is about giving hard-working folks a break and bringing down the cost of living.
“I believe in what we can do together that is about sustaining America’s standing in the world and ensuring we have the respect that we so rightly deserve, including respecting our military and ensuring we have the most lethal fighting force in the world.
“I will be a president that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.
“I’ll tell you, I started my career as a prosecutor, I was a DA, an attorney-general, a United States senator and now a vice-president. I only have one client: the people.
“As a prosecutor I never asked a victim or a witness: ‘Are you a Republican or Democrat?’ The only thing I ever asked them is: ‘Are you OK?’ And that’s the kind of president we need right now. Someone who cares about you and is not putting themself 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.”
11. Trump closing statement
Trump ended the debate with a closing statement noting that Harris is currently in power, asking “why hasn’t she done” these things already?
“She started by saying she is going to do this and that, do it all these wonderful things.
“Why hasn’t she done it?
“She’s been there for three and a half years, they had three and a half years to fix the border, they’ve had three and a half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about, why hasn’t she done it?
“She should leave right now, go down to the beautiful White House, go to the Capitol, get everyone together and do the things you want to do but you haven’t done it and you won’t.
“Because you believe in things American people don’t believe in. You believe in things like, ‘we’re not gonna frack, we’re not gonna take fossil fuel, we’re not gonna do things that will make this country strong whether you like it or not’.
“Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants. We are not ready for it. We can’t sacrifice our country for the sake of bad vision.
“But I just ask one simple question, why didn’t she do it? We’re a failing nation. We’re a nation that is in serious decline.
“We’re being laughed at all over the world, all over the world. I know the leaders very well, they’re coming to see me, they call me, we are laughed at all over the world, they don’t understand what happened to us as a nation.
“We are not a leader. We don’t have any idea what’s going on, we have wars going on in the Middle East, we have wars going on with Russia and Ukraine, we are going to end up in a Third World War and it will be a war like no other because of nuclear weapons, the power of weaponry.
“I rebuilt our entire military, she gave a lot of it away to the Taliban. She gave it to Afghanistan.
“What these people have done to our country and maybe toughest of all is allowing millions of people to come into our country, many of them are criminals and they are destroying our country. The worst president, the worst vice president in the history of our country.”
12. Harris wants a second debate
The debate *just* finished and Harris’ camp is already pushing for another debate, according to Reuters.
Lead image: Getty Images
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