Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced off in their first televised presidential election debate where they clashed on immigration, abortion and foreign policy.
Both candidates accused each other of weakness and lying in the 90-minute war of words .
Former president Trump faced awkward questions about the Republican party’s hardline stance on abortion, his involvement in the January 6 insurrection and his unfounded claims that migrants are “eating pets” in Ohio as he sought to turn the debate to immigration at every opportunity.
Meanwhile, Ms Harris had to defend her role as Vice President in Joe Biden’s administration, including the “chaotic” withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the way the country has handled the wars in Israel and Ukraine.
A former prosecutor, Ms Harris, 59, controlled the debate from the start, getting under her rival's skin repeatedly and prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to deliver a series of falsehood-filled retorts.
At one point, she goaded the former president by saying that people often leave his campaign rallies early "out of exhaustion and boredom."
Trump, who has been frustrated by the size of Ms Harris’s own crowds, said: “My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”
The event, which began at 2am BST in Philadelphia, was the first time Americans got a detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June after which President Biden bowed out of the 2024 US election race following a disastrous performance.
Since then Trump has survived an assassination attempt and both sides chose their running mates.
