The debate began with her words: The US vice president walked across the stage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, held out her hand and introduced herself as “Kamala Harris.”
Incredibly, this was the first time Harris met Donald Trump, when he was elected to the White House in 2016 and Harris was elected to the Senate at the same time. The two have stayed in touch since then, and Harris built a reputation for grilling Trump administration officials in the Senate. Four years later, she helped Joe Biden defeat Trump as his running mate.
Then, for more than 90 minutes on Tuesday night, Ms. Harris put Mr. Trump on the defensive, provoking him about the size of the crowds he had gathered and pressing him about his ever-changing stance on abortion — comments that clearly unsettled the former president, who repeatedly took the bait.
“Donald Trump actually has no plan for you because he is more interested in protecting himself than he is in protecting you,” Harris said, in what became the former prosecutor’s opening statement to the American people.
The race was close, and Trump’s approval ratings remained relatively stable despite his 34 felony convictions, an assassination attempt, and a change in the Democratic candidate, so Harris could not afford a shaky performance, let alone a defeat. In the end, she delivered what fellow California Governor Gavin Newsom called a “master class.”
“She looked into the camera and kept talking about you and me and the American people and the issues they care about, while he talked about dogs and crowd sizes and frustrations and self-pity and victimhood,” he said. “It was a terrible night for him, but most importantly, a great night for the American people.”
During the debate, Trump did not say whether he would veto a nationwide abortion ban, arguing that the question was moot because it was unlikely either party would get the 60 votes needed to pass such a bill in the Senate. Trump did not explicitly say he regretted his loss in the last election or his actions on January 6, when he gave an incendiary speech before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Trump tried to play up his strengths, directing nearly every question back to immigration — “She’s so awful, so stupid,” he argued at one point — but in the post-debate spin room, even his staunchest supporters conceded that Harris had performed reasonably well.
“You have to admit there were a lot of things Kamala Harris said that were delivered better than usual,” said Vivek Ramaswami, a Republican presidential candidate and Trump surrogate, “but actions speak louder than words.”
Trump certainly threw punches and drew laughs, claiming that Harris had adopted “my current philosophy” on the economy. “I was thinking of sending her a MAGA hat,” Trump joked, causing Harris to throw her head back in laughter.
In a series of tense exchanges, Harris sought to outline her policies while embracing a mission for change, telling viewers that Trump would resort to “the same old tactics: a string of lies, complaints and name-calling.”
“Let’s turn the page on this and not look back,” she said.
Trump, meanwhile, has tried to cast Harris as a copycat of the unpopular president — an attack his surrogates had flagged before the debate — and at one point accused her of plagiarizing Biden’s economic plan.
“It’s like four sentences: ‘Run, Spot, Run,'” he said.
Trump also challenged Harris on abortion, trying to press her on whether she would support legislation allowing women to have abortions late into pregnancy. Harris fended off accusations that she is a “Marxist” who supports far-left climate policies, reiterated that she would not ban fracking and touted the Biden administration’s energy policies, leading some liberal climate activists to denounce it as a “missed opportunity.”
“Harris has spent more time promoting fracking than she has laying out a bold vision for a clean energy future,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, communications director for the climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement.
But Trump ended the night angry at his treatment by ABC News hosts David Muir and Lindsay Davis.
“It was clearly 3 to 1,” Trump told reporters during a surprise appearance at the press conference after the debate, repeating his surrogates’ claims that the moderators had mistreated him. But Trump boasted, “I think that was my best debate ever.”
Unlike past presidential debates, the moderators took a more active role as fact-checkers rather than just asking questions. The interventions infuriated Republicans and their supporters. Davis denied the claim that Democrats support post-birth abortion, which is illegal in all 50 states, and Muir denied a false rumor spread by Trump onstage that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were kidnapping and eating pets.
The importance of the debate, arguably the candidates’ largest audience before Election Day, was underscored by Biden’s dismal performance in June. But a good performance — or, maybe more important in today’s fractured media environment, a viral moment — doesn’t necessarily mean victory in November.
The national mood remains sour. A New York Times/Siena College poll found that a majority of voters (61%) want the next president to bring about “big change.” Only 40% said the vice president embodies “change,” while 61% say the former president did.
And in 2016, Hillary Clinton was deemed to have won all three of her debates with Trump, but Trump still won. It is unclear whether there will be another debate between Harris and Trump.
Speaking at Cherry Street Pier, just down the road from the debate, Harris told the crowd that she and running mate Tim Walz were still “underdogs” in the race for the White House, but the pair left the debate on a positive note.
“Tonight highlighted what’s at stake for the American people,” Harris said. “Hard work is good work, and we will prevail.”
Immediately after she finished speaking, the crowd rang out “The Man” by Taylor Swift, one of the most famous pop stars in the music industry, as she voiced her support for the vice president.
“Like many of you, I watched tonight’s debate,” Swift wrote on Instagram, “and I will be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for President in 2024.”