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What to know about last night's debate
- Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris engaged in a fiery debate, bashing each other's policies and proposals in their first presidential debate of the 2024 race.
- Harris focused her early remarks on the economy, while Trump often pivoted to immigration and promoted conspiracy theories. The two candidates also had an intense exchange over abortion, with Harris saying women are "bleeding out" in parking lots and Trump sidestepping a question about a national ban on the procedure.
- The back-and-forth at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia was riddled with false and misleading comments, including on job growth and a baseless claim about Haitian immigrants.
- The stakes were high for both candidates heading into tonight's showdown. Harris, who entered the race just seven weeks ago, has had limited time to define her candidacy and win over voters. Meanwhile, Trump's allies had hoped he would stay on message and turn around what has been a rocky summer for his campaign.
- Shortly after the debate, pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Harris. In doing so, she took a swipe at Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.
Harris rattles ‘angry’ Trump in debate as both candidates seek mantle of change
PHILADELPHIA — Trump found out last night that he’s got a much tougher rival on his hands now.
Harris, who took the Democratic presidential nomination when Biden stepped aside after a catastrophic debate performance in June, delivered aggressive attacks and coherent rebuttals. And she baited Trump, who, in one particularly agitated moment, bristled at her attempt to interrupt him — with some allies saying after the debate that he had lost control at a key moment.
“Wait a minute,” he scolded, his annoyance clear in his tone and expression. “I’m talking now. You don’t mind? ... Does that sound familiar?”
Trump has made his supporters white-knuckle through bad debate nights before, when he narrowly won the 2016 election and when he narrowly lost the 2020 election. But Trump, who was heartened in the past week by some more favorable public polling than he has seen recently, missed an opportunity to lock in his good personal vibes.
After Tuesday’s matchup, he approached reporters to criticize the ABC News moderators and call the night a win. He declined to answer questions about committing to a second debate, which Harris’ campaign challenged him to do in a statement earlier in the night.
“The polls are very good. I felt very good about it,” he said.
Vance defends pet-eating comments, says Springfield city manager isn't 'fully in touch'
Vance insisted in an interview that there is evidence of immigrants' eating animals in Springfield, Ohio, despite comments from local police and officials that there is no evidence to support the claims.
"A lot of residents on the ground have said that there is. That just means the city manager, I think, isn’t fully in touch with what’s going on on the ground there," he said. "I’ve heard from many of my own constituents who have seen these things with their own eyes, who’ve seen these abductions with their own eyes, who have seen geese being taken out of local parks and slaughtered in front of their eyes."
Fact check: Trump calls Harris' dad a Marxist
Verdict
That's not what his students say.
Analysis
In interviews, three of Professor Donald Harris’ former students, who are now economists themselves, told NBC News that they disagreed that Harris' father is a Marxist. Donald Harris taught at Stanford University for nearly three decades until he retired in 1998, and while he was there, he studied Karl Marx’s economic philosophy, among the philosophies of other different thinkers, his students recall. While Harris has spoken about her father’s influence in her early childhood, she has credited her mother for being the parent who shaped her into the person she is today.
Newsom says he would ‘love to see a second debate’
California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised Harris’ performance and said he would love to see a second debate between Harris and Trump. He also discussed the significance of Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris, which she posted on social media after the debate.
Watch the first debate between Harris and Trump in 3 minutes
Watch highlights from the first 2024 presidential debate between Harris and Trump in Philadelphia. The candidates debated issues facing the nation, such as the economy, abortion and immigration.
Trump says he thinks 'maybe I shouldn't do' a second debate
During multiple interviews with reporters after the debate, Trump would not commit to debating Harris again, saying at one point, "maybe I shouldn't do it."
"She wants it because she lost," Trump said during an appearance on Fox News shortly after the debate.
When asked again if he has an answer on whether he would debate Harris again, he said he'd "have to think about it." He then added, "If you won the debate, I sort of think maybe I shouldn't do it. Why should I do another debate?"
Trump said that he might do another debate if it were run by a "fair" network.
Asked the same question during his surprise appearance in the post-debate spin room, Trump was similarly noncommittal.
“We’ll think about” a second debate, Trump told reporters.
This comes in the wake of a tumultuous performance tonight by Trump, where the former president was baited by Harris repeatedly and despite his appeals for more debates in the weeks leading up to tonight.
Trump’s campaign suggested this afternoon that Harris would be unwilling to face off against Trump again. “This may be the one and only debate, just like CNN may have been the one and only chance for Kamala Harris to have a sit-down interview before the election,” Trump senior advisor Danielle Alvarez said during a press call with reporters.
Potential Trump Arizona voter criticizes Trump's Jan. 6 debate answer
Romeo Navaro, 22, an operations specialist from Phoenix who is undecided, said Trump doesn't want to take "any responsibility" for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
"I think when he called for a peaceful protest, or whatever he called it in the debate, I don’t think he realized what his words, the effect they can have on people," he said. "And I think it got out of hand. And I think in general he didn’t know how to handle it at the time. And now he doesn’t want to take any responsibility for him being kind of careless with how he decided to speak towards, you know, his base."
But that hasn't swayed Navaro, who is leaning toward voting for Trump. He said that "the door is definitely a lot more open" for Harris to become an option for him but that the Jan. 6 comment wasn't enough for him to change his mind completely.
Trump criticizes debate moderators: 'Obviously three-on-one'
Trump criticized the ABC News debate moderators, saying that he believed they were unfair and that "it was obviously three-on-one."
Asked about whether Republicans' complaining about moderators indicated that he had a bad night, Trump said the moderators were "very unfair." He added, "I assumed the moderators would be bad."
He frequently criticized ABC News and its correspondents in the lead-up to the debate.
Trump: 'I love Black voters'
During a brief visit to the spin room after the debate, Trump was asked about his message to Black voters.
"I love Black voters," Trump said. "I love them, and they love me, too."
Harris drops by debate watch party; Taylor Swift plays as she exits
No mention of Taylor Swift's endorsement during Harris’ remarks at the debate watch party … but Swift’s “The Man” came on immediately after she wrapped up her speech.
