In the U.S. presidential election, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, clashed with his Democratic Party rival, Kamala Harris, Tuesday evening over issues such as abortion, immigration and foreign policy. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman has details from the candidates’ first debate in Philadelphia.
Standing two meters apart with no audience in the room, the two presidential nominees -- who had never met before Tuesday night – had their first encounter, hosted by ABC News and simulcast on other broadcast networks to tens of millions of likely American voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to those voters as much as she responded to the attacks from former President Donald Trump, setting much of her own course following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
"Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump. And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country. One who believes in what is possible. One who brings a sense of optimism about what we can do instead of always disparaging the American people.”
Trump blamed Harris, whom he called a Marxist, for a surge in illegal migration into the United States.
“They’ve destroyed the fabric of our country. Millions of people let in.”
Trump, without evidence, also blamed Harris for Russia invading Ukraine and the war in Gaza.
“She hates Israel. At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population because the whole place is gonna get blown up – Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone.”
For Trump, it was his seventh time on the presidential debate stage. For Harris her first.
She said the Republican nominee is unfit to return to the White House and there’s a consensus about that among world leaders except for the autocrats, whom Trump admires.
“You adore strongmen instead of caring about democracy.”
Trump’s surrogates in the spin room, such as Republican Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida, said Harris failed to articulate what she would do as president.
“Kamala Harris, all she did was attack him. She didn’t talk about the policies. She didn’t talk about her differentiations between her and the Biden administration. When Afghanistan came up, what did she say? A lot of nothing.”
Nearly a third of voters polled prior to the debate said they were familiar with Trump but needed to learn more about Harris.
The debate flushed out a clear contrast between the two, according to a Democratic Party congressman from California, Ted Lieu.
“Kamala Harris was presidential. Donald Trump was weird and incoherent.”
Unless Trump and Harris debate again before Election Day, this may have been their best opportunity to try to sway the relatively small number of undecided voters in the seven swing states expected to decide who will become the next president of the United States.
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