Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump faced off in a debate in Philadelphia, fighting for electoral votes ahead of the United States presidential election in November.
It was the first debate between Harris and Trump in the current campaign for a seat in the White House.
The presidential debate in June practically ended the campaign of US President Joseph Biden after his disastrous performance against Trump. Harris then took over as the Democratic nominee, and the race has heated up ever since.
According to almost all relevant polls, a very tight election race is expected, and the question of the winner will traditionally "break" in a few key states, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
On several occasions, the candidates tried to interrupt each other until their microphones were turned on and the other was speaking.
Harris pointed out that Trump and she have two "very different" visions for America. She stated that she is focused on the future, while Trump is focused on the past.
"We are not going back. We can chart a new path forward," said Haris.
Trump said that Harris, the current vice president of the United States, has been in power for almost four years and is nothing like the policies she stands for.
"We cannot sacrifice our country for the sake of a bad vision. We are a nation that is collapsing and we are being laughed at all over the world," he said.
Economy
The debate opened with questions about the economy. Harris said she was "raised as a middle-class kid" and will be focused on creating an "opportunity economy." She sharply criticized Trump for policies she said would increase costs for Americans. Trump rejected that and said he would focus on tariffs on imports from foreign countries. And he quickly shifted his focus to immigration, saying people were "pouring into the country".
Like Biden before her, Harris criticized Trump for the legacy of his first term, from his handling of the economy to his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
"What we've done is clean up Donald Trump's mess," Harris said.
Abortion
Asked to clarify his stance on abortion, given his "mixed" messages in the past, Trump first accused Democrats of wanting to allow abortion in the "ninth month" of pregnancy.
Democrats are "radical" about it, he says, arguing that Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Volz has specifically pushed for ninth-month abortion. Trump said he helped return the issue to the states to decide and said he believed in exceptions for rape and incest cases.
Harris noted that Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices who overturned the nation's right to abortion two years ago. She stated that several states have passed "Trump's abortion bans that do not make exceptions for rape and incest."
"You're saying this is what people wanted," she said, describing women "bleeding in the car in the parking lot" because they can't get an abortion.
"They don't want that," Harris pointed out.
Immigration
Harris recalled that she prosecuted people smugglers and accused Trump of overturning the border security law that at one point had bipartisan support.
"You know what happened? Donald Trump called some people in Congress and told them to "kill" the bill. Why? Because he preferred to deal with the problem instead of solving it".
Trump responded with an unproven claim that migrants even ate pets in the city of Springfield, Ohio.
"They eat dogs. They eat the pets of the people who live there," says Trump.
Moderator David Muir noted that the city manager in Springfield said there was no evidence of that.
"Well, I saw people on television saying 'my dog was taken and used for a meal,'" Trump said. Harris replied:
"This is when we talk about extremes".
Trump cases before the court
Harris attacked Trump over his own criminal history in response to his claims about "migrant crimes."
"I think this is so important, coming from someone who has been prosecuted for crimes against national security, economic crimes, election interference," she says.
Trump responded by repeating some of the claims he made, saying they amounted to an abuse of the justice system. "These are false cases," he said.
Storming the Capitol
Asked to comment on his role in the riots on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, after the previous election, Trump claims he posted a tweet urging the rioters to leave. "Peacefully and patriotically, I said, during my speech, not afterwards," Trump said, adding that his speech did not call for violence.
The presenter asked him if he regrets what he did that day.
"I had nothing to do with it other than they asked me to give a speech," Trump shot back.
Harris notes that she was in Congress that day as a US senator and vice president-elect.
"That day the President of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation's Capitol, to desecrate our nation's Capitol," she said.
Near East
Haris reiterated that Israel has the right to defend itself, but it is important how it does so.
Trump said that the conflict "would never have started" if he was still president. "She hates Israel.
"If she becomes president, I believe that Israel will not exist two years from now," he said and accused Haris of "hating the Arab population as well" because he "blows up the whole place."
Harris - who has repeatedly pledged to support Israel's security - denied the claim, saying Trump was "divisive and distracting from reality".
The war in Ukraine
"I want the war to stop," Trump said when asked if he wanted Ukraine to win. He goes on to talk about the cost of Russia's war in Ukraine with the US, arguing that Europe is paying much less compared to the US.
He says that he knows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the first man of Russia, Vladimir Putin, "very well".
Haris stated that American allies from the NATO alliance are "grateful that Trump is not president". "Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kiev and looking at the rest of Europe," she says.
She also added that Putin is a "dictator who will kill Trump for lunch".
Trump's claims about Harris parentage
Moderators asked Trump about one of his most controversial statements of the election cycle — the false claim in July that Harris had only recently begun to identify as black.
"I don't care what she is," said the Republican candidate.
Harris responded that "it's a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president and has consistently tried throughout his career to use race to divide the American people."
Why is Pennsylvania important?
With 19 electors, Pennsylvania has the most votes of any of the undecided states expected to decide the election. Most analysts predict that whoever wins Pennsylvania will win the race for the White House.
Democrats have historically won Pennsylvania by winning a large majority of the vote in Philadelphia, making up for the losses they suffer in much of the rest of the state that votes for Republican candidates.
In 2020, the city saw its highest voter turnout since 1984 — 68 percent — but that number pales in comparison to the statewide turnout of 76,5 percent.
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