US Presidential Election 2024. Kamala Harris – Donald Trump Debate. Key Points

The first and perhaps the only (no other debates are planned) vice president debate took place at the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia at 9 p.m. local time (3 a.m. Wednesday in Poland). USA Kamala Harris with former president Donald Trump.

The duel was held under the same unusual rules as the Biden-Trump debate in Atlanta: a 90-minute battle without an audience, with the candidates having their microphones on only when the hosts called them, and carrying only a pen, blank paper and a bottle of water.

The first question during the debate concerned the state American economy. Kamala Harris criticized Trump's planned imposition of high tariffs on foreign goods, a proposal she compared to a sales tax on the middle class.

Harris said she is “the only candidate who has a plan to raise the middle class and workers,” mentioning the $6,000 tax breaks for newborn children and $50,000 to start small businesses.

“Donald Trump left us with the worst unemployment since the Great Depression,” Harris said. “We were cleaning up Donald Trump's mess,” she added.

“We have millions of people who are pouring into our country from prisons and jails and mental institutions and asylums and coming in and taking jobs that are currently being done by African Americans and Latinos and unions,” Trump said. “They are taking over cities, they are taking over buildings, they are coming in violently. These are the people that she and Biden brought into our country and they are destroying our country,” he said.

Trump also erred in stating at the beginning that the US has had the worst situation in recent years. inflation in the history of the country.

The BBC portal pointed out that this is not the case. “This is false. Under Biden, inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, and prices in many countries rose sharply. Inflation last exceeded 9% in 1981, but has been much higher at several other points in US history,” the service reported.

The debate moderators asked Donald Trump to clarify his position on abortion rights. The former president said Democrats want to allow abortion in the “ninth month” of pregnancy.

“The Democrats are radical on this issue,” he said, noting that Harris’ vice presidential pick, Tim Walz, in particular, supports abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy. Trump argued that he helped bring the issue to state legislatures so they could decide.

When Trump said some states allow the “execution” of children after birth, the moderator pointed out to the former president that there is no such state in the U.S.

Kamala Harris noted that Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices who overturned the country’s abortion law two years ago. She said many states have adopted “Trump’s abortion bans, which do not make exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest.” “You’re saying that’s what people wanted? That’s not what they want,” she said emotionally.

“I've spoken to women all over the country,” she said. “Women who are suffering have been denied emergency room care because health care workers fear they might go to jail,” she added.

Referring to the immigration issue, Harris accused Trump of “killing” bipartisan immigration restrictions by pressuring Republican congressmen because he “would rather use immigration in his campaign than fix the problem.”

“Understand that at a time when people in our country really need a leader who is committed to solutions, who actually addresses the problems of the day, what we have in the former president is someone who would rather campaign on a problem than fix it,” Harris said.

Trump responded by again accusing immigrants of destroying cities and repeated theories floated by Republicans in recent weeks that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating local residents’ dogs and cats.

When the debate moderators pointed out that Springfield city officials had denied the claims, Trump responded by saying that he had “seen people on TV saying that.” He also called for the deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants.

Harris said Trump's words show he is an extremist, suggesting he is talking nonsense, which is why people at his rallies are leaving before they end and politicians from his own party are turning away from him. She said 200 Republican politicians have endorsed her so far.

– I was probably shot in the head because of the things they're saying about me. They're saying about democracy, that I'm a threat to democracy – said Donald Trump.

He responded in this way to Kamala Harris' suggestion that after a court's decision to grant partial immunity to presidents, nothing may be able to stop Trump in his dictatorial ambitions. “Understand that this is someone who openly said that he would end, quote, the Constitution of the United States, that he would use the prosecutor's office against his political enemies,” the vice president warned. “This is someone who openly expressed contempt for soldiers. Understand what it would mean if Donald Trump returned to the White House without any protective barriers,” she added.

Part of the debate also included issues of international politics.

Kamala Harris said that if Trump were president, Vladimir Putin He would have already won the war in Ukraine. “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kiev right now. Understand what that means, because Putin’s agenda is not just about Ukraine. Understand why European allies and our NATO allies are so grateful that you are no longer president, and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, which is NATO,” Harris said. She added that if not for her and Biden’s actions to support Ukraine, Putin would have won the war and “kept an eye on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland.” “Why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish-Americans here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would return a favor and what you think is friendship with a dictator who would eat you for dinner?” Harris said. Trump countered that if he were president, Putin would be sitting in Moscow and “wouldn’t have lost 300,000 soldiers.” He noted, however, that Russia “has something called nuclear weapons.” “Maybe they will use them.” Nobody is talking about it, he said. He also suggested that Putin invaded Ukraine because of the “stupid things” Harris said just before the invasion.

Trump argued that he would end war in Ukraine even before taking office. – I will bring about an end to the war between Ukraine and Russia as president-elect, I will do it even before I become president – he declared, answering a question about the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

He repeated his claim from recent months that if he had remained president, both wars would never have happened. Asked if he wanted Ukraine to win the war, he said only that he “wants the war to end” and “wants to save lives that are being senselessly lost.”

He also accused President Biden of “not even calling Putin” and not trying to resolve the conflict. “We're playing with World War III,” Trump said.

“I've traveled extensively as vice president of the United States and world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. They're laughing at you. I've talked to military leaders, some of whom worked with you, and they say you're a disgrace,” Harris said, condemning Trump for falsely claiming he won the previous election.

Trump responded that foreign leaders fear and respect him, citing words spoken by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a “strong and respected leader.”

During the debate, a question was asked about the events at the Capitol, where four years ago on January 6, thousands of Trump supporters broke into Congress and destroyed it.

– I had nothing to do with it, other than they asked me to give a speech. (…) I didn't do it. Other people did it – said Trump, when asked if he regretted his actions on January 6, 2021. He blamed the then-speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi for failing to secure the Capitol.

Trump reiterated his false claims that he actually won the 2020 election, despite admitting in an interview in recent weeks that he “lost by a whisker.”

Kamala Harris responded that the then-president incited a violent mob to insurrection on Jan. 6 and encouraged voters who are “fed up with the chaos and the attacks on the foundations of this country” to join her campaign. “We can't afford to President of the United Stateswhich is trying, as in the past, to undermine the will of voters in free, fair and just elections, she added.

Vice President Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump by between 2 and 5 percentage points in all three national polls released Tuesday by Big Village, Morning Consult and ActiVote.

The polls are slightly more favorable for Harris than two major polls published by two of the most prestigious polling centers, Siena College and Pew, which showed Trump with a one-point lead and a tie, respectively.

Still, these results are consistent with the state of affairs that has persisted since the August Democratic convention in Chicago, where Kamala Harris accepted the party's nomination.

In a series of polls from seven key states conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, Trump is winning by narrow margins in three of them (Georgia, Nevada, Arizona), Harris in three others (Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina), and there is a tie in Pennsylvania.

In such a scenario, the winner would be decided by the result in Pennsylvania, where Tuesday's debate took place. The latest series of Morning Consult polls paints a slightly better picture for Harris, showing Harris ahead of Trump in four states (including Pennsylvania by 3 percentage points), tied in two more, and losing only in Arizona. In each state, however, the differences between the candidates are within the margin of error.