Recap: Trump and Harris clash on key issues in feisty debate

President Biden offered praise for Harris in a post-debate social media post.

“America got to see tonight the leader I’ve been proud to work alongside for three and a half years,” Biden posted on X. “Wasn’t even close. VP Harris proved she’s the best choice to lead our nation forward. We’re not going back.”

A CNN poll of debate watchers found Harris overwhelmingly won the debate.

The poll, which the network noted was not necessarily representative of the entire population, found 63 percent of viewers thought Harris won the debate, compared to 37 percent who felt Trump won.

It was a sharp turn from June, when 67 percent felt Trump won the debate with President Biden.

The former president made a surprise appearance in the spin room following Tuesday’s debate, saying he “had a good time” doing the debate and talking about unspecified polls about his performance.

He acknowledged the Harris campaign had already asked for another debate.

“She wants a second debate because she lost tonight very badly. They immediately called for a second debate because they lost. We’ll think about that. But she immediately called for a second debate.”

Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris’s presidential run, saying she’s backing the vice president because “she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”

The singing superstar — who called herself a “childless cat lady” in a reference to past remarks from GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) — issued a surprise endorsement of Harris immediately following the first presidential debate between the vice president and former President Trump.

Fox News analyst Brit Hume weighed in on the debate immediately after it concluded, saying it was “pretty much” Harris’s night.

“Trump had a bad night,” Hume said, adding that the former president took the bait when Harris poked at him.

Trump kept his cool in the first debate but Tuesday, he “rose to the baiting” and aired old grievances, Hume argued.

“So, my sense is that she came out of this in pretty good shape, and how long this will last, and is anybody’s guess, but for tonight, at least, this was pretty much her night,” Hume said.

CNN’s Chris Wallace said Harris appeared younger, more energetic and sharper during Tuesday night’s debate.

“Donald Trump looked old tonight,” Wallace said during the network’s post-debate analysis show. “She wins just by showing up. I think it’s true, she was the candidate of change just from the moment she walked on the stage.”

The debate concluded at 10:45 p.m. The two candidates did not shake hands at the end.

The former president lashed out at Harris in his closing statement, asking why she had not done more as vice president to address the nation’s problems.

“What these people have done to our country … they’re destroying our country. The worst president, the worst vice president in the history of our country,” he said.

The vice president appealed to unity in her closing statement.

“That’s the kind of president we need right now. Someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first,” she said. “I intend to be a president for all Americans and focus on what we can do over the next 10 and 20 years to build back up our country.”

When asked about his previous failure to repeal ObamaCare, Trump said he wants to try again.

“We are working on things. We’re going to do it. We’re going to replace it,” Trump said.

Trump also said he doesn’t currently have a plan to replace ObamaCare if it were repealed.

“I have concepts of a plan. I’m not president right now,” Trump said.

Trump said the law was a failure and is costing Americans too much money. Republicans were a single vote away from repealing it in 2017.

Biden officials said Tuesday nearly 50 million Americans have enrolled in ObamaCare insurance plans since 2014.

Asked about how their respective administrations would address climate change, Harris pointed to Trump’s previous false claims that climate change is a “hoax” and returned to touting the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Trump did not address climate change in his answer, instead attacking the Biden administration’s record on manufacturing jobs.

Harris called Trump’s history on racial relations a “tragedy.”

“Honestly, I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people,” said Harris.

She went on to say the American people know that Americans have much more in common than what separates them but that Trump remains committed to divisive rhetoric stemming from his time in real estate.

“Let’s remember how Donald Trump started: he owned land, he owned buildings and he was investigated because he refused to rent property to Black families. Let’s remember, this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent — the Central Park Five. Took out a full-page ad calling for their execution. This is the same individual who spread birther lies about the first Black president of the United States. And I think the American people want better than that.”

Tuesday night’s debate went longer than the slated 90 minutes set aside for the high-profile clash between Trump and Harris.

At 10:30 p.m. E.T., moderator Linsey Davis asked both candidates a question about climate change. Both candidates are expected to making closing statements, spanning a couple of minutes each.

The former president, nearly 90 minutes into the debate, tried to directly tie Harris to Biden, something his advisers said was a central goal of his for the evening.

“She is Biden. The worst inflation we’ve ever had. A horrible economy because inflation has made it so bad. That, she can’t get away with that,” Trump said.

“Clearly I am not Joe Biden and I am certainly not Donald Trump,” Harris responded. “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.”

Trump’s top campaign advisers issued a lengthy statement praising his “masterful debate performance” even as the event was ongoing.

“The choice could not be more clear — President Trump was the clear winner tonight, and he will win for America when he returns to the White House,” senior Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.

Trump said he does not care what race Harris identifies as.

When anchor David Muir asked Trump why he believed it was appropriate to weigh in on her racial identity, Trump said he doesn’t.

“I don’t, and I don’t care,” Trump said. “I don’t care what she is. I don’t care. You make a big deal out of something I couldn’t care less. Whatever she wants to be is OK with me.”

When Muir pointed out that Trump said Harris had “turned Black” at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in July, Trump replied it was something he read.

“All I can say is I read … she was not Black and then I read that she was Black, and that’s OK,” Trump said. “Either one was OK with me. That’s up to her. That’s up to her.”

A Harris campaign official told The Hill that 71 percent of its grassroots donations in the 9 p.m. hour came from women.

During the first hour of the debate, the issue of abortion and reproductive rights was front and center, with Harris and Trump engaging in an extended clash on the subject.

Harris said that if Trump were president when Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin would be “sitting in Kyiv.”

“Understand what that would mean, because Putin’s agenda is not just about Ukraine,” she said. “Understand why the European allies are so thankful that [Trump] is no longer president.”

She added that under a Trump administration, Putin would be “sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe.”

Trump has said he would end the war by the time he got into office. On the debate stage, he claimed the Biden administration allowed the war to happen through weak negotiating before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

— Brad Dress

The former president told Harris “quiet please” as she interjected during an answer on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After Harris slammed Trump for his “friendship” with Putin, the former president asked to respond.

Harris said something that was inaudible as her microphone was turned off as Trump argued the Russia-Ukraine conflict would not have started if he were in office.

“Quiet please,” Trump said.

Trump pointed to support from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as demonstrating support among world leaders. The Hungarian leader is an outsider among leaders in the European Union and NATO, penalized for democratic backsliding and criticized for exploiting his term as EU president to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Victor Orbán, one of the most respected men,” Trump said. “They call him a strong man. He’s a tough person, smart, prime minister of Hungary. They said, ‘Why is the whole world blowing up?’ Three years ago it wasn’t, why is it blowing up? He said, ‘Because you need Trump back as president.’”

Harris had earlier said world leaders were laughing at Trump.

Harris accused Trump of being easily manipulated by dictators and autocrats he admires, saying he is a “disgrace” on national security.

“It is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy. It is well known that he admires dictators. Wants to be a dictator on day one, according to himself,” she said, noting a number of positive relationships he has with leaders of adversarial countries.

“It is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because it’s so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favor. And that is why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace.”

U.S. intelligence recently assessed Russia has identified Trump as its preferred candidate.

The former president twice refused to directly say whether it was in the United States’ best interest for Ukraine to win its war against Russia.

“I want the war to stop. I want to save lives,” Trump said. “That is a war that’s dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president,” he added, without offering specifics beyond saying he would speak to the leaders of both nations.

Pressed again on if it’s in the best interest of the U.S. for Ukraine to win, Trump said, “I think it’s in the United States’ best interest to get this war finished and just get it done. Negotiate a deal.”

Harris buckled down on the administration’s stance on the ongoing war in Gaza among Hamas and Israel.

Harris said she will protect Israel’s right to protect itself, including from foreign adversaries like Iran, but that “far too many Palestinians have been killed.”

“We must chart a two-state solution and in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel an equal measure for Palestinians,” said Harris.

She added that the cease-fire deal the U.S. is helping broker must also include Palestinian security and self-determination.

After a commercial break, the debate resumed at 10:08 p.m.

Both candidates returned to the positions on the stage without looking at each other or speaking to anyone, according to reporters in the room.

Trump claimed that President Biden secretly hates Harris after she took over for him as the Democratic nominee for president.

“They threw [Biden] out of office. And you know what? I give you a little secret. He hates her. He can’t stand her,” Trump said.

Biden and Harris ran against each other in the Democratic primaries for the 2020 election and engaged in some tense arguments on the debate stage before teaming up on the Democratic ticket that year.

As calls were mounting for Biden to step aside as the Democratic candidate, Harris maintained support for Biden as the candidate until he decided to end his reelection bid. Since then, she has praised him for his service as president and he has made similarly positive comments about her, calling his choice to make her his running mate the best one he made as president.

Trump said Harris refused to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he traveled to Washington in July and that she “hates Israel.”

But Harris did meet with Netanyahu at that time.

“If she’s president, I believe Israel will not exist within two years from now,” he said. “At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up.”

Harris responded that it was “absolutely not true” that she hates Israel.

“I have my entire career and life supported Israel,” she said. “He knows that.”

Harris needled Trump by suggesting he was “fired” in the last election.

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, so let’s be clear about that, and clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that,” Harris said.

Her comments came as Trump again said he did not accept that he had lost the 2020 election.

A House Republican who backs Trump told The Hill that they are “just sad.”

“She knew exactly where to cut to get under his skin. Just overall disappointing that he isn’t being more composed like the first debate. The road just got very narrow.”

“This is not good,” they said.

Harris said she has traveled the world as vice president and talked with global leaders who have criticized him.

“World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump,” she said.

Harris also told Trump that she has talked with military officials who have called him “a disgrace.”

Trump responded that the world is “blowing up” under the Biden administration.

Harris addressed her reversal on a fracking ban, which she supported during her 2020 Democratic primary run but has said she would not seek as president. The vice president noted that no such ban has materialized under the Biden administration and pointed to her tiebreaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which has led to increased fracking leases.

“We have got to invest in diverse sources of energy” including both fracking and renewables, Harris said, adding “we have the largest domestic oil production in history” under Biden as a result of that approach.

Harris specifically noted the debate’s location in Pennsylvania, an epicenter of the domestic fracking industry, in discussing the reversal.