5 takeaways from the first Harris-Trump debate

Vice President Harris and former President Trump squared off in a high-stakes first debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday as the polls show the rivals neck and neck ahead of November.  

Just weeks after a poor debate performance led to President Biden’s historic exit from the presidential race, Harris delivered a sharp showing on the ABC News stage, baiting and sparring with Trump over abortion, race, the economy and more.

The tense event marked the rivals’ first ever face-to-face meeting, and Harris has already challenged Trump to a second showdown.  

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday night: 

Trump takes the bait  

Going into the debate, Harris was expected to prod Trump into losing his composure.

The strategy appeared to have worked.  

Harris immediately made an impression by walking across the stage to shake Trump’s hand, something that has not been seen in recent presidential debates involving Trump.  

The former president appeared visibly irritated throughout the forum, at many points refusing to look at his rival.

Harris deployed several zingers against Trump, saying he “was fired by 81 million people” and that the Biden administration has “cleaned up Donald Trump’s mess.”

The vice president even hit Trump over crowd sizes at his rallies, which Trump was quick to hit back on.

“I’m gonna invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies, because it’s a really interesting thing to watch,” Harris said. 

“He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer,” she continued. “And what you will also notice, is people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about, is you.” 

The attack clearly rattled Trump.  

“She said people start leaving. People don’t go to her rallies,” Trump said. “So she can’t talk about that. People don’t leave my rallies.” 

Throughout the night, Trump was visibly angry, adding to the sense that Harris was getting under his skin.

Those optics were clearly advantageous for Harris.

Harris delivers sharp performance

While Trump was visibly rattled during much of the debate, Harris delivered a consistently confident and composed performance.

She drew a stark contrast with Trump, not only by keeping her cool but also by positioning herself as the new generational leader.  

“Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump. What I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country,” Harris said.  

Harris was grilled on several issues that are seen as weak spots for her, including immigration and foreign policy, but generally gave solid answers.

The vice president accused Trump of tanking a bipartisan border deal last year, saying “he’d prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”

The Harris campaign clearly thought its candidate won, promptly calling for a second debate in a statement released minutes after the forum wrapped.

“Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’s campaign co-chair.  

Underscoring Harris’s successful performance, pop superstar Taylor Swift publicly endorsed her on Instagram just minutes after the event ended.

The night could hardly have ended better for the vice president.

Trump refuses to commit to vetoing national abortion ban 

Trump has said he wouldn’t sign an abortion ban, but he refused to commit to vetoing such a proposal if elected in November.

“As far as the abortion ban, no, I’m not in favor of abortion ban, but it doesn’t matter, because this issue has now been taken over by the states,” Trump said. The former president has bragged that he was able to “kill” Roe v. Wade when the Supreme Court overturned federal protections for the procedure two years ago. 

Pressed on whether he’d veto such a ban, Trump said he “won’t have to,” arguing it’s “just talk” and shifting his answer into a swing at Harris over student loans.  

One of the moderators, Linsey Davis, urged Trump toward a yes-or-no answer, noting that his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R), said last month Trump would shoot down a proposal if it came to his desk.  

“I didn’t discuss it with JD, in all fairness. … I don’t mind if he has a certain view,” Trump said, dodging a direct answer. “Look, we don’t have to discuss it, because she’d never be able to get it.”  

Harris, on the other hand, slammed Trump over abortion, one of his biggest political vulnerabilities.

“The government — and Donald Trump, certainly — should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said.

The vice president stressed the dire consequences for American women post-Roe, and said she’d “proudly sign” legislation to restore Roe protections if it gets through Congress, drawing a stark contrast with her rival.

Right goes after moderators over fact-checking 

ABC’s moderators offered real-time fact-checking on key claims during the contentious debate, a notable change from June’s Trump-Biden debate on CNN. 

After CNN’s moderators were heavily criticized for letting the candidates chatter unchecked, Davis and David Muir stepped in several times as they steered the conversation.  

Muir pushed back on Trump’s unfounded claim that immigrants in Ohio were eating their pets. And after Trump claimed without evidence that Harris’s running mate supports “execution after birth,” Davis quickly noted that “there is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born.” 

And when asked about his previous comments that he lost the 2020 election “by a whisker,” Trump claimed he was being sarcastic. 

“I didn’t detect the sarcasm,” Muir responded. 

Conservatives online wasted no time in criticizing Muir and Davis.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the moderators “might as well be on the DNC payroll.” Conservative media personality Ben Shapiro said they were “a disgrace to their profession.”  

“These moderators are a disgraceful failure and this is one of the most biased, unfair debates I have ever seen,” conservative talk show host Megyn Kelly posted on social media.

Trump stumbles with ‘concepts of a plan’ 

Trump delivered one of the night’s most viral moments when he said he had “concepts of a plan” to follow up on his failed efforts to repeal ObamaCare.

“We are working on things. We’re going to do it, and we’re going to replace it,” Trump said when asked whether he has a plan to make good on the efforts in a potential second term.  

The former president has long criticized the health care law, signed by President Obama in 2010, but Republican efforts to repeal it during his White House tenure fell short. He’s since said he’d keep the law “unless we can do something much better.” 

“I have concepts of a plan. I’m not president right now,” Trump said on the debate stage, when pressed for a yes-or-no on whether he has a plan.

“I would only change it if we come up with something that’s better and less expensive. And there are concepts and options we have to do that, and you’ll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.” 

Across the stage, Harris stressed she’d want to “maintain and grow” the Affordable Care Act, noting its resilience through repeated GOP attempts to roll it back, touting her work with the Biden administration to strengthen the law, allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and cap the cost of insulin.