Sparring on politics and personality, Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican rival Donald Trump showcased their starkly different visions for the country as they met for the first time for perhaps their only debate before November’s presidential election.
Ms Harris immediately pressed the Democratic case better than President Joe Biden did before he stepped aside as a candidate, hitting the former president’s proposed tax cuts and tariffs and linking him to the conservative Project 2025 blueprint for a Republican administration and Republican efforts to restrict abortion access.
Mr Trump in turn tried to link Ms Harris to Mr Biden, questioning why she had not acted on her proposed ideas while serving as vice president.
Ms Harris walked up to her rival’s lectern to introduce herself as the debate opened.
“Kamala Harris,” she said, extending her hand to Mr Trump, who received it in a handshake.
She sharply criticised the former president for the state of the economy and democracy when he left office, as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the nation and after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6 2021, in a bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“What we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess,” Ms Harris said.
She used the first question about her plans to improve the economy by saying she would extend the tax cut for families with children and a tax deduction for small businesses while attacking Mr Trump’s plans to impose broad tariffs as a “sales tax” on goods that the American people will ultimately pay.
Mr Trump was stone-faced during her answer but retorted: “I have no sales tax. That’s in incorrect statement. She knows that.”
Ms Harris, in zeroing in on one of Mr Trump’s biggest electoral vulnerabilities, laid the end of national abortion rights at the former president’s feet for his role in appointing three US Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v Wade, leaving more than 20 states in the country with what she called “Trump abortion bans.”
She gave one of her most impassioned answers as she described the ways women have been denied abortion care and other emergency care and said Mr Trump would assign a national abortion ban if he wins.
Mr Trump declared it “a lie,” and said, “I’m not signing a ban and there’s no reason to sign a ban.”
The Republican has said he wants the issue left to the states.
While Tuesday’s meeting might be the last time the candidates cross paths on the debate stage, they may cross paths again Wednesday when they both mark the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Ms Harris will join Mr Biden and both, along with Mr Trump, plan to all be at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan and the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Ms Harris and Mr Biden will also visit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia later in the day for a ceremony.
