Harris puts Trump on defensive in fiery presidential debate

Swift is a popular figure nationwide, but especially among Democrats.

An October 2023 Fox News poll found that 55% of voters overall, including 68% of Democrats, said they had a favorable view of Swift. Republicans were divided, with 43% having a favorable opinion and 45% an unfavorable one.

AP VoteCast suggests that a partisan divide on Swift was apparent as early as 2018. That’s the year Swift made her first political endorsement, supporting Tennessee Democrat Phil Bredesen for Senate over Republican Marsha Blackburn. VoteCast found that among Tennessee voters that year, 55% of Democrats and just 19% of Republicans said they had a favorable opinion of Swift.

Blackburn won by a comfortable margin in the deep red state.

In their first and perhaps only debate, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris described the state of the country in starkly different terms. As the two traded jabs, some old false and misleading claims emerged along with some new ones.

Here’s a look at false and misleading claims made by the candidates.

Trump falsely touts his economy

TRUMP: “I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country. ... They’ve destroyed the economy.”

THE FACTS: This is an exaggeration. The economy grew much faster under Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan than it did under Trump. The broadest measure of economic growth, gross domestic product, rose 4% a year for four straight years under Clinton. The fastest growth under Trump was 3% in 2018. The economy shrank 2.2% in 2020, at the end of Trump’s presidency. And a higher proportion of American adults had jobs under Clinton than under Trump. During the Biden-Harris administration, the economy expanded 5.8% in 2021, though much of that reflected a bounce-back from COVID.

Inflation has trekked down

TRUMP: “They had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of our country because I’ve never seen a worse period.”

THE FACTS: While praising the strength of the economy under his presidency, Donald Trump misstated the inflation rate under Biden. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 after rising steadily in the first 17 months of Biden’s presidency from a low of 0.1% in May 2020. It’s now seeing a downward trend. The most recent data shows that as of July it had fallen to 2.9%. Other historical periods have seen higher inflation, which hit more than 14 percent in 1980, according to the Federal Reserve.

Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025

HARRIS: “What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again.”

THE FACTS: Trump has said he doesn’t know about Project 2025, a controversial blueprint for another Republican presidential administration.

The plan was written up by many of his former aides and allies, but Trump has never said he’ll implement the roughly 900-page guide if he’s elected again. On the contrary, he has said it’s not related to his campaign.

Trump’s taxing and spending plan examined

HARRIS: “What the Wharton School has said is Donald Trump’s plan would actually explode the deficit.”

THE TRUTH: The Penn-Wharton Budget Model did find that Trump’s tax and spending plans would significantly expand the deficit by $5.8 trillion over ten years. But it also found that Harris’ plans would increase the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the same period.

Harris's record on fracking examined

TRUMP: “If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on Day 1.”

THE FACTS: Trump’s statement ignores the fact that without a law approved by Congress, a president can only ban fracking on federal lands.

The federal government owns about 2% of Pennsylvania’s total land, and it is not clear how much of that is suitable for oil or gas drilling.

Republicans have criticized Harris for “flip-flopping” on the issue, noting that Harris said in the 2020 campaign that she opposed fracking, a drilling technique that is widely used in Pennsylvania and other states.

Harris has since said repeatedly that she won’t ban fracking if elected, and she reiterated that in Tuesday’s debate.

Trump misrepresents crime statistics

TRUMP, criticizing the Biden administration: “Crime is through the roof.”

THE FACTS: In fact, FBI data has shown a downward trend in violent crime since the coronavirus pandemic spike. Violent crime surged during the pandemic, with homicides increasing nearly 30% in 2020 over the previous year — the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records

Violent crime was down 6% in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same period the year before, according to FBI data released in March. Murders were down 13%. New FBI statistics released in June show the overall violent crime rate declined 15% in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period last year. One expert has cautioned, however, that those 2024 figures are preliminary and may overstate the actual reduction in crime.

Trump endorses false rumor about immigrants eating pets

TRUMP: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats… They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

THE FACTS: There’s no evidence to support the claim, which Trump and his campaign have used to argue immigrants are committing crimes at a higher rate than others.

Authorities in Ohio have said there are no credible or detailed reports to support Trump’s claim.

Jobs created under the Biden administration

“TRUMP: “Just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud.”

THE FACTS: This is a mischaracterization of the government’s process of counting jobs. Every year the Labor Department issues a revision of the number of jobs added in 12 months from April through March of the previous year. The adjustment is made because the government’s initial job counts are based on surveys of businesses. The revision is then based on actual job counts from unemployment insurance files that are compiled later. The revision is compiled by career government employees with little involvement by politically appointed officials.

Trump repeats false claims to immigrants that noncitizens are being sought to vote

TRUMP: “A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote. They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in practically and these people are trying to get them to vote, and that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”

THE FACTS: In recent months, Trump and other Republicans have been repeating the baseless claim that Democrats want migrants to come into the country illegally so they will vote.

There’s no evidence for this, nor is there any evidence that noncitizens illegally vote in significant numbers in this country.

Voting by people who are not U.S. citizens already is illegal in federal elections. It can be punishable by fines, prison time, and even deportation. While noncitizens have cast ballots, studies show it’s incredibly rare, and states regularly audit their voter lists to remove ineligible voters from the rolls.

Trump’s comments suggest that not speaking English is somehow prohibitive for voting in the U.S. — and that’s also not the case. In fact, the Voting Rights Act requires certain states to provide election materials in other languages depending on the voting-age population’s needs.

 Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris put Republican Donald Trump on the defensive at a combative presidential debate on Tuesday with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office, and his myriad legal woes, as both candidates sought a campaign-altering moment in their closely fought election.

A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, appeared to get under the former president's skin repeatedly, prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to deliver a series of falsehood-filled retorts.

At one point, she brought up Trump's campaign rallies, goading him by saying that people often leave early "out of exhaustion and boredom."

Trump, who has been frustrated by the size of Harris' own crowds, said, "My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics." He then pivoted to an unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are "eating the pets" of residents.

"Talk about extreme," Harris said, laughing.

The candidates clashed over issues such as immigration, foreign policy and healthcare, but the debate was light on specific policy details. Instead, Harris' aggressive approach succeeded in putting the focus on Trump.

Trump, who has spent weeks launching personal attacks on Harris that have included racist and sexist insults, largely avoided insults during the debate's early moments but became increasingly agitated under Harris' offensive.

Trump was asked by the moderators about one of those attacks when he told an event with Black journalists in July that Harris had recently "become a Black person."

"I couldn't care less," he said. "Whatever she wants to be is OK with me."

Harris, who has both Black and South Asian heritage, responded, "I think it's a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be a president who has consistently throughout his career attempted to use race to divide the American people."

She criticized Trump over his criminal conviction for covering up hush money payments to a porn star as well as his other indictments and a civil judgment finding him liable for sexual assault. Trump has denied wrongdoing and again accused Harris and the Democrats of orchestrating all of the cases without evidence.

Trump also repeated his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was due to fraud, called Harris a "Marxist" and asserted falsely that migrants have caused a violent crime spree.

With eight weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election, and days until early voting starts in some states, the debate - the only one scheduled - presented both opportunities and risks for each candidate in front of a televised audience of tens of millions of voters.

A SURPRISE HANDSHAKE

The debate got underway at 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Wednesday) with a surprise handshake between the two opponents, who had never met before. Harris approached Trump at his lectern, introducing herself by name, in what was the first handshake at a presidential debate since 2016.

The encounter was particularly important for Harris, with opinion polls showing that more than a quarter of likely voters feel they do not know enough about her. Harris entered the race only seven weeks ago after President Joe Biden's exit.

Harris delivered a lengthy attack on abortion limits, speaking passionately about women denied emergency care and victims of incest unable to terminate their pregnancies due to statewide bans that have proliferated since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right in 2022. Three Trump appointees were in the majority of that ruling.

She also claimed Trump would support a national ban, an assertion Trump called a lie.

Trump, who has sometimes struggled with messaging on abortion, claimed falsely that Harris and Democrats support infanticide, which - as moderator Linsey Davis noted - is illegal in every state.

"As I said, you're going to hear a bunch of lies," Harris said.

Harris also sought to tie Trump to Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint that proposes expanding executive power, eliminating environmental regulations, and making it illegal to ship abortion pills across state lines, among other right-wing goals.

Trump retorted that he has "nothing to do" with Project 2025, though some of his advisers were involved in its creation.

CLASHES ON ECONOMY, FOREIGN POLICY

The candidates opened the debate by focusing on the economy, an issue that opinion polls show favors Trump.

Harris attacked Trump's intention to impose high tariffs on foreign goods - a proposal she has likened to a sales tax on the middle class - while touting her plan to offer tax benefits to families and small businesses.

"Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression," Harris said, referring to his years as president from 2017-2021. Unemployment peaked at 14.8% in April 2020 and at 6.4% when he left office. It was far higher in the Great Depression.

Trump criticized Harris for the persistent inflation during the Biden administration's term, though he overstated the level of price increases. He also pivoted quickly to his top issue, immigration, claiming again without evidence that immigrants from "insane asylums" are crossing the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

Inflation, he said, "has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, for every class."

The candidates also exchanged barbs over the Israel-Gaza war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, though neither offered specifics on how they would seek to end each conflict.

Harris accused Trump of being willing to abandon U.S. support for Ukraine to curry favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling Trump a "disgrace," while Trump claimed Harris "hates" Israel - an assertion she rejected.

Presidential debates do not necessarily change voters' minds, but they can transform the dynamics of a race. Biden's poor performance against Trump in June led him to abandon his campaign on July 21.

In a contest that could again come down to tens of thousands of votes in a handful of states, even a small shift in public opinion could alter the outcome. The two candidates are effectively tied in the seven battleground states likely to decide the election, according to polling averages compiled by the New York Times.

The debate, hosted by ABC News, was taking place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As agreed by the campaigns, there was no live audience and candidates' microphones were muted when it was not their turn to speak.

Trump showed up in the spin room, several blocks away from the debate venue, in a surprise appearance after the debate.

He said: “I thought this was my best debate.”

Trump said he thought Harris didn’t do very well.

“It was obviously 3-on-1,” he added repeating a post-debate talking point amongst supporters that the moderators treated him unfairly.

In her first appearance after Tuesday night’s debate with Trump, Harris says she and her running mate Tim Walz are “still the underdogs” but projected positivity for the remainder of the general election campaign.

Speaking at Cherry Street Pier in Philadelphia, Harris told a crowd that “hard work is good work, and we will win.”

Harris also predicted she would win Pennsylvania because of the strong support shown in the battleground state.

As Harris spoke, “The Man” by Taylor Swift was audible in the venue. Just after the debate concluded, Swift, one of the music industry’s biggest stars, said she was endorsing Harris.