6 key takeaways from the first Harris-Trump presidential debate

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump clashed in their first presidential debate Tuesday in Philadelphia, less than two months before Election Day.

Heading into the debate, Harris appeared to have more to gain — and more to lose. A New York Times/Siena College poll found that 28% said they “need to learn more about Kamala Harris,” compared with just 9% who said the same about Trump. Overall, Trump led Harris by 1 point among likely voters, with 5% unsure or not backing either.

The debate covered a wide range of issues and featured a series of intense exchanges between the two bitter rivals. Harris presented herself as a pragmatic problem-solver and diminished Trump as a wannabe dictator who can't keep his rally crowds engaged. Trump attacked Harris as a radical and frequently returned to his theme of criticizing migration, sometimes veering into conspiracy theories.

Here are six key takeaways from the debate.

Harris leans in quickly on lowering costs

Harris used the first question to lean into her plan for an "opportunity economy," seeking to cut into Trump's advantage on the issue with swing voters by presenting herself as the candidate of the middle class while calling Trump a corporate tax-cutter.

"I was raised as a middle-class kid, and I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America," Harris said. "We know that we have a shortage of homes and housing, and the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people. We know that young families need support to raise their children, and I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000, which is the largest child tax credit that we have given in a long time, so that those young families can afford to buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy clothes for their children."

Trump blasted the Biden-Harris economy, saying, “I’ve never seen a worse period of time.” He also defended his tariff plans and called Harris “a Marxist,” even as he accused her of copying his policies: “I was going to send her a MAGA hat.”

Both candidates seek the mantle of change

In the opening minutes, both rivals sought to claim the mantle of change in a country full of voters who are hungry for it.

“In this debate tonight, you’re going to hear from the same old, tired playbook: a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling," Harris said of Trump. "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.”

Harris returned to that message later in the debate: “The American people are exhausted with the same old, tired playbook.” She went back to it later in criticizing Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot.

“Let’s turn the page on this. Let’s not go back,” she said.

Trump sought to portray Harris as a continuation of President Joe Biden on immigration and the economy.

On migrants coming into the U.S. illegally, he said: “These are the people that she and Biden led into our country, and they’re destroying our country. They’re dangerous.”

And on the economy, he said: “She copied Biden’s plan. And it’s, like, four sentences. Run, Spot, run.”

Trump attacks as Harris defends policy shifts

A significant weakness for Harris in the campaign has been the left-wing positions she took as a Democratic presidential primary candidate in 2020 that she has since abandoned or backtracked from — such as banning fracking, mandating buybacks of semiautomatic firearms and decriminalizing border crossings. She was asked about her evolution again.

“I made that very clear in 2020, I will not ban fracking,” Harris said. “I have not banned fracking as vice president. In fact, I was the tiebreaking vote on the inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking,” an ecologically controversial way to extract oil and natural gas.

Harris added, “My values have not changed.”

Trump sought to capitalize.

“She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. This is a radical left liberal that would do this. She wants to confiscate your guns, and she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania,” he said. “If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on Day One.”

Trump dodges on vetoing federal abortion ban

Trump and Harris engaged in a lengthy clash over abortion, during which Trump declined twice to say whether he would veto a federal abortion ban if Congress passed one.

“Well, I won’t have to,” Trump replied. He said he’s “not signing” such a ban because there’s “no reason to,” arguing that “everybody” is happy with the termination of Roe v. Wade.

When told that his vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, said he would veto such a ban, Trump contradicted Vance, who made his comments recently on NBC News' "Meet the Press."

"Well, I didn’t discuss it with JD, in all fairness. JD — and I don’t mind if he has a certain view, but I don't think he was speaking for me," he said, arguing that Congress won't pass any major abortion bill.

Harris said: “I pledge to you: When Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it in to law. But understand, if Donald Trump were to be re-elected, he will sign a national abortion ban.”

Harris baits Trump into missed opportunities

Harris came into the debate with the hope of rattling Trump, and she appeared to succeed at some moments, baiting him into a defensive posture rather than highlighting his strongest issue: concerns about inflation and the cost of living.

She attacked him on abortion rights, linked him to the right-wing policy blueprint Project 2025 and highlighted his praise for Chinese President Xi Jinping around the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Both times, he jumped in to defend himself. She invited Americans to watch a Trump rally.

“He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about ‘windmills cause cancer.’ And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom,” Harris said, looking into the camera.

That didn’t sit well with Trump, who said he has “the most incredible rallies in the history of politics” and went on a tangent by citing a debunked conspiracy theory about some migrants’ eating pets. “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” he said.

Trump bashes Biden, sparking pithy Harris reply

Trump’s performance included a wide sprinkling of attacks on Biden, who dropped out after his disastrous late-June debate showing against Trump. He criticized Biden’s handling of classified documents, knocked him for opposing the Keystone XL pipeline and called the Biden’s administration “the most divisive presidency in the history of our country.”

“Where is our president? We don’t even know if he’s the president,” Trump said toward the end of the debate. “They threw him out of a campaign like a dog. We don’t even know. Is he our president? We have a president that doesn’t know he’s alive.”

Harris replied, “It is important to remind the former president: You’re not running against Joe Biden; you are running against me.”

When Trump said later, “She is Biden,” Harris responded: “Clearly, I am not Joe Biden. And I am certainly not Donald Trump.”