Harris sparked Trump’s ire during a critical presidential debate

At times, it was hard to separate his answers from the bizarre and angry musings he posts on Truth Social, his social media platform. At one point, Trump even floated a debunked racist conspiracy theory that Haitian migrants eat people’s pets — a claim so viral online that it’s likely few Americans knew they had a dog in the fight.

“First of all, let me respond to the rallies, she said, people are starting to leave, people aren’t going to her rallies, there’s no reason for me to go,” Trump said before adding, “We have the biggest rallies in the history of politics. .”

The topic at hand was immigration.

None of the candidates could afford to fly at this time. Harris built a small national lead over the summer, but her momentum appears to have stalled. Polls are even closer in the smaller number of swing states that will decide the election, including Pennsylvania, where the debate took place.

Harris baited Trump, starting by distracting Trump from talking about his favorite issue of immigration by getting him close to the size of the crowd.

By the end of the night, an angry Trump had quadrupled down on the bogus claim that he had won the 2020 election, shouted the bizarre conspiracy that immigrants are eating cats in Ohio, and complained about his former administration officials writing books that they said everything. .

“When somebody does a bad job, I fire them, you get a guy like Esper, he was no good, I fired him, so he writes a book,” Trump said of one of his defense secretaries, Mark Esper. “Another writes a book, because with me I can write a book with no one else.”

The vice president’s trolling tactic was not subtle. Harris talked about how the Wharton School of Finance, Trump’s beloved alma mater, has published research that casts doubt on his economic plans. She put together a big marquee draw for Republicans, bringing up that Dick and Liz Cheney have endorsed her, the latter long the target of Trump’s ire.

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” Harris said, connecting the line that made Trump a TV star with the results of the 2020 election. to process this.”

Harris wasn’t the only one who made Trump go. He clearly seemed upset with the ABC News debate moderators, who repeatedly interrupted the debate to fact-check his false claims. At one point, Trump interrupted moderator David Muir when he correctly pointed out that judges have dismissed more than 60 cases bringing various claims of fraud in the 2020 election. Trump even rejected Muir’s fact-checking on to the claim that migrants eat pets.

“Well, I saw people on TV,” Trump replied. “The people on TV say my dog ​​was taken and used for food.”

Trump’s team echoed those claims online, arguing that the former president should have taken Harris, Muir and co-host Linsey Davis.

“3 to 1, as expected,” Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, wrote on X.

Both candidates have pushed for another debate, but so far have not agreed on one. If Harris and Trump meet again, it will be after Americans start voting. Absentee ballots will be sent out soon in North Carolina, while Pennsylvania will begin early voting on September 16.