10 key takeaways from the Harris-Trump debate

The Democratic vice president opened the showdown with a power move, marching across the stage to Trump’s lectern to shake his hand.

“Kamala Harris,” she said, introducing herself when the two first met. “Let’s have a good debate.”

“Nice to see you. Have fun,” the former Republican president replied.

The exchange set the tone for the 90-minute debate that followed: Harris controlled the conversation at times, baiting Trump with jabs at his economic policy, his refusal to concede his 2020 election loss and even his performance at his rallies .

Trump, though measured early on, grew angrier as the night wore on. And a significant moment came after the two candidates left the stage, when megastar Taylor Swift said she would vote for Harris.

Some conclusions about a historical debate:

From the opening handshake, Harris took the fight to Trump in a way that Biden could not

In his first response, the former prosecutor said Trump’s tariffs would effectively create a sales tax on the middle class. Soon after, she accused Trump of presiding over the worst attack on American democracy since the Civil War — the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. She accused him of telling women what they could do with their bodies. And she mocked Trump’s praise of dictators “who would eat you for lunch.”

Harris effectively controlled much of the conversation with such attacks and baited Trump into responses that were sometimes vents and other times reminders of his wild rhetoric and fixation on the past.

“You actually lost that election,” Harris said of the 2020 race that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden but still insists he won. “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” she said, referring to Biden’s winning vote total.

But Harris may have gotten under her opponent’s skin the most when she went after his performance at his rallies, noting that people often leave early.

Becoming visibly irritated, Trump insisted that his rallies were bigger than hers.

A smiling Harris frequently switched her message from Trump back to the American people.

“You’re not going to hear him talk about your needs, your dreams, your needs and your wants,” Harris said. “And I’m telling you, I think you deserve a president who puts you first.”

Trump had a tag for Harris: ‘She’s Biden’

Trump was often on the defensive, but he drove home the central message of his campaign: inflation and immigration are hurting Americans.

Immigrants, Trump said, “have destroyed the fabric of our country.”

He repeatedly linked Harris to Biden.

“She’s Biden,” he said.

“Worst inflation we’ve ever had,” Trump added. “A horrible economy because inflation made it so bad. And she can’t get away with it.”

Harris responded: “I’m clearly not Joe Biden and I’m certainly not Donald Trump. And what I’m offering is a new generation of leadership for our country.”

Trump also went after Harris for moving away from some of the progressive positions he took in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, urging voters not to believe his more moderate tone in this campaign.

“She goes to my philosophy now. I was actually going to send him a MAGA hat,” he said, referring to the red “Make America Great Again” baseball caps that many of his supporters wear. “But if she was ever elected, she would change it.”

Swift comes off the edge

One of the highlights came in a post on one of the most followed Instagram accounts moments after the debate ended.

Swift has a loyal following among young women, a demographic Harris needs to turn out in big numbers. She called Harris a “talented leader,” told fans to do their research and make their own decisions, but “I’ve done my research and made my choice.”

Trump on the race and Harris on the attack

ABC host David Muir asked Trump about his claim last month that Harris “blacked out” of late. Harris is black and South Asian and graduated from Howard University, a historically black school in Washington.

Trump tried to downplay the issue. “I don’t care what she is, you make a big deal out of something, I couldn’t care less,” Trump said.

Harris, however, had her opening, and she rattled off a long list of Trump’s racial controversies: his legal agreement to discriminate against prospective black tenants at his New York apartment buildings in the 1970s; his announcement calling for the execution of black and Latino teenagers — who were wrongfully arrested — in the Central Park jogger case in the 1980s; and his false claims that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

“I think the American people want better than this, they want better than this,” Harris said.

Trump accused Harris of trying to “divide” people and dismissed her claims as dated and irrelevant.

“This is a person who has to reach back 40, 50 years, because now there is nothing,” he said.

Harris and Trump addressed the abortion positions

Harris has come out in defense of abortion rights, perhaps the strongest issue for Democrats since Trump’s nominees built a majority on the Supreme Court to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Her pointed arguments provided a stark contrast to President Joe Biden’s rambling comments on the issue during his June debate with Trump.

“The government and Donald Trump certainly shouldn’t be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said. She painted a vivid picture of women dealing with medical complications, painful decisions and having to travel out of state for an abortion.

Trump was equally fierce in his defense, saying he had returned the issue to the states, an outcome he said many Americans wanted. He fought back with accuracy, repeating the false claim that Democrats support abortion even after the babies are born. He stuck to it even after being corrected by moderator Linsey Davis.

“We did a great service doing that. It took courage to do it,” Trump said of overturning Roe v. Wade and constitutional protections for abortion. “And the Supreme Court had great courage in doing so. And I give tremendous credit to those six judges.”

Polls have shown significant opposition to overturning Roe, and voters have punished Republicans in recent elections for it.

Who’s talking now?

Trump took one of Harris’s talking points and directed it right back at him. It happened when he objected after Harris interrupted him.

“Wait a minute, I’m talking now,” Trump said. “Sound familiar?”

She was putting her own spin on a line Harris famously used against Mike Pence in the 2020 vice presidential debate, when she chided Pence for interrupting her, saying, “Mr. Vice President, I’m talking.”

A message to the middle

In a divided nation, the election will ultimately be decided by a small portion of varied voters in just a few states. And in a nod to that fact, Harris made an explicit appeal to voters across the political spectrum — including Republicans.

She mentioned that he was a gun owner. She cited “the late, great John McCain,” a reference to the Arizona Republican senator and war hero whom Trump criticized for being captured by enemy soldiers. And he listed many Republicans who previously served in the Trump administration who now supported his campaign.

Trump, meanwhile, offered little in the way of voters in the middle, ignoring the calls for unity that framed his speech at the summer convention.

Harris took advantage of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to make another explicit appeal to undecided voters.

“It’s time to turn the page,” she said. “And if that was a bridge too far for you, well, there’s a place in our campaign for you.”

A restrained Trump — except when he wasn’t

Democrats hoped and Republicans feared that Trump would lose his cool on stage. At first he didn’t, but as Harris got more and more under his skin, he went to some dark places.

Trump amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating pets — ABC’s Muir noted that local officials say that’s not happening — as he claimed the Biden-Harris administration was admitting dangerous immigrants.

When Harris pressed him on the series of criminal and civil cases against him, Trump was similarly. He accused Harris and Biden of planting all the cases.

“I probably took a bullet in the head because of the things they said about me,” Trump said, referring to the July assassination attempt by a gunman whose motives are unknown.

When pressed on whether he had any responsibility for the Capitol riot, Trump raised his voice, blaming both Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who was the speaker of the House at the time, and Washington’s Democratic mayor. He said the rioters were “treated so badly” and again denied he had lost the 2020 election.

Harris responded: “Donald Trump has been fired by 81 million people, let’s be clear about that, and he’s clearly having a very hard time processing that.”

An early skirmish over the economy

The debate opened with an unexpectedly awkward exchange on the economy: Harris took on Trump for his plan to implement high tariffs and the trade deficit he ran as president; Trump criticized Harris for inflation that he incorrectly said was the worst in the country’s history.

Trump said people look back on the economy of his presidency fondly. “We have created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country,” he said. Harris flatly told viewers: “Donald Trump has no plan for you.”

Americans are slightly more likely to trust Trump than Harris when it comes to managing the economy, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll in August.

Kind of an afterthought

Harris would be the nation’s first female president. But her gender was an afterthought during the debate.

She made no reference to the historic nature of her candidacy. Neither does Trump.

And there were no performative moments where gender was an issue. Who could forget Trump’s decision to stand behind his last opponent, Hillary Clinton, during a 2016 debate? He also called Clinton an “ugly woman.” Afterward, Clinton said she was scared.

But on Tuesday night, both candidates remained behind their podiums, as instructed, and there were no explicit gender jabs.