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Sparring on politics and personality, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump showcased their starkly different visions for the country as they met for the first time Tuesday for perhaps their only debate before November’s presidential election, a high-pressure opportunity for the candidates after a tumultuous campaign summer.
The matchup offered Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. Harris immediately pressed the Democratic case better than President Joe Biden did, hitting the former president’s proposed tax cuts and tariffs and linking him to the conservative Project 2025 blueprint for a Republican administration and GOP efforts to restrict abortion access. Trump in turn tried to link Harris to Biden, questioning why she hadn’t acted on her proposed ideas while serving as vice president.
Harris sharply criticized Trump 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 Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“What we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess,” Harris said. She opened her answer by saying she expects voters to hear “a bunch of lies, grievances and name calling” from her GOP opponent during their 90-minute debate.
Trump, meanwhile, quickly went after Harris for abandoning some of her past liberal positions and said: “She’s going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat.” Harris smiled broadly and laughed.
Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.
