Donald Trump and Kamala Harris clashed fiercely on Tuesday night in their first debate ahead of November’s presidential election.
The 90-minute duel in Philadelphia saw a volley of personal attacks as they tussled over abortion, immigration and foreign policy.
Vice-President Harris, a Democrat, went on the offensive from the outset, goading her Republican rival and assailing him over his criminal trials and his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He turned the subject repeatedly back to inflation and immigration, political vulnerabilities for Harris, arguing that the Biden-Harris administration had “destroyed” the country, and labelling her a “Marxist”.
Harris poked fun at crowd sizes at his rallies. “People start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom,” she said.
Trump hit back: “People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go.”
At one stage, when Harris interrupted Trump, he said: “I’m talking now. Does that sound familiar?” He was referring to a similar riposte she made in a 2020 vice-presidential debate against Mike Pence.
Later, as Harris spoke over him, Trump said: “Quiet please.”
At one point, Harris mocked his praise for dictators “who would eat you for lunch”.
Trump, meanwhile, claimed that Joe Biden, the US president, dislikes Harris. “He hates her,” he said. “He can’t stand her.”
Trump also blamed heated Democratic rhetoric for the assassination attempt against him in July by a gunman whose motives are unknown.
“I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things they said about me,” he said.
In the hours before the debate, social media was filled with reports of unsubstantiated claims – repeated by JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, had been stealing pets and eating them.
Despite city officials telling the BBC there are no credible reports to support these claims, Trump brought up the matter in the debate.
“They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. This is a shame,” he said.
“Talk about extreme,” Harris said of her rival Donald Trump
On the economy, an issue that opinion polls show favours Trump, Harris repeatedly stated: “I have a plan.”
Depicting her as a radical liberal, Trump responded: “She has a plan to defund the police. She has a plan to confiscate everyone’s guns. She has a plan to ban fracking in Pennsylvania and everywhere else.”
Harris denied all this, and mentioned that she owns a gun.
Trump said Harris had no policies, accusing her of copying some of his own ideas on the campaign trial and that he was “going to send her a Maga hat”, while also arguing she would be no different from President Biden.
“She has no policy,” he said.
“Remember this, she is Biden,” he said at another point.
Harris countered: “Clearly, I am not Joe Biden.”
Trump, who while president tried to overturn to Obamacare, was asked what would be his plan now to replace the Affordable Care Act.
He said he had “concepts of a plan” that would be “something that’s better”, if elected.
