Trump vs Harris Presidential Debate: Candidates go on attack in zinger-filled showdown

Harris and Trump sparred in the high-stakes showdown.

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Last updated: Wednesday, September 11, 2024 11:59AM GMT
What you need to know about the high-stakes presidential debate showdown
What you need to know about the high-stakes presidential debate showdown Harris and Trump clash over the economy, abortion, border and more

The first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump turned into a heated matchup that lasted more than 90 minutes.

The night started with a handshake initiated by Harris, but quickly escalated as the vice president bashed Trump over his policies and comments, contending that it was time to "offer is a new generation of leadership for our country."

Trump criticized Harris throughout the debate on topics such as Afghanistan and immigration issues, drawing comparisons between the vice president and President Joe Biden.

With Election Day just eight weeks away, the debate came at a critical point as polls show a neck-and-neck race between the candidates.

ABC News Debate Photo Gallery

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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, left, visit a watch party at Cherry Street Pier after the presidential debate in Philadelphia, Sept. 10, 2024.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Key Headlines

Here's how the news is developing.
Sep 11, 2024, 2:16 AM

Fact checking the Trump-Harris debate

From abortion to the economy, Israel and Gaza to fracking, border security to domestic crime, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump offered many plans and claims during the debate tonight.

Trump repeated a false claim that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Ohio, which the city in question has said is false. Harris claimed Trump will sign a national abortion ban if he is re-elected, which he has not said he will do.

Debate fact checker | Fact checking the Trump-Harris debate.

ByRiley Hoffman ABCNews logo
Sep 11, 2024, 4:41 AM

A transcript of the Harris-Trump debate

Harris and Trump met for their first presidential debate on Tuesday night. The consequential matchup was hosted by ABC News at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Read a transcript of what was said in the 90-minute debate here.

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Sep 11, 2024, 2:41 AM GMT

Trump defends negotiations with Taliban in Afghanistan withdrawal

Trump defended his administration's role in negotiating with the Taliban in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and instead slammed the Biden administration for their handling of the final days of the war.

"We did have an agreement negotiated by Mike Pompeo, it was a very good agreement. The reason it was good, it was -- we were getting out. We would have been out faster than that, but we wouldn't have lost the soldiers, we wouldn't have left many Americans behind," he said.

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Sep 11, 2024, 2:36 AM GMT

Harris defends withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, blames Trump for circumstances

ABC News' David Muir asked the vice president if she felt she bore any responsibility in the way the withdrawal in Afghanistan played out. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bombing at the Kabul international airport.

Harris started her response by defending the administration's decision to end America's longest war.

She then turned to criticizing Trump for the way he negotiated a peace plan with the Taliban that included a date of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal of troops -- which President Joe Biden then continued to carry out with a September deadline.

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Sep 11, 2024, 2:35 AM GMT

CLAIM: Trump's deal with the Taliban is to blame for the chaotic withdrawal in Afghanistan.

Fact Check: Needs context

The top government watchdog on the Afghanistan war blames Trump's 2020 deal with the Taliban as "the single most important factor" in the rapid collapse of Afghanistan's forces a year later. But the same office also says Biden's decision to stick with a firm withdrawal date of U.S. troops was a factor as well.

Trump's deal with the Taliban called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces by May 2021 and release 5,000 of its fighters from Afghan prisons so long as they agreed not to attack U.S. forces. According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the agreement was seen by Afghan forces as a "signal that the U.S. was handing over Afghanistan to the enemy as it rushed to exit the country." Trump also had reduced U.S. troop levels to the lowest point in the 20-year war, and Afghan forces weren't prepared to take over, according to the inspector general.

Biden aides say the poor security situation when he took office in January 2021 put the newly elected president in an almost impossible position. Biden could have surged U.S. troops to the country to try to bolster the weakened Afghan government. But doing so would have extended what was already the nation's longest war and put American forces at risk of renewed attacks by the Taliban. According to the inspector general, Biden's announcement that he would stick with a 2021 withdrawal date contributed to the poor morale among Afghan troops, paving the way for a government collapse and subsequent Taliban takeover.

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Sep 11, 2024, 2:32 AM GMT

CLAIM: Harris and Walz support abortion ''probably after birth.'

Fact Check: False

Trump has claimed that Democrats in some states allow for the killing of an infant after birth. This is false. There is no state that allows the killing of a baby after birth. Infanticide is illegal in all 50 states. His false claim stems from a refusal by many Democrats to support any legal restrictions on abortion, and he specifically references comments by former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a physician, who once said that in rare, late-pregnancy cases when fetuses are nonviable, doctors deliver the baby, resuscitate it if the mother wishes, and then have a "discussion" with the mother.

While most states that allow abortion do so only up until fetal viability, there are several states - including Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Gov. Tim Walz's home state of Minnesota - that do not impose a legal limit on abortion procedures. Advocates for abortion rights say the absence of legal consequences after fetal liability doesn't mean doctors will try to terminate full-term, healthy pregnancies. In fact, access to late term procedures is limited, costly and medically complex - typically done only when a woman's life is threatened or the fetus isn't expected to survive. Many Democrats say they want to pass legislation that would codify the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which protects abortion rights up until viability.