(NEXSTAR) – Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris squared off for the first time on the presidential debate stage at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center Tuesday night.
The matchup offered Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June which forced President Joe Biden from the race. The Democratic vice president immediately moved to press the case against the former Republican president and his bombastic rhetoric, linking him to the conservative Project 2025 blueprint for a Republican administration and GOP efforts to restrict abortion access.
Harris, intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did, walked up to Trump’s lectern to introduce herself as the debate opened.
“Kamala Harris,” she said, extending her hand to Trump, who received it in a handshake.
Harris immediately presented herself as a champion of the middle class, saying she was the only candidate with plans to lift up “the middle class and working people of America.” She criticized Trump for enacting a tax cut for “billionaires and big corporations” and hammered his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“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.
Both candidates made a point of expressing support for positions often celebrated by each others’ parties, with Harris pointedly saying she wasn’t against fracking in a bid for U.S. energy independence, and Trump saying that he was a big fan of “solar.”
Migration was a common theme, with Trump repeatedly returning to claims of a wave of “migrant crime,” at one point alleging that immigrants in Ohio were eating residents’ dogs and cats. Such claims, also asserted by Trump’s vice presidential nominee Ohio Sen. JD Vance, were debunked by local officials.
“Talk about extreme,” said Harris, who earlier accused Trump of having a border security bill killed so he could “run on a problem” rather than fix one.
Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.
High stakes as November nears
It’s the only debate that’s been firmly scheduled and could be the only time voters see Harris and Trump go head to head before the November general election.
The candidates are in a tight race, making the stakes high for Tuesday night. Harris’s campaign hopes the former prosecutor will be able to rattle Trump while outlining her vision for America, the Associated Press reports. Trump, meanwhile, is likely to paint Harris as too liberal to govern a broad coalition, and remind his voters why they put him in the country’s top office once before.
Democrats are smarting Tuesday after a recent poll found that a majority of voters saw Trump as the more moderate candidate, The Hill reports. Despite Democratic attempts to portray the former president as a serious threat to U.S. democracy, a national poll of likely voters by The New York Times and Siena College found 47 percent saw Harris as too liberal, compared to 32 percent who saw Trump as too conservative.
This year’s presidential race is also a genuine contest of ideas between Harris and Trump — with clear differences on taxes, abortion, immigration, global alliances, climate change and democracy itself.
Since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, Harris has pledged to chart a new way forward even as she’s embraced many of his ideas. She wants middle class tax cuts, tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations, a restoration of abortion rights and a government that aggressively addresses climate change, among other stances.
Seeking a return to the White House, Trump wants to accomplish much of what he couldn’t do during a term that was sidetracked by the global pandemic. The Republican wants the extension and expansion of his 2017 tax cuts, a massive increase in tariffs, more support for fossil fuels and a greater concentration of government power in the White House.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.