US presidential debate: Trump, Harris clash bitterly on economy, abortion, immigration

Washington: Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump clashed bitterly on the issues of economy, abortion, immigration, foreign policy, healthcare, and a whole range of issues in their first presidential debate here.

Harris attacked Trump on abortion, calling him responsible for the Supreme Court decision to end decades of abortion rights. She also attacked him on the January 6, 2020, insurrection and the economy. She said Biden-Harris was left to clean up the mess left behind by Trump. The vice-president forced the former president to defend himself and his comments, including the one about her racial identity.

Trump focussed his attack on Harris over immigration, accusing her and the Biden-Harris administration of letting immigrants enter the US illegally in hordes, who, he added, were taking jobs and pushing up crime rates in the US.

He said it was the weakness of President Joe Biden and his administration that led to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

Trump tried repeatedly to hold Harris responsible for the actions of the Biden administration.

In an early exchange on the economy, Harris responded to Trump’s charge that he had left the Biden administration with one of the “greatest economies” saying “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century. Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump's mess.”

Trump hit back at her saying, “She doesn't have a plan. She copied Biden's plan, and it's like four sentences like, Run Spot Run, four sentences that are just oh, we'll try and lower taxes. She doesn't have a plan, take a look at her plan. She doesn't have a plan.”

At one stage, Trump got a personal. “She's a Marxist. Everybody knows she's a Marxist. Her father is a Marxist Professor in Economics, and he taught her well.”

Harris was also rough on him, accusing him of lying repeatedly.

Trump took heat on abortion as expected. And he defended himself, saying, “The Democrats are radical in that. And her vice presidential pick, which I think is a horrible pick, by the way, for our country, because he is really out of it. But her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth. It's execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born is okay, and that's not okay with me, hence the vote. But what I did is something, for 52 years, they've been trying to get Roe v Wade into the states, and through the genius and heart and strength of six Supreme Court justices. We were able to do that. Now, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.”

But Harris was not about to let him off the hook easily. “Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v Wade, and they did exactly as he intended. And now in over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans, which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care in one state, it provides prison for life... Trump's abortion bans make no exception, even for rape and incest, which you understand what that means. The survivors of crime... a violation of their body, do not have the right to decide what happens to their body next... that is immoral and one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree with the government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.”