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11-09-2024
WASHINGTON: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump clash on key issues as they debate for the first time in the 2024 US presidential election.
Both candidates have repeatedly called each other liars in the first half hour of the debate.
The candidates started with the economy, Trump highlighting tariffs on other countries and Harris talking about small businesses.
On abortion rights, Trump says he helped bring the issue back to states while Harris says abortion bans deny women crucial care.
Harris criticizes Trump’s rallies saying that people leave early from boredom while Trump attacks the Biden administration’s pullout from Afghanistan.
Harris blames Trump for January 6
The moderators want to stay on the topic of the US Capitol riot. They ask Harris to respond to Trump.
Harris notes that she was in Congress that day as a US Senator and vice-president elect.
“On that day the President of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s Capital, to desecrate our nation’s Capital,” she said.
“The former president has been indicted and impeached for exactly that reason,” Harris said.
She also invoked a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 where white supremacists marched while chanting anti-Semitic and racist slogans. It took place early in Trump’s term and he was criticized for his response.
Harris the prosecutor
Harris has repeatedly said she would prosecute the case against Donald Trump and her campaign has tried to frame the election as one between a prosecutor and a felon.
Harris reminded those watching of his four criminal cases and his felony convictions in New York – a tactic we’re sure to see more of tonight.
Trump responded by saying his opponents have “weaponized” the Justice Department against him.
Debate turns to deadly riot on Capitol Hill
Discussion has now turned to the 6 January 2021 riot on Capitol Hill.
Trump is asked about his role. He told his supporters in a White House speech before the attack to march to the Capitol and watched the attack unfold on TV. He published a tweet calling for the rioters to leave.
“Peacefully and patriotically, I said, during my speech, and not later on,” Trump says, adding that his speech made no calls for violence.
The moderator presses him further – “Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?”
“I had nothing to do with that except that they asked me to make a speech,” Trump hits back.
He goes on to blame Democrat Nancy Pelosi for not adding more security to the Capitol.
Snap reaction from voters in Philadelphia are mixed
I’ve been asking voters for their take on the debate so far.
Fabienne Clark, 74, of Philadelphia told me that she was getting irritated listening to Donald Trump speak about Roe v Wade, the law that enshrined abortion that was overturned by Supreme Court justices appointed by Trump.
She feels Kamala Harris made important points on protecting the right to an abortion in response, as well as on improving the economy and inflation. (Int’l News Desk)
