Trump vs Harris: What did they say on key issues?

By Jacob Paul (with Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodalll)

From immigration to abortion, here’s what was discussed in the first televised debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

In brief…

• Donald Trump and Kamala Harris went head to head on ABC News last night in the first TV debate between the pair.
• Topics from black voters and immigration to Ukraine and abortion were discussed.
• Trump made a host of bizarre claims, and Harris performed strongly on issues where Trump may have been expected to have the edge.

The long-awaited debate is finally over, but if you’re reading from the UK and decided not to set your alarm for 2am to watch it, don’t worry, because Emily and Jon obviously did, and they’ve brought you all the analysis on the latest episode of The News Agents USA.

Many topics were covered, most notably abortion, but also immigration, race, and Ukraine. Below, we bring you the run-down on who said what, and what it means, and who had edge on the key flashpoints.

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Black voters

As expected, Trump didn’t have the edge on this one. In a previous blunder he bizarrely claimed Harris “happened to turn black”.

When asked about this by the ABC News moderators, Trump gave one of those “I love everyone. I love black people. I have lots of friends who are black” answers.

He said: “All I can say is, I read where she was not black, that she put out, and I'll say that, and then I read that she was black, and that's okay.”

Harris said on the matter: “I think it's a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people”,

That was “really smart on her point”, Jon says, as Harris did not make it about herself but said “how dare he do that to America and Americans”.

Immigration

“Okay, full disclosure, I genuinely didn't have ‘immigrants are eating people's pets in Springfield, Ohio’ on my bingo card”, Emily says.

No guesses on which presidential hopeful made this wild claim.

Trump said: “The people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame.”

This could have been an issue Trump could have come out stronger on.

Emily says: “Immigration is not a safe territory for Harris. She was never the border tsar, but she was put in charge of sorting out the problem and it is one of the biggest areas of weakness for the Democrats.“

Abortion

It was this subject where things got the most macabre, Emily says.

Harris was perhaps always expected to come out stronger on this topic, but Trump didn’t help himself.

Most absurdly, Trump falsely claimed that the previous governor of West Virginia wanted a policy of being able to execute babies after they are born, something that was shut down by the moderators.

Jon notes: “It was just ridiculous, because you had this hellscape picture in your mind of America, where if they're not eating your cats and dogs, they're executing your babies.

“And that was Donald Trump's defense to the very serious question that women have lost the right to choose as a result of the changes that he made to the Supreme Court.”

Election fraud

You probably know this by this point that Trump has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was stolen.

But last week, he gave an interview admitting he lost “by a whisker”.

Emily notes how everyone was relieved that he finally admitted there was no election fraud.

But last night, Trump went right back to square one, saying he was being “sarcastic” in the given interview.

Jon says: “It helps Kamala Harris prosecute her argument that she is about the future of America and the future of what people want, and Donald Trump is relitigating the grievances of the past.”

Ukraine

Trump was asked a simple question: Do you want Ukraine to win?

He couldn't answer. According to Emily, this may not necessarily do Trump much harm.

She says: “To a European ear, we think that this is black and white.  We think that we just want to see Ukraine get on top of this, because  if they don't, we know what's coming next.”

“But actually, for an American audience, maybe that is what they want to hear. Maybe the Trump fans just want to know no more money is going over there.”

But Harris’ response to Trump might do some damage.

Emily adds: “She articulates something I've never heard a Democrat do as well before. She says, ‘do you realise that world leaders are laughing at you, that dictators and autocrats want you back in power because they know they can manipulate you with their favors?”

Does Donald Trump believe everything he says?

But who won?

Ultimately, The News Agents are pretty confident Harris came out on top.

Jon says: “You could see 100% why Donald Trump wanted to have Joe Biden as his opponent, and not Kamala Harris, because Kamala Harris was articulate, persuasive.

“She made her point. She might not like the policies that she was advocating, but she was pretty clear on where she stood.”

Listen to the full discussion on The News Agents USA.

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