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Harris-Trump debate sets up sprint to Election Day as first ballots go out in Alabama

Viewers gather to watch a debate between Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Angry Elephant Bar and Grill, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in San Antonio.
Eric Gay/AP
/
AP
Viewers gather to watch a debate between Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Angry Elephant Bar and Grill, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in San Antonio.

Kamala Harris pressed a forceful case against Donald Trump on Tuesday in their first and perhaps only debate before the presidential election, repeatedly goading him in an event that showcased their starkly different visions for the country on abortion, immigration and American democracy.


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For the first time since she became the Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris addressed head-on the false claims made by Donald Trump about her racial identity, as well as the former president’s history of racial division throughout his public life.

During Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Trump was asked why he felt comfortable during a recent appearance at a conference of Black journalists to falsely claim that the vice president “turned Black” after previously emphasizing her South Asian heritage. Harris, who is the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, rejected the premise that she has to defend her own racial identity.

But Trump, standing a few feet away from Harris, claimed he no longer cared about the topic.

“I don’t care what she is,” Trump said. “I couldn’t care less. Whatever she wants to be is okay with me.”

Harris, the Democratic vice president who is a former courtroom prosecutor, was eager to prosecute Trump’s glaring liabilities. But she also was tasked with re-reintroducing herself to voters, who are still getting to know her as the party’s presidential nominee.

Trump, a Republican now in his third presidential election, was set on painting Harris as an out-of-touch liberal. He also tried to win over skeptical suburban voters — many of them women — turned off by Trump’s brash leadership style and his penchant for personal insults.

The 90-minute debate played out inside Philadelphia’s National Constitutional Center. In accordance with rules negotiated by both campaigns, there was no live audience and the candidates’ microphones were muted when it was not their turn to speak.

Trump objected when Harris interrupted him — an interjection that he could hear but viewers could not because her microphone was muted according to the rules of the debate.

“Wait a minute, I’m talking now,” Trump said. He was putting his spin on a line she used famously against Mike Pence in the 2020 vice presidential debate.

“Sound familiar?” Trump added.

Four years ago, Harris rebuked Pence for interrupting, saying: “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.”

In the spin room shortly after the debate, Trump wouldn’t commit to the rematch the Harris’ campaign has already offered, saying, “I have to think about it” and he might do it “if it was on a fair network.”

“The reason you do a second debate is if you lose, and they lost,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “But I’ll think about it.”
He told Hannity he “thought it was a great debate” and came to the spin room because “I just felt I wanted to.”

“I was very happy with the result,” he said. “I just felt we had a great night and I’d come over here.”

Swift endorsement

Even Taylor Swift, a popular figure nationwide, but especially among Democrats, got involved Tuesday night, in a way.

Swift, one of the music industry’s biggest stars, endorsed Kamala Harris for president shortly after the debate ended.

“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post, which included a link to a voter registration website.

Swift has a dedicated following among young women, a key demographic in the November election, and her latest tour has generated more than $1 billion in ticket sales. In a half hour, the post received more than 2.3 million likes.

An October 2023 Fox News poll found that 55% of voters overall, including 68% of Democrats, said they had a favorable view of Swift. Republicans were divided, with 43% having a favorable opinion and 45% an unfavorable one.

AP VoteCast suggests that a partisan divide on Swift was apparent as early as 2018. That’s the year Swift made her first political endorsement, supporting Tennessee Democrat Phil Bredesen for Senate over Republican Marsha Blackburn. VoteCast found that among Tennessee voters that year, 55% of Democrats and just 19% of Republicans said they had a favorable opinion of Swift.

Blackburn won by a comfortable margin in the deep red state.