On September 10th in Philadelphia, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump went head-to-head in a televised debate that lasted for almost an hour and a half and that drew 67.1 million viewers according to The New York Times.  Each candidate was given two minutes to respond to questions with their opponent’s microphone muted. The debate covered immigration, economic policy, abortion, climate change, and foreign policy, among other topics.

Both bring up valid points and going toe to toe against each other. CNN states, “ The vice president prepared extensively for this debate. “ And this is shown in a lot of parts in this debate but Trump had a lot of countermeasures towards what she had been saying.

 Donald Trump had concerns about how the moderators seemed biased but he still believes that he had won the debate.

The debate started with both candidates talking about the price of living in the USA and how it could be changed for the better of the country. Kamala talked about how she grew up in a middle class home and how Trump will be cutting taxes for the rich and making everything more expensive for the poorer people. Trump quickly denied these claims.  He added that the country has a 21 percent inflation rate–blaming the Biden administration for the increased and expressing a desire to reverse inflation. 

Another main topic in the debate was immigration.  On this issue, Harris said that she “prosecuted transnational gangs and criminals who were in the country” (PBS).  She also blamed Trump for killing a bipartisan immigration bill that would have made important changes. Trump discussed the dramatic rise in migrants in the U.S., which he blamed for increases in crime and threats to the economy.  He called the Biden immigration policy “one of the greatest mistakes in history” according to PBS.

One of the points made by Trump when discussing immigration was when he stated, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats.”  This was in reference to the Haitians who had been given asylum in that area and the notion that in that culture, due to poverty or cultural differences, they could consume dogs and cats as food. Trump was not able to back this claim up with evidence. One the moderators brought up that they researched and found no reported cases of anyone eating cats and dogs in Springfield. This blew up on the internet and people began making memes and music about it, making it one of the significant moments in this debate. This sparked a debate on the internet on if this was actually true. According to NBC news, the claim was found to be “baseless.”  

Another notable part of the debate is when Kamala invites us to one of President Trump’s rallies, And talks about how he talks about fictional characters and how windmills cause cancer. Now some of this is true but it was an unnecessary statement and didn’t really need to be said. This was also a controversial moment because some of the things she said weren’t true but the moderators didn’t say anything about her being incorrect, which made republicans upset and started saying this entire debate was biased.

According to the Economic Times, “Kamala Harris made a claim about the absence of US Military in the war or combat zones which is a proven lie. She was not at all stopped or fact-checked by the US Presidential Debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.” The speculation raised some questions about moderator bias and whether moderators should be able to fact check the candidates in live time. 

While Presidential debates do not declare a winner, a poll done by CNN showed that a majority of people felt Harris outperformed Trump.  “Debate watchers said, 63% to 37%, that Harris turned in a better performance onstage.” The survey also showed that after the debate, 96% of Harris supporters said she had done a better job, while only 69% of Trump’s supporters thought he did a better job.  Interestingly, regardless of whether people were Democrat or Republican, the poll showed that people saw Trump as being stronger on economy and immigration, but they favored Kamala on “protecting democracy” and the issue of abortion (CNN).

Still, the debate did little to change voter’s minds.  According to the CNN poll, 96% of voters’ minds were unchanged by the debate.

This was likely the only debate before the election. On October 9, Fox News reported that both candidates had been invited to participate in another debate at the end of October.  Trump said he would not debate Kamala Harris again. According to Reuters,  “Trump has said there would not be another debate before the Nov. 5 election. He rejected a past invitation from CNN for an Oct. 23 debate, accepted by Harris.”

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, “THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH…THERE IS NOTHING TO DEBATE.”