5 Takeaways If You Skipped The Harris-Trump Debate

With just 54 days left until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris faced former President Donald Trump for the first time in a presidential debate on Sept. 10 at the Philadelphia National Convention Center. The stakes couldn’t be higher: A recent New York Times and Siena poll revealed the race is essentially neck and neck, with Trump coming in at 48% of the vote and Harris at 47%. Theoretically, this debate was an opportunity for the two candidates to present their vision of America at a crucial time, with less than two months left until voters head to the ballot box and polls tighten heading into the fall swing. No pressure!

In case you missed it (or couldn’t bring yourself to watch), here are five things you missed from the match-up.

Trump has previously bragged about being the president to overturn Roe v. Wade, calling himself “the most pro-life president in history” before changing up that rhetoric last month to say his administration would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.” When pressed by moderator Linsey Davis about his changing statements on abortion, he repeated his oft-told lie about abortions that happen during the ninth month of pregnancy with what seemed to be a reference to a distortion of a 2019 comment made by then Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. “He said, ‘We’ll put the baby aside, and will determine what we do with the baby,’ meaning: We’ll kill the baby.’” Sigh.

Harris pushed back at Trump’s fantastical and false claims. She made the rather obvious point that the reason we live in a post-Roe America is because of the Supreme Court Justices the previous administration hand-selected. She also spoke of the reality of states with abortion bans where women bleed out after miscarriages and children who are incest victims have to carry pregnancies to term. “If Donald Trump were to be reelected, he will sign a national abortion ban,” she said, vowing that she would restore the protections of Roe v. Wade if she’s elected president. 

Trump, for his part, refused to answer whether or not he would veto a national abortion ban, explaining that he wouldn’t be in that situation because the repeal of Roe v. Wade has made this a state issue. His shifting of the goalposts on the issue of abortion seems to be an attempt to attract moderate voters — which makes sense, given that 2024 Pew Research found that 63% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. 

Moderator Davis pointed out that J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president, said Trump would veto a national abortion ban, to which Trump replied: “I didn’t discuss it with J.D. And I don’t mind if he has a certain view but I think he was speaking for me.”

Harris, too, was pressed by moderators on her policy changes on issues such as fracking (in 2020, she wanted to ban fracking; now she doesn’t), weapons (she previously supported a mandatory government buyback program for assault weapons; now she doesn’t) and immigration (she previously supported decriminalizing border crossings, but now has taken a harder line). In response, she claimed she was always pro-fracking (though she said in 2019, “there’s no question that I’m in favor of banning fracking”), before pivoting to a story about her middle-class childhood and how her mother was able to buy their first home.

Elise Joshi, the executive director of Gen-Z for Change who has critiqued the Biden-Harris administration on issues like a weapons embargo, called Harris’s fracking answer “a gut punch. “I would've loved for her to acknowledge that people near fracking sites are experiencing massive health issues. We have to protect domestic energy, transition to renewables, and prioritize the health of working families.”

Joshi added she wasn’t surprised by Harris’ pivot but it was “still unfortunate.” “We know that the polls say it's [people of color] and young people that still need more to learn about Harris. These communities need to know how she'll tackle the issues she's sidestepping. I hope she tells us more specifics soon.”

Somehow, in the middle of a response on Harris’ views on fracking, Trump said… this: “Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” completing a mad-lib we couldn’t have come up with in our wildest fever dream.

From the moment she stepped on the floor and shook his hand, Harris seemed to be getting under Trump’s skin. Take, for instance, the moment when she said people leave his rallies early out of boredom and exhaustion — he couldn’t help but respond, even when it meant losing time to answer his own question.

He also continued to refuse to accept that he lost the 2020 election. “Are you now acknowledging that you lost in 2020?” asked David Muir, to which Trump replied: “No, I don’t acknowledge that at all." This answer is particularly troubling in light of the Trump campaign’s continued falsehoods about voter fraud and election interference heading into the 2024 election. Notably, Trump is facing an election interference indictment for felony charges for working to overturn the 2020 election, among other charges.

In regards to the ongoing war in Gaza, both Harris and Trump remained vague.  “We need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out,” Harris said, along with what CNN called “mild criticism” of Israel’s invasion of Palestine after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks at the Supernova music festival. 

Trump offered even less, stating that Harris hates Israel as well as the Arab population. Unbothered commentator Brea Baker wrote in her analysis about the debate: “To be clear, the murder of any civilian is horrific and unjustifiable, but to the sparring presidential candidates, it seemed as if certain lives matter over others. Trump and Harris then went back and forth professing their love for and commitment to Israel with brief mentions of Palestinians as if their right to life and dignity was an afterthought.” 

Harris, obviously. (And not just because of that breaking Taylor Swift endorsement.)  Dr. Imani Cheers, a professor of digital storytelling at George Washington University and political commentator, tells Refinery29: “Each candidate is definitely catering to their base but VP Harris is presenting a broader and more stance and aiming to reach undecided voters tonight. Former President Trump is using divisive rhetoric that riles up his base but really isolates undecided and middle-of-the-road voters.”

The candidates will spend the next two months criss-crossing the country, convincing undecided voters (and especially those in swing states like Michigan, North Carolina, and Arizona) to give them a shot at the presidency. After the debate, both Harris and Trump are spending the day attending commemorative events for the 23rd anniversary of 9/11 and are expected to make a swing state push in coming weeks.