Harris says Trump can’t accept he was ‘fired by 81m people’ as they clash on January 6 and abortion – debate live | US elections 2024

The debate has now shifted into foreign policy territory, and the first question, to Harris, was how she would convince Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire.

The vice-president didn’t quite answer the question, instead vowing to defend Israel, while acknowledging the toll taken on civilians by Israel’s invasion of Gaza:

Now, Israel has a right to defend itself … and how it does so matters. Because it is also true, far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end … And the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal, and we need the hostages out, and so we will continue to work around the clock on that. Work around the clock, also understanding that we must chart a course for a two-state solution, and in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel, and an equal measure for the Palestinians.

She added that, “I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular, as it relates to Iran, and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.”

Donald Trump continued to insist that he won the 2020 election, despite moderator David Muir pointing out that judges across the country had thrown out his claims of fraud.

That gave Kamala Harris an opening to attack him in terms that the former The Apprentice host would well understand:

Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, so, let’s be clear about that. And, clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that. But we cannot afford to have a president of the United States who attempts, as he did in the past, to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election.

And I’m going to tell you that I have traveled the world as vice-president of the United States, and world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. I talked with military leaders, some of whom work with you, and they say, you’re a disgrace. And when you then talk in this way in a presidential debate and deny … you have lost because you did, in fact, lose that election, it leads one to believe that perhaps we do not have, in the candidate to my right, the temperament or the ability to not be confused about facts. That’s deeply troubling, and the American people deserve better.

Trump repeated one of his usual falsehoods: that abortions are taking place in the ninth month of pregnancy.

In fact, fewer than 1% of abortions are performed past 21 weeks of pregnancy; when these abortions do take place, they often occur in medical emergencies or cases of fetal anomalies.

Trump also suggested, at multiple points, that abortions take place after birth. That would be infanticide, and it is illegal in all 50 states.

The FBI is still not sure why a young man opened fire at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania in July, wounding the former president and killing an attendee. But at the debate, the former president has said that Harris and other Democrats calling him a “threat to democracy” sparked the attack.

“I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me. They talk about democracy, I’m a threat to democracy, they’re the threat to democracy,” Trump said, before bringing up the investigation into Russian influence that bedeviled him during his first term.

Moderator David Muir then cut him off, saying: “We have a lot to get to.”

Donald Trump has spouted off a number of false claims about immigration and immigrants.

To start, he said immigrants are “taking over the towns … They’re going in violently.”

That’s false. Although some US cities have seen an influx of immigrants, most have arrived legally, with work permits or with authorization to stay while their cases are worked out in the courts.

There has been no widespread violence in these cities and overall, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the US-born according to multiple, extensive studies, including from the conservative Cato Institute.

Trump also referenced immigrants “eating the dogs” in Springfield, Ohio, which was live fact-checked by the debate moderators. Republicans have sometimes substituted dogs for cats when repeating this misinformation. Here’s some reporting from the Guardian looking into the salacious, and completely false claim:

The misinformation about migrants in Springfield comes as the Trump campaign has sought to make immigration a key issue, tying Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the towns unprepared for migrants arriving via the southern border. Springfield’s mayor, Rob Rue, went on Fox to say the Biden administration was to blame for “failing cities like ours and taxing us beyond our limit”.

The city has seen a large number of migrants from Haiti, which has both helped the economy there with staffing concerns while also stretching the capacity of some services like clinics and schools, the New York Times reported. A Biden administration policy provided temporary protected status to hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants, who have left their home country because of ongoing violence. Some estimates say as many as 20,000 people from Haiti have come to the city, the Times said.

In perhaps the most bizarre moment of this debate so far, Trump repeated an unsubstantiated claim that immigrants are eating pets in an Ohio town, forcing the moderator to tell him that there is no proof of that.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, 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,” the former president said.

The story of immigrants allegedly eating pets has circulated in rightwing media in recent days, and been repeated by Trump’s running mate JD Vance.

“You bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” moderator David Muir told Trump.

Here’s more on this most strange story:

Donald Trump, as he always does, boasted that the US experienced its “best” economy under his administration, while Kamala Harris noted that Trump left the US with “the worst unemployment since the Great Depression”.

They’re both wrong – Trump by a lot, and Harris by a shade.

Though unemployment spiked to its worst levels since the Great Depression in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, it dipped back by the time Trump left office.

Meanwhile, Trump’s “best economy” line has been the bane of fact-checkers since he was in office. Best is a very vague term – but by several measures, including GDP, unemployment, the trade deficit – the economy was from its peak.

Here are some final numbers from his term, compiled by FacrCheck.org:

• The economy lost 2.7 million jobs. The unemployment rate increased by 1.7 percentage points to 6.4%.

• Paychecks grew faster than inflation. Average weekly earnings for all workers were up 8.4% after inflation.

• After-tax corporate profits went up, and the stock market set new records. The S&P 500 index rose 67.8%.

• The international trade deficit Trump promised to reduce went up. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services in 2020 was the highest since 2008 and increased 36.3% from 2016.

• The number of people lacking health insurance rose by 3 million.

• The federal debt held by the public went up, from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.

• Home prices rose 27.5%, and the homeownership rate increased 2.1 percentage points to 65.8%.

Harris then explained her support for reinstating Roe v Wade, in much clearer terms than Trump used:

Now, in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans, which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide healthcare. In one state, it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exception, even for rape and incest, which, understand what that means, a survivor of a crime of violation to their body does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body.

Next, that is immoral, and one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.

She vowed to sign legislation restoring the overturned precedent, if Congress approves it.

Linsey Davis, a moderator of the debate, pressed Trump to explain his policy on abortion, noting that he has changed his views repeatedly.

Trump responded by going through how various states have handled the issue, and claiming, falsely, that in some states, babies are killed after they are born (which is murder, and illegal everywhere).

Then, he thanked the supreme court justices who voted to overturn Roe v Wade, though misstated the number – five voted to do away with the precedent, not six. Trump said:

Each individual state is voting. It’s the vote of the people. Now, it’s not tied up in the federal government. I did a great service in doing it. It took courage to do it, and the supreme court had great courage in doing it, and I give tremendous credit to those six justices.