Washington

Harris warns of ‘what’s at stake for the US’ as vice president appears to win debate with Trump – here’s how it happened | US elections 2024

Madoc Meredith September 11, 2024

Important events

Harris rejects Trump’s gun claims and says she and Walz are ‘both gun owners’

Donald Trump may have been a driving force for change within the Republican Party, but he has followed in the footsteps of many Republicans before him and said his Democratic opponent wants to take away people’s guns.

“She has a plan to take away everyone’s guns,” Trump claimed at one point in the debate.

A few minutes later, Harris mentioned that she owned a gun – something she doesn’t often mention.

“This thing about taking away everyone’s guns – Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking away anyone’s guns. So stop lying about these things all the time,” the vice president said.

‘Tim Walz and I are both gun owners’: Harris hits back at Trump over gun confiscation claims – Video

Brief analysis: Where do the candidates stand?

As the debate approaches the home stretch, both candidates have remained true to form.

Donald Trump has doubled down on his tried-and-tested arguments – including a flood of misinformation about immigration and immigrants, abortion and election security.

But Kamala Harris seems to have unsettled him in several moments, including when she made fun of his tendency to mention fictional characters such as Hannibal Lecteror to engage in digressions about windmills that are difficult to understand.

Although the candidates’ voices were muted while each other spoke, Harris also cleverly used her side of the screen – expressing skepticism, concern and disapproval with a range of expressions.

Harris accuses Trump of using “race to divide the American people”

A few days after Harris launched her campaign, Trump made something shocking even by his standards: that the vice president, who is of South Asian and Afro-Jamaican descent, is not actually African-American.

“Why do you think it is appropriate to comment on the race of your opponent?” Moderator David Muir asked.

“I don’t, and I don’t care. I don’t care what she is. I don’t care. You make a big deal out of something, I don’t care at all. Whatever she wants to be is fine with me,” Trump replied.

Muir then asked Harris for her opinion. She replied:

Frankly, I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president when he has, over and over again, tried to divide the American people on the issue of race. You know, I think that the vast majority of us know that we have so much more in common than what divides us, and we don’t want that kind of approach that constantly tries to divide us, especially on issues of race.

She made a point of addressing Trump’s involvement in the prosecution of the Central Park Five. Read more here:

Now we come to a sensitive issue for Harris: the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Joe BidenTrump’s approval ratings plummeted after the chaotic withdrawal of American troops, during which a terrorist attack killed 13 U.S. soldiers, and Republicans have since sharply criticized his administration over the withdrawal. Harris says she approved of the president’s decision to end U.S. involvement in the war, but then attacked Trump again.

“I agreed with President Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. Four presidents said they would, and Joe Biden did. And as a result, America’s taxpayers are not paying the $300 million a day that we have paid for this endless war. And for the first time this century, not a single member of the U.S. military is on active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone in the world,” Harris says.

Then on to Trump:

But let’s understand how we got to where we are now. As president, Donald Trump negotiated one of the weakest deals imaginable. He calls himself a dealmaker. Even his national security adviser said it was a weak, terrible deal, and this is how it went: He bypassed the Afghan government. He negotiated directly with a terrorist organization called the Taliban. The negotiations included the Taliban releasing 5,000 terrorists.

Not surprisingly, Harris vehemently defended Washington’s support for Ukraine, but then attacked Trump again.

“I believe the reason Donald Trump says this war would be over in 24 hours is because he would just give up on it,” the vice president said. “Through the work that I and others have done, we have brought 50 countries together to help Ukraine defend itself justly, and because of our support, because of the air defenses, the ammunition, the artillery, the javelins and the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine is an independent and free country.”

She continued:

If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now and understand what that would mean, because Putin’s agenda is not just about Ukraine. Understand why European allies and our NATO allies are so grateful that you are no longer president, and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever seen, which is NATO, and what we have done to preserve Zelensky and the Ukrainians’ ability to fight for their independence. Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland.

Trump refuses to say whether he wants Ukraine to win against Russia

The debate has just resumed after a short break and the first question to Trump was about Ukraine.

“You said you would resolve this war within 24 hours. You said that tonight just before the break. How exactly would you do that? And I want to ask you a very simple question tonight: Do you want Ukraine to win this war?” Moderator David Muir asked.

The former president’s answer was not exactly a yes:

I want the war to stop. I want to save lives that are useless. Millions of people are being killed. It’s millions. It’s so much worse than the numbers you’re getting, and they’re wrong numbers.

Muir pressed: “To clarify the question: Do you believe it is in the best interest of the United States for Ukraine to win this war?”

“I think it’s in the best interest of the United States to end this war and just get it done, to make a deal, because we have to prevent all these lives from being destroyed,” Trump said.

Fact check: Crime

Donald Trump claimed that crime in the US has risen sharply – and he is wrong.

In fact, crime has gone down. FBI data shows that violent crime went down during the Trump administration. There was a spike during the 2020 pandemic and the downward trend continued afterward.

Preliminary FBI data showed violent crime fell 6% in 2023 and 15% in the first quarter of 2024.

According to FBI data using information from law enforcement agencies, violent crime has declined during most of Trump’s presidency. But it spiked in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since 2020, the entire U.S. has been on a downward trend, approaching pre-pandemic levels in 2022. Preliminary FBI data for 2023 show that violent crime overall fell another 6% that year.

Although these are preliminary data, they include figures from 80% of the country’s law enforcement agencies.

Trump was asked the same question and did not have much new to say, insisting instead that neither the October 7 attack nor Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have happened if he President – a line from previous speeches and debates.

“If I were president, it would never have started. If I were president, Russia would never, ever have done that. I know Putin very well. He would never have done that. There was no threat of that,” Trump said.

Harris evades the question of how she would resolve the Gaza ceasefire deadlock

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

The Vice President did not answer the question directly, but instead vowed to defend Israel, while acknowledging the civilian casualties caused by the Israeli invasion of Gaza:

Israel has the right to defend itself… and it matters how it does it. Because it is also true that far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, children, mothers. What we do know is that this war must end… And to end it, we need a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. So we will continue to work on this 24/7. We must work 24/7 and also be clear that we must set a course towards a two-state solution. And that solution must provide security for the Israeli people and Israel and provide security for the Palestinians equally.

She added: “I will always give Israel the opportunity to defend itself, especially against Iran and against any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.”

Harris says Trump was ‘fired by 81 million people’ after he again refused to accept 2020 election defeat

Donald Trump continued to insist that he won the 2020 election, despite moderator David Muir He pointed out that judges across the country had dismissed his fraud charges.

That gave Kamala Harris an opportunity to attack him in a way that the former host of The Apprentice would understand well:

Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, that must be made clear. And it is clear that he is having a very hard time processing that. But we cannot afford to have a President of the United States who, as he has done in the past, tries to disregard the will of the voters in a free and fair election.

And I tell you, I’ve traveled the world as vice president of the United States, and world leaders laugh at Donald Trump. I’ve talked to military leaders, some of whom work with you, and they say you’re a disgrace. And then when you talk like that in a presidential debate and deny… you lost, because you actually lost this election, it makes you think that maybe the candidate to my right doesn’t have the temperament or the ability to not be confused by facts. That’s deeply troubling, and the American people deserve better.