RACE TO WHITE HOUSE

Lotus vs ex-POTUS: Key takeaways of first presidential debate

Thursday, 12 Sep, 2024
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Democrat rival Kamala Harris. (Photos courtesy: Team Trump/Facebook, X@KamalaHarris)

Washington: “You're not running against Joe Biden. You're running against me," Vice President Kamala Harris said as she challenged her rival Donald Trump on foreign policy, economy, and abortion in the first presidential debate. She opened the face-off with a power move - marching across the stage to shake Trump's hand and saying: "Let's have a good debate". Some takeaways from a historic debate...

 

GAZA CONFLICT

Harris: It must end, we need a ceasefire deal, and we need the hostages out

Trump: She hates Israel. If she is president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now.

 

UKRAINE

Trump: I want the war to stop. I want to save lives. ... I think it's in the US' best interest to get this war finished.

Harris: If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.

 

ECONOMY

Harris: I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people, and that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy. My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations.

Trump: Look, we've had a terrible economy, because inflation, which is really known as a country buster. People can't go out and buy cereal or bacon or eggs or anything else. The people of our country are absolutely dying with what they've done. They've destroyed the economy.

 

IMMIGRATION

Harris: I'll tell you something, he's going to talk about immigration a lot tonight, even when it's not the subject that is being raised.

Trump: Our country is being lost, we're a failing nation. ...In Springfield, they're eating the dogs! The people that came in, they're eating the cats!" Trump said. "They're eating the pets of the people that live there.

 

CAPITOL ATTACK

Trump: I had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech. ...It would never have happened if Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington did their jobs.

Harris: I was at the Capitol. I was the vice president-elect. I was also a senator and on that day, the President of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation's capital, to desecrate our nation's capital.

 

GUNS

Harris: Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We're not taking anybody's guns away.

Trump: She has a plan to confiscate everybody's guns.