PHILADELPHIA – Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday again refused to admit that he had lost the 2020 presidential election, as Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris attacked him over abortion issue, fitness for office and legal woes he is facing.

As expected, Trump during the presidential debate repeatedly sought to turn the conversation to the economy and immigration, as he narrated false stories about migrants stealing and eating people’s pets. However, the Republican candidate said he would not sign a federal abortion ban.

Meanwhile, online prediction market PredictIt’s 2024 presidential general election market showed Trump’s likelihood of victory declining during the debate, to 47% from 52%. Harris’ odds improved to 55% from 53%.

OUT OF CONTROL

Harris, 59, appeared to get under the former president’s skin repeatedly, prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to deliver a series of falsehood-filled retorts.

She criticized Trump over his criminal conviction for covering up hush money payments to a porn star as well as his other indictments and a civil judgment finding him liable for sexual assault.

At one point, she brought up Trump’s campaign rallies, goading him by saying that people often leave early “out of exhaustion and boredom.”

Trump, who has been frustrated by the size of Harris’ own crowds, said, “My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” He then pivoted to an unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets” of residents.

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When ABC News moderator David Muir pointed out that city officials denied any evidence that migrants in Springfield were actually eating pets, Trump doubled down, saying “the people on television” were saying it. When pressed, Trump just said, “We’ll find out.”

The debate, hosted by ABC News, took place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As agreed by the campaigns, there was no live audience and candidates’ microphones were muted when it was not their turn to speak.

In a sign of confidence in the debate’s outcome, Harris’ campaign challenged Trump to a second debate immediately.

MARXIST HARRIS

Trump, who enjoys the support of billionaire Elon Musk, called Harris a “Marxist”. These terms associating the Democrats with communism had started surfacing when Barack Obama came into power for 2008 election. He was often labelled as a communist, ironically when his voters increasingly grew unhappy over not implementing the platform after assuming the office.

Hence, Musk is openly propagating the far right and has relaxed the restrictions on X to make spreading xenophobic ideas and hate speech easier.

When the debate moved to crime, Trump claimed that crime was up in the United States contrary to the rest of the world. There too Muir pointed out that, according to FBI data, crime had actually declined in the past few years.

RACISM

During the debate, Trump also not repeated his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was due to fraud, but also asserted the baseless assertion that migrants have caused a violent crime spree.

Trump was asked by the moderators about one of those attacks, when he told an event with Black journalists in July that Harris had recently “become a Black person.”

“I couldn’t care less,” he said. “Whatever she wants to be is OK with me.”

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Harris, who has both Black and South Asian heritage, responded, “I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people.”

Harris also sought to tie Trump to Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint that proposes expanding executive power, eliminating environmental regulations and making it illegal to ship abortion pills across state lines, among other right-wing goals.

Trump retorted that he has “nothing to do” with Project 2025, though some of his advisers were involved in its creation.

ABORTION

Harris delivered a lengthy attack on abortion limits, speaking passionately about women denied emergency care and victims of incest unable to terminate their pregnancies due to statewide bans that have proliferated since the US Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right in 2022. Three Trump appointees were in the majority of that ruling.

She also claimed Trump would support a national ban. Trump called that assertion untrue but declined to say explicitly that he would veto such a law.

Trump, who has sometimes struggled with messaging on abortion, said falsely that Harris and Democrats support infanticide, which – as ABC News moderator Linsey Davis noted – is illegal in every state.

HIGHER TARIFFS AND ECONOMY

Harris attacked Trump’s intention to impose high tariffs on foreign goods – a proposal she has likened to a sales tax on the middle class – while touting her plan to offer tax benefits to families and small businesses.

Trump criticized Harris for the persistent inflation during the Biden administration’s term, though he overstated the level of price increases. Inflation, he said, “has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, for every class.”