Presidential rivals share tense disputes over economy and abortion

Sparring on politics and personality, Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican rival Donald Trump showcased their starkly different visions for the country as they met for the first time for perhaps their only debate before November’s presidential election.

Ms Harris immediately pressed the Democratic case better than President Joe Biden did before he stepped aside as a candidate, hitting the former president’s proposed tax cuts and tariffs and linking him to the conservative Project 2025 blueprint for a Republican administration and Republican efforts to restrict abortion access.

Mr Trump in turn tried to link Ms Harris to Mr Biden, questioning why she had not acted on her proposed ideas while serving as vice president.

Ms Harris walked up to her rival’s lectern to introduce herself as the debate opened.

“Kamala Harris,” she said, extending her hand to Mr Trump, who received it in a handshake.

She sharply criticised the former president for the state of the economy and democracy when he left office, as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the nation and after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6 2021, in a bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“What we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess,” Ms Harris said.

She used the first question about her plans to improve the economy by saying she would extend the tax cut for families with children and a tax deduction for small businesses while attacking Mr Trump’s plans to impose broad tariffs as a “sales tax” on goods that the American people will ultimately pay.

Mr Trump was stone-faced during her answer but retorted: “I have no sales tax. That’s in incorrect statement. She knows that.”

Ms Harris, in zeroing in on one of Mr Trump’s biggest electoral vulnerabilities, laid the end of national abortion rights at the former president’s feet for his role in appointing three US Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v Wade, leaving more than 20 states in the country with what she called “Trump abortion bans.”

She gave one of her most impassioned answers as she described the ways women have been denied abortion care and other emergency care and said Mr Trump would assign a national abortion ban if he wins.

Mr Trump declared it “a lie,” and said, “I’m not signing a ban and there’s no reason to sign a ban.”

The Republican has said he wants the issue left to the states.

As the former president made a series of false claims about migrants, Mr Harris seemed to smirk as he said that migrants are “taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics”.

“Talk about extreme,” Mr Harris responded when Mr Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims that immigrants in Ohio are eating their neighbours’ dogs and cats.

Mr Trump in turn tried to link the vice president to Mr Biden, questioning why she had not acted on her proposed ideas while serving as vice president.

As Ms Harris seemed to try to interject during one of his responses, the former president replied, “I’m talking now, sound familiar?” harkening back to a moment when she shut down an interruption from then vice president Mike Pence.

Mr Trump again minimised his role in the January 6 2021 riot at the US Capitol, which began when a mob of supporters inspired by his false claims that the election had been stolen stormed the building and engaged in violent clashes with law enforcement.

He said he had “nothing to do with that other than that they asked me to make a speech”.

He also repeated his false claim that he beat President Biden in the 2020 election, saying “there’s so much proof. All you have to do is look at it.”

As he has frequently during the campaign, Mr Trump said the Israel-Hamas war would have never happened if he was president, saying several times that Harris “hates Israel.”

Saying that accusation was not true, Mr Harris said that he is “trying again to divide and distract” from the reality that Trump is “wrong on national security.”

Advocating for a “two-state solution”, she said Israel “has the right to defend itself” but “how it does so matters”.

In one moment, she turned to Mr Trump and said that as vice president, she had spoken to foreign leaders “and they say you’re a disgrace”.

Asked whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia, Mr Trump responded by saying “I want the war to stop,” declining to take sides.

In her closing statement, the vice president promised she was focused on the future while Mr Trump was stuck in the past. She emphasised that she has plans to help the middle class.

“I will be a president that will protect fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body,” she said.

Trump criticised Mr Harris for not implementing her plans while she has been part of the Biden administration.

While Tuesday’s meeting might be the last time the candidates cross paths on the debate stage, they may cross paths again Wednesday when they both mark the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Ms Harris will join Mr Biden and both, along with Mr Trump, plan to all be at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan and the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

Ms Harris and Mr Biden will also visit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia later in the day for a ceremony.