DEBATE REPLAY: VP Harris & Former President Trump l ABC News Presidential Debate

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DEBATE REPLAY: VP Harris & Former President Trump l ABC News Presidential Debate  Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris met face-to-face for the first time in Philadelphia for the ABC News presidential debate.

Transcript

00:00:00Tonight, the high-stakes showdown here in Philadelphia between Vice President Kamala

00:00:04Harris and former President Donald Trump.

00:00:07Their first face-to-face meeting in this presidential election, their first face-to-face meeting

00:00:11ever.

00:00:12A historic race for president upended just weeks ago, President Biden withdrawing after

00:00:17his last debate, Donald Trump now up against a new opponent.

00:00:20The candidates separated by the smallest of margins, essentially tied in the polls nationally

00:00:25and in the key battlegrounds, including right here in Pennsylvania, all still very much

00:00:29in play.

00:00:30The ABC News presidential debate starts right now.

00:00:34This is an ABC News special.

00:00:36The most consequential moment of this campaign, Kamala Harris.

00:00:40Together, we will chart a new way forward.

00:00:45Donald Trump.

00:00:46We will soon be a great nation again.

00:00:50Face-to-face, historic.

00:00:53The ABC News presidential debate, here now, David Muir and Lindsay Davis.

00:01:02Good evening.

00:01:03I'm David Muir.

00:01:04And thank you for joining us for tonight's ABC News presidential debate.

00:01:06We want to welcome viewers watching on ABC and around the world tonight.

00:01:10Vice President Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump are just moments away from taking

00:01:14the stage in this unprecedented race for president.

00:01:17And I'm Lindsay Davis.

00:01:18Tonight's meeting could be the most consequential event of their campaigns with Election Day

00:01:22now less than two months away.

00:01:24For Vice President Kamala Harris, this is her first debate since President Biden withdrew

00:01:28from the race on July 21st.

00:01:30Of course, that decision followed his debate against President Donald Trump in June.

00:01:34Since then, this race has taken on an entirely new dynamic.

00:01:38And that brings us to the rules of tonight's debate.

00:01:4090 minutes with two commercial breaks.

00:01:41No topics or questions have been shared with the campaigns.

00:01:44The candidates will have two minutes to answer questions.

00:01:47And this is the clock.

00:01:48That's what they'll be seeing.

00:01:49They'll have two minutes for rebuttals and one minute for follow ups, clarifications

00:01:52or responses.

00:01:54Their microphones will only be turned on when it's their turn to speak.

00:01:57No prewritten notes allowed.

00:01:59There is no audience here tonight in this hall at the National Constitution Center.

00:02:02This is an intimate setting for two candidates who have never met.

00:02:06President Trump won the coin toss.

00:02:08He chose to deliver the final closing statement of the evening.

00:02:11Vice President Harris selected the podium to the right.

00:02:13So let's now welcome the candidates to the stage, Vice President Kamala Harris and President

00:02:18Donald Trump.

00:02:26Kamala Harris.

00:02:27Have a good debate.

00:02:28Nice to see you.

00:02:29Have fun.

00:02:30Thank you.

00:02:31Welcome to you both.

00:02:32It's wonderful to have you.

00:02:33It's an honor to have you both here tonight.

00:02:35Good evening.

00:02:36We are looking forward to a spirited and thoughtful debate.

00:02:39So let's get started.

00:02:40I want to begin tonight with the issue that voters repeatedly say is their number one

00:02:43issue, and that is the economy and the cost of living in this country.

00:02:47Vice President Harris, you and President Trump were elected four years ago.

00:02:50And your opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, are you better

00:02:55off than you were four years ago?

00:02:57When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four

00:03:00years ago?

00:03:02So I was raised as a middle class kid, and I am actually the only person on this stage

00:03:09who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America.

00:03:14I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people.

00:03:19And that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity

00:03:24economy.

00:03:25Because here's the thing.

00:03:26We know that we have a shortage of homes and housing.

00:03:30And the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people.

00:03:34We know that young families need support to raise their children.

00:03:38And I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000, which is the largest child

00:03:45tax credit that we have given in a long time, so that those young families can afford to

00:03:50buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy clothes for their children.

00:03:54My passion, one of them, is small businesses.

00:03:58I was actually, my mother raised my sister and me, but there was a woman who helped raise

00:04:03us.

00:04:04We call her our second mother.

00:04:05She was a small business owner.

00:04:06I love our small businesses.

00:04:08My plan is to give a $50,000 tax deduction to startup small businesses, knowing they

00:04:14are part of the backbone of America's economy.

00:04:17My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to

00:04:22provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations, which will result in $5 trillion

00:04:29to America's deficit.

00:04:30My opponent has a plan that I call the Trump's sales tax, which would be a 20% tax on everyday

00:04:37goods that you rely on to get through the month.

00:04:42Economists have said that that Trump's sales tax would actually result for middle-class

00:04:46families in about $4,000 more a year because of his policies and his ideas about what should

00:04:55be the backs of middle-class people paying for tax cuts for billionaires.

00:05:01President Trump, I'll give you two minutes.

00:05:03First of all, I have no sales tax.

00:05:04That's an incorrect statement.

00:05:06She knows that.

00:05:07We're doing tariffs on other countries.

00:05:09Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we've done

00:05:14for the world.

00:05:15And the tariff will be substantial in some cases.

00:05:19I took in billions and billions of dollars, as you know, from China.

00:05:22In fact, they never took the tariff off because it was so much money they can't.

00:05:26It would totally destroy everything that they've set out to do.

00:05:29They're taking in billions of dollars from China and other places.

00:05:32They've left the tariffs on.

00:05:33When I had it, I had tariffs, and yet I had no inflation.

00:05:37Look, we've had a terrible economy because inflation has, which is really known as a

00:05:42country buster.

00:05:43It breaks up countries.

00:05:44We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before.

00:05:48Probably the worst in our nation's history.

00:05:51We were at 21 percent, but that's being generous because many things are 50, 60, 70, 80 percent

00:05:56higher than they were just a few years ago.

00:05:59This has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, but for every class.

00:06:04On top of that, we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and

00:06:08jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums.

00:06:12And they're coming in and they're taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans

00:06:18and Hispanics and also unions.

00:06:21Unions are going to be affected very soon.

00:06:22And you see what's happening.

00:06:23You see what's happening with towns throughout the United States.

00:06:26You look at Springfield, Ohio.

00:06:28You look at Aurora in Colorado.

00:06:31They are taking over the towns.

00:06:34They're taking over buildings.

00:06:35They're going in violently.

00:06:36These are the people that she and Biden led into our country and they're destroying our

00:06:42country.

00:06:43They're dangerous.

00:06:44They're at the highest level of criminality.

00:06:47And we have to get them out.

00:06:48We have to get them out fast.

00:06:49I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country.

00:06:53I'll do it again and even better.

00:06:55We are going to get to immigration and border security during this debate, but I would like

00:06:59to let Vice President Harris respond on the economy here.

00:07:03Well, I would love to.

00:07:04Let's talk about what Donald Trump left us.

00:07:08Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.

00:07:13Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century.

00:07:19Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.

00:07:27And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump's mess.

00:07:31What we have done and what I intend to do is build on what we know are the aspirations

00:07:36and the hopes of the American people.

00:07:38But I'm going to tell you on this debate tonight, you're going to hear from the same old tired

00:07:42playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances and name calling.

00:07:47What you're going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that

00:07:54the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again.

00:07:58I believe very strongly that the American people want a president who understands the

00:08:04importance of bringing us together.

00:08:06No, we have so much more in common than what separates us.

00:08:10And I pledge to you to be a president for all Americans.

00:08:13President Trump will give you a minute here to respond.

00:08:14No, but when I have nothing to do, as you know, and as she knows better than anyone,

00:08:18I have nothing to do with Project 2025.

00:08:21That's out there.

00:08:22I haven't read it.

00:08:23I don't want to read it purposely.

00:08:24I'm not going to read it.

00:08:26This was a group of people that got together.

00:08:27They came up with some ideas, I guess, some good, some bad, but it makes no difference.

00:08:32I have nothing to do.

00:08:33Everybody knows I'm an open book.

00:08:34Everybody knows what I'm going to do.

00:08:36Cut taxes very substantially and create a great economy like I did before.

00:08:40We had the greatest economy.

00:08:42We got hit with a pandemic and the pandemic was not since 1917, where 100 million people

00:08:48died.

00:08:49Has there been anything like it?

00:08:50We did a phenomenal job with the pandemic.

00:08:52We handed them over a country where the economy and where the stock market was higher than

00:08:58it was before the pandemic came in.

00:09:01Nobody's ever seen anything like it.

00:09:03We made ventilators for the entire world.

00:09:05We got gowns.

00:09:06We got masks.

00:09:07We did things that nobody thought possible.

00:09:09And people give me credit for rebuilding the military.

00:09:12They give me credit for a lot of things, but not enough credit for the great job we did

00:09:15with the pandemic.

00:09:17But the only jobs they got were bounce back jobs.

00:09:19Things with jobs bounce back and it bounced back and it went to their benefit.

00:09:24But I was the one that created them.

00:09:25They know it.

00:09:26And so does everybody else.

00:09:27Vice President Harris, I'll let you respond.

00:09:29So Donald Trump has no plan for you.

00:09:34And when you look at his economic plan, it's all about tax breaks for the richest people.

00:09:39I am offering what I describe as an opportunity economy.

00:09:43And the best economists in our country, if not the world, have reviewed our relative

00:09:49plans for the future of America.

00:09:51What Goldman Sachs has said is that Donald Trump's plan would make the economy worse.

00:09:57Mine would strengthen the economy.

00:09:59What the Wharton School has said is Donald Trump's plan would actually explode the deficit.

00:10:0616 Nobel laureates have described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation.

00:10:13And by the middle of next year, would invite a recession.

00:10:16You just have to look at where we are and where we stand on the issues.

00:10:20And I'd invite you to know that Donald Trump actually has no plan for you because he is

00:10:26more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you.

00:10:30It's just a soundbite that gave her that to say, look, I went to the Wharton School of

00:10:35Finance and many of those professors, the top professors, think my plan is a brilliant

00:10:40plan.

00:10:41It's a great plan.

00:10:42It's going to bring up our worth, our value as a country.

00:10:45It's going to make people want to be able to go and work and create jobs and create

00:10:49a lot of good, solid money for our company, for our country.

00:10:54Just to finish off, she doesn't have a plan.

00:10:58She copied Biden's plan.

00:11:00And it's like four sentences, like run, spot, run, four sentences that are just, oh, we'll

00:11:07try and lower taxes.

00:11:08She doesn't have a plan.

00:11:09Take a look at her plan.

00:11:11She doesn't have a plan.

00:11:12Mr. President, I do want to drill down on something you both brought up.

00:11:15The vice president brought up your tariffs.

00:11:17You responded.

00:11:18And let's drill down on this, because your plan is what she calls is essentially a national

00:11:22sales tax.

00:11:23Your proposal calls for tariffs, as you pointed out here, on foreign imports across the board.

00:11:27You recently said that you might double your plan, imposing tariffs up to 20 percent on

00:11:31goods coming into this country.

00:11:33As you know, many economists say that with tariffs at that level, costs are then passed

00:11:37on to the consumer.

00:11:39Vice President Harris has argued it'll mean higher prices on gas, food, clothing, medication,

00:11:44arguing it costs the typical family nearly $4,000 a year.

00:11:48Do you believe Americans can afford higher prices because of tariffs?

00:11:51They're not going to have higher prices.

00:11:53What's going to happen, who's going to have higher prices, is China and all of the countries

00:11:57that have been ripping us off for years.

00:11:59I charge, I was the only president ever, China was paying us hundreds of billions of dollars,

00:12:05and so were other countries.

00:12:07And you know, if she doesn't like them, they should have gone out and they should have

00:12:10immediately cut the tariffs.

00:12:11But those tariffs are there three and a half years now under their administration.

00:12:16We are going to take in billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars.

00:12:21I had no inflation, virtually no inflation.

00:12:24They had the highest inflation, perhaps, in the history of our country, because I've never

00:12:28seen a worse period of time.

00:12:30People can't go out and buy cereal or bacon or eggs or anything else.

00:12:35The people of our country are absolutely dying with what they've done.

00:12:40They've destroyed the economy.

00:12:41And all you have to do is look at a poll.

00:12:43The polls say 80 and 85 and even 90 percent that the Trump economy was great, that their

00:12:49economy was terrible.

00:12:51Vice President Harris, I do want to ask for your response.

00:12:53And you heard what the president said there, because the Biden administration did keep

00:12:56a number of the Trump tariffs in place.

00:12:58So how do you respond?

00:12:59Well, let's be clear that the Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit.

00:13:05One of the highest we've ever seen in the history of America.

00:13:08He invited trade wars.

00:13:10You want to talk about his deal with China.

00:13:13What he ended up doing is under Donald Trump's presidency, he ended up selling American chips

00:13:19to China to help them improve and modernize their military, basically sold us out when

00:13:27a policy about China should be in making sure the United States of America wins the competition

00:13:33for the 21st century, which means focusing on the details of what that requires, focusing

00:13:39on relationships with our allies, focusing on investing in American based technology

00:13:44so that we win the race on A.I., on quantum computing, focusing on what we need to do

00:13:50to support America's workforce so that we don't end up having that on the short end

00:13:55of the stick in terms of workers rights.

00:13:59But what Donald Trump did, let's talk about this with covid, is he actually thanked President

00:14:05Xi for what he did during covid.

00:14:07Look at his tweet.

00:14:09Thank you, President Xi exclamation point.

00:14:12When we know that she was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about

00:14:18the origins of covid.

00:14:20President Trump, I'll let you respond.

00:14:21First of all, they bought their chips from Taiwan.

00:14:24We hardly make chips anymore because of philosophies like they have and policies like they have.

00:14:31I don't say her because she has no policy.

00:14:33Everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out the window.

00:14:38She's going to my philosophy.

00:14:39Now, in fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat.

00:14:42She's gone to my philosophy.

00:14:43But if she ever got elected, she'd change it and it will be the end of our country.

00:14:49She's a Marxist.

00:14:50Everybody knows she's a Marxist.

00:14:52Her father is a Marxist professor in economics and he taught her well.

00:14:56But when you look at what she's done to our country and when you look at these millions

00:15:01and millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly, where it's, I believe,

00:15:0521 million people, not the 15 that people say.

00:15:09And I think it's a lot higher than the 21.

00:15:11That's bigger than New York state pouring in.

00:15:13And just look at what they're doing to our country.

00:15:16They're criminals.

00:15:17Many of these people coming in are criminals.

00:15:19And that's bad for our economy, too.

00:15:21You know, you mentioned before, we'll talk about immigration later.

00:15:23Well, bad immigration is the worst thing that can happen to our economy.

00:15:28They have and she has destroyed our country with policy that's insane, almost policy that

00:15:35you'd say they have to hate our country.

00:15:38President Trump.

00:15:39Thank you, Lindsey.

00:15:40I want to turn to the issue of abortion.

00:15:42President Trump, you've often touted that you were able to kill Roe v. Wade last year.

00:15:46You said that you were proud to be the most pro-life president in American history.

00:15:51Then last month, you said that your administration would be great for women and their reproductive

00:15:56rights.

00:15:57In your home state of Florida, you surprised many with regard to your six week abortion

00:16:01ban because you initially had said that it was too short and you said, quote, I'm going

00:16:05to be voting that we need more than six weeks.

00:16:08But then the very next day, you reversed course and said you would vote to support the six

00:16:12week ban.

00:16:13Vice President Harris says that women shouldn't trust you on the issue of abortion because

00:16:18you've changed your position so many times.

00:16:21Therefore, why should they trust?

00:16:23Well, the reason I'm doing that vote is because the plan is, as you know, the voters, they

00:16:28have abortion in the ninth month.

00:16:31They even have.

00:16:32And you can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia, not

00:16:36the current governor, is doing an excellent job.

00:16:38But the governor before he said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do

00:16:44with the baby.

00:16:45In other words, we'll execute the baby.

00:16:46And that's why I did that, because that predominates because they're radical.

00:16:50The Democrats are radical in that.

00:16:52And her vice presidential pick, which I think is a horrible pick, by the way, for our country

00:16:58because he is really out of it.

00:17:00But her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine.

00:17:05He also says execution after birth.

00:17:08It's execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born is OK.

00:17:13And that's not OK with me.

00:17:15Hence the vote.

00:17:16But what I did is something for 52 years.

00:17:19They've been trying to get Roe v. Wade into the states.

00:17:23And through the genius and heart and strength of six Supreme Court justices, we were able

00:17:32to do that.

00:17:33Now, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.

00:17:37I believe strongly in it.

00:17:38Ronald Reagan did also.

00:17:40Eighty five percent of Republicans do exceptions.

00:17:43Very important.

00:17:44But we were able to get it.

00:17:46And now states are voting on it.

00:17:48And for the first time, you're going to see, look, this is an issue that's torn our country

00:17:53apart for 52 years.

00:17:56Every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative.

00:18:01They all wanted this issue to be brought back to the states where the people could vote.

00:18:05And that's what happened.

00:18:06And now, Ohio, the vote was somewhat liberal, Kansas.

00:18:11The vote was somewhat liberal, much more liberal than people would have thought.

00:18:15But each individual state is voting.

00:18:18It's the vote of the people now.

00:18:19It's not tied up in the federal government.

00:18:21I did a great service in doing it.

00:18:23It took courage to do it.

00:18:24And the Supreme Court had great courage in doing it.

00:18:27And I give tremendous credit to those six justices.

00:18:30There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.

00:18:35And Vice President, I want to get your response to President Trump.

00:18:37Well, as I said, you're going to hear a bunch of lies.

00:18:40And that's not actually a surprising fact.

00:18:43Let's understand how we got here.

00:18:45Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention

00:18:51that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade.

00:18:54And they did exactly as he intended.

00:18:57And now in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans, which make it criminal for

00:19:05a doctor or nurse to provide health care.

00:19:07In one state, it provides prison for life.

00:19:11Trump abortion bans that make no exception even for rape and incest, which understand

00:19:16what that means.

00:19:17A survivor of a crime, a violation to their body, does not have the right to make a decision

00:19:23about what happens to their body next.

00:19:25That is immoral.

00:19:28And one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree.

00:19:34The government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with

00:19:39her body.

00:19:40I have talked with women around our country.

00:19:44You want to talk about this is what people wanted?

00:19:47Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being

00:19:52denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they

00:19:57might go to jail and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot.

00:20:01She didn't want that.

00:20:03Her husband didn't want that.

00:20:04A 12 or 13 year old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term.

00:20:11They don't want that.

00:20:14And I pledge to you when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections

00:20:20of Roe v. Wade as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.

00:20:26But understand, if Donald Trump were to be reelected, he will sign a national abortion

00:20:32ban.

00:20:33Understand in his project 2025, there would be a national abortion, a monitor that would

00:20:38be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages.

00:20:41I think the American people believe that certain freedoms, in particular the freedom to make

00:20:47decisions about one's own body, should not be made by the government.

00:20:52Thank you, Vice President Harris.

00:20:53Well, there she goes again.

00:20:55It's a lie.

00:20:56I'm not signing a ban and there's no reason to sign a ban because we've gotten what everybody

00:21:02wanted.

00:21:03Democrats, Republicans and everybody else and every legal scholar wanted it to be brought

00:21:08back into the states and the states are voting and it may take a little time.

00:21:13But for 52 years, this issue has torn our country apart and they've wanted it back in

00:21:19the states.

00:21:20And I did something that nobody thought was possible.

00:21:24The states are now voting.

00:21:26What she says is an absolute lie.

00:21:28And as far as the abortion ban, no, I'm not in favor of abortion.

00:21:32But it doesn't matter because this issue has now been taken over by the states.

00:21:37Would you veto a national abortion ban?

00:21:39Well, I won't have to.

00:21:40Because again, two things.

00:21:42Number one, she said she'll go back to Congress.

00:21:44She'll never get the vote.

00:21:45It's impossible for her to get the vote, especially now with 50 50 and essentially 50 50 in both

00:21:52Senate and the House.

00:21:53She's not going to get the vote.

00:21:54She can't get the vote.

00:21:55She won't even come close to it.

00:21:56So it's just talk.

00:21:57You know what it reminds me of when they said they're going to get student loans terminated

00:22:01and it ended up being a total catastrophe, the student loans.

00:22:05And then her, I think probably her boss, if you call him a boss, he spends all his time

00:22:11in the beach.

00:22:12But look, her boss went out and said, we'll do it again.

00:22:14We'll do it a different way.

00:22:15And he went out, got rejected again by the Supreme Court.

00:22:19So all these students got taunted with this whole thing about this whole idea and how

00:22:24unfair that would have been part of the reason they lost to the millions and millions of

00:22:29people that had to pay off their student loans.

00:22:32They didn't get it for free, but they were saying it's the same way that they talked

00:22:35about that, that they talk about abortion.

00:22:38But if I could just get a yes or no, because you're running me, J.D. Vance has said that

00:22:42you would veto if you did come to your desk.

00:22:44Well, I didn't discuss it with J.D. In all fairness, J.D. and I don't mind if he has

00:22:50a certain view, but I think you're speaking for me.

00:22:52But I really didn't look.

00:22:55We don't have to discuss it because she'd never be able to get it, just like she couldn't

00:22:59get student loans.

00:23:00They couldn't get student loans.

00:23:01They didn't even come close to getting student loans.

00:23:03They taunted young people and a lot of other people that had loans.

00:23:07They can never get this approved.

00:23:09So it doesn't matter what she says about going to Congress.

00:23:11So wonderful.

00:23:12Let's go to Congress.

00:23:13Do it.

00:23:14But the fact is that for years they wanted to get it out of Congress and out of the federal

00:23:17government.

00:23:18And we did something that everybody said couldn't be done.

00:23:20And now you have a vote of the people on abortion.

00:23:24Vice President Harris, I want to give you your time to respond, but I do want to ask,

00:23:27would you support any restrictions on a woman's right to an abortion?

00:23:31I absolutely support reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade.

00:23:35And as you rightly mentioned, nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to

00:23:43term and asking for an abortion.

00:23:46That is not happening.

00:23:47It's insulting to the women of America.

00:23:50And understand what has been happening under Donald Trump's abortion bans.

00:23:55Couples who pray and dream of having a family are being denied IVF treatments.

00:24:03What is happening in our country?

00:24:05Working people, working women who are working one or two jobs, who can barely afford child

00:24:12care as it is, have to travel to another state to get on a plane sitting next to strangers

00:24:20to go and get the health care she needs, barely can afford to do it.

00:24:25And what you are putting her through is unconscionable.

00:24:30And the people of America have not.

00:24:32The majority of Americans believe in a woman's right to make decisions about her own body.

00:24:37And that is why in every state where this issue has been on the ballot in red and blue

00:24:43states, both the people of America have voted for freedom.

00:24:47Vice President, excuse me, I have to respond.

00:24:49Another lie.

00:24:50It's another lie.

00:24:51I have been a leader on IVF, which which is fertilization.

00:24:55The IVF.

00:24:56I have been a leader.

00:24:57In fact, when they got a very negative decision on IVF from the Alabama courts, I saw the

00:25:04people of Alabama and the legislature two days later voted it in.

00:25:08I've been a leader on it.

00:25:10They know that.

00:25:11And everybody else knows it.

00:25:12I have been a leader on fertilization IVF.

00:25:15And the other thing they you should ask, will she allow abortion in the eighth month, ninth

00:25:22month, seventh month?

00:25:24OK, would you do that?

00:25:27Why don't you ask that question?

00:25:28Why don't you answer the question?

00:25:29Would you because under Roe v. Wade, you could you could do abortions in the seventh month,

00:25:34the eighth month, the ninth month and probably after birth.

00:25:38Just look at the governor, former governor of Virginia.

00:25:41The governor of Virginia said we put the baby aside and then we determine what we want to

00:25:46do with the president.

00:25:47Trump.

00:25:48Thank you.

00:25:49We're going to turn now to immigration and border security.

00:25:50We know it's an issue that's important to Republicans, Democrats, voters across the

00:25:54board in this country.

00:25:55Vice President Harris, you were tasked by President Biden with getting to the root causes

00:25:59of migration from Central America.

00:26:02We know that illegal border crossings reached a record high in the Biden administration.

00:26:06This past June, President Biden imposed tough new asylum restrictions.

00:26:09We know the numbers since then have dropped significantly.

00:26:13But my question to you tonight is, why did the administration wait until six months before

00:26:17the election to act?

00:26:18And would you have done anything differently from President Biden on this?

00:26:22So I'm the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations

00:26:27for the trafficking of guns, drugs and human beings.

00:26:31And let me say that the United States Congress, including some of the most conservative members

00:26:36of the United States Senate, came up with a border security bill, which I supported.

00:26:43And that bill would have put 1500 more border agents on the border to help those folks who

00:26:48are working there right now over time trying to do their job.

00:26:52It would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States.

00:26:58I know there are so many families watching tonight who have been personally affected

00:27:02by the surge of fentanyl in our country.

00:27:04That bill would have put more resources to allow us to prosecute transnational criminal

00:27:10organizations for trafficking in guns, drugs and human beings.

00:27:13But you know what happened to that bill?

00:27:15Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress and said, kill the

00:27:20bill.

00:27:21And you know why?

00:27:22Because he'd prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.

00:27:27And understand, this comes at a time where the people of our country actually need a

00:27:33leader who engages in solutions, who actually addresses the problems at hand.

00:27:40But what we have in the former president is someone who would prefer to run on a problem

00:27:44instead of fixing a problem.

00:27:46And I'll tell you something.

00:27:47He's going to talk about immigration a lot tonight, even when it's not the subject that

00:27:50is being raised.

00:27:51And I'm going to actually do something really unusual.

00:27:54And I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies because it's a really

00:27:58interesting thing to watch.

00:28:00You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal

00:28:04Lecter.

00:28:05He will talk about when mills cause cancer.

00:28:09And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion

00:28:13and boredom.

00:28:15And I will tell you, the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.

00:28:19You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams and your desires.

00:28:24And I'll tell you, I believe you deserve a president who actually puts you first.

00:28:28And I pledge to you that I will.

00:28:30Vice President Harris, thank you.

00:28:32President Trump, on that point, I want to get your response.

00:28:33Well, I would like to respond.

00:28:34Let me just ask, though.

00:28:35Why did you try to kill that bill and successfully so that would have put thousands of additional

00:28:39agents and officers on the board?

00:28:40First, let me respond to the rallies.

00:28:43She said people start leaving.

00:28:44People don't go to her rallies.

00:28:45There's no reason to go.

00:28:47And the people that do go, she's busing them in and paying them to be there and then showing

00:28:52them in a different light.

00:28:54So she can't talk about that.

00:28:56People don't leave my rallies.

00:28:57We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.

00:29:01That's because people want to take their country back.

00:29:04Our country is being lost.

00:29:06We're a failing nation.

00:29:07And it happened three and a half years ago.

00:29:10And what what's going on here, you're going to end up in World War three just to go into

00:29:14another subject.

00:29:16What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come

00:29:21into our country and look at what's happening to the towns all over the United States and

00:29:25a lot of towns don't want to talk.

00:29:27It's not going to be Aurora or Springfield.

00:29:29A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it in Springfield.

00:29:34They're eating the dogs.

00:29:36The people that came in, they're eating the cats.

00:29:39They're eating.

00:29:40They're eating the pets of the people that live there.

00:29:44And this is what's happening in our country.

00:29:47And it's a shame.

00:29:48As far as rallies are concerned, as far as the reason they go is they like what I say.

00:29:54They want to bring our country back.

00:29:56They want to make America great against very simple phrase, make America great again.

00:30:01She's destroying this country.

00:30:03And if she becomes president, this country doesn't have a chance of success.

00:30:08Not only success will end up being Venezuela on steroids.

00:30:12I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did reach

00:30:17out to the city manager there.

00:30:18He told us there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured

00:30:23or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.

00:30:26All these people on television, let me just say here, this is the people on television

00:30:29say my dog was taken and used for food.

00:30:32So maybe he said that and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager.

00:30:36I'm not taking this from television.

00:30:37I'm taking it from the city manager.

00:30:38But the people on television say their dog was eaten by the people that went there.

00:30:42Again, the Springfield city manager says there's no evidence of that.

00:30:45Vice President Harris, I'll let you respond to the rest of what you've heard.

00:30:49You talk about extreme.

00:30:52You know, this is, I think, one of the reasons why in this election, I actually have the

00:30:58endorsement of 200 Republicans who have formally worked with President Bush, Mitt Romney and

00:31:06John McCain, including the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Congress

00:31:12member Liz Cheney.

00:31:15And if you want to really know the inside track on who the former president is, if you

00:31:20didn't make it clear already, just ask people who have worked with him.

00:31:24His former chief of staff, a four star general, has said he has contempt for the Constitution

00:31:29of the United States.

00:31:31His former national security adviser has said he is dangerous and unfit.

00:31:36His former secretary of defense has said the nation, the republic would never survive another

00:31:43Trump term.

00:31:45And when we listen to this kind of rhetoric, when the issues that affect the American people

00:31:52are not being addressed, I think the choice is clear in this election.

00:31:56President Trump will give you a quick minute to respond.

00:31:59Thank you.

00:32:00Because when I hear that, see, I'm a different kind of a person.

00:32:03I fired most of those people.

00:32:06Not so graciously.

00:32:07They did bad things or a bad job.

00:32:09I fired him.

00:32:10They never fired one person.

00:32:12They didn't fire anybody having to do with Afghanistan and the Taliban and the 13 people

00:32:16who's who's were just killed viciously and violently killed.

00:32:21And I got to know the parents and the family.

00:32:23They didn't fire.

00:32:24They should have fired all those generals, all those top people, because that was one

00:32:28of the most incompetently handled situations anybody has ever seen.

00:32:33So when somebody does a bad job, I fire them.

00:32:37And you take a guy like Esper.

00:32:38He was no good.

00:32:39I fired him.

00:32:40So he writes a book.

00:32:41Another one writes a book because with me, they can write books with nobody else.

00:32:44Can they?

00:32:45But they have done such a poor job and they never fire anybody.

00:32:50Look at the economy.

00:32:51Look, look at the inflation.

00:32:53They didn't fire any of their economists.

00:32:55They have the same people.

00:32:56It's a good way not to have books written about you.

00:32:59But just to finish, I got more votes than any Republican in history by far.

00:33:06In fact, I got more votes than any president sitting president in history by far.

00:33:13Let me continue on immigration.

00:33:14It was what you wanted to talk about earlier.

00:33:15So let's get back to your deportation proposal that the vice president has reacted to as

00:33:21well.

00:33:22President Trump, you call this the largest domestic deportation operation in the history

00:33:26of our country.

00:33:27You say you would use the National Guard.

00:33:28You say if things get out of control, you'd have no problem using the U.S. military.

00:33:32You also said you would use local police.

00:33:35How would you deport 11 million undocumented immigrants?

00:33:38I know you believe that number is much higher.

00:33:41Take us through this.

00:33:42What does this look like?

00:33:43Will authorities be going door to door in this country?

00:33:45Yeah, it is much higher because of them.

00:33:48They allowed criminals, many, many millions of criminals.

00:33:52They allowed terrorists.

00:33:53They allowed common street criminals.

00:33:55They allowed people to come in, drug dealers to come into our country.

00:33:59And then now in the United States and told by their countries like Venezuela, don't ever

00:34:05come back or we're going to kill you.

00:34:07Do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down?

00:34:13You know why?

00:34:14Because they've taken their criminals off the street and they've given them to her to

00:34:18put into our country.

00:34:20And this will be one of the greatest mistakes in history for them to allow.

00:34:25And I think they probably did it because they think they're going to get votes.

00:34:28But it's not worth it because they're destroying the fabric of our country by what they've

00:34:33done.

00:34:34There's never been anything done like this at all.

00:34:37They've destroyed the fabric of our country.

00:34:40Millions of people let in and all over the world.

00:34:43Crime is down all over the world, except here.

00:34:46Crime here is up and through the roof, despite their fraudulent statements that they made.

00:34:51Crime in this country is through the roof.

00:34:53And we have a new form of crime.

00:34:54It's called migrant crime.

00:34:56And it's happening at levels that nobody thought possible.

00:34:58President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is actually coming down

00:35:02in this country.

00:35:03But excuse me, the FBI defraud.

00:35:05They were defrauding statements.

00:35:07They didn't include the worst cities.

00:35:09They didn't include the cities with the worst crime.

00:35:12It was a fraud, just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned

00:35:18out to be a fraud.

00:35:19President Trump, thank you.

00:35:20I'll let you respond.

00:35:21Vice President Harris.

00:35:22Well, I think this is so rich coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national

00:35:28security crimes, economic crimes.

00:35:32Election interference has been found liable for sexual assault.

00:35:37And his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing.

00:35:43And let's be clear where each person stands on the issue of what is important about respect

00:35:50for the rule of law and respect for law enforcement.

00:35:53The former vice president called for defunding federal law enforcement, 45000 agents.

00:36:00Get this on the day after he was arraigned on 34 felony counts.

00:36:05So let's talk about what is important in this race.

00:36:09It is important that we move forward, that we turn the page on this same old tired rhetoric

00:36:16and address the needs of the American people.

00:36:20Address what we need to do about the housing shortage, which I have a plan for.

00:36:25Address what we must do to support our small businesses.

00:36:29Address bringing down the price of groceries.

00:36:31But frankly, the American people are exhausted with the same old tired playbook.

00:36:37Vice President Harris.

00:36:38Thank you.

00:36:39Excuse me.

00:36:40Every one of those cases was started by them against their political opponent.

00:36:44And I'm winning most of them and I will win the rest on appeal.

00:36:47And you saw that with the decision that came down just recently from the Supreme Court.

00:36:51I'm winning most of them.

00:36:53But those are cases.

00:36:54It's called weaponization.

00:36:55Never happened in this country.

00:36:57They weaponized the Justice Department.

00:36:59Every one of those cases was involved with the DOJ from Atlanta and Fonny Willis to to

00:37:05the attorney general of New York and the D.A. in New York.

00:37:10Every one of those cases.

00:37:12And then they say, oh, he was he's a criminal.

00:37:15They're the ones that made them go after me.

00:37:18By the way, Joe Biden was found essentially guilty on the documents case.

00:37:23And what happened in my documents case?

00:37:25They said, oh, that's the toughest of them all.

00:37:27A complete and total victory.

00:37:29Two months ago, it was thrown out.

00:37:32It's weaponization and they used it.

00:37:34And it's never happened in this country.

00:37:36They used it to try and win an election for their fake cases.

00:37:40President Trump, thank you.

00:37:41A really quick response here, Vice President Harris, on this notion of weaponization of

00:37:44the Justice Department.

00:37:45Well, let's talk about extreme and understand the context in which this election in twenty

00:37:50twenty four is taking place.

00:37:51The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that the former president would essentially

00:37:57be immune from any misconduct if he were to enter the White House again.

00:38:02Understand this is someone who has openly said he would terminate, I'm quoting, terminate

00:38:08the Constitution of the United States, that he would weaponize the Department of Justice

00:38:13against his political enemies.

00:38:16Someone who has openly expressed disdain for members of our military.

00:38:23Understand what it would mean if Donald Trump were back in the White House with no guard

00:38:27rails, because certainly we know now the court won't stop him.

00:38:31We know J.D.

00:38:32Vance is not going to stop him.

00:38:33It's up to the American people to stop him.

00:38:36Thank you, Lindsay.

00:38:37Vice President Harris, in your last run for president, we got this is the one that weaponized.

00:38:43Not me.

00:38:44She weaponized.

00:38:45I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me.

00:38:50They talk about democracy.

00:38:52I'm a threat to democracy.

00:38:54They're the threat to democracy with a fake Russia, Russia, Russia investigation that

00:38:59went nowhere.

00:39:00We have a lot to get to.

00:39:01Lindsay.

00:39:02Vice President Harris, in your last run for president, you said you wanted to ban fracking.

00:39:05Now you don't.

00:39:06You wanted mandatory government buyback programs for assault weapons.

00:39:09Now your campaign says you don't.

00:39:12You supported decriminalizing border crossings.

00:39:14Now you're taking a harder line.

00:39:16I know you say that your values have not changed.

00:39:19So then why have so many of your policy positions changed?

00:39:22So my values have not changed, and I'm going to discuss every one of the at least every

00:39:27point that you've made.

00:39:28But in particular, let's talk about fracking, because we're here in Pennsylvania.

00:39:31I made that very clear in 2020.

00:39:33I will not ban fracking.

00:39:35I have not banned fracking as vice president United States.

00:39:37And in fact, I was the tie breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened

00:39:43new leases for fracking.

00:39:45My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy.

00:39:52So we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.

00:39:55We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach

00:40:03that recognizes that we cannot over rely on foreign oil.

00:40:07As it relates to my values, let me tell you, I grew up a middle class kid raised by a hard

00:40:12working mother who worked and saved and was able to buy our first home when I was a teenager.

00:40:19The values I bring to the importance of home ownership, knowing not everybody got handed

00:40:24$400 million on a silver platter and then filed bankruptcy six times is a value that

00:40:30I bring to my work to say we are going to work with the private sector and home builders

00:40:35to increase 3 million homes increased by 3 million homes by the end of my first term.

00:40:41My work that is related to having a friend when I was in high school who was sexually

00:40:46assaulted by her stepfather and my focus then on protecting women and children from violent

00:40:51crime is based on a value that is deeply grounded in the importance of standing up for those

00:40:57who are most vulnerable.

00:40:59My work that is about protecting Social Security and Medicare is based on long standing work

00:41:04that I have done protecting seniors from scams.

00:41:08My values have not changed.

00:41:11And what is important is that there is a president who actually brings values and a perspective

00:41:17that is about lifting people up and not beating people down and name calling.

00:41:24The true measure of the leader is the leader who actually understands the strength is not

00:41:30in beating people down.

00:41:32It's in lifting people up.

00:41:33I intend to be that president.

00:41:37First of all, I wasn't given 400 million dollars.

00:41:39I wish I was.

00:41:40My father was a Brooklyn builder, Brooklyn, Queens, and a great father, and I learned

00:41:44a lot from him.

00:41:45But I was given a fraction of that, a tiny fraction, and I built it into many, many billions

00:41:49of dollars, many, many billions.

00:41:52And when people see it, they are even surprised.

00:41:54So we don't have to talk about that fracking.

00:41:57She's been against it for 12 years to fund the police.

00:42:01She's been against that forever.

00:42:03She gave all that stuff up very wrongly, very horribly.

00:42:08And everybody's laughing at it.

00:42:09OK, they're all laughing at it.

00:42:11She gave up at least 12 and probably 14 or 15 different policies like she was big on

00:42:17to fund the police in Minnesota.

00:42:19She went out.

00:42:20Wait a minute.

00:42:21I'm talking now.

00:42:22You don't mind, please.

00:42:23Does that sound familiar?

00:42:27She went out.

00:42:30She went out in Minnesota and wanted to let criminals that killed people that burned down

00:42:36Minneapolis.

00:42:37She went out and raised money to get him out of jail.

00:42:40She did things that nobody would ever think of.

00:42:42Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.

00:42:48This is a radical left liberal that would do this.

00:42:51She wants to confiscate your guns and she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania.

00:42:57If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one.

00:43:01Just to finish one thing so important, in my opinion.

00:43:05So I got the oil business going like nobody has ever done before.

00:43:09They took when they took over, they got rid of it, started getting rid of it.

00:43:13And the prices were going up the roof.

00:43:16They immediately let these guys go to where they were.

00:43:21I would have been five times, four times, five times higher because you're talking about

00:43:25three and a half years ago.

00:43:27They got it up to where I was because they had no choice because the prices of energy

00:43:32would were quadrupling and doubling.

00:43:34You saw what happened to gasoline.

00:43:36So they said, let's go back to Trump.

00:43:38But if she won the election the day after that election, they'll go back to destroying

00:43:42our country and oil will be dead.

00:43:44Fossil fuel will be dead.

00:43:45We'll go back to windmills and we'll go back to solar where they need a whole desert to

00:43:50get some energy to come out.

00:43:52You ever see a solar plant?

00:43:53By the way, I'm a big fan of solar, but they take four hundred, five hundred acres of desert

00:44:00soil.

00:44:01These are not good things for the environment.

00:44:04Thank you.

00:44:05Lindsay, thank you.

00:44:06We have an election in just 56 days.

00:44:08I want to talk about the peaceful transfer of power, which, of course, we all know is

00:44:11a cornerstone of our democracy and the role of a president in a moment of crisis.

00:44:16Mr. President, on January 6th, you told your supporters to march to the Capitol.

00:44:20You said you would be right there with them.

00:44:22The country and the world saw what played out at the Capitol that day.

00:44:24The officers coming under attack.

00:44:27Aides in the West Wing say you watched it unfold on television off the Oval Office.

00:44:31You did send out tweets, but it was more than two hours before you sent out that video message

00:44:35telling your supporters to go home.

00:44:38Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?

00:44:41You just said a thing that isn't covered peacefully and patriotically.

00:44:46I said during my speech, not later on, peacefully and patriotically.

00:44:52And nobody on the other side was killed.

00:44:55Ashley Babbitt was shot by an out-of-control police officer that should have never, ever

00:45:01shot her.

00:45:02It's a disgrace.

00:45:04But we didn't do this group of people that have been treated so badly.

00:45:08I ask, what about all the people that are pouring into our country and killing people

00:45:12that she allowed to pour in?

00:45:14She was the Bordeaux.

00:45:15I remember that.

00:45:16She was the Bordeaux.

00:45:17She doesn't want to be called the Bordeaux because she's embarrassed by the border.

00:45:20In fact, she said at the beginning, well, I'm surprised you're not talking about the

00:45:23border yet.

00:45:24That's because she knows what a bad job they've done.

00:45:27What about those people?

00:45:28What's what are they going to be prosecuted?

00:45:30One of these people from countries all over the world, not just South America.

00:45:35They're coming in from all over the world, David, all over the world.

00:45:40And crime rates are down all over the world because of it.

00:45:44David, one of those people are going to be prosecuted.

00:45:46One of the people that burned down Minneapolis is going to be prosecuted or in Seattle.

00:45:51They went into Seattle.

00:45:52They took over a big percentage of the city of Seattle.

00:45:55One of those people are going to be prosecuted.

00:45:57But let me just ask you might ask her that.

00:45:59You were the president.

00:46:00You were watching it unfold on television.

00:46:02It's a very simple question.

00:46:03As we move forward toward another election.

00:46:05Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?

00:46:08Yes.

00:46:09I had nothing to do with that other than they asked me to make a speech.

00:46:13I showed up for a speech.

00:46:14I said, I think it's going to be big.

00:46:15I went to Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington, D.C., and the mayor put it back in writing,

00:46:21as you know.

00:46:22I said, you know, this is going to be a very big rally or whatever you want to call it.

00:46:27And again, it wasn't done by me.

00:46:29It was done by others.

00:46:30I said, I'd like to give you 10,000 National Guard or soldiers.

00:46:35They rejected me.

00:46:36Nancy Pelosi rejected me.

00:46:37It was just two weeks ago.

00:46:39Her daughter has a tape of her saying she is fully responsible for what happened.

00:46:44They want to get rid of that tape.

00:46:46It would have never happened if Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington did their jobs.

00:46:50I wasn't responsible for security.

00:46:53Nancy Pelosi was responsible.

00:46:55She didn't do her job.

00:46:56The question was about you as president, not about former Speaker Pelosi.

00:46:59But I do want Vice President Harris to respond here.

00:47:03I was at the Capitol on January 6th.

00:47:06I was the vice president elect.

00:47:08I was also an acting senator.

00:47:10I was there.

00:47:11And on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our

00:47:19nation's capital.

00:47:22To desecrate our nation's capital.

00:47:24On that day, 140 law enforcement officers were injured and some died.

00:47:30And understand the former president has been indicted and impeached for exactly that reason.

00:47:38But this is not an isolated situation.

00:47:41Let's remember Charlottesville.

00:47:44Where there was a mob of people carrying tiki torches, spewing anti-Semitic hate.

00:47:52And what did the president then at the time say?

00:47:56There were fine people on each side.

00:47:59Let's remember that when it came to the Proud Boys, a militia, the president said, the former

00:48:06president said, stand back and stand by.

00:48:09So for everyone watching who remembers what January 6th was.

00:48:14I say we don't have to go back.

00:48:18Let's not go back.

00:48:19We're not going back.

00:48:20It's time to turn the page.

00:48:23And if that was a bridge too far for you, well, there is a place in our campaign for

00:48:28you to stand for country, to stand for our democracy, to stand for rule of law and to

00:48:37end the chaos and to end the approach that is about attacking the foundations of our

00:48:45democracy because you don't like the outcome.

00:48:48And be clear on that point.

00:48:50Donald Trump, the candidate, has said in this election there will be a bloodbath if this

00:48:56and the outcome of this election is not to his liking.

00:49:00Let's turn the page on this.

00:49:02Let's not go back.

00:49:04Let's chart a course for the future and not go backwards to the past.

00:49:09Let me just follow up here.

00:49:12It was a different term and it was a term that related to energy because they have destroyed

00:49:16our energy business.

00:49:18That was where bloodbath was also on Charlottesville.

00:49:21That story has been, as you would say, debunked.

00:49:24Laura Ingram, Sean Hannity, Jesse, all of these people, they covered it.

00:49:29If they go an extra sentence, they will see it was perfect.

00:49:33It was debunked in almost every newspaper, but they still bring it up, just like they

00:49:37bring 2025 up.

00:49:39They bring all of this stuff up.

00:49:40I ask you this.

00:49:41You talk about the Capitol.

00:49:43Why are we allowing these millions of people to come through on the southern border?

00:49:48How come she's not doing anything?

00:49:50And I'll tell you what I would do, and I would be very proud to do it.

00:49:53I would say we would both leave this debate right now.

00:49:56I'd like to see her go down to Washington, D.C. during this debate because we're wasting

00:50:01a lot of time.

00:50:03Go down to because she's been so bad.

00:50:05It's so ridiculous.

00:50:06Go down to Washington, D.C. and let her sign a bill to close up the border because they

00:50:11have the right to do it.

00:50:12They don't need bills.

00:50:13They have the right to do it.

00:50:14The president of the United States, you'll get him out of bed.

00:50:17You'll wake him up at four o'clock in the afternoon.

00:50:19You'll say, come on.

00:50:20Come on down to the office.

00:50:21Let's sign a bill.

00:50:22If he if he signs a bill that the border is closed, all he has to do is say it to the

00:50:27Border Patrol, who are phenomenal.

00:50:29If they do that, the border is closed.

00:50:32Those people are killing many people, unlike J6.

00:50:35We talked immigration here tonight.

00:50:36I do want to focus on this next issue to both of you because it really brings us this into

00:50:40focus.

00:50:41Truth in these times that we're living in, Mr. President, for three and a half years

00:50:45after you lost the 2020 election, you repeatedly falsely claimed that you won, many times saying

00:50:50you won in a landslide in the past couple of weeks leading up to this debate.

00:50:55You have said, quote, you lost by a whisker that you, quote, didn't quite make it, that

00:50:59you came up a little bit short.

00:51:01I said that.

00:51:02Are you now acknowledging that you lost in 2020?

00:51:04I don't acknowledge it at all.

00:51:05I said that sarcastically.

00:51:07You know that it was said, oh, we lost by a whisker.

00:51:09That was said sarcastically.

00:51:11Look, there's so much proof.

00:51:13All you have to do is look at it.

00:51:15And they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval.

00:51:18I got almost 75 million votes, the most votes any sitting president has ever gotten.

00:51:23I was told if I got 63, which was what I got in 2016, you can't be beaten.

00:51:28The election people should never be thinking about an election is fraudulent.

00:51:32We need two things.

00:51:33We need walls.

00:51:34We need and we have to have it.

00:51:36We have to have borders and we have to have good elections.

00:51:40Our elections are bad.

00:51:41And a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they're trying to get them to vote.

00:51:45They can't even speak English.

00:51:47They don't even know what country they're in practically.

00:51:49And these people are trying to get them to vote.

00:51:51And that's why they're allowing them to come into our country.

00:51:54I did watch all of these pieces of video.

00:51:57I didn't detect the sarcasm lost by a whisker.

00:51:59We didn't quite make it.

00:52:00And we should just point out here is clarification.

00:52:02And you know this.

00:52:03You and your allies, 60 cases in front of many judges, many of them looked at it and

00:52:07they said we didn't have standing.

00:52:09That's the other thing.

00:52:11They said we didn't have standing a technicality.

00:52:13Can you imagine a system where a person in an election doesn't have standing?

00:52:18The president of the United States doesn't have standing.

00:52:21That's how we lost.

00:52:23If you look at the facts and I'd love to have you do a special on it.

00:52:27I'll show you Georgia and I'll show you Wisconsin and I'll show you Pennsylvania and I'll show

00:52:32you we have so many facts and statistics.

00:52:35But you know what?

00:52:36It doesn't matter because we have to solve the problem that we have right now.

00:52:39That's old news.

00:52:40And the problem that we have right now is we have a nation in decline and they have

00:52:46put it into decline.

00:52:48We have a nation that is dying, David.

00:52:50Mr. President, thank you.

00:52:52Vice President Harris, you heard the president there tonight.

00:52:54He said he didn't say that, that he lost by whisker.

00:52:56So he still believes he did not lose the election that was won by President Biden and yourself.

00:53:04But I do want to ask you about something that's come up in the last couple of days.

00:53:06This was a post from President Trump about this upcoming election just weeks away.

00:53:11He said, when I win, those people who cheated and then he lists donors, voters, election

00:53:15officials, he says, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, which will

00:53:19include long term prison sentences.

00:53:22One of your campaign's top lawyers responded, saying we won't let Donald Trump intimidate

00:53:26us.

00:53:27We won't let him suppress the vote.

00:53:28Is that what you believe he's trying to do here?

00:53:32Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people.

00:53:35So let's be clear about that.

00:53:37And clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that.

00:53:41But we cannot afford to have a president of the United States who attempts, as he did

00:53:48in the past, to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election.

00:53:54And I'm going to tell you that I have traveled the world as vice president of the United

00:53:59States and world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump.

00:54:03I have talked with military leaders, some of whom work with you, and they say you're

00:54:08a disgrace.

00:54:10And when you then talk in this way in a presidential debate and deny what over and over again are

00:54:18court cases you have lost because you did, in fact, lose that election.

00:54:24It leads one to believe that perhaps we do not have in the candidate to my right the

00:54:29temperament or or the ability to not be confused about fact that's deeply troubling.

00:54:38And the American people deserve better.

00:54:41I'll give you one minute to respond.

00:54:42Let me just say about world leaders, Victor Orban, one of the most respected men.

00:54:47They call him a strong man.

00:54:48He's a she's a tough person, smart prime minister of Hungary.

00:54:53They said, why is the whole world blowing up?

00:54:55Three years ago, it wasn't.

00:54:56Why is it blowing up?

00:54:58He said, because you need Trump back as president.

00:55:02They were afraid of him.

00:55:04China was afraid.

00:55:05And I don't like to use the word afraid, but I'm just quoting him.

00:55:08China was afraid of him.

00:55:09North Korea was afraid of him.

00:55:11Look at what's going on with North Korea, by the way.

00:55:14He said Russia was afraid of him.

00:55:16I ended the Nord Stream two pipeline and Biden put it back on day one.

00:55:20But he ended the XL pipeline, the XL pipeline in our country.

00:55:26He ended that.

00:55:27But he let the Russians build a pipeline going all over Europe and heading into Germany,

00:55:30the biggest pipeline in the world.

00:55:33Look, Victor Orban said it.

00:55:36He said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump.

00:55:41We had no problems when Trump was president.

00:55:44But when this weak, pathetic man that you saw at a debate just a few months ago, that

00:55:50if he weren't in that debate, he'd be running instead of her.

00:55:52She got no votes.

00:55:53He got 14 million votes.

00:55:55What you did.

00:55:56You talk about a threat to democracy.

00:55:58He got 14 million votes and they threw him out of office.

00:56:01And you know what?

00:56:02I'll give you a little secret.

00:56:03He hates her.

00:56:04He can't stand her.

00:56:05But he got 14 million votes.

00:56:07They threw him out.

00:56:09She got zero votes.

00:56:10And when she ran, she was the first one to leave because she failed.

00:56:15And now she's running.

00:56:16I don't understand it, but I'm OK with it because your time is up.

00:56:19I think we're going to do very well.

00:56:20We've got a lot more to get to.

00:56:21Turning now to the Israel-Hamas war and the hostages who are still being held, Americans

00:56:26among them.

00:56:27Vice President Harris, in December, you said, quote, Israel has a right to defend itself.

00:56:31But you added, quote, it matters how, saying international humanitarian law must be respected.

00:56:37Israel must do more to protect innocent civilians.

00:56:40You said that nine months ago.

00:56:42Now an estimated 40,000 Palestinians are dead.

00:56:45Nearly 100 hostages remain.

00:56:48Just last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there's not a deal in the making.

00:56:52President Biden has not been able to break through the stalemate.

00:56:55How would you do it?

00:56:57Well, let's understand how we got here.

00:57:00On October 7, Hamas, a terrorist organization, slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, many of them young

00:57:10people who are simply attending a concert.

00:57:14Women were horribly raped.

00:57:16And so, absolutely, I said then, I say now, Israel has a right to defend itself.

00:57:21We would.

00:57:23And how it does so matters, because it is also true far too many innocent Palestinians

00:57:30have been killed, children, mothers.

00:57:33What we know is that this war must end.

00:57:38It must end immediately.

00:57:40And the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out.

00:57:46And so we will continue to work around the clock on that.

00:57:50Work around the clock also understanding that we must chart a course for a two-state solution.

00:57:56And in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel and an equal

00:58:02measure for the Palestinians.

00:58:04But the one thing I will assure you always, I will always give Israel the ability to defend

00:58:10itself in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose

00:58:17to Israel.

00:58:18But we must have a two-state solution where we can rebuild Gaza, where the Palestinians

00:58:24have security, self-determination, and the dignity they so rightly deserve.

00:58:30President Trump, how would you negotiate with Netanyahu and also Hamas in order to get the

00:58:35hostages out and prevent the killing of more innocent civilians in Gaza?

00:58:40If I were president, it would have never started.

00:58:42If I were president, Russia would have never, ever — I know Putin very well — it would

00:58:48have never — and there was no threat of it either, by the way, for four years — have

00:58:51gone into Ukraine and killed millions of people when you add it up.

00:58:56Far worse than people understand what's going on over there.

00:58:59But when she mentions about Israel, all of a sudden, she hates Israel.

00:59:04She wouldn't even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important

00:59:09speech.

00:59:10She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers.

00:59:13She wanted to go to the sorority party.

00:59:16She hates Israel.

00:59:17If she's president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now.

00:59:22And I've been pretty good at predictions, and I hope I'm wrong about that one.

00:59:25She hates Israel.

00:59:27At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population because the whole place

00:59:34is going to get blown up.

00:59:36Arabs, Jewish people, Israel — Israel will be gone.

00:59:41It would have never happened.

00:59:43Iran was broke under Donald Trump.

00:59:45Now Iran has $300 billion because they took off all the sanctions that I had.

00:59:51Iran had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah or any of the 28 different spheres of terror.

00:59:58And they are spheres of terror.

01:00:00Horrible terror.

01:00:01They had no money.

01:00:02It was a big story, and you know it.

01:00:04You covered it very well, actually.

01:00:05They had no money for terror.

01:00:08They were broke.

01:00:09Now they're a rich nation, and now what they're doing is they're spreading that money around.

01:00:15Look at what's happening with the Houthis and Yemen.

01:00:19Look at what's going on in the Middle East.

01:00:21This would have never happened.

01:00:22I will get that settled and fast, and I'll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended.

01:00:28If I'm president-elect, I'll get it done before even becoming president.

01:00:34Vice President Harris, he says you hate Israel.

01:00:37That's absolutely not true.

01:00:38I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people.

01:00:44He knows that.

01:00:45He's trying to, again, divide and distract from the reality, which is it is very well

01:00:51known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy.

01:00:57It is well known that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on day one, according

01:01:03to himself.

01:01:05It is well known that he said of Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants and go

01:01:12into Ukraine.

01:01:14It is well known that he said when Russia went into Ukraine, it was brilliant.

01:01:20It is well known he exchanged love letters with Kim Jong-un, and it is absolutely well

01:01:27known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because

01:01:33they're so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors.

01:01:40And that is why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are

01:01:47a disgrace.

01:01:48That is why we understand that we have to have a president who is not consistently weak

01:01:55and wrong on national security, including the importance of upholding and respecting

01:02:00in highest regard our military vice president Harris.

01:02:03Thank you.

01:02:04They're the ones and she's the one that caused it.

01:02:07That's weak on national security by allowing every nation last month for the year 168 different

01:02:14countries sending people into our country.

01:02:17Their crime weights are way down.

01:02:19Putin endorsed her last week, said, I hope she wins.

01:02:22And I think he meant it because what he's gotten away with is absolutely incredible.

01:02:27It wouldn't have happened with me.

01:02:29The leaders of other countries think that they're weak and incompetent.

01:02:34And they are.

01:02:35They are grossly incompetent.

01:02:36And I just ask one question.

01:02:38Why does Biden go in and kill the Keystone pipeline and approve the single biggest deal

01:02:44that Russia's ever made Nord Stream to the biggest pipeline anywhere in the world, going

01:02:48to Germany and all over Europe because they're weak and they're ineffective?

01:02:52And Biden, by the way, gets paid a lot of money.

01:02:55Thank you.

01:02:56We have a lot of issues to get to.

01:02:57We'll be right back with much more of this historic ABC News presidential debate from

01:03:00the National Constitution Center right here in Philadelphia.

01:03:03We'll be right back in a moment.

01:03:19Live from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

01:03:24Here again, David Muir and Lindsay Davis.

01:03:28Welcome back to this historic ABC News presidential debate tonight.

01:03:31We're going to continue here.

01:03:33I want to turn to the war in Ukraine.

01:03:34We're now two and a half years into this conflict.

01:03:36Mr. President, it has been the position of the Biden administration that we must defend

01:03:40Ukraine from Russia, from Vladimir Putin, to defend their sovereignty, their democracy,

01:03:44that it's in America's best interest to do so, arguing that if Putin wins, he may be

01:03:48emboldened to move even further into other countries.

01:03:51You have said you would solve this war in 24 hours.

01:03:54You said so just before the break tonight.

01:03:56How exactly would you do that?

01:03:58And I want to ask you a very simple question tonight.

01:04:00Do you want Ukraine to win this war?

01:04:03I want the war to stop.

01:04:04I want to save lives that are being uselessly people being killed by the millions.

01:04:10It's the millions.

01:04:11It's so much worse than the numbers that you're getting, which are fake numbers.

01:04:16Look, we're in for 250 billion or more because they don't ask Europe, which is a much bigger

01:04:23beneficiary to getting this thing done than we are.

01:04:27We're in for 150 billion dollars less because Biden and you don't have the courage to ask

01:04:34Europe like I did with NATO.

01:04:36They paid billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars when I said either

01:04:41you pay up or we're not going to protect you anymore.

01:04:43So that's maybe one of the reasons they don't like me as much as they like weak people.

01:04:48But you take a look at what's happening.

01:04:50We're in for 250 to 275 billion.

01:04:54We're into 100 to 150.

01:04:57They should be forced to equalize.

01:05:00With that being said, I want to get the war settled.

01:05:03I know Zelensky very well and I know Putin very well.

01:05:05I have a good relationship and they respect your president.

01:05:09OK, they respect me.

01:05:11They don't respect Biden.

01:05:12How would you respect him?

01:05:13Why?

01:05:14For what reason?

01:05:15He hasn't even made a phone call in two years to put hasn't spoken to anybody.

01:05:19They don't even try and get it.

01:05:21That is a war that's dying to be settled.

01:05:23I will get it settled before I even become president.

01:05:26If I win when I'm president elect and what I'll do is I'll speak to one, I'll speak to

01:05:31the other.

01:05:32I'll get them together.

01:05:33That war would have never happened.

01:05:35And in fact, when I saw Putin after I left, unfortunately left because our country has

01:05:41gone to hell.

01:05:42But after I left, when I saw him building up soldiers, he did it after I left.

01:05:47I said, oh, he must be negotiating.

01:05:49It must be a good, strong point of negotiation.

01:05:52Well, it wasn't because Biden had no idea how to talk to him.

01:05:56He had no idea how to stop it.

01:05:58And now you have millions of people dead and it's only getting worse.

01:06:01And it could lead to World War Three.

01:06:04Don't kid yourself, David.

01:06:05We're playing with World War Three.

01:06:07And we have a president that we don't even know if he's where is our president.

01:06:11We don't even know if he's a president.

01:06:12Just to clarify here, I'm out of a campaign like a dog.

01:06:15We don't even know.

01:06:16Is he our president?

01:06:18But we have a president, Mr. President, doesn't know he's alive.

01:06:21Your time is up.

01:06:23Just to clarify the question, do you believe it's in the U.S. best interest for Ukraine

01:06:27to win this war?

01:06:28Yes or no?

01:06:29I think it's the U.S. best interest to get this war finished and just get it done.

01:06:32All right.

01:06:33Negotiate a deal because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed.

01:06:39I want to take this to Vice President Harris.

01:06:40I want to get your thoughts on support for Ukraine in this moment, but also as commander

01:06:46in chief, if elected, how would you deal with Vladimir Putin?

01:06:49Would it be any different from what we're seeing from President Biden?

01:06:52Well, first of all, it's important to remind the former president you're not running against

01:06:57Joe Biden.

01:06:58You're running against me.

01:07:00I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours

01:07:05is because he would just give it up.

01:07:07And that's not who we are as Americans.

01:07:09Let's understand what happened here.

01:07:11I actually met with Zelensky a few days before Russia invaded, tried through force to change

01:07:19territorial boundaries, to defy one of the most important international rules and norms,

01:07:25which is the importance of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

01:07:29And I met with President Zelensky.

01:07:30I shared with him American intelligence about how he could defend himself.

01:07:35Days later, I went to NATO's eastern flank, to Poland and Romania.

01:07:40And through the work that I and others did, we brought 50 countries together to support

01:07:45Ukraine in its righteous defense.

01:07:48And because of our support, because of the air defense, the ammunition, the artillery,

01:07:55the javelins, the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent

01:08:00and free country.

01:08:01If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kiev right now.

01:08:06And understand what that would mean, because Putin's agenda is not just about Ukraine.

01:08:12Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no

01:08:18longer president, and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance

01:08:24the world has ever known, which is NATO, and what we have done to preserve the ability

01:08:30of Zelensky and the Ukrainians to fight for their independence.

01:08:34Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kiev with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting

01:08:40with Poland.

01:08:41And why don't you tell the 800,000 Polish-Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you

01:08:46would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known

01:08:52to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?

01:08:57Vice President Harris, thank you.

01:08:58We've heard from both of you on Ukraine tonight.

01:09:00Afghanistan came up in the last hour.

01:09:02I wanted her to respond to something you said earlier.

01:09:04And now, please, I'll give you a minute here.

01:09:08Putin would be sitting in Moscow, and he wouldn't have lost 300,000 men and women.

01:09:14But he would have been sitting in Moscow.

01:09:16Quiet, please.

01:09:17He would have been sitting in Moscow much happier than he is right now.

01:09:22But eventually, you know, he's got a thing that other people don't have.

01:09:26He's got nuclear weapons.

01:09:27They don't ever talk about that.

01:09:28He's got nuclear weapons.

01:09:29Nobody ever thinks about that.

01:09:31And eventually, maybe he'll use them, and maybe it hasn't been that threatening.

01:09:36But he does have that, something we don't even like to talk about.

01:09:40Nobody likes to talk about it.

01:09:42But just so you understand, they sent her to negotiate peace before this war started.

01:09:47Three days later, he went in and he started the war because everything they said was weak

01:09:52and stupid.

01:09:54They said the wrong things.

01:09:55That war should have never started.

01:09:57She was the emissary.

01:09:59They sent her in to negotiate with Zelensky and Putin, and she did.

01:10:04And the war started three days later.

01:10:06And that's the kind of talent we have with her.

01:10:09She's worse than Biden, in my opinion.

01:10:11I think he's the worst president in the history of our country.

01:10:14She goes down as the worst vice president in the history of our country.

01:10:17But let me tell you something.

01:10:19She is a horrible negotiator.

01:10:22They sent her in to negotiate.

01:10:23As soon as they left, Putin did the invasion.

01:10:27President Trump, thank you.

01:10:28Let me ask you something.

01:10:29You said she went to negotiate with Vladimir Putin.

01:10:30Vice President Harris, have you ever met Vladimir Putin?

01:10:32Can you clarify tonight?

01:10:33Yet again, I said at the beginning of this debate, you're going to hear a bunch of lies

01:10:37coming from this fellow.

01:10:38And that is another one.

01:10:40When I went to meet with President Zelensky, I've now met with him over five times.

01:10:45The reality is it has been about standing as America always should, as a leader upholding

01:10:52international rules and norms, as a leader who shows strength, understanding that the

01:10:59alliances we have around the world are dependent on our ability to look out for our friends

01:11:06and not favor our enemies because you adore strongmen instead of caring about democracy.

01:11:14And that is very much what is at stake here.

01:11:17The president of the United States is commander in chief.

01:11:21And the American people have a right to rely on a president who understands the significance

01:11:28of America's role and responsibility in terms of ensuring that there is stability and ensuring

01:11:35we stand up for our principles and not sell them for the for the benefit of personal flattery.

01:11:42We've talked about Ukraine and Vladimir Putin.

01:11:44I do want to talk about Afghanistan.

01:11:46It came up in the first hour of this debate.

01:11:49I want to move on to Afghanistan, said Trump did the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

01:11:54He got these countries, the 28 countries at the time to pay up.

01:11:58He said, I've never seen he's the head of NATO.

01:12:01He said, I've never seen for years.

01:12:03We were paying almost all of NATO.

01:12:05We were being ripped off by European nations, both on trade and on NATO.

01:12:10I got them to pay up by saying one of the statements you made before.

01:12:14If you don't pay, we're not going to protect you.

01:12:16Otherwise, we would have never gotten it.

01:12:18He said it was one of the most incredible jobs that he's ever seen done.

01:12:22Thank you.

01:12:23I want to turn to Afghanistan.

01:12:24It came up in the first hour of the debate, and we witnessed a poignant moment today on

01:12:27Capitol Hill honoring the soldiers who died in the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

01:12:31I do want to ask the vice president, do you believe you bear any responsibility in the

01:12:36way that withdrawal played out?

01:12:38Well, I will tell you, I agreed with President Biden's decision to pull out of Afghanistan.

01:12:44Four presidents said they would.

01:12:46And Joe Biden did.

01:12:48And as a result, America's taxpayers are not paying the 300 million dollars a day we were

01:12:53paying for that endless war.

01:12:56And as of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is in active

01:13:02duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world the first time this century.

01:13:08But let's understand how we got to where we are.

01:13:12Donald Trump, when he was president, negotiated one of the weakest deals you can imagine.

01:13:17He calls himself a dealmaker.

01:13:20Even his national security adviser said it was a weak, terrible deal.

01:13:24And here's how it went down.

01:13:26He bypassed the Afghan government.

01:13:29He negotiated directly with a terrorist organization called the Taliban.

01:13:33The negotiation involved the Taliban getting 5000 terrorists, Taliban terrorists released.

01:13:40And get this.

01:13:41No, get this.

01:13:42And the president at the time invited the Taliban to Camp David, a place of storied

01:13:50significance for us as Americans, a place where we honor the importance of American

01:13:56diplomacy, where we invite and receive respected world leaders.

01:14:02And this.

01:14:05Former president as president invited them to Camp David because he does not again appreciate

01:14:13the role and responsibility of the president of the United States to be commander in chief

01:14:21with a level of respect.

01:14:23And this gets back to the point of how he has consistently disparaged and demeaned members

01:14:28of our military, fallen soldiers and the work that we must do to uphold the strength

01:14:35and the respect of the United States of America around the world.

01:14:39Vice President Harris, thank you.

01:14:40President Trump, your response to her saying that you began the negotiations with the Taliban.

01:14:43So if you take a look at that period of time, the Taliban was killing our soldiers, a lot

01:14:51of them with snipers.

01:14:54And I got involved with the Taliban because the Taliban was doing the killing.

01:14:58That's the fighting force within Afghanistan.

01:15:00They don't bother doing that because, you know, they deal with the wrong people all

01:15:03the time.

01:15:04But I got involved and Abdul is the head of the Taliban.

01:15:09He is still the head of the Taliban.

01:15:11And I told Abdul, don't do it anymore.

01:15:13You do it anymore.

01:15:14You're going to have problems.

01:15:15And he said, why do you send me a picture of my house?

01:15:17I said, you're going to have to figure that out, Abdul.

01:15:20And for 18 months, we had nobody killed.

01:15:24We did have an agreement negotiated by Mike Pompeo is a very good agreement.

01:15:28The reason it was good, it was we were getting out.

01:15:31We would have been out faster than that, but we wouldn't have lost the soldiers.

01:15:34We wouldn't have left many Americans behind and we wouldn't have left.

01:15:37We wouldn't have left eighty five billion dollars worth of brand new, beautiful military

01:15:42equipment behind.

01:15:44And just to finish, they blew it.

01:15:47The agreement said you have to do this, this, this, this, this.

01:15:51And they didn't do it.

01:15:52They didn't do it.

01:15:53The agreement was was terminated by us because they didn't do what they were supposed to

01:16:00do.

01:16:01I want to move on.

01:16:02These people did the worst withdrawal and in my opinion, the most embarrassing moment

01:16:07in the history of our country.

01:16:08And by the way, that's why Russia attacked Ukraine, because they saw how incompetent

01:16:13she and her boss are.

01:16:16President Trump, thank you.

01:16:17I want to move on now to race and politics in this country.

01:16:20Mr. President, you recently said of Vice President Harris, quote, I didn't know she

01:16:23was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black.

01:16:27And now she wants to be known as black.

01:16:30I want to ask a bigger picture question here tonight.

01:16:32Why do you believe it's appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity of your opponent?

01:16:36I don't and I don't care.

01:16:38I don't care what she is.

01:16:39I don't care.

01:16:42You make a big deal out of something.

01:16:43I couldn't care less.

01:16:45Whatever she wants to be is OK with me.

01:16:47But those were your words.

01:16:48So I don't know.

01:16:49I mean, all I can say is I read where she was not black that she put out.

01:16:55And I'll say that.

01:16:57And then I read that she was black.

01:16:59And that's OK.

01:17:00Either one was OK with me.

01:17:02That's up to her.

01:17:03That's up to her.

01:17:04Vice President Harris, your thoughts on this?

01:17:06I think it's I mean, honestly, I think it's a tragedy that we have someone who wants to

01:17:13be president, who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race

01:17:20to divide the American people.

01:17:22You know, I do believe that the vast majority of us know that we have so much more in common

01:17:26than what separates us.

01:17:27And we don't want this kind of approach that is just constantly trying to divide us and

01:17:33especially by race.

01:17:34And let's remember how Donald Trump started.

01:17:37He was a land.

01:17:41He owned land.

01:17:42He owned buildings.

01:17:44And he was investigated because he refused to rent property to black families.

01:17:52Let's remember, this is the same individual who took out a full page ad in The New York

01:17:57Times calling for the execution of five young black and Latino boys who were innocent.

01:18:06The Central Park Five took out a full page ad calling for their execution.

01:18:13This is the same individual who spread birther lies about the first black president of the

01:18:19United States.

01:18:21And I think the American people want better than that, want better than this.

01:18:28Want someone who understands, as I do, I travel our country.

01:18:32We see in each other a friend.

01:18:35We see in each other a neighbor.

01:18:38We don't want a leader who is constantly trying to have Americans point their fingers at each

01:18:44other.

01:18:45I meet with people all the time who tell me, can we please just have discourse about how

01:18:52we're going to invest in the aspirations and the ambitions and the dreams of the American

01:18:57people, knowing that regardless of people's color or the language their grandmother speaks,

01:19:03we all have the same dreams and aspirations and want a president who invest in those not

01:19:09in hate and division.

01:19:11Vice President Harris.

01:19:12Thank you, Lindsey.

01:19:13President Trump, this is now your third time.

01:19:16This is the most divisive presidency in the history of our country.

01:19:21There's never been anything like it.

01:19:23They're destroying our country.

01:19:25And they come up with things like what she just said.

01:19:29Going back many, many years, when a lot of people, including Mayor Bloomberg, agreed

01:19:33with me on the Central Park five, they admitted, they said they pled guilty.

01:19:39And I said, well, if they pled guilty, they'd badly hurt a person, killed a person, ultimately.

01:19:44And if they pled guilty, then they pled were not guilty.

01:19:48But this is a person that has to stretch back years, 40, 50 years ago, because there's nothing

01:19:55now.

01:19:56I built one of the greatest economies in the history of the world.

01:19:59And I'm going to build it again.

01:20:00It's going to be bigger, better and stronger.

01:20:03But they're destroying our economy.

01:20:04They have no idea what a good economy is.

01:20:07Their oil policies, every single policy.

01:20:10And remember this.

01:20:12She is Biden.

01:20:13You know, she's trying to get away from Biden.

01:20:14I don't know the gentleman.

01:20:16She says she is Biden.

01:20:18The worst inflation we've ever had.

01:20:21A horrible economy because inflation has made it so bad that you can't get away with that.

01:20:27Thank you.

01:20:28I want to respond to that, though.

01:20:29I want to just respond briefly.

01:20:32Clearly, I am not Joe Biden and I am certainly not Donald Trump.

01:20:37And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country.

01:20:42One who believes in what is possible.

01:20:45One who brings a sense of optimism about what we can do instead of always disparaging the

01:20:52American people.

01:20:54I believe in what we can do to strengthen our small businesses, which is why I have

01:21:00a plan.

01:21:01Let's talk about our plans and let's compare the plans.

01:21:05I have a plan to give startup businesses $50,000 tax deduction to pursue their ambitions, their

01:21:15innovation, their ideas, their hard work.

01:21:18I have a plan, $6,000 for young families for the first year of your child's life to

01:21:24help you in that most critical stage of your child's development.

01:21:28I have a plan that is about allowing people to be able to pursue what has been fleeting

01:21:34in terms of the American dream by offering a help with down payment of $25,000 down payment

01:21:41assistance for first time homebuyers.

01:21:44That's the kind of conversation I believe, David, that people really want tonight as

01:21:49opposed to a conversation that is constantly about belittling and name calling.

01:21:55Let's turn the page.

01:21:57Vice President Harris.

01:21:58Thank you.

01:21:59Let's turn to president.

01:22:00We have to move on.

01:22:01President Trump.

01:22:02Let's turn to policy.

01:22:03He has a plan to defund the police.

01:22:05She has a flat plan to confiscate everybody's gun.

01:22:10She has a plan to not allow fracking in Pennsylvania or anywhere else.

01:22:15That's what her plan is until just recently.

01:22:17I just need to go ahead.

01:22:18President Trump.

01:22:19The former president has said something twice that I need to respond to.

01:22:22I'm sorry.

01:22:23We're going to move on, Vice President Harris.

01:22:25President Trump, this is now your third time running for president.

01:22:28You have long vowed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

01:22:33You have failed to accomplish that.

01:22:35You now say you're going to keep Obamacare, quote, unless we can do something much better.

01:22:40Last month, you said, quote, We're working on it.

01:22:42So tonight, nine years after you first started running, do you have a plan?

01:22:47And can you tell us what it is?

01:22:48Obamacare was lousy health care, always was.

01:22:51It's not very good today.

01:22:53And what I said that if we come up with something and we are working on things, we're going

01:22:57to do it and we're going to replace it.

01:22:59But remember this.

01:23:00I inherited Obamacare because Democrats wouldn't change it.

01:23:04They wouldn't vote for it.

01:23:06They were unanimous.

01:23:07They wouldn't vote to change it.

01:23:08If they would have done that, we would have had a much better plan than Obamacare.

01:23:12But the Democrats came up.

01:23:14They wouldn't vote for it.

01:23:15I had a choice to make when I was president.

01:23:18Do I save it and make it as good as it can be?

01:23:20Never going to be great.

01:23:22Or do I let it rot?

01:23:24And I felt I had an obligation, even though politically it would have been good to just

01:23:28let it rot and let it go away.

01:23:30I decided and I told my people, the top people and they're very good people.

01:23:34I have a lot of good people in this that administration.

01:23:37We read about the bad ones.

01:23:39We had some real bad ones, too.

01:23:40And so do they.

01:23:41They have a really bad ones.

01:23:42The difference is they don't get rid of.

01:23:43But let me just explain.

01:23:44I had a choice to make.

01:23:46Do I save it and make it as good as it can be?

01:23:49Or do I let it rot?

01:23:51And I saved it.

01:23:52I did the right thing.

01:23:53But it's still never going to be great.

01:23:56And it's too expensive for people.

01:23:58And what we will do is we're looking at different plans.

01:24:01If we can come up with a plan that's going to cost our people, our population less money

01:24:07and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it.

01:24:12But until then, I'd run it as good as it can be run.

01:24:15So just a yes or no, you still do not have a plan.

01:24:17I have concepts of a plan.

01:24:19I'm not president right now.

01:24:22But if we come up with something, I would only change it if we come up with something

01:24:27that's better and less expensive.

01:24:29And there are concepts and options we have to do that.

01:24:33And you'll be hearing about it in the not too distant future.

01:24:36Vice President Harris, in 2017, you supported Bernie Sanders' proposal to do away with

01:24:40private insurance and create a government-run health care system.

01:24:44Two years later, you proposed a plan that included a private insurance option.

01:24:48What is your plan today?

01:24:49Well, first of all, I absolutely support and over the last four years as vice president,

01:24:55private health care options.

01:24:56But what we need to do is maintain and grow the Affordable Care Act.

01:24:59But I'll get to that, Lindsay.

01:25:00I just need to respond to a previous point that the former president has made.

01:25:04I've made very clear my position on fracking and then this business about taking everyone's

01:25:08guns away.

01:25:10Tim Walz and I are both gun owners.

01:25:11We're not taking anybody's guns away.

01:25:13So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.

01:25:16As it relates to the Affordable Care Act, understand, let's just look at the history

01:25:20to know where people stand.

01:25:22When Donald Trump was president, 60 times he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care

01:25:27Act.

01:25:28Sixty times.

01:25:29I was a senator at the time when I will never forget the early morning hours when it was

01:25:36up for a vote in the United States Senate and the late, great John McCain, who you have

01:25:42disparaged as being you don't like him, you said at the time because he got caught.

01:25:50He was an American hero.

01:25:51The late, great John McCain, I will never forget that night, walked onto the Senate

01:25:56floor and said, no, you don't.

01:25:59No, you don't.

01:26:00No, you don't get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

01:26:02You have no plan.

01:26:04And what the Affordable Care Act has done is eliminate the ability of insurance companies

01:26:09to deny people with preexisting conditions.

01:26:11I don't have to tell the people watching tonight.

01:26:13You remember what that was like?

01:26:16Remember when an insurance company could deny if a child had asthma, if someone was a breast

01:26:22cancer survivor, if a if a grandparent had diabetes.

01:26:26And thankfully, as I've been vice president and we over the last four years have strengthened

01:26:31the Affordable Care Act, we have allowed for the first time Medicare to negotiate drug

01:26:35prices on behalf of you, the American people.

01:26:38Donald Trump said he was going to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

01:26:42He never did.

01:26:43We did.

01:26:44And now we have capped the cost of insulin at thirty five dollars a month.

01:26:47Since I've been vice president, we have capped the cost of prescription medication for seniors

01:26:51at two thousand dollars a year.

01:26:53And when I am president, we will do that for all people, understanding that the value I

01:26:58bring to this is that access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege

01:27:04of those who can afford it.

01:27:06And the plan has to be to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, not get rid of it.

01:27:12Vice President, in terms of where Donald Trump stands on that, I want to move to an issue

01:27:16that's important for a lot of mistake.

01:27:19Number one, John McCain fought Obamacare for 10 years, but it wasn't only him.

01:27:25It was all of the Democrats that kept it going.

01:27:29And you know what?

01:27:30We can do much better than Obamacare, much less money.

01:27:34But she won't improve private insurance for people, private medical insurance.

01:27:40That's another thing she doesn't want to give people are paying privately for insurance

01:27:44that have worked hard and made money and they want to have private.

01:27:47She wants everybody to be on government insurance where you wait six months for an operation

01:27:52that you need to meet.

01:27:53President Trump, thank you.

01:27:54We have another issue that we'd like to get to that's important for a number of Americans,

01:27:58in particular younger voters, and that's climate change.

01:28:01President Trump, with regard to the environment, you say that we have to have clean air and

01:28:05clean water.

01:28:06Vice President Harris, you call climate change an existential threat.

01:28:10The question to you both tonight is what would you do to fight climate change?

01:28:15And Vice President Harris, we'll start with you.

01:28:16One minute for you each.

01:28:18Well, the former president had said the climate change is a hoax.

01:28:22And what we know is that it is very real.

01:28:25You ask anyone who lives in a state who has experienced these extreme weather occurrences

01:28:30who now is either being denied home insurance or it's being jacked up.

01:28:34You ask anybody who has been the victim of what that means in terms of losing their home,

01:28:40having nowhere to go.

01:28:42We know that we can actually deal with this issue.

01:28:45The young people of America care deeply about this issue.

01:28:48And I am proud that as vice president over the last four years, we have invested a trillion

01:28:52dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased domestic gas production

01:28:59to historic levels.

01:29:01We have created over 800000 new manufacturing jobs while I have been vice president.

01:29:06We have invested in clean energy to the point that we are opening up factories around the

01:29:12world.

01:29:13Donald Trump said he was going to create manufacturing jobs.

01:29:15He lost manufacturing jobs.

01:29:17And I'm also proud to have the endorsement of the United Auto Workers and Sean Fane,

01:29:22who also know that part of building a clean energy economy includes investing in American

01:29:28made products, American automobiles.

01:29:32It includes growing what we can do around American manufacturing and opening up auto

01:29:38plants, not closing them like happened under Donald Trump.

01:29:41President Harris, thank you.

01:29:42It didn't happen under Donald Trump.

01:29:44Let me just tell you, they lost 10000 manufacturing jobs this last month.

01:29:49It's going.

01:29:50They're all leaving.

01:29:51They're building big auto plants in Mexico, in many cases owned by China.

01:29:56They're building these massive plants and they think they're going to sell their cars

01:30:00into the United States because of these people.

01:30:03What they have given to China is unbelievable.

01:30:06But we're not going to let that will put tariffs on those cars so they can't come into our

01:30:10country because they will kill the United Auto Workers and any auto worker, whether

01:30:15it's in Detroit or South Carolina or any other place.

01:30:19What they've done to business and manufacturing in this country is horrible.

01:30:25We have nothing because they they refuse.

01:30:27You know, Biden doesn't go after people because supposedly China paid him millions of dollars.

01:30:32He's afraid to do it between him and his son.

01:30:35They get all this money from Ukraine.

01:30:37They get all this money from all of these different countries.

01:30:40And then you wonder why is he so loyal to this one, that one Ukraine, China?

01:30:44Why is he why did he get three and a half million dollars from the mayor of Moscow's

01:30:49wife?

01:30:50Why did he get why did she pay him three and a half million dollars?

01:30:54This is a crooked administration and they're selling our country down the tubes.

01:30:59President Trump.

01:31:00Thank you.

01:31:01Thank you.

01:31:02We'll be right back with closing statements from both of our candidates and historic night.

01:31:04This ABC News presidential debate from Philadelphia back in a moment.

01:31:15The ABC News presidential debate will continue after this.

01:31:20Presidential Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

01:31:24Here again, David Muir and Lindsay Davis.

01:31:28Welcome back tonight.

01:31:29The time has come for closing statements and Vice President Harris, we begin with you.

01:31:35So I think you've heard tonight two very different visions for our country, one that is focused

01:31:41on the future and the other that is focused on the past and an attempt to take us backward.

01:31:49But we're not going back.

01:31:51And I do believe that the American people know we all have so much more in common than

01:31:55what separates us.

01:31:57And we can chart a new way forward.

01:32:00And a vision of that includes having a plan, understanding the aspirations, the dreams,

01:32:07the hopes, the ambition of the American people, which is why I intend to create an opportunity

01:32:14economy, investing in small businesses, in new families, in what we can do around protecting

01:32:20seniors, what we can do that is about giving hardworking folks a break and bringing down

01:32:27the cost of living.

01:32:28I believe in what we can do together that is about sustaining America's standing in

01:32:35the world and ensuring that we have the respect that we so rightly deserve, including respecting

01:32:41our military and ensuring we have the most lethal fighting force in the world.

01:32:46I will be a president that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms, including

01:32:50the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell

01:32:56her what to do.

01:32:57I'll tell you, I started my career as a prosecutor.

01:33:00I was a D.A.

01:33:01I was an attorney general, a United States senator, and now vice president.

01:33:04I've only had one client, the people.

01:33:07And I'll tell you, as a prosecutor, I never asked a victim or a witness, are you a Republican

01:33:13or a Democrat?

01:33:15The only thing I ever asked them, are you OK?

01:33:19And that's the kind of president we need right now.

01:33:22Someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first.

01:33:26I intend to be a president for all Americans and focus on what we can do over the next

01:33:3210 and 20 years to build back up our country by investing right now in you, the American

01:33:39people.

01:33:40Vice President Harris, thank you, President Trump.

01:33:44So she just started by saying she's going to do this.

01:33:46She's going to do that.

01:33:47She's going to do all these wonderful things.

01:33:49Why hasn't she done it?

01:33:52She's been there for three and a half years.

01:33:54They've had three and a half years to fix the border.

01:33:57They've had three and a half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about.

01:34:03Why hasn't she done it?

01:34:05She should leave right now, go down to that beautiful White House, go to the Capitol,

01:34:10get everyone together and do the things you want to do.

01:34:12But you haven't done it and you won't do it because you believe in things that the American

01:34:17people don't believe in.

01:34:18You believe in things like we're not going to frack.

01:34:21We're not going to take fossil fuel.

01:34:23We're not going to do things that are going to make this country strong, whether you like

01:34:27it or not.

01:34:28Germany tried that.

01:34:29And within one year, they were back to building normal energy plants.

01:34:34We're not ready for it.

01:34:36We can't sacrifice our country for the sake of bad vision.

01:34:40But I just ask one simple question.

01:34:43Why didn't she do it?

01:34:45We're a failing nation.

01:34:47We're a nation that's in serious decline.

01:34:50We're being laughed at all over the world, all over the world.

01:34:53They left.

01:34:54I know the leaders very well.

01:34:55They're coming to see me.

01:34:56They call me.

01:34:57We're laughed at all over the world.

01:34:59They don't understand what happened to us as a nation.

01:35:02We're not a leader.

01:35:03We don't have any idea what's going on.

01:35:06We have wars going on in the Middle East.

01:35:08We have wars going on with Russia and Ukraine.

01:35:12We're going to end up in a third world war.

01:35:14And it'll be a war like no other because of nuclear weapons, the power of weaponry.

01:35:19I rebuilt our entire military.

01:35:22She gave a lot of it away to the Taliban.

01:35:27She gave it to Afghanistan.

01:35:28What these people have done to our country and maybe toughest of all is allowing millions

01:35:33of people to come into our country.

01:35:36Many of them are criminals and they're destroying our country.

01:35:39The worst president, the worst vice president in the history of our country.

01:35:45President Trump, thank you.

01:35:46And that is our ABC News presidential debate from here in Philadelphia at the National

01:35:51Constitution Center.

01:35:53I'm Lindsay Davis.

01:35:54And I'm David Muir.

01:35:55Thank you for watching here in the U.S. and all over the world.

01:35:57And from all of us here at ABC News, good night.

01:36:05And we are here live on ABC with our post-debate comments.

01:36:11I'm Martha Raddatz.

01:36:12It was a lively debate from the economy to abortion to Afghanistan.

01:36:17They had it all.

01:36:19And it was historic, John Carl, fiery.

01:36:22Wow.

01:36:23Wow.

01:36:25That was that was quite a debate.

01:36:27And I'm Jonathan Carl here with, of course, Mary Bruce and Rachel Scott.

01:36:31Our reporters across the news division have been updating our live blog, looking at some

01:36:37of the allegations made back and forth, doing fact checks.

01:36:40You can find all of that on ABC News dot com.

01:36:43But I would like to replay the moment at the very start of this debate, because it was

01:36:49quite a moment.

01:36:51The handshake.

01:36:54Kamala Harris, thank you.

01:36:58I mean, quite a moment.

01:36:59First of all, because we hadn't seen a handshake.

01:37:01We haven't seen a handshake in a long time.

01:37:02And she initiated that one.

01:37:03Yes, she did.

01:37:04Not only did she initiate it, she walked over to him and sought him out, put the hands out

01:37:10and also made the first words.

01:37:11And probably had a plan if he hadn't put his hand out either.

01:37:15Interesting.

01:37:16So, Martha, bottom line, what did you think?

01:37:17I think clearly what Kamala Harris wanted to do was be the candidate of hope.

01:37:23The candidate of the future.

01:37:25Donald Trump seemed angry within four minutes.

01:37:28I think we we saw him going from from very serious at the beginning, never really seemed

01:37:33to look at her, to just angry, I mean, really yelling at some points, trying to make some

01:37:40to make his points.

01:37:41I don't think we heard a lot of policy and plans on either side of that, despite those

01:37:48questions over and over again.

01:37:51But what you had was that optic.

01:37:53You had Kamala Harris looking over, baiting him again and again and again.

01:37:58The microphones were muted when they weren't speaking.

01:38:01But many times she didn't need a microphone.

01:38:04You watch Donald Trump get mad at scowl through things.

01:38:08And, you know, John, we were all talking leading up to this about how this would go, what Donald

01:38:13Trump you would see.

01:38:14I think he had a plan for talking about what he saw as as as a next as a next term.

01:38:21But then he was talking about rumors about people eating their neighbor's pets.

01:38:27So it really devolved.

01:38:28I mean, look, Kamala Harris didn't really explain some of the big questions that were

01:38:32out there about why she changed her policy views on so many things.

01:38:36Part of the reason is Donald Trump really was not effective in bringing the debate to

01:38:40her.

01:38:41I agree with you.

01:38:42I think that he looked not just angry, but also rattled.

01:38:46And in contrast, Harris, who, again, much of the world doesn't know, Harris looked like

01:38:52she belonged on the stage, looked like she is somebody that could serve as president.

01:38:59And that is certainly how the campaign is feeling tonight.

01:39:00I can tell you the Harris campaign feels very good.

01:39:03They feel they had a very strong night, that she was in command, that she did look presidential

01:39:07and that she was able, they feel, to hold Donald Trump accountable for his actions.

01:39:11And, of course, that was their goal going into this, that she would be able to put Donald

01:39:14Trump's record under a microscope.

01:39:16And they feel that the strongest example of that was that exchange on abortion, where

01:39:20she was able really to blame Donald Trump directly to his face.

01:39:23I mean, she said, what you are putting women through is unconscionable.

01:39:27Yes, she goaded him.

01:39:28She flat out trolled him many times, got him off message.

01:39:32But she also talked directly to voters, even inviting them to a Trump rally to underscore

01:39:36that central argument in her campaign that she says he's only out for himself, that she

01:39:39argues she's out for the American people.

01:39:41Rachel?

01:39:42Well, look, the Trump campaign is going to be seizing on the fact that Vice President

01:39:45Kamala Harris did not do a great job today really explaining her policy shifts, right?

01:39:51And that is what they have been seizing on.

01:39:53They're really trying to define her for voters when voters have a lot of questions about

01:39:57her policy positions.

01:39:59At the same time, though, almost every single thing that Vice President Kamala Harris said

01:40:03tonight got under Trump's skin.

01:40:05And that is exactly what his allies and his advisers did not want to see.

01:40:09I can tell you, I do not think that part of Donald Trump's debate prep was people eating

01:40:14dogs in Springfield or comparing rally sizes.

01:40:17They wanted him to stay focused on the issues, especially the ones that he has an edge on

01:40:20Harris economy and immigration.

01:40:22I mean, you get you want to get under Donald Trump's skin.

01:40:24You question the people at his rallies.

01:40:27And that was something else.

01:40:28Martha, you have.

01:40:29I have with us right now, Governor Tim Walz, of course, the Democratic vice presidential

01:40:33candidate.

01:40:34Welcome, Governor Walz.

01:40:36How are you feeling?

01:40:37What's your reaction to the debate tonight?

01:40:39Martha, I'm feeling great because what I knew and I think so many knew and now many Americans

01:40:45know is you saw a president for all America and Kamala Harris.

01:40:48You saw the confidence.

01:40:50You saw the vision.

01:40:51You saw the poise and you saw the compassion for people understanding.

01:40:54She spoke about an economy that moves us forward, moves all of us forward, lets everybody be

01:40:59a part of it.

01:41:00And she continued to lay that out, whether it's reproductive freedom or how we start

01:41:04small businesses or making homeownership easier.

01:41:07On the other side, you saw a nearly 80 year old Donald Trump angry, unhinged.

01:41:13And as you've been discussing, talking about things that are deeply concerning because

01:41:18they make no impact on the American public.

01:41:20He shouldn't be anywhere near the White House.

01:41:22And I have to tell you, if it if it weren't so dangerous, it reminds you of an old man

01:41:26yelling at the clouds.

01:41:27That was his thing.

01:41:28Get off my yard.

01:41:30Contrast that with the poise that Kamala Harris is laying out, it matters.

01:41:37So I think the whole country can see what happened tonight.

01:41:41We'll keep pushing forward.

01:41:42That's the way that the country wants to see our politics be.

01:41:45She laid it out clearly.

01:41:47Donald Trump brought nothing tonight.

01:41:49Anger, resentment.

01:41:51Governor, Governor Walz, I do want to ask you, she did not ask, answer questions on

01:41:58abortion restrictions.

01:42:00She never really answered that question.

01:42:02Can you clear that up where the Harris-Walz ticket stands on that?

01:42:08Certainly, you couldn't get any different than this.

01:42:10The re-institution of Roe vs. Wade, what was the law of the land for for 30, for 52 years.

01:42:18You saw this in there and him pushing back to the states.

01:42:21She's exactly right.

01:42:22It's people like Amanda in Texas, which everybody saw on the stage in Chicago, nearly bleeding

01:42:26out, having sepsis twice because she can't get the care.

01:42:29She's been absolutely clear on this.

01:42:31Everything Donald Trump said, that is untrue.

01:42:33The clarity of this is Roe.

01:42:35When you have Roe, you have the protections in place where women make their own decisions

01:42:40with their health care providers, not Donald Trump.

01:42:43OK, thanks so very much for joining us, Governor Walz.

01:42:46John.

01:42:47And we have the other side of the ticket.

01:42:48We have Senator J.D. Vance, Donald Trump's running mate, joining us now.

01:42:53Senator Vance, thank you for joining us.

01:42:56Thanks, John.

01:42:57I appreciate it.

01:42:58So I want to get to one part of the debate where you came up.

01:43:03Donald Trump was asked if he would if he would veto a national abortion ban.

01:43:08He didn't answer.

01:43:09The question suggested, I guess, that he wouldn't.

01:43:13And then it was pointed out that you, in fact, said not that long ago that he would veto

01:43:17a national abortion ban.

01:43:19Can you explain the mix up here?

01:43:22Well, I think the president's been very clear that he doesn't want a national abortion ban.

01:43:28I think in some ways he finds the question a little bit ridiculous because why are we

01:43:31asking him about legislation that's never going to actually happen and why he would

01:43:35veto it or not veto it when he says very explicitly that he doesn't support a national abortion

01:43:40ban and he wants these policies to be made by the states.

01:43:43But I think there's a deeper and more important issue here in this debate, which is that you

01:43:47had Kamala Harris effectively echoing platitude after platitude after platitude.

01:43:53The American people can't pay their grocery bills on platitudes.

01:43:56They can't put their kids in a house on platitudes.

01:43:59And Kamala Harris had a lot to say, but very little actual substance behind it for how

01:44:04she's going to lower grocery prices, secure the border and make housing more affordable

01:44:08in this country.

01:44:09She's been the vice president for three and a half years.

01:44:12She can't run on a record and she apparently can't run on much of her plans either because

01:44:16it's just a lot of slogans and not a whole lot of substance.

01:44:19But Senator Vance, why won't he just say that he would veto the national abortion ban?

01:44:22And by the way, had you spoken to him about it before you were put in a position to answer

01:44:27that question?

01:44:28No, I hadn't spoken to him about it because again, Donald Trump thinks the question is

01:44:33absurd because he doesn't support a national abortion ban and he's been explicit about

01:44:37it.

01:44:38And John, I think that it's so preposterous for the media to focus so much on an issue

01:44:42where Donald Trump has been crystal clear and not on the fact that people can't afford

01:44:47groceries and housing because of Kamala Harris's policies.

01:44:50This election is actually quite simple and Kamala Harris and apparently the media would

01:44:55like to distract Americans on issues, by the way, that Donald Trump's been crystal clear

01:44:59about, but they're not talking nearly enough.

01:45:02This debate didn't talk nearly enough about the fact that Americans are struggling because

01:45:06they can't afford groceries, they can't afford housing, and a lot of their kids are dying

01:45:10of fentanyl overdoses because Kamala Harris has let the Mexican drug cartels take over

01:45:15the Southern border.

01:45:16This is a disgrace what's going on in our country, John, and we could do so much better

01:45:20if we just had better leadership.

01:45:22We've got the best workers, the most beautiful country, the best natural resources, but Kamala

01:45:27Harris's leadership is squandering the great benefits of this country.

01:45:30It's why we've got to get back to Donald Trump's leadership.

01:45:33Senator, by the way, I asked because he hadn't been crystal clear and he said something different

01:45:37than what you said.

01:45:38That's why I was seeking clarification.

01:45:39But let me ask you about this, just very quickly.

01:45:42I heard Donald Trump before this debate describe Kamala Harris as, I'll just read a few of

01:45:47them, a low IQ individual, somebody who doesn't have the mental capacity to be president,

01:45:52really dumb, unable to put two sentences together.

01:45:56Is that what you saw on the stage tonight?

01:45:58John, what I saw was a lot of slogans.

01:46:01I think the American people are smart and Kamala Harris talks to them like they're children.

01:46:06She repeats these ridiculous platitudes where if you actually think about what she said,

01:46:11you realize that it doesn't make any sense.

01:46:13She talks a lot about her plans, but then her plans, when you analyze the substance,

01:46:18don't make any sense.

01:46:19And more importantly, John, the American people don't get fed on plans.

01:46:22She has been the vice president for three and a half years.

01:46:25What she can't do, refuses to do, and has no ability to do is to say, I accomplished

01:46:30lower prices because she didn't, or I accomplished lower housing prices because she didn't, or

01:46:35I secured the southern border because she didn't do that.

01:46:38She has failed as vice president.

01:46:40And the fundamental question is, do we want to give her a promotion?

01:46:43I think the answer has to be no, John.

01:46:45All right.

01:46:46Senator Vance, thank you for joining us.

01:46:47Mary.

01:46:48One thing both sides can agree on.

01:46:49This was a consequential night in this race.

01:46:51More reaction when we come back, stay with us.

01:47:05We're back now here at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and with Chris Christie.

01:47:10So Governor Christie, you heard the debate, remarkable debate, bottom line.

01:47:14What'd you think?

01:47:17She was exquisitely well-prepared.

01:47:18She laid traps and he chased every rabbit down every hole instead of talking about the

01:47:24things that he should have been talking about.

01:47:26This is the difference between someone who's well-prepared and someone who's unprepared.

01:47:30Whoever did debate prep for Donald Trump should be fired.

01:47:34He was he was not good tonight at all.

01:47:37And what Harris did was what she had to do, which was to prove that she belonged on that

01:47:41stage.

01:47:42She has a voice that wants to try to unite the country.

01:47:45And Donald Trump spent more time talking about people eating pets, people at his rallies

01:47:53and whether he had more or less than he did about the economy.

01:47:57And that is a huge fail tonight.

01:47:59I think what we're going to see is that Kamala Harris is now being seen by a lot of voters

01:48:04as a potential president.

01:48:05That's what she needed to accomplish tonight.

01:48:08Trump better get to work or he's going to lose this election.

01:48:12Characteristically blunt assessment from Governor Chris Christie.

01:48:16Thank you, Governor.

01:48:17Mary.

01:48:18All right.

01:48:19Let's go to former DNC chair Donna Brazile.

01:48:20So, Donna, you have certainly studied many a debate in your career.

01:48:23How does this one compare?

01:48:24I think it was one of the best debate performances I've ever seen in my life.

01:48:28And I've seen a lot and I've helped a lot of people prepare for these big moments.

01:48:33She met the moment.

01:48:34She seized the opportunity to tell the American people what she would do.

01:48:39And during her four years, she commanded the issues and she did not allow the former president

01:48:46to bait her.

01:48:47Instead, she led the way forward.

01:48:49She turned the page.

01:48:50And I think this race is about to get even more interesting now.

01:48:54We will see if it moves the needle, Donna.

01:48:56Thank you.

01:48:57All right.

01:48:58Over to the other side now.

01:48:59Former RNC chair Reince Priebus.

01:49:01All right.

01:49:02Reince.

01:49:03The Trump campaign says they want another debate.

01:49:05If you were advising the Trump campaign, would you tell them to do it?

01:49:09Sure, I would tell them to do it.

01:49:12And the reason is, is like I said before, Donald Trump's numbers just don't move.

01:49:16I mean, the reality tonight, I know Don is excited, but the truth is she didn't Kamala

01:49:21Harris didn't address the most important thing that the American people care about, which

01:49:25is the economy and the cost of living.

01:49:27She had no answers on immigration.

01:49:28She had no answers when she was asked about defunding the police.

01:49:31She had nothing to say about the families that were lost in Afghanistan, which was a

01:49:35true layup.

01:49:37She should have been fact checked a lot more on some of the things she said in regard to

01:49:40this comment about a bloodbath, which was about the auto industry.

01:49:44So look, I think a lot of things were were not said tonight that she needed to say in

01:49:50order to move the numbers.

01:49:51And I don't think Donald Trump's numbers move at all.

01:49:54They haven't moved at all for months.

01:49:58Reince Priebus, Donna Brazile, both.

01:50:00Thank you for your time.

01:50:01All right.

01:50:02Well, I got to say again, what a incredible debate, consequential debate, no doubt.

01:50:07I don't know how many votes will actually be moved.

01:50:10I don't know how many persuadable voters are actually out there.

01:50:14But Kamala Harris had a chance here to introduce herself to the country, to people who know

01:50:20who she is, but don't know where she stands.

01:50:22Now, you could debate how much she did in terms of the specifics of where she stand.

01:50:27But she stood up there.

01:50:29And I think it was very significant to hear Chris Christie say that she acted like she

01:50:33seemed like she belonged.

01:50:35Exactly.

01:50:37And Chris was clearly impressed with that.

01:50:39But to your point, John, what matters is what the voters think.

01:50:45Kamala Harris was hurling things against Donald Trump.

01:50:48And he's been convicted in January 6th and everything else she could throw at him.

01:50:53But in the end, right now, he is tied with Kamala Harris.

01:50:58Does this change anything?

01:51:00We've all seen debates where people are very proud of what they did.

01:51:03Hillary Clinton thought she won that debate, many debates in 2016, and she didn't win.

01:51:08So you have to be very careful.

01:51:11And it's very important to see what the voters think.

01:51:13And look, the Harris campaign certainly thinks that they were, you know, they put him on

01:51:17the defensive.

01:51:18They are going to keep getting out and making this message.

01:51:20She's going to be out there in those critical battlegrounds again later this week.

01:51:23They're so optimistic.

01:51:24They want that second debate.

01:51:26As Rachel said, the message from the campaign tonight, Vice President Harris is ready for

01:51:29a second debate.

01:51:30They're looking for one in October.

01:51:31They say, is Donald Trump?

01:51:33One last goading of him to end the night.

01:51:35Wow.

01:51:36That is something else.

01:51:37I did not predict that at the beginning.

01:51:39Rachel.

01:51:40Bottom line, voters out there want a change.

01:51:43That's what the polls say.

01:51:44And both of these candidates really trying to present themselves as the agent of change.

01:51:48We will have to see in the polls who did the most effective job of doing that tonight.

01:51:52We will see.

01:51:53All right.

01:51:54That is it for us here in Philadelphia.

01:51:56A night to remember for sure.

01:51:58Our race for the White House post-debate coverage continues on ABC News Live, Disney Plus, Hulu,

01:52:04and anywhere else you stream live news.

01:52:06And your local news is next.

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