The first debate takes place/ Trump and Harris harshly criticize each other's political positions

2024-09-11 09:06:28, Politikë CNA

The first debate takes place/ Trump and Harris harshly criticize each

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

The first debate between Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump was marred by warring controversies over the economy, immigration, abortion, health care and foreign policy.

Vice President Harris, 59, criticized Mr Trump's aim to impose high tariffs on foreign goods, a proposal she said would be a tax on the middle class, as she talked about her plan to offer tax breaks to American families and small businesses.

"Donald Trump left us with the lowest level of employment since the Great Depression," Ms Harris said, referring to his years as president from 2017 to 2021. The unemployment rate peaked at 14.8% in April 2020 and fell to 6.4% when he left office.

Mr. Trump, 78, criticized Ms. Harris for high inflation during the tenure of President Biden's administration, although he overstated the level of price increases. He also quickly turned to his main issue, immigration, again claiming without evidence that immigrants from "insane asylums" are crossing the United States' southern border with Mexico.

Inflation, he said, "has been a disaster for the people, for the middle class and everybody else."

The debate began with a handshake between the two rivals, who had never met before.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

Foreign Policy

The candidates also traded criticism over the war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip and Russian aggression in Ukraine, though neither offered specific plans for resolving those conflicts.

Democrat Harris accused Republican Trump of being willing to withdraw US support for Ukraine to curry favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling Mr Trump a "disgrace", while Mr Trump claimed Ms Harris "hates" Israel. , a claim she denied.

Mr Trump criticized President Biden and Vice President Harris for the unorganized withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, saying they left billions of dollars worth of US military equipment in the hands of the Taliban.

Personal attacks

Mr. Trump, who has spent weeks making personal attacks on Ms. Harris, including racist and sexist slurs, largely avoided insults early in the debate but became increasingly incensed by Ms. Harris' criticism.

Mr Trump was asked by moderators about one of those attacks, when he said at a briefing with African-American journalists in July that Ms Harris had recently "made a black person".

"I don't care at all about this issue," he said. "Whatever she wants to be is fine with me."

Ms. Harris, who is of black and Asian descent, responded: "I think it's a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently throughout his career tried to use race to divide the American people."

She criticized Mr. Trump's conviction by a jury of concealing payments to a pornographic actress, as well as his other lawsuits and a civil trial for sexual assault. Mr Trump denied the allegations and again accused Ms Harris and the Democrats of orchestrating all the allegations against him without evidence.

Former President Trump also repeated his false claim that the 2020 election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden, was rigged and called Ms Harris a "Marxist" and falsely claimed that migrants have caused a huge increase in violent crime in the country.

This may be the only debate between them in the campaign for the November 5 presidential election. The debate is held eight weeks before the official election day, but just days before early voting begins in some of the nation's 50 states.

Presidential debates don't necessarily change voters' minds, but they can be very important. Mr. Biden's poor performance in the debate with Mr. Trump in June led to his withdrawal from the presidential race on July 21.

The debate, hosted by ABC, was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As agreed by the campaign managers, there was no live audience and the candidates' microphones were turned off when the candidates did not have their turn to speak./ VOA