Last week, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris squared off on the debate stage in their first presidential debate, a debate that was still up in the air as of a couple months ago following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the campaign and Harris taking his place. 

The night started off with Presidential candidate Harris approaching rival candidate Donald Trump with a handshake behind his podium. The first topic covered the candidates’ plans for the economy. Harris took the time to lay out her plan: tax cuts for families that have children as well as $50,000 dollars in tax deductions for small business start-ups. 

Harris said the goal of her plan is to strengthen the middle class by creating an “opportunity economy,” though no details about how this plan would function were discussed. Harris also criticized Trump’s tax cut policy claiming that he just wants to cut taxes for the rich. 

“My opponent has a plan that I call the Trump Sales Tax,” said Harris, referring to Trump’s policies on the economy. 

Trump responded with his plan to cut taxes and raise tariffs on other nations, mentioning China by name. 

“I have no sales tax. That’s an incorrect statement. She knows that. We’re doing tariffs on other countries,” Trump said.

Trump explained that the cost of living crisis is the result of inflation as well as immigrants, which Trump claims have been flooding into America. Trump reprimanded Harris about the Biden administration’s failure to get student debt loans relieved saying that it would have been unfair if the relief had passed. 

Harris later pressed Trump on the issue of abortion bans, which have sprung up across the states after Roe v. Wade was overturned, a ruling that Trump has shown his support for. Trump responded saying that he is just bringing the issue back to the states and that he believes the people should vote on the issue. Moderators then pressed Trump on whether he would veto a national abortion ban; he did not say whether he would or not, instead saying that he “won’t have to.” 

When it came to the issue of immigration, Harris, when asked what she would have done differently than President Biden on the border issue, recalled the border bill she had supported and how it was shot down because of Trump. 

“He’d prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem,” she said.

Trump claimed that there are millions of immigrants crossing the southern border and arriving in towns like Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio which led to his controversial “they are eating the dogs” statement about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. 

This claim was fact checked shortly after by the ABC moderators who said they reached out to the city manager who indicated there are no credible claims of these actions taking place. 

Additionally, he was questioned on his plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and how he would go about doing so. 

Trump finished on the issue of immigration saying that if America elects Harris, there will be “no chance at success.” 

Trump was also asked about his previous statements on Harris’ race. He claimed that he did not care what her race was. 

“I don’t care what she is. I don’t care…All I can say is I read where she was not Black, that she put out. And, I’ll say that. And then I read that she was Black,” he said. 

Harris, who is of Black and South Asian descent and the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, claimed Trump was using race to divide Americans, as he has throughout his career. She pointed out the time Trump denied Black renters and when he made a public statement to prosecute the Central Park Five, a group of Black and Latino boys wrongly accused, and later convicted, of raping a woman in Central Park in 1989. 

When it came to the events of Jan 6., 2021, when Trump supporters gathered at and stormed the capital in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election results, Trump denied any involvement. He maintained that he won the election and that it was stolen from him. 

Trump also contended that the Department of Justice has been weaponized against him in reference to the charges he has received for conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, mishandling classified documents and in the case of Stormy Daniels, for which he stands accused of making hush money payments and forging documents. 

In response, Harris drew attention to Trump’s previous statements where he indicated he would prosecute his enemies if reelected.

In the candidates’ closing statements, Harris wrapped up speaking words of unity and moving forward. She restated her stance on creating an opportunity economy and tax credits for families and small business start ups, as well as bringing down the cost of living. She also stated that she wants to gain respect from foreign nations and U.S. allies and work for a woman’s right to an abortion. She said she will be a “president for all Americans.”

In his own closing statements, Trump raised the issue that Harris claims she will do “all of these wonderful things” but has not achieved any of them while being vice president for three years. He said that Harris believes “in things the American people don’t believe in” and claimed the U.S. is a failing nation that is “laughed at all over the world.” Trump closed out his statement bringing up the “millions” of undocumented immigrants crossing the border that he said are “criminals” and “destroying our country.” 

“The worst president, the worst vice president, in the history of our country,” he said, referring to Biden and Harris.