The televised pre-election debate between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia is a major topic for the Western publications. The main thesis that unites the press is that the candidate of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, gave way to the opponent nominated by the Democrats because he succumbed to her attacks. Organized by “ABC News” and an event broadcast live by all major American television news networks may be the only one: Trump and Harris still cannot agree on whether there will be at least one more such meeting, BTA said in a press review.
The presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump began with a handshake but turned into a heated argument as the candidates traded blows on the economy, immigration, abortion, national security and other topics, according to The Wall Street Journal. .
None of the participants was able to inflict a final knockout on their opponent, according to the newspaper “New York Times”. The daily noted that Harris "for the most part managed to get a clear message across," while Trump "appeared angry and defensive." “Harris spent 90 minutes going out of her way to knock Trump off balance, touching on the cases against him, his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic while he was president, the number of people attending his rallies and the foreign and military leaders she says are they called it a “disgrace,”, the newspaper said. According to the publication, the debate gave voters an opportunity to solidify their opinion of Harris, after only a month has passed since she was nominated by the party, to get to know her.
Newspaper “Los Angeles Times“ drew attention to the debate surrounding US foreign policy, specifically the crisis in Ukraine. The publication noted that Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia, saying only that he wanted the war to end several times. Trump also complained about the amount of money the US has spent helping Ukraine defend itself, which he says is too much compared to what other European countries have contributed. “If Donald Trump was president, Putin would be sitting in Kiev right now,” Harris said in turn. And from there, according to her, the Russian president would have a “view of the rest of Europe, starting with Poland”.
“Harris keeps Trump on the defensive“ during the debate, claims in. “Washington Post“. Meanwhile, the former president attacked Harris over Biden's policies in a heated debate over the economy and foreign policy. The publication notes how moderators from the TV channel “ABC News“ have opposed the “baseless claims” to Trump that Democrats support "afterbirth abortions" and that in Ohio Haitian immigrants are eating pets. Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds, quoted by the publication, praised Donald Trump's performance, but also acknowledged Harris' skills. “What we learned tonight is that Kamala Harris is actually pretty good at stabbing people,” he said.
„USA Today“ recalls how Donald Trump defeated current US President Joe Biden in the previous debates, but now the Republican faces his new opponent from the Democratic Party: Kamala Harris. According to the publication, Harris often managed to provoke Trump, causing him to give “defensive, angry and distracted responses”, with the vice president having the upper hand for most of the event.
The Republican Party supporter in the “New York Post” notes that Trump started out strong but quickly allowed Harris and the moderators to turn him into a “murmuring candidate”. “He took the bait of the moderators on the issue of losing the 2020 election, and sounded like a candidate still looking to the past. He knew what the winning topics were for him – inflation, record illegal immigration, crime. But he never managed to formulate a coherent message on any of these topics”, notes the publication.
In turn, the publication “Hill“ notes that Trump's inner circle accuses the moderators of the ABC News debate of siding with Harris. “Strange how the moderators “checked the facts” only to Trump and allowed Kamala to lie non-stop. "Fake news is the enemy of the people," said Donald Trump Jr., the former president's eldest son. “This debate was three against one – the moderators were clearly betting on Kamala Harris, wrote former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard on her X profile. And after the debate, Senator Marco Rubio called the presentation of the hosts “shame on journalism”.
The debate also attracted the attention of the British press on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris laid out contrasting visions of the future of the United States as they sought to sway undecided voters during their first and possibly only debate of the presidential campaign, The Times noted. The publication reports how Harris has stated several times that her opponent has become a laughing stock on the world stage. In turn, Trump said that Harris had accomplished nothing of note during her nearly four years as vice president. The British edition recalls that after the polls give close results to the two candidates, the debate could be decisive for the chances of both to win the vote on November 5.
The heated presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris painted a picture of an embittered former president who wants to return to his era and a hopeful vice president desperately fighting for a different future, according to the Independent newspaper. According to the edition of the current debates, Trump came off as unprepared, prompting Harris to laugh and roll his eyes on several occasions.
Telegraph correspondents who attended the debate in Philadelphia are divided as to who is the winner. Thus, according to Tony Diver, “it is difficult to crown Harris the winner of a political debate in which she has said so little about her own platform”. At the same time, he admits that her aggressive strategy still won the debate because it managed to provoke Trump. His colleague Tim Stanley is of the opinion that Trump still won, albeit by a narrow margin. “He was crazy, and she was unbearable”, concludes the journalist.