U.S. presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump held their first and probably the only pre-election televised debate live on ABC News before the November vote, the BBC reported. The first issue that the candidates addressed was the economy. Harris said she plans to build an “economy of opportunities”. She promised to solve the problem of housing costs to help young families and small businesses. In response, Trump said that the Democrats destroyed the economy in four years, and Harris is simply copying Joe Biden’s economic plan.
“Donald Trump has left us with the worst unemployment rates since the Great Depression. All we (the Democrats) have done is clean up the mess Donald Trump has made,” Harris responded.
Trump called Kamala Harris a “Marxist”, trying to connect her work with the work of her father, a former economist at Stanford University. “If she ever gets elected, it will change everything. And this will be the end of our country. She is a Marxist; everyone knows that she is a Marxist. Her father is a professor of Marxist economics, and he taught his daughter well,” Trump noted. Harris used the word “disgrace” several times when addressing Trump and commenting on his words. “World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. I’ve talked to people in the military, some of whom have worked with you, and they say you’re a disgrace,” Harris said, addressing the former president.
The candidates also talked about the Ukrainian war. According to Trump, it must end and he can achieve it. According to him, he knows Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy well, and they respect him. “They respect me, and they don’t respect Biden. Why respect him?” Trump asked. Harris responded by reminding Trump that he is running against her, not Biden.
“Our NATO allies are very grateful that you are no longer president,” Harris told Trump. “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now looking at the rest of Europe, starting with Poland.” She noted that Putin is “a dictator who will have you (Trump) for dinner”. Trump, in turn, called Harris “the worst vice president in history”.
The candidates also referred to Israel’s war against Hamas. Harris reiterated her previous statements on the matter, saying that Israel has the right to self-defense, but what matters is how it defends itself. “This war must end immediately,” she said. Trump replied that the conflict would never have started if he had been the president. “He hates Israel. If she becomes president, I think in two years Israel will cease to exist,” Trump noted.
