Trump-Harris presidential debate: Live updates, reaction after candidates clash on abortion, immigration, economy

Neither campaign has officially committed to a Sept. 25 debate on NBC.

Trump adviser Jason Miller told CNN that Trump would do the debate, set to be hosted by NBC, so long as Harris "quit playing games, quit running" and shows up. Trump, however, called in to Fox & Friends this morning and said, "I don't know that I want to do another debate."

Quentin Fulks, Harris's deputy campaign manager, told CNN that "both campaigns are going to have to agree to a time, but I think the vice president is open to a debate in October."

There has been a lot of back-and-forth between the two campaigns over debate dates and rules. Initially, Trump proposed three debates against Harris — Sept. 4 with Fox News, Sept. 10 with ABC News and Sept. 25 with NBC. Harris declined the Sept. 4 debate option and said she would agree to future debates only after meeting Trump on Sept. 10.

David Plouffe, a senior adviser for the Harris campaign, told CNN Wednesday morning that the campaign plans to focus on some of Trump's responses at Tuesday night's debate.

Plouffe zeroed in on a few aspects:

• Trump's health care plan, of which Plouffe said: "We have waited 11 years for his health care plan. We’ve never seen it."

• Abortion: "He refused to say he wouldn’t sign an actual abortion ban."

• Ukraine: "He basically said ... he wouldn’t take Ukraine’s side."

Reuters spoke to several investors about how the financial markets responded to the debate performances last night. The consensus seemed to be that "no knockout blow has landed" and there wasn't enough for the "markets to sink their teeth into."

Presidential elections do affect the stock market, although to a lesser extent than economic and inflation trends do.

"This debate doesn't seem to be changing the fact that it's going to be a very close election," Jack Ablin, the chief investment officer at Cresset Capital told the outlet. "If people don't feel their lives are improving, that will shape their behavior in November."

Harris and Trump shook hands after they both arrived for the 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York City on Wednesday morning. They notably shook hands at the beginning of the debate last night, which was the first time the candidates met in person.

In addition to Harris and Trump, President Biden, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg are at Ground Zero this morning.

In a call to Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, Trump repeatedly attacked ABC News, accusing the network's debate moderators of over-fact-checking him instead of Harris — and he even suggested the network should have its broadcasting license revoked.

“It was three to one. It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be,” he said. “I think ABC took a big hit last night. To be honest, they’re a news organization, they have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.”

Vice President Kamala Harris attended a watch party at the Cherry Street Pier in Philadelphia following the presidential debate. Her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, accompanied her to greet supporters.

During a live interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC on Tuesday night, vice presidential nominee Tim Walz found out in real time about the pop music superstar’s sudden announcement: that she is planning to vote for Kamala Harris in November.

Maddow read Swift’s lengthy Instagram post explaining her decision out loud in full, in which Swift specifically praised Walz for “standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

Walz responded by saying he was “incredibly grateful” for Swift’s support. “That’s the type of courage we need in America,” he said.

The governor of Minnesota then followed up with a call to action for Swift’s dedicated fan base. “This’ll be the opportunity, Swifties,” he said. “Give us a hand. Get things going.”

Less than an hour after the debate ended, Donald Trump entered the spin room in Philadelphia, where he declared victory.

"It was my best debate ever, I think," Trump told reporters. "I think it was the best debate, personally, that I've ever had."

Trump cited unspecified polls showing he won the debate but would not commit to doing a second one, as was proposed by the Harris campaign.

"I don't know if we're going to do another one," he said, before adding: "I wouldn't mind."

After the debate concluded, the Associated Press reported that both candidates said "thank you" after they delivered their closing statements.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff joined Harris on stage while Trump exited alone, according to AP. Former first lady Melania Trump did not join him in Philadelphia.

Moments after the debate ended, pop singer Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president in an Instagram post.

"I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them," Swift wrote.

Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, made the case that tonight’s debate provided a stark contrast between two visions for the country.

“You saw the confidence. You saw the vision. You saw the poise. You saw the compassion for people,” Walz told ABC News of her performance after the debate ended.

He described Trump as “angry” and “unhinged” and reminiscent of “an old man yelling at the clouds.”

“He shouldn’t be anywhere near the White House,” Walz said.

In a statement released moments after the debate concluded, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon called for a second debate between Harris and Trump.

“Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump," O’Malley Dillon said. "That’s what they saw tonight and what they should see at a second debate in October. Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”

In his closing remarks, Trump repeatedly asked why Harris as vice president hasn't accomplished her political agenda. "Why hasn't she done it?" he asked.

He also returned to one of his favored tactics in the debate: attacking Harris for allegedly allowing too much illegal immigration.

"They're destroying our country," he said in the final line of the event. "The worst president, the worst vice president in the history of our country."

In her closing statement, Vice President Kamala Harris said, "I think you've heard tonight two very different visions for our country: One that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past and an attempt to take us backward. But we're not going back."

Harris then tried to present a unifying vision for the American people.

"I'll tell you, I started my career as a prosecutor. I was a DA, I was an attorney general, a United States senator and now vice president. I've only had one client, the people. And I'll tell you, as a prosecutor, I never asked a victim or a witness. Are you a Republican or a Democrat? The only thing I ever ask them Are you OK?"

Near the end of the debate, Harris responded to an assertion Trump made earlier in the evening: That she and her running mate want to take away Americans' Second Amendment rights.

"This business about taking everyone's guns away: Tim Walz and I are both gun owners," Harris said. "We're not taking anybody's guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff."

Harris has previously stated that she is a gun owner. In 2019, while defending her call for a ban on assault weapons, she said, "I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do — for personal safety."

A Harris campaign aide later confirmed that she owns a handgun.

Trump: “I had a choice to make. Do I save it and make it as good as it can be or do I let it rot? And I saved it.”

This claim needs context: Trump’s promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was a centerpiece of his 2016 presidential campaign and he came within a single Senate vote of fulfilling that pledge. More recently, he has said he no longer wants to eliminate the law, but instead wants to make it “much better.” He has not provided any details on how he might improve the ACA.

When asked directly tonight whether he has a plan for improving or replacing the ACA, Trump responded that he has “concepts of a plan.”

ABC News asked Harris if she bore any responsibility for the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Harris responded by saying she agreed with the decision to withdraw, but she blamed Trump for handing the Biden administration a bad deal on the matter.

Harris: “Donald Trump, when he was president, negotiated one of the weakest deals you can imagine. He calls himself a dealmaker. Even his national security adviser said it was a weak, terrible deal. And here’s how it went down. He bypassed the Afghan government. He negotiated directly with a terrorist organization called the Taliban.”

This claim needs context. As U.S. troops concluded their pullout of Afghanistan in August 2021, a suicide bomber launched an attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and approximately 170 Afghan civilians, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

While Trump and other Republicans have attacked Harris and Biden for how the administration handled the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, some former Trump administration officials have said that Biden was simply following through with a deal Trump negotiated with the Taliban.

David Muir: "Mr. President, you recently said of Vice President Harris, 'I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black.' I want to ask a bigger-picture question here tonight. Why do you believe it's appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity of your opponent?"

Trump: "I don't, and I don't care. I don't care what she is, I don't care. You make a big deal out of something. I couldn't care less. Whatever she wants to be is OK with me."

This claim needs context.

Trump attended the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention earlier this summer and chose the venue to falsely accuse Harris of embracing her Black identity only recently when it was politically convenient.

Harris, who is biracial, has long identified as both Black and South Asian. As a student, she attended Howard University, one of the nation’s most famous historically Black colleges, where she pledged at a historically Black sorority. As a senator, she joined the Congressional Black Caucus.

Read more from Yahoo News: “#WhenITurnedBlack trends after Trump attacked Harris’s racial identity. It’s Black Twitter’s way of ‘dealing with pain through humor.’”

Trump talked about the threat of Russia and its leader, President Vladimir Putin, during an exchange in the debate.

After the first of two planned commercial breaks, Trump was asked by co-moderator David Muir if he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia.

Trump did not answer the question directly.

"I want to get the war settled," Trump said. "I know [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky very well and I know [Russian President Vladimir] Putin very well. I have a good relationship and they respect your president, OK? They respect me. They don't respect Biden. How would you respect him? Why? For what reason? He hasn't even made a phone call in two years to Putin. Hasn't spoken to anybody. They don't even try and get it. That is a war. That's dying to be settled."

Midway through the debate, Donald Trump was asked if he regretted his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a violent mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. The attack on the Capitol happened after a rally in which Trump told his supporters to march there then watched the insurrection unfold on television from the Oval Office.

Trump argued that he told them to march to the Capitol "peacefully and patriotically," before bemoaning the death of Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter who was shot by police. He also falsely claimed that "nobody on the other side was killed."

Four other people died, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was beaten and later succumbed to his injuries.

Harris's claim: "I said, then, I say, now, Israel has a right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters because it is also true, far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end. It must end immediately. And the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal, and we need the hostages out."

This claim needs context.

In her interview with CNN Dana Bash last month, Harris reiterated her support of Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that left nearly 1,200 people dead.

“Let me be very clear. I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not going to change,” she said.

However, Harris has also criticized Israel for the high number of Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza since Israel declared war on Hamas, and continues to press the Israeli government and Hamas leadership to reach a ceasefire agreement and for the return of all hostages held in Gaza.

Harris struck a hopeful note with a promise of how she would lead if elected:

Trump: “There's so much proof. All you have to do is look at it.”

This claim is false: Trump tonight once again refused to acknowledge his 2020 election loss to Biden, falsely claiming the contest was rigged. Despite his frequent assertions of widespread voter fraud, he has never put forward credible evidence. Trump and his supporters lost dozens of court cases at the state and federal levels — including cases presided over by judges appointed by Trump himself — seeking to overturn the results. Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, informed Trump that the Justice Department had not found any evidence that fraud had decided the election results. Barr resigned in December 2020 as Trump continued to claim otherwise.

Read more from the Associated Press: “Trump’s drumbeat of lies about the 2020 election keeps getting louder. Here are the facts.”

Trump was asked about the deadly assault against the Capitol on Jan. 6. In his answer, he deviated to attack Harris for being "the border czar."

Trump: "She was the border czar, remember that. She was the border czar. She doesn't want to be called the border czar because she's embarrassed by the border."

This claim needs context. Harris was never given the position of "border czar and did not have any of the sweeping authority over border security that the title would suggest. Her role on immigration under Biden has been more limited, primarily focused on diplomacy with the leaders of Central American countries that many migrants who travel to the U.S. come from.

One of the rules ABC News released ahead of the debate stated that microphones "will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate."

But that rule was quickly flouted, as both Trump and Harris could be heard responding while their microphones were supposed to be muted, interrupting the proceedings.

During other exchanges, the microphones appeared to be muted.

Shortly before the debate, CNN's Brian Stelter reported that ABC producers were considering opening mics up outside of candidates' allotted speaking time "if something really newsworthy" or "editorially significant" happened.

Harris's claim: "The United States Congress, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Senate, came up with a border security bill, which I supported, and that bill would have put 1,500 more border agents on the border to help those folks who are working there right now. ... But you know what happened to that bill? Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress and said, 'ill the bill.'"

This claim is true.

In March 2021, President Biden tasked Harris with leading his administration’s efforts to understand the root causes of undocumented immigration to the U.S. In that role, Harris convened a series of meetings with leaders from Central American nations. Although she was never named “border czar” as Trump and many Republicans have claimed, border crossings continued to spike over the next two years as the U.S. economy rebounded from the depths of the coronavirus pandemic.

After Trump convinced Republican senators to withhold support for a 2024 bill that would have bolstered border security, overhauled the rules for who qualifies for asylum and constructed more border wall, Harris declared that she would sign the legislation into law if elected president.

Trump: “They allowed criminals, many, many millions of criminals. They allowed terrorists. They allowed common street criminals. They allowed people to come in, drug dealers to come into our country.”

This claim is false: Trump has consistently claimed that crime has skyrocketed during the Biden/Harris administration, often blaming their immigration policy for a purported increase in “migrant crime.”

In fact, the best available data suggests that the crime rate has fallen significantly over the past few years, down near the lowest levels ever recorded, after spiking in 2020 during the early stages of the pandemic.

Numerous studies have also found that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S.-born citizens.

In an exchange about trade with China, Trump hit at Harris's policies with this quip:

Trump attacked illegal immigration by claiming that migrants in the U.S. are abducting cats and dogs in order to eat them.

Trump: "In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating — they're eating the pets of the people that live there."

This claim is false. Trump was referring to a baseless assertion spread by his running made that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. As ABC News reported, "The false claim that immigrants are targeting people’s pets stemmed from a social media posting originally from a Springfield Facebook group that went viral, where the poster wrote that their neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat. The poster went on to make an unsubstantiated claim of Haitians allegedly taking the cat for food."

The local newspaper reported that Springfield's police department has not received any reports of missing pets.

Ahead of the debate, ABC News executives said that the job of the moderators was to "facilitate a discussion" between the candidates, not necessarily fact-check them. But during a debate over abortion, co-moderator Linsey Davis fact-checked Trump's suggestion that West Virginia was poised to allow abortion after the ninth month, or as he put it, "execute the baby."

"There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born," Davis said before allowing Harris to respond.

Davis's co-moderator David Muir soon followed suit, fact-checking Trump's baseless assertion that migrants were "eating the dogs" in Ohio.

Harris attacked Trump over the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling.

Trump: “I have been a leader on IVF.”

This claim needs context: Trump says he supports in vitro fertilization and even proposed recently that the treatment should be free nationwide, though he did not specify how the policy would work.

However, the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, which resulted from Trump’s appointments to the court, has put the legality of IVF into question under “fetal personhood” laws supported by some Republicans. GOP members of Congress also blocked Democrat-led efforts to enshrine IVF protections into nationwide law.

Read more from Yahoo News: “Trump continues to tinker with his stance on abortion and IVF”

Trump claim: In his response to a question from moderator Linsey Davis on his changing stances on abortion, Trump falsely said that a baby could be executed after being born.

This claim is false. Killing a newborn baby is illegal in every U.S. state.

Trump has said he won’t sign a federal abortion ban and argued it should be left to the states to create individual policies on the matter. He has been inconsistent on the issue over the years. He once declared himself “very pro-choice.” As president, he supported a national 20-week abortion ban before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Read more from Yahoo News: “Trump keeps saying some states allow the execution of babies ‘after birth.’ They don’t. Here’s how that falsehood got started.”

Trump accused Harris of adhering to Karl Marx’s political theory.

Trump: "She's a Marxist. Everybody knows she's a Marxist."

This claim is false. Trump has alternatively called Harris a “Marxist,” “communist” and even “fascist.” While Harris embraced a more liberal policy agenda in her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, none of those proposals involved anything close to communist ideas like government seizure of private industry or property.

The Los Angeles Times spoke to a leading historian of American Marxism who said there was no evidence of Marxist leanings in Harris’s past.

Read more from the Los Angeles Times: “Trump calls Harris a Marxist, a communist, even a fascist. Why his wild punches don't land.”

Trump: "I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That's out there. I haven't read it. I don't want to read it purposely. I'm not going to read it."

This claim needs context.

Project 2025, a blueprint for the next Republican presidential administration, was drafted by some of Trump’s longtime political allies and some of his own former officials. But Trump never explicitly endorsed it. As Democrats started attacking the most unpopular proposals within thet 922-page document, Trump distanced himself from the plan and claimed to know nothing about it.

Read more from Yahoo News: “Project 2025 takes center stage at the DNC. What to know about the conservative policy plan Kamala Harris and other Dems keep attacking.”

Trump: "They are taking over the towns. They are taking over buildings. They are going in violently."

This claim is false: Trump has seized on conservative media reports that followed a video being posted to social media that purported to show machine-gun wielding members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua taking over apartment buildings in Aurora, Colo., and shaking down residents for money.

While Aurora police have confirmed that a handful of Tren de Aragua members are operating in the area, they vehemently dispute the characterization that the gang has in any way taken over any building there.

“I’m not saying that there’s not gang members that don’t live in this community, but what we’re learning out here is that gang members have not taken over this complex,” Aurora’s interim Police hief Heather Morris said in a recent video filmed at that complex.

Residents of the building at the center of the controversy held a news conference last week to dispute the claims that the gang controlled the complex and said that its slumlord owner was the cause of poor living conditions there.

Harris and Trump began the debate by exchanging blows on "sales tax" policy, which was actually a debate over tariffs.

Harris: "My opponent has a plan that I call the 'Trump Sales Tax,' which would be a 20% tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month. Economists have said that that ‘Trump Sales Tax’ would actually result, for middle class families, about $4,000 more a year because of his policies."

Trump: "I have no sales tax. That's an incorrect statement. We're doing tariffs on other countries."

This claim needs context. Trump has called for a 10% across-the-board tariff on all imported goods and a 60% tariff on goods from China. Harris is correct that most economists believe this policy would lead to higher prices for the typical American family, though $4,000 is on the high end of the various estimates of what the impact would be.

Read more from USA Today: “Harris says Trump tariffs will cost Americans $4k/year. Economists are skeptical.”

The much-anticipated presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is underway at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The two shook hands, with Harris walking over to Trump to do so.

I'm in the pressroom at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, blocks away from where the presidential debate is being held tonight in the National Constitution Center.

Continue following along with our coverage on the Yahoo News live blog and our socials.

Yahoo News will provide fact checks throughout tonight's debate, adding important context to the claims made by both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

As you follow tonight's showdown, look for our fact-check banners for relevant data, the candidates' past policy positions and other information.

Yahoo News reporter Katie Mather is in Philadelphia for Tuesday's debate and spotted this digital billboard that appears to have been bought by the Trump campaign on a box truck.

It characterizes Kamala Harris as “weak, failed, and dangerously liberal.”

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff posted a short message on X in support of his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of Tuesday night's debate.

Earlier Tuesday, the Harris campaign sent a fundraising email with a letter from Emhoff to potential donors previewing the debate:

The presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. will be moderated by ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir and ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis.

• Muir, 50, has been with ABC since 2003 and anchor of ABC World News Tonight since 2014. He moderated presidential primary debates for the network in 2016 and 2020. Muir has also done interviews with politicians from both sides of the political aisle, including sit-downs with both Harris and Trump. (Muir was the first journalist to interview Trump in the White House in 2017.)
  

• Davis, 46, has been with ABC since 2007. She moderated Democratic presidential primary debates in 2019 and 2020. While she may be lesser known than Muir, Davis has interviewed dozens of politicians, including Harris and former Vice President Mike Pence, and numerous celebrities. According to her official bio on ABC’s website, Davis “got the only interview with comedian Bill Cosby in the wake of dozens of sexual assault allegations.”

Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting the war in Gaza were seen in the streets near the debate site. Yahoo News reporter Katie Mather, who is in Philadelphia for Tuesday night's debate, witnessed part of the demonstration.

This protest is nowhere near the size of those that took place outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month.

Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign released a new ad this week featuring former Trump officials, including former Vice President Mike Pence and ex-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, criticizing him.

"In 2016, Donald Trump said he would choose only the best people to work in his White House," a narrator says at the beginning of the 30-second spot entitled "The Best People." "Now those people have a warning for America: Trump is not fit to be president again."

Per Politico, the ad will run nationally on Fox News and in Philadelphia and Palm Beach, Fla. — home to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort — beginning on Tuesday.

I'm outside the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, an hour before the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is expected to start.

Gathered out front are Harris voters, Trump supporters, former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supporters who have plastered "Trump 2024" stickers over their signs, a handful of Jill Stein fans and a few people who say they're still undecided about which candidate aligns with their values.

I'll be reporting live from the area throughout the night, so follow along on the live blog and Yahoo social accounts.