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Trump-Harris debate live updates: Candidates spar over Project 2025, economy

Harris and Trump will meet each other for the first time tonight.

ByAlexandra Hutzler, Meredith Deliso, Ivan Pereira, Emily Chang, and Brittany Gaddy
Last Updated: September 10, 2024, 5:57 PM EDT

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are meeting for the first time on Tuesday for the ABC News presidential debate.

It is the only debate the two have scheduled and comes at a critical point as polls show a neck-and-neck race with just eight weeks until Election Day.

The two will face off on key issues and work to appeal to voters across the country. The debate is airing on ABC and streaming on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing:
10 hours and 26 minutes ago

Independent voters want to know more about Harris. Can she fill in the gaps?

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found a sizable share of likely voters (28%) and registered voters (31%) feel they need to know more about Harris as a candidate. Those numbers were even higher among independent voters: 41% of registered independents and 38% of likely voters who identified as independent said they needed to learn more about her.

Her campaign is well-aware that a large slice of the critical voting bloc feels they don't know Harris well enough, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce reports.

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally, Aug. 29, 2024, in Savannah, Ga.
Win Mcnamee/Getty Images

Tonight, she'll want to fill in the blanks in what is her highest-profile appearance since her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last month. But beyond that, their real goal is to make clear the stark choice in this election between what she wants to do as president and what Trump intends to do.

10 hours and 52 minutes ago

Newsom, Shapiro, Duckworth among Harris spin room surrogates

The Harris campaign released its list of surrogates who will be in the spin room during the debate.

Four Democratic governors -- Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania -- are among the group, as well as Sens. Laphonza Butler of California, Tammy Duckworth from Illinois and Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

Four Democratic House members -- Jason Crow from Colorado, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Robert Garcia from California and Ted Lieu of California -- will also be joining, as well as retired Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson, a former Republican; Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju and Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father.

5:08 PM EDT

Biden says he spoke with Harris, who appears 'calm, cool and collected'

As he left the White House for New York, where he will watch tonight's debate, President Joe Biden said he's spoken with Harris.

Biden wouldn't divulge what advice he had for her, but said she appeared "calm, cool and collected."

"I think she’s going to do great," Biden said.

5:01 PM EDT

Trump en route to Philadelphia

The Trump campaign posted a short clip of the former president boarding his plane, saying he's en route to Philadelphia. Harris arrived in the city Monday evening.

-ABC News' Soorin Kim