Trump-Harris debate updates: Candidates go on attack in zinger-filled showdown

Harris and Trump sparred in the high-stakes showdown.

ByAlexandra Hutzler, Meredith Deliso, Ivan Pereira, Emily Chang, and Brittany Gaddy
Last Updated: September 11, 2024, 12:52 AM EDT

The first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump turned into a heated matchup that lasted more than 90 minutes.

The night started with a handshake initiated by Harris, but quickly escalated as the vice president bashed Trump over his policies and comments, contending that it was time to "offer is a new generation of leadership for our country."

Trump criticized Harris throughout the debate on topics such as Afghanistan and immigration issues, drawing comparisons between the vice president and President Joe Biden.

With Election Day just eight weeks away, the debate came at a critical point as polls show a neck-and-neck race between the candidates.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing:
Sep 11, 12:12 am

A transcript of the Harris-Trump debate

Harris and Trump met for their first presidential debate on Tuesday night. The consequential matchup was hosted by ABC News at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Read a transcript of what was said in the 90-minute debate here.

Sep 10, 2024, 8:49 PM EDT

Rep. Madeleine Dean notes the debate will be many viewers’ introduction to Harris

Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania’s 4th District in the Philadelphia suburbs, said today’s debate is an opportunity for Harris to introduce herself to swing voters outside the political “bubble” who may not have tuned into the campaign earlier, and share her record as a prosecutor, attorney general, senator and now vice president.

“She is an able public servant, and so she has the chance to introduce that part of herself to those who are too busy to actually know all of those granular details,” Dean told reporters in the spin room.

—538’s Tia Yang

Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., right, speaks during a news conference as Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa. listens at the Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, March 19, 2019.
Matt Rourke/AP, FILE
Sep 10, 2024, 8:45 PM EDT

Debate just minutes away

The presidential debate is now just 15 minutes away.

Both candidates have arrived in Philadelphia, and their campaign surrogates are already on the ground providing spin and setting expectations for tonight's matchup.

Sep 10, 2024, 8:39 PM EDT

Member of exonerated 'Central Park 5' in the spin room

New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam, a member of the exonerated "Central Park Five" who was wrongfully incarcerated in connection with a 1989 rape, is in the spin room.

Salaam, who spoke at the DNC, has been a staunch Trump opponent after the former president took out a full-page ad in several New York newspapers calling for the death penalty for the five suspects at the time.

Sep 10, 2024, 8:25 PM EDT

Rep. Michael Waltz says Trump will pick back up on trade policy

Rep. Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican and veteran who serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, is one of the Trump surrogates who has been circling the spin room here in Philadelphia. He focused in on Trump's trade and foreign policy, telling reporters that in a second term, Trump would pick back up on "deals [that] were moving and then were undone" to address the trade deficit with China and "undo executive orders" like the one pausing exports of liquified natural gas.

—538's Tia Yang

Rep. Michael Waltz speaks to reporters in the spin room, Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia.
Matt Rourke/AP