Harris and Trump sparred in the high-stakes showdown.
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.
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.
In his attack on Harris over his criminal investigations, Trump suggested, with no evidence, that she and the Department of Justice were weaponized against him.
"I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me. They talk about democracy, I'm a threat to democracy. They’re the threat to democracy," he said.
After Trump tried to claim the criminal cases against him were solely the result of weaponization of law enforcement, Harris turned to the Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity.
"What it would mean if Donald Trump were back in the White House, with no guard rails," she said. "Certainly, now we know the court won't stop him, we know JD Vance is not going to stop him. It's up to the American people to stop him."
Harris hasn't sparked any major blowups by Trump yet, but she is getting him off his policy attacks.
Instead of hitting Harris on inflation and immigration, Trump has spent time defending his rallies and promoting false claims of migrants in Springfield, Ohio, about eating neighbors' pets.
Fact Check: False.
Trump has said he has “no regrets” in selecting the Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. But he also repeatedly has promised that if elected, he will not sign a federal abortion ban into law and will leave the issue up to the states.
One open question this year had been whether he would enforce the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that prohibits mailing materials used in abortions. Among other things, the law would make it illegal to ship the drug mifepristone, which is used to terminate early pregnancies. The Biden administration has said the law is unenforceable because the drug has medical uses other than abortion, and it would be impossible to know how the drug was being used. Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, and other conservatives have called for the enforcement of the law.
In an August interview with CBS News, Trump said that while “we will be discussing specifics of it,” he will not enforce the Comstock Act.
