DEBATE REPLAY: VP Harris and former President Trump l ABC News Presidential Debate

tonight the high stake Showdown here in Philadelphia between vice president kamla Harris and former president Donald Trump their first face-to-face meeting in this presidential election their first face-to-face meeting ever a historic race for president upended just weeks ago President Biden withdrawing after his last debate Donald Trump now up against a new opponent the candidates separated by the smallest of margins essentially tied in the polls nationally and in the key Battlegrounds including right here in Pennsylvania all still very much in play the ABC News presidential debate starts right now this is an ABC News special the

most consequential moment of this campaign kamla Harris together we will chart a new way forward Donald Trump we will soon be a great nation again face to face historic the ABC News presidential debate here now David mure and Lindsay Davis good evening I'm David mure and thank you for joining us for tonight's ABC News presidential debate we want to welcome viewers watching on ABC and around the world tonight vice president kamla Harris and president Donald Trump are just moments away from taking the stage in this unprecedented race for president and I'm lindsy Davis tonight's meeting

could be the most consequential event of their campaigns with election day now less than two months away for vice president kamla Harris this is her first debate since President Biden withdrew from the race on July 21st of course that decision followed his debate against President Donald Trump in June since then this race has taken on an entirely new Dynamic and that brings us to the rules of tonight's debate 90 minutes with two commercial breaks no topics or questions have been shared with the campaigns the candidates will have two minutes to answer questions and this is

the clock that's what they'll be seeing two minutes for rebuttal and one minute for follow-ups clarifications or responses their microphones will only be turned on when it's their turn to speak no pre-written notes allowed there is no audience here tonight in this Hall at the national Constitution Center this is an intimate setting for two candidates who have never met president Trump won the coin toss he chose to deliver the final closing statement of the evening vice president Harris selected the podium to the right so let's now welcome the candidates to the stage vice president kamla

Harris and president Donald Trump comeo Harris let have a good debate you see you have fun thank you welcome to you both it's wonderful to have you it's an honor to have you both here tonight good evening we are looking forward to a spirited and thoughtful debate so let's get started I want to begin tonight with the issue that voters repeatedly say is their number one issue and that is the economy and the cost of living in this country vice president Harris you and president Trump were elected four years ago and your opponent on the

stage here tonight often asks his supporters are you better off than you were four years ago when it comes to the economy do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago so I was raised as a middle class kid and I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America I believe in the ambition the aspirations the dreams of the American people and that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I

call an opportunity economy because here's the thing we know that we have a a shortage of of homes and hous housing and the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people we know that young families need support to raise their children and I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000 which is the largest child tax credit that we have given in a long time so that those young families can afford to buy a crib buy a car seat buy clothes for their children my passion one of them is

small businesses I was actually my mother raised my sister and me but there was a woman who helped raise us we call her our second mother she was a small business owner I love our small businesses my plan is to give a $50,000 tax deduction to Startup small businesses knowing they are part of the backbone of America's economy my opponent on the other hand his plan is to do what he has done before which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations which will result in5 trillion to America's deficit my opponent has

a plan that I call the Trump's 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 in about $4,000 more a year because of his policies and his ideas about what should be the backs of middle class people paying for tax cuts for Bill billionaires president Trump I'll give you two minutes first of all I have no sales tax that's an incorrect statement she knows that we're doing tariffs on other countries

other countries are going to finally after 75 years pay us back for all that we've done for the world and the Tariff will be substantial in some cases I took in billions and billions of dollars as you know from China in fact they never took the Tariff off because with so much money they can't it would totally destroy everything that they've set out to do they're taking in billions of dollars from China and other places they've left the tariffs on when I had it I had tariffs and yet I had no inflation uh look we've

had a terrible economy because inflation has which is really known as a country Buster it breaks up countries we have inflation like very few people have ever seen before probably the worst in our nation's history we were at 21% but that's being generous because many things are 50 60 70 and 80% higher than they were just a few years ago this has been a disaster for people for the middle class but for every class on top of that we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails from mental institutions and insane

asylums and they're coming in and they're taking jobs that are occupied right now by African-Americans and Hispanics and also unions unions are going to be affected very soon and you see what's happening you see what's happening with towns throughout the United States you look at Springfield Ohio you look at a in Colorado they are taking over the towns they're taking over buildings they're going in violently these are the people that she and Biden led into our country and they're destroying our country they're dangerous they're at the highest level of criminality and we have to get

them out we have to get them out fast I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country I'll do it again and even better we are going to get to immigration and border security during this debate but uh I would like to let vice president Harris respond on the economy here well I would love to let's talk about what Donald Trump left us Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression Donald Trump left us the worst Public Health epidemic in a century Donald Trump left us the worst attack

on our democracy since the Civil War and what we have done is clean up Donald Trump's mess what we have done and what I intend to do is build on what we know are the aspirations and the hopes of the American people but I'm going to tell youall in this debate tonight you're going to hear from the same old tired Playbook a bunch of Lies Grievances and name calling what you're going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous Plan called project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected to again

I believe very strongly that the American people want a president who understands the importance of bringing us together know we have so much more in common than what separates us and I pledge to you to be a president for all Americans president Trump I'll give you a minute here to respond number one I have nothing to do as you know and as she knows better than anyone I have nothing to do with project 2025 uh 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

was a group of people that got together they came up with some ideas I guess some good some bad but it makes no difference I have nothing to do everybody knows I'm an open book everybody knows what I'm going to do cut taxes very substantially and create a great economy like I did before we had the greatest economy we got hit with a pandemic and the pandemic was not since 1917 where 100 million people died has there been anything like it we did a phenomenal job with the pandemic we handed them over a country where

the economy and where the stock market was higher than it was before the pandemic came in nobody's ever seen anything like it we made ventilators for the entire world we got gowns we got masks we did things that nobody thought possible and people give me credit for rebuilding the military they give me credit for a lot of things but not enough credit for the great job we did with the pandemic but the only jobs they got were bounceback jobs these were jobs bounce back and it bounced back and it went to their benefit but I

was the one that created them they know it and so does everybody else vice president Harris I'll let you respond so Donald Trump has no plan for you and when you look at his economic plan it's all about tax breaks for the richest people I am offering what I describe as an opportunity economy and the best Economist in our country if not the world have reviewed our relative plans for the future of America what Goldman Sachs has said is that Donald Trump's plan would make the economy worse mine would strengthen the economy what the Wharton

School has said is Donald Trump's plan would actually explode the deficit 16 Nobel laurates have described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation and by the middle of next year would invite a recession you just have to look at where we are and where we stand on the issues and I'd invite you to know that Donald Trump actually has no plan for you because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you it's just a sound gave that to say look I went to the Wharton School of

finance and many of those professors the top professors think my plan is a brilliant plan it's a great plan it's a plan that's going to bring up our our worth our value as a country it's going to make people want to be able to go and work and uh create jobs and create a lot of good solid money for our for our country and just to finish off uh she doesn't have a plan she copied Biden's plan plan and it's like four sentences like Run Spot Run four sentences that are just oh we'll try and

lower taxes she doesn't have a plan take a look at her plan she doesn't have a plan Mr President I do want to drill down on something you both brought up uh the vice president brought up your tariffs you responded and let's drill down on this because your plan is what she calls is essentially a national sales tax your proposal calls for tariffs as you pointed out here on Foreign imports across the board you recently said that you might double your plan imposing tariffs up to 20% on Goods coming into this country as you know

many economists say that with tariffs at that level costs are then passed on to the consumer vice president Harris has argued it'll mean higher prices on gas food clothing medication arguing it costs the typical family nearly $4,000 a year do you believe Americans can afford higher prices because of tariffs they're not going to have higher prices what's going to have and who's going to have higher prices is China and all of the countries that have been ripping us off for years I charged I was the only president ever China was paying us hundreds of billions

of dollars and so were other countries and you know if she doesn't like them they should have gone out and they should have immediately cut the tariffs but those tariffs are there three and a half years now under their Administration we are going to take in billions of dollars hundreds of billions of dollars I had no inflation virtually no inflation they had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of our country because I've never seen a worse period of time people can't go out and buy cereal or bacon or eggs or anything else these the

people of our country are absolutely dying with what they've done they've destroyed the economy and all you have to do is look at a poll the polls say 80 and 85 and even 90% that the Trump economy was great that their economy was terrible vice president Harris I do want to ask for your response and you heard what the president said there because the Biden Administration did keep a number of the Trump tariffs in place so how do you respond respond well let's be clear that the Trump Administration resulted in a trade deficit one of

the highest we've ever seen in the history of America he invited trade Wars you want to talk about his deal with China what he ended up doing is under Donald Trump's presidency he ended up selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernized their military basically sold us out when a policy about China should be in making sure the United States of America wins the competition for the 21st century which means focusing on the details of what that requires focusing on relationships with our allies focusing on investing in american-based technology so that we

win the race on AI on Quantum Computing focusing on what we need to do to support America's Workforce so that we don't end up having the on the short end of the stick in terms of workers rights but what Donald Trump did let's talk about this with covid is he actually thanked president XI for what he did during Co look at his tweet thank you president XI exclamation point when we know that shei was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about the origins of covid President Trump I'll let you respond first of all

they bought their chips from Taiwan we hardly make chips anymore because of uh philosophies like they have and policies like they have I don't say her because she has no policy everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out the window she's going to My Philosophy now in fact I was going to send her a Maga hat she's gone to My Philosophy but if she ever got elected she change it and it will be the end of our country she's a Marxist everybody knows she's a Marxist her father's a Marxist professor

in economics and he taught her well but when you look at what she's done to our country and when you look at these millions and millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly where it's I believe 21 million people not the 15 that people say and I think it's a lot higher than the 21 that's bigger than New York State pouring in and just look at what they're doing to our country they're criminals many of these people coming in are criminals and that's bad for our economy too you know you mentioned before we'll

talk about immigration later well bad immigration is the worst thing that can happen to our economy they have and she has destroyed our country with policy that's insane almost policy that you'd say they have to hate our country president Trump thank you Lindsay I want to turn to the issue of abortion president Trump you've often touted that you were able to kill roie Wade last year you said that you were proud to be the most pro-life president in American history then last month you said that your Administration would be great for women and their Reproductive

Rights in your home state of Florida you surprise many uh with regard to your six we abortion ban because you initially had said that it was too short and you said quote I'm going to be voting that we need more than six weeks but then the very next day you reversed course and said you would vote to support the six we ban vice president Harris says that women shouldn't trust you on the issue of of abortion because you've changed your position so many times therefore why should they trust well the reason I'm doing that vote

is because the plan is as you know the vote is they have abortion in the ninth month they even have and you can look at the governor of West Virginia the previous governor of West Virginia not the current governor is doing an excellent job but the governor before he said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby in other words we'll execute the baby and that's why I did that because that predominates because they're radical the Democrats are radical in that and her vice presidential pick which I think

was a horrible pick by the way for our country because he is really out of it but her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine he also says execution after birth it's execution no longer abortion because the baby is born is okay and that's not okay with me hence the vote but what I did is something for 52 years they've been trying to get roie wade into the states and through the uh genius and and heart and strength of six Supreme Court Justices we were able to do that now I

believe in the exceptions for rape incest and life of the mother I believe strongly in it Ronald Reagan did also 85% of Republicans do exceptions very important but we were able to get it and now states are voting on it and for the first time you're going to see look this is an issue that's torn our country apart for 52 years every legal scholar every Democrat every Republican liberal conservative they all wanted this issue to be brought back to the states where the people could vote and that's what happened happened now Ohio the vote was

somewhat Liberal Kansas the vote was somewhat liberal much more liberal than people would have thought but each individual state is voting it's the vote of the people now it's not tied up in the federal government I did a great service in doing it it took courage to do it and the Supreme Court had great courage in doing it and I give tremendous credit to those six justices there is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born Madam vice president want to get your response to president Trump well

as I said you're going to hear a bunch of lies and that's not actually a surprising fact let's understand how we got here Donald Trump hand selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of roie Wade and they did exactly as he intended and now in over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide Health Care in one state it provides prison for life Trump abortion banss that make no exception even for rape and inest which

understand what that means a survivor of a crime of violation to their body does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next that is immoral and one does not not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body I have talked with women around our country you want to talk about this is what people wanted pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term suffering from a miscarriage being

denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot she didn't want that her husband didn't want that a 12 or 13-year-old Survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term they don't want that and I pledge to you when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of roie Wade as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law but understand if Donald Trump were to be reelected he

will sign a National Abortion ban understand in his project 2025 there would be a National Abortion a monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies your miscarriages I think the American people believe that certain freedoms in particular the freedom to make decisions about one's own body should not be made by the government thank you vice president Harris well there she goes again it's a lie I'm not signing a ban and there's no reason to sign a ban because we've gotten what everybody wanted Democrats Republicans and everybody else and every legal scholar wanted it to be brought

back into the states and the states are voting and it may take a little time but for 52 years this issue has torn our country apart and they've wanted it back in the States and I did something that nobody thought was possible the states are now voting what she says is an absolute lie and as far as the abortion ban no I'm not in favor of abortion B but it doesn't matter because this issue has now been taken over by the states would you veto a National Abortion ban if it well I won't have to

because again two things number one she said she'll go back to Congress she'll never get the vote there's impossible for her to get the vote especially now with the 5050 and essentially 5050 in both Senate and the house she's not going to get the vote she can't get the vote she won't even come close to it so it's just talk you know what it reminds me of when they said they're going to get student loans terminated and it ended up being a total catastrophe the student loans and then her I think probably her boss if

you call him a boss he spends all his time on the beach but look her boss went out and said we'll do it again we'll do it a different way and he went out got rejected Again by the Supreme Court so all these students got taunted with this whole thing about this whole idea and how unfair that would have been part of the reason they lost to the milon millions and millions of people that had to pay off their student loans they didn't get it for free but they were saying it's the same way that

they talked about that that they talk about abortion but if I could just get a yes or no because your running mate J JD Vance has said that you would veto if you did come to your Des well I didn't discuss it with JD in all fairness uh JD and I I don't mind if he has a certain view but I think he was speaking for me but I really didn't look we don't have to discuss it because she'd never be able to get it just like she couldn't get student loans they couldn't get student

loans they didn't even come close to getting student loans they taunted young people and a lot of other people that had loans they can never get this approved so it doesn't matter what she says about going to Congress wonderful let's go to Congress do it but the fact is that for years they wanted to get it out of Congress and out of the federal government and we did something that everybody said couldn't be done and now you have a vote of the people on abortion vice president Harris want to give you your time to respond

but I do want to ask would you support any any restrictions on a woman's right to an abortion I absolutely support reinstating the protections of roie Wade and as you rightly mentioned nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and an an asking for an abortion that is not happening it's insulting to the women of America and understand what has been happening under Donald Trump's abortion bans couples who pray and and and and dream dream of having a family are being denied IVF treatments what is happening in our country working people working

women who are working one or two jobs who can barely afford child care as it is have to travel to another state to get on a plane sitting next to strangers to go and get the health care she needs barely can afford to do it and what you are putting her through is unconscionable and the people of America have not the majority of Americans believe in a woman's right to make decisions about her own body and that is why in every state where this issue has been on the ballot in red and blue States both

the people of America have voted for Freedom vice president excuse me I have to respond another lie it's another lie I have been a leader on IVF which which is fertilization the IVF I have been a leader in fact when they got a very negative decision on IVF from the Alabama courts I saw the people of Alabama and the legislature two days later voted it in I've been a leader on it they know that and everybody else knows it I have been a leader on fertilization IVF and the other thing they you should ask will

she allow abortion in the eth month 9th month seventh month come on okay would you do that why don't you ask her that question you the would you under Ro question you could do abortions in the seventh month the eighth month the nth month and probably after birth just look at the governor former governor of Virginia the governor of Virginia said we put the baby aside and then we determine what we want to do with the baby president Trump thank you we're going to turn now to immigration and border security we know it's an issue

that's important to Republicans Democrats voters across the board uh in this country vice president Harris you were tasked by President Biden with getting to the root causes of migration from Central America we know that illegal border crossings reached a record high in the Biden Administration this past June President Biden imposed tough new Asylum restrictions we know the numbers since then have dropped significantly but my question to you tonight is why did the administration wait until six months before the election to act and would you have done anything differently from President Biden th this so I'm

the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns drugs and human beings and let me say that 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 over time trying to do their job it would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentol coming into the United States I know

I know there are so many families watching tonight who have been personally affected by The Surge of fentanyl in our country that bill would have put more resources to allow us to prosecute transnational criminal organizations for trafficking in guns drugs and human beings but you know what happened to that bill Donald Trump got on the phone called up some folks in Congress and said kill the bill and you know why because he'd prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem and understand this comes at a time where the people of our country

actually need a leader who engages in Solutions who actually addresses the problems at hand but what we have in the former president is someone who would prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem and I'll tell you something he's going to talk about immigration a lot tonight even when it's not the subject that is being raised and I'm going to actually do something really unusual and I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies because it's a really interesting thing to watch you will see during the course of his

rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter he will talk about windmills cause cancer and what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom and I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you you will not hear him talk about your needs your dreams and your need and your desires and I'll tell you I believe you deserve a president who actually puts you you first and I pledge to you that I will vice president Harris thank you president Trump

on that point I want to get your response I would like to respond let me just ask though why did you try to kill that bill and successfully so that would have put thousands of additional agents and officers on the board first let me respond this to the rallies she said people start leaving people don't go to her rallies there's no reason to go and the people that do go she's busting them in and paying them to be there and then showing them in a different light so she can't talk about that people don't leave

my rallies we have the biggest rallies the most incredible rallies in the history of politics that's because people want to take their country back our country is being lost we're a failing nation and it happened three and a half years ago and what what's going on here you're going to end up in World War II just to go into another subject what they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country and look at what's happening to the towns all over the United States and a lot

of towns don't want to talk not going to be aurar or Springfield a lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it 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 and this is what's happening in our country and it's a shame as far as rallies are concerned as far as the reason they go is they like what I say they want to bring our country back they want to make America great

again it's very simple phrase make America great again she's destroying this country and if she becomes president this country doesn't have a chance of success not only success will end up being Venezuela on steroids I just want to clarify here you bring up Springfield Ohio and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there uh he told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed injured or abused by individuals within the Immigrant Community all SE people on television let me say here this is the people on television say

my dog was taken and used for food so maybe he said that and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager I'm not taking this from television people telion dog was eaten by the people that went there again the Springfield City manager says there's no evidence of that vice president car I'll let you respond to the rest of what you've heard you talk about extreme um you know I this is I think one of the reasons why in this election I actually have the endorsement of 200 Republicans who have formally worked with

President Bush Mitt Romney and John McCain including the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Congress member Liz Cheney and if you want to really know the inside track on who the former president is if he didn't make it clear already just ask people who have worked with him his former Chief of Staff a fourstar general has said he has contempt for the Constitution of the United States his former National Security adviser has said he is dangerous and unfit his former Secretary of Defense has said the nation the Republic would never survive another Trump

term and when we listen to this kind of rhetoric when the issues that affect the American people are not being addressed I think the choice is clear in this election President Trump I'll give you a quick minute to respond uh thank you because when I hear that see I'm a different kind of a person I fired most of those people not so graciously they did bad things or a bad job I fired them they never fired one person they didn't fire anybody having to do with Afghanistan and the Taliban and the 13 people who's who's

were just killed viciously and violently killed and I got to know the parents and the family they didn't fire they should have fired all those generals all those top people because that was one of the most incompetently handled situations anybody has ever seen so when somebody does a bad job I fire him and you take a guy like esper he was no good I fired him so he writes a book another one writes a book because with me they can write books with nobody else can they but they have done such a poor job and

they never fire anybody look at the economy look how look at the inflation they didn't fire any of their economists they have the same people that's a good way not to have have books written about you but just to finish I got more votes than any Republican in history by far in fact I got more votes than any president sitting president in history by far let me continue on immigration it was what you wanted to talk about earlier so let's get back to your deportation uh uh proposal that the vice president has reacted to as

well president Trump you call this the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of our country you say you would use the National Guard you say if things get out of control you'd have no problem using the US military you also said you would use local police uh how would you uh Deport 11 million undocumented immigrants I know you you believe that number is much higher take us through this what does this look like will authorities be going door to door in this country yeah it is much higher because of them they allowed criminals many

many millions of criminals they allowed terrorists they allowed Common Street criminals they allowed people to come in drug de ERS to come into our country and then now in the United States and told by their countries like Venezuela don't ever come back or we're going to kill you do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down you know why because they've taken their criminals off the street and they've given them to her to put into our country and this will be one of the greatest mistakes in

history for them to allow and I think they probably did it because they think they going to get vot but it's not worth it because they're they're destroying the fabric of our country by what they've done there's never been anything done like this at all they've destroyed the fabric of our country millions of people let in and all over the world crime is down all over the world except here crime here is up and through the roof despite their fraudulent statements that they made crime in this country is through the roof and we have a

new form of crime it's called migrant crime and it's happening at levels at nobody thought possible president Trump as you know the FBI says overall violent crime is actually coming down of this country but excuse me the FBI defraud they were defrauding statements they they didn't include the worst cities they didn't include the cities with the worst crime it was a a fraud just like their number of 818 th000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud president Trump thank you I'll let you respond vice president Harris well I think this

is so rich coming from someone who has been prosecuted for National Security crimes economic crimes election interference has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing and let's be clear where each person stands on the issue of what is important about respect for the rule of law and respect for law enforcement the former vice president called for defunding federal law enforcement 45,000 agents get this on the day after he was arraigned on 34 felony counts so let's talk about what is important in this

race it is important that we move forward that we turn the page on this same old tired rhetoric and address the needs of the American people address what we need to do about the housing shortage which I have a plan for address what we must do to support our small businesses address Bringing Down the price of groceries but frankly the American people are exhausted with this same old tired Playbook vice president Harris thank you excuse me every one of those cases was started by them against their political opponent and I'm winning most of them and

I will win the rest on appeal and you saw that with the decision that came down just recently from the Supreme Court I'm winning most of them but those are cases it's called weaponization never happened in this country they weaponized the justice department every one of those cases was involved with the doj from Atlanta and fny Willis to to the uh Attorney General of New York and the da of New York every one of those cases and then they say oh he was he's a criminal they're the ones that made them go after me by

the way Joe Biden was found essentially guilty on the documents case and what happened in my documents case they said oh that's the toughest of them all a complete and total Victory two months ago it was thrown out it's weaponization and they used it and it's never happened in this country they used it to try and win an election fake cases president Trump thank you a really quick response here vice president Harris on this notion of weaponization of the justice department well let's talk about extreme and understand the context in which this election in 2024

is taking place the United States Supreme Court recently ruled that the former president would essentially be immune from any misconduct if he were to enter the White House again understand this is someone who has openly said he would terminate I'm quoting terminate the Constitution of the United States that he would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies someone who has openly expressed disdain for members of our military understand what it would mean if Donald Trump were back in the white house with no guard rails because certainly we know now the court won't stop

him we know JD Vance is not going to stop him it's up to the American people vice president Harris thank you Lindsay vice president Harris in your last run for president please this is the one that weaponized not me she weaponized 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 with a fake Russia Russia Russia investigation that went nowhere we have a lot to get to Lindsay vice president Harris in your last run for

president you said you wanted to ban fracking now you don't you wanted mandatory government buyback programs for assault weapons now your campaign says you don't you supported decriminalizing border crossings now you're taking a harder line I know you say that your values have not changed so then why have so many of your policy positions changed so my values have not changed and I'm going to discuss every one of the at least every point that you've made but in particular let's talk about fracking because we're here in Pennsylvania I made that very clear in 2020 I

will not ban fracking I have not banned fracking as vice president of United States and in fact I Was the tiebreaking vote on the inflation reduction act which opened new leases for fracking my position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our Reliance on foreign oil we have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over rely on foreign oil as it relates to my values let me tell you I grew up a middle class kid raised

by a hardworking mother who worked and saved and was able to buy our first home when I was a teenager the values I bring to the importance of home ownership knowing not everybody got handed $400 million on a silver platter and then f bankruptcy six times is a value that I bring to my work to say we are going to work with the private sector and home builders to increase three million homes increase by three million homes by the end of my first term my work that is related to having a friend when I was

in high school who was sexually assaulted by her stepfather and my focus then on protecting women and children from violent crime is based on a value that is deeply grounded in the importance of standing up for those who are most vulnerable my work that is about protecting Social Security and Medicare is based on longstanding work that I have done protecting seniors from scams my values have not changed and what is important is that there is a president who actually brings values and a perspective that is about lifting people up and not beating people down and

name calling the true measure of the leader is the leader who actually understands the strength is not in beating people down it's in lifting people up I intend to be that president president Trump your resp well first of all I wasn't given $400 million I wish I was my father was a Brooklyn Builder Brooklyn Queens and a great father and I learned a lot from him but I was given a fraction of that a tiny fraction and I built it into many many billions of dollars many many billions and when people see it they are

even surprised so we don't have to talk about that fracking she's been against it for 12 years uh defund the police she's been against that forever she gave all that stuff up very wrongly very horribly and everybody's laughing at it okay they're all laughing at it she gave up at least 12 and probably 14 or 15 different policies like she was big on defund the police in Minnesota she went out wait a minute I'm talking now if you don't mind please does that sound familiar she went out she went out in Minnesota and wanted to

let criminals that killed people that burned down Minneapolis she went out and raised money to get him out of jail she did things that nobody would ever think of now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison this is a radical left liberal that would do this she wants to confiscate your guns and she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania if she want the election fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one just to finish one thing so important in my opinion so I got the oil business going like nobody

has ever done before they took when they took over they got rid of it started getting rid of it and the prices were going up the roof they immediately let these guys go to where they were I would have been five times four times five times higher because you're talking about three and a half years ago they got it up to where I was because they had no choice because the prices of energy were were quadrupling and doubling you saw what happened to gasoline so they said let's go back to Trump but if she won

the election the day after that election they'll go back to destroying our country and oil will be dead fossil fuel will be dead we'll go back to windmills and we'll go back to solar where they need a whole desert to get some energy to come out you ever see a solar plant by the way I'm a big fan of solar but they take 400 500 Acres of desert soil are not good things for the environment as she understand thank you Lindsay thank you we have an election in just 56 days and I want to talk

about the peaceful transfer of power which of course we all know is a Cornerstone of our democracy and the role of a president uh in a moment of Crisis uh Mr President on January 6th you told your supporters to March to the capital you said you would be right there with them the country and the world saw what played out of the capital that day the officers coming under attack and in the west wings say you watched it unfold on television off the Oval Office you did send out tweets but it was more than two

hours before you sent out that video message telling your supporters to go home is there anything you regret about what you did on that day you just said a thing that isn't covered peacefully and patriotically I said during my speech not later on peacefully and patriotically and nobody on the other side was killed Ashley babot was shot by an outof control police officer that should have never ever shot her it's a disgrace but we didn't do this group of people that have been treated so badly I ask what about all the people that are pouring

into our country and killing people that she allowed to pour in she was the Bazar remember that she was the bordar she doesn't want to be called the Bazar because she's embarrassed by the Border in fact she said at the beginning oh I'm surprised you're not talking about the Border yet that's because she knows what a bad job they've done what about those people what's what are they going to be prosecuted when are these people from countries all over the world not just South America they're coming in from all over the world David all over

the world and crime rates are down all over the world because of it but let me one of those David when are those people going to be prosecuted when are the people that burned down Minneapolis going to be prosecuted or in Seattle they went into Seattle they took over a big percentage of the city of Seattle when are those people going to be prosecuted but let me just ask you you might ask her that question you were the president you were watching an unfold on television it's a very simple question as we move forward toward

another election is there anything you regret about what you did on that day yes or I had nothing to do with that other than they asked me to make a speech I showed up for a speech I said I think it's going to be big I went to Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington DC and the mayor put it back in writing as you know I said you know this is going to be a very big Rally or whatever you want to call it and again it wasn't done by me it was done by

others I said I'd like to give you 10,000 National Guard or soldiers they rejected me Nancy Pelosi rejected me it was just two weeks ago her daughter has a tape of her saying she is fully responsible for what happened they want to get rid of that tape it would have never happened if Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington did their jobs I wasn't responsible for security Nancy Pelosi was responsible she didn't do her job the question about you as president not about former speaker Pelosi but I do want vice president Harris to respond here

I was at the capital on January 6 I was the vice president elect I was also an acting Senator I was there and on that day the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation's capital to desecrate our nation's capital on that day 140 law enforcement officers were injured and some died and understand the former president has been indicted and impeached for exactly that reason but this is not an isolated situation let's remember Charlottesville where there was a mob of people carrying tiki torches spewing anti-semitic hate and what did the

president then at the time say there were fine people people on each side let's remember that when it came to the proud boys a militia the president said the former president said stand back and stand by so for everyone watching who remembers what January 6th was I say we don't have to go back let's not go back we're not going back it's time to turn the page and if that was a bridge too far for you well there is a place in our campaign for you to stand for country to stand for our democracy to

stand for rule of law and to end the chaos and to end the approach that is about attacking the foundations of our democracy because you don't like the outcome and be clear on that point Donald Trump the candidate has said in this election there will be a bloodbath if this and the outcome of this election is not to his liking let's turn the page on this let's not go back let's chart a course for the future and not go backwards to the past let me just follow up here it was a different term and it

was a term that related to energy because they have destroyed our energy business that was where bloodbath was also on Charlottesville that story has been as you would say debunked Laura Ingram Shan Hannity Jess all of these people they covered it if they go an extra sentence they will see it was perfect it was debunked in almost every newspaper but they still bring it up just like they bring 2025 up they bring all of this stuff up I ask you this you talk about the capital why are we allowing these millions of people to come

through on the southern border how come she's not doing anything and I'll tell you what I would do and I would be very proud to do it I would say we would both leave this debate right now I'd like to see her go down to Washington DC during this debate because we're wasting a lot of time go down to because she's been so bad it's so ridiculous go down to Washington DC and let her sign a bill to close up the Border because they have the right to do it they don't need bills they have

the right to do the president of the United States you'll get them out of bed you'll wake them up at 4 o'clock in the afternoon you'll say come on come on down to the office let's sign a bill If he if he signs a bill that the border is closed all he has to do is say it to the border patrol who are phenomenal if they do that the border is closed those people are killing many people unlike j6 we talked immigration here tonight I do want to focus on this next issue to both of

you because it really brings us uh this into Focus Truth uh in these times that we're living in uh Mr President for three and a half years after uh you lost the 2020 election you repeatedly falsely claimed that you won many times saying you won in a landslide in the past couple of weeks leading up to this debate uh you have said quote you lost by a whisker that you quote didn't quite make it that you came up a little bit short are you are you now acknowledging that you lost in 2020 acknowledge that at

all I said that sarcastically you know that it was said oh we lost by a whisker that was said sarcastically look there's so much proof all you have to do is look at it and they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval I got almost 75 million votes the most votes any sitting president has ever gotten I was told if I got 63 which was what I got in 2016 you can't be beaten the election people should never be thinking about an election is fraudulent we need two things we need walls we

need and we have to have it we have to have borders and we have to have good elections our elections are bad and a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in they're trying to get them to vote they can't even speak English they don't even know what country they're in practically and these people are trying to get them to vote and that's why they're allowing them to come into our country I did watch all of these pieces of video I I didn't detect the sarcasm lost by whisker we didn't quite make it and we should

just point out here as clarification and you know this you and your allies 60 cases in front of many judges many of them looked at it and said we didn't have standing that's the other thing they said we didn't have standing a technicality can you imagine a system where a person in an election doesn't have standing the president of the United States doesn't have standing that's how we lost if you look at the facts and I'd love to have you you'll do a special on it I'll show you Georgia and I'll show you Wisconsin and

I'll show you Pennsylvania and I'll show you we have so many facts and statistics but you know what that doesn't matter because we have to solve the problem that we have right now that's old news and the problem that we have right now is we have a nation in Decline and they have put it into decline we have a nation that is dying David Mr President thank you uh vice president Harris you heard the president there tonight he said he didn't say that that he lost by whiskers he still uh believes uh he did not

lose the election uh that was won by President Biden uh and yourself but I do want to ask you about something that's come up in the last couple of days this was a post from uh president Trump about this upcoming election just weeks away he said when I win those people who cheated and then he lists donors voters election officials he says will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law which will include long-term prison sentences one of your campaign's top lawyers responded saying we won't let Donald Trump intimidate us won't let him suppress

the vote is that what you believe he's trying to do here Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people so let's be clear about that and clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that but we cannot afford to have a president of the United States who attempts as he did in the past to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election and I'm going to tell you that at I have traveled the world as vice president United States and world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump I have talked with

military leaders some of whom worked with you and they say you're a disgrace and when you then talk in this way in a presidential debate and deny what over and over again are court cases you have lost because you did in fact lose that election it leads one to believe that perhaps perhaps we do not have in the candidate to my right the temperament or or the ability to not be confused about fact that's deeply troubling and the American people deserve better I'll give you one minute to respond Mr presid let me just tell you

about world leaders Victor Orban one of the most respected men they call him a strong man he's a he's a tough person smart prime minister of Hungary they said why is the whole world blowing up three years ago it was why is it blowing up he said because you need Trump back as president they were afraid of him China was afraid and I don't like to use the word afraid but I'm just quoting him China was afraid of him North Korea was afraid of him look at what's going on with North Korea by the way

he said Russia was afraid of him I ended the nordstream 2 Pipeline and Biden put it back on day one but he ended the XL Pipeline the XL pipeline in our country he ended that but he let the Russians build a pipeline going all over Europe and heading into Germany the biggest pipeline in the world look Victor Orban said it he said the most respected most feared person is Donald Trump we had no problems when Trump was president but when this weak pathetic man that you saw at a debate just a few months ago that

if he weren't in that debate he'd be running on set of H you got no votes he got 14 million votes what you did you talk about a threat to democracy he got 14 million votes and they threw him out of office and you know what I'll give you a little secret he hates her he can't stand her but he got 14 million votes they threw him out she got zero votes and when she ran she was the first one to leave because she failed and now she's running I don't understand it but I'm okay

with it because your time is up I think we're going to do very well we've got a lot more to get to Turning now to the Israel Hamas War and the hostages who are still being held Americans among them vice president Harris in December you said quote Israel has a right to defend itself but you added quote it matters how saying International humanitarian law must be respected Israel must do more to protect innocent civilians you said that nine months ago now an estimated 40,000 Palestinians are dead nearly 100 hostages remain just last week prime minister

Benjamin Netanyahu said there's not a deal in the making President Biden has not been able to break through the stalemate how would you do it well let's understand how we got here on October 7 Hamas a terrorist organization slaughtered 12200 Israelis many of them young people who were simply attending a concert women were horribly raped and so absolutely 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 when end immediately and the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out and so we will continue to work around the clock on that work around the clock also understanding that we must chart a course for a two-state solution and in that solution there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel and an equal measure for the Palestinians but the one thing I will assure you always I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself in particular as

it rates to as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel but we must have a two-state solution where we can rebuild Gaza where the Palestinians have security self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve president Trump how would you negotiate with Netanyahu and also Hamas in order to get the hostages out and prevent the killing of more innocent civilians in Gaza if I were president it would have never started if I were president Russia would have never ever I know Putin very well he would have never and

there was no threat of it either by the way for four years have gone into Ukraine and killed millions of people when you added up far worse than people understand what's going on over there but when she mentions about Israel all of a sudden she hates Israel she wouldn't even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech she refused to be there because she was at a sority party of hers she wanted to go to the sari party she hates Israel if she's president I believe that Israel will not

exist within two years from now and I've been pretty good at predictions and I hope I'm wrong about that one she hat hates Israel at the same time in her own way she hates the Arab population because the whole place is going to get blown up Arabs Jewish people Israel Israel will be gone it would have never happened Iran was broke under Donald Trump now Iran has $300 billion dollar because they took off all the sanctions that I had Iran had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah or any of the 28 different uh spheres of

Terror and they are spheres of Terror horrible Terror they had no money it was a big story and you know it you covered it very well actually they had no money for Terror they were broke now they're a rich nation and now what they're doing is they're spreading that money around look at what's happening with the hutis and Yemen look at what's going on in the Middle East this would have never happened I will get that settled and fast and I'll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended if I'm president-elect I'll get it done

before even becoming president VI president Harris he says you hate Israel that's absolutely not true I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people he knows that he's trying to again divide and and distract from the reality which is it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on National security and foreign policy it is well known that he admires dictators wants to be a dictator on day one according to himself it is well known that he said of Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants

and go into Ukraine it is well known that he said when Russia went into Ukraine it was brilliant it is well known he exchanged love letters with Kim Jong-un and it is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because they're so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors and that is why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace that is why we understand that we have to have a president who is not consistently weak and wrong

naal security including the importance of upholding and respecting in highest regard our military vice president Harris thank you they're the ones and she's the one that caused it that's weak on National Security by allowing Every Nation last month for the year 168 different countries sending people into our country their crime weights are way down Putin endorsed her last week said I hope she wins and I think he meant it because what he's gotten away with is absolutely incredible it wouldn't have happened with me the leaders of other countries think that they're weak and incompetent and

they are they are grossly incompetent and I just ask one question why does Biden go in and kill the Keystone Pipeline and approve the single biggest deal that Russia's ever made nordstream two the biggest pipeline anywhere in the world going to Germany and all over Europe because they're weak and they're ineffective and Biden by the way gets paid a lot of money thank you we have a lot of issues to get to we'll be right back with much more of this historic ABC News presidential debate from the national Constitution Center right here in Philadelphia back

in a moment the ABC News presidential debate will continue after [Music] this live from the national Constitution Center in Philadelphia Pennsylvania Here Again David and lindsy Davis welcome back to this historic ABC News presidential debate tonight we're going to continue here and I want to turn to the war in Ukraine we're now 2 and a half years uh into this conflict Mr President it has been the position of the Biden Administration that we must defend Ukraine from Russia from Vladimir Putin to defend their sovereignty their democracy that it's in America's best interest to do so

arguing that if Putin wins he may be embolden to move even further into other countries you have said you would solve this war in 24 hours you said so just before the break tonight how exactly would you do that and I want to ask you a very simple question tonight do you want Ukraine to win this War I want the war to stop I want to save lives that are being uselessly people being killed by the millions it's the millions it's so much worse than the numbers that you're getting which your fake numbers look we're

in for 250 billion or more because they don't ask Europe which is a much bigger beneficiary to getting this thing done than than we are they're in for $150 billion less because Biden and you don't have the courage to ask Europe like I did with NATO they paid billions and billions hundreds of billions of dollars when I said either you pay up or we're not going to protect you anymore so that's maybe one of the reasons they don't like me as much as they like weak people but you take a look at what's happening we're

in for 250 to 275 billion they're into 100 to 150 they should be forced to equalize with that being said I want to get the War settled I know zalinski very well and I know Putin very well I have a good relationship and they respect your president okay 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 I will

get it settled before I even become president president if I win when I'm President elect and what I'll do is I'll speak to one I'll speak to the other I'll get them together that war would have never happened and in fact when I saw Putin after I left unfortunately left because our our country has gone to hell but after I left when I saw him building up soldiers he did it after I left I said oh he must be negotiating it must be a good strong point of negotiation well it wasn't because Biden had no

idea how to talk talk to him he had no idea how to stop it and now you have millions of people dead and it's only getting worse and it could lead to World War II don't kid yourself David we're playing with World War II and we have a president that we don't even know if he's where is our president we don't even know if he's a president and just to clarify they threw him out of a campaign like a dog we don't even know is he our president but we have a president Mr President that

doesn't know he's alive your time is up and it would just to clarify in the question do you believe it's in the Us best interest for Ukraine to win this war yes or no I think it's the US best interest to get this war finished and just get it done negotiate a deal because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed I want to take this to vice president Harris I want to get your thoughts on support for Ukraine in this moment but also as commander-in-chief if elected how would you deal

with Vladimir Putin and would it be any different from what we're seeing from President Biden well first of all it's important to remind the former president you're not running against Joe Biden you're running against me I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up and that's not who we are as Americans let's understand what happened here um I actually met with zalinski a few days before Russia invaded tried through Force to change territorial boundaries to defy one of the most

important International rules and Norms which is is the importance of sovereignty and territorial integrity and I met with President zansky I shared with him American intelligence about how he could defend himself days later I went to NATO's Eastern flank to Poland and Romania and through the work that I and others did we brought 50 countries together to support Ukraine in its righteous defense and because of our support because of the air defense the ammunition the artillery the javelin the Abrams tanks that we have provided Ukraine stands as an independent and free country if Donald Trump

were President Putin would be sitting in keev right now and understand what that would mean because Putin's agenda is not just about Ukraine understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer president and that we understand the importance of the greatest military Alliance the world has ever known which is NATO and what we have done to preserve the ability of zalinski and the ukrainians to fight for their independence otherwise Putin would be sitting in keev with his eyes on the rest of Europe starting with Poland and why

don't you tell the 800,000 polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch vice president Harris thank you we've heard from both of you on Ukraine tonight Afghanistan came up in the last hour I I wanted her to respond to something you said earlier and I please I'll I'll give you a minute here Putin would be sitting in Moscow and he wouldn't have lost 300,000 men and women

but he would have been sitting in Moscow quiet please he would have been sitting in Moscow much happier than he is right now but eventually you know he's got a thing that other people don't have he's got nuclear weapons they don't ever talk about that he got nuclear weapons nobody ever thinks about that and eventually maybe he'll use him and maybe he hasn't been that threatening but he does have that something we don't even like to talk about nobody likes to talk about it but just so you understand they sent her to negotiate peace before

this war started three days later he went in and he started the war because everything they said was weak and stupid they said the wrong things that war should have never started she was the Emissary they sent her in to negotiate with zalinski and Putin and she did and the war started three days later and that's the kind of talent we have with her she's worse than Biden in my opinion I think he's the worst president in the history of our country she goes down as the worst vice president in the history of our country

but let me tell you something she is a horrible negotiator they sent her in to negotiate as soon as they left Putin did The Invasion president Trump thank you you did bring up something you said she went to negotiate with Vladimir Putin vice president Harris have you ever met Vladimir Putin can you clarify tonight yet again I said it at the beginning of this debate you're going to hear a bunch of Lies coming from this fellow and that is another one when I went to meet with President zansi I've now met with him over five

times the reality is it has been about standing as America always should as a leader upholding International rules and Norms as a a leader who shows strength understanding that the alliances we have around the world are dependent on our ability to look out for our friends and not favor our enemies because you adore strong men instead of caring about democracy and that is very much what is at stake here the president of the United States is commanderin-chief and the American people have a right to rely on a president who understands the significance of America's role

and responsibility in terms of ensuring that there is stability and ensuring we stand up for our principles and not sell them for the for the benefit of personal flattery we've talked about Ukraine and Vladimir Putin I do want to talk about Afghanistan it came up in in the first hour of this debate I I I wanted to move on to Afghanistan Stenberg said Trump did the most amazing thing I've ever seen he got these countries the 28 countries at the time to pay up he said I've never seen he's the head of NATO he said

I've never seen for years we were paying almost all of NATO we were being ripped off by European nations both on trade and on NATO I got them to pay up by saying one of the statements you made before if you don't pay we're not going to protect you otherwise we would have never gotten it he said it was one of the most incredible jobs that he's ever seen done thank you I want to turn to Afghanistan it came up in the first hour of the debate and we witnessed a a poignant moment today on

Capitol Hill honoring the soldiers who died in the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan I do want to ask the vice president uh do you believe you bear any responsibility in the way that withdrawal played out well I will tell you I agreed with President Biden's decision to pull out of Afghanistan four presidents said they would and Joe Biden did and as a result America's taxpayers are not paying the $300 million a day we were paying for that endless war and as of today there is not one member of the United States military who is in active

duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world the first time this Century but let's understand how we got to where we are Donald Trump when he was president negotiated one of the weakest deals you can imagine he calls himself a dealmaker even his National Security advisor 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 the negotiation involved the Taliban getting 5,000 terrorist Taliban terrorists released and get this no get this and the president

at the time invited the Taliban to Camp David a place of stored significance for us as Americans a place where we honor the import of American diplomacy where we invite and receive respected world leaders and this former president as president invited them to Camp David because he does not again appreciate the role and responsibility of the president of the United States to be commander-in-chief with a level of respect and this gets back to the point of how he has consistently disparaged and demeaned members of our military fallen soldiers and the work that we must do

to uphold the strength and the respect of the United States of America around the world vice president Harris thank you president Trump your response to her saying that you began the negotiations with the Taliban so if you take a look at that period of time the Taliban was killing our soldiers a lot of them with snipers and I got involved with the Taliban because the Taliban was doing the killing that's the Fighting Force within Afghanistan they don't bother doing that because you know they deal with the wrong people all the time but I got involved

and Abdul is the head of the Taliban he is still the head of the Taliban and I told Abdul don't do it anymore you do it anymore you're going to have problems and he said why do you send me a picture of my house I said you're going to have to figure that out Abdul and for 18 months we had nobody killed we did have an agreement negotia by Mike Pompeo was a very good agreement the reason it was good it was we were getting out we would have been out faster than them but we

wouldn't have lost the soldiers we wouldn't have left many Americans behind and we wouldn't have left we wouldn't have left $85 billion worth of brand new beautiful military equipment behind and just to finish they blew it the agreement said you have to do this this this this this and they didn't do it they didn't do it the agreement was was terminated by us because they didn't do what they were supposed to do and these people did the worst withdrawal and in my opinion the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country and by the

way that's why Russia attacked Ukraine because they saw how incompetent she and her boss are President Trump thank you I want to move on now to race and politics in this country Mr President you recently said a vice president Harris quote I didn't know she was black until a number 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 I don't and

I don't care I don't care what she is I don't care uh you make a big deal out of something I couldn't care less whatever she wants to be is okay with me but those were your words so I'm asking I don't know I don't know I mean all I can say is I read where she was not black that she put out and I'll say that and then I read that she was black and that's okay either one was okay with me that's up to her that's up to her vice president Harris your thoughts

on this I think it's I mean honestly I think it's a tragedy that we have um someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people you know I do believe that the vast majority of us know that we have so much more in common than what separates us and we don't want this kind of approach that is just constantly trying to divide us and especially by race and let's remember how Donald Trump started he was a a a a land he

owned land he owned buildings and he he was investigated because he refused to rent property to black families let's remember this is the same individual who who took out a full page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of five young black and Latino boys who were innocent the Central Park 5 took out a full page ad calling for their execution this is the same individual who spread birther lies about the first black president of the United States and I think the American people want better than that want better than this want

someone who understands as I do I travel our country we see in each other a friend we see in each other a neighbor we don't want a leader who is constantly trying to have Americans Point their fingers at each other I meet with people all the time who tell me can we please just have discourse about how we're going to invest in the aspir ations and the Ambitions and the dreams of the American people knowing that regardless of people's color or the language their grandmother speaks we all have the same dreams and aspirations and Want

a President Who invests in those not in hate and division vice president Harris thank you Lindsay president Trump this is now your third time this is the most divisive presidency in the history of our country there's never been anything like it they're destroying our country and they come up with things like what she just said going back many many years when a lot of people including May Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park 5 they admitted they said they plead guilty and I said well if they pleed guilty they' badly hurt a person killed

a person ultimately and if they pleed guilty then they pled we not guilty but this is a person that has to stretch back years 40 50 years ago because there's nothing now I built one of the greatest economies in the history of the world and I'm going to build it again it's going to be bigger better and stronger but they're destroying our economy they have no idea what a good economy is their oil policies every single policy and remember this she is Biden you know she's trying to get away from Biden I don't know the

gentleman she says she is Biden the worst inflation we've ever had a horrible economy because inflation has made it so bad and she can't get away with that thank you time is up I want to resp to that I want to resp briefly clearly I am not Joe Biden and I am certainly not Donald Trump and what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country one who believes in what is possible one who brings a sense of optimism about what we can do instead of always disparaging the American people I believe

believe in what we can do to strengthen our small businesses which is why I have a plan let's talk about our plans and and let's compare the plans I have a plan to give startup businesses $50,000 tax deduction to pursue their Ambitions their Innovation their ideas their hard work I have a plan $6,000 for young families for the first year of your child's life to help you in that most critical stage of your child's development I have a plan that is about allowing people to be able to pursue what has been fleeting in terms of

the American dream by offering a help with down payment of $25,000 down payment assistance for firsttime home buyers that's the kind of conversation I believe David that people really want tonight as opposed to a conversation that is constantly about belittling and name calling let's turn the page VI president thank you let's turn toy to move on President Trump let's turn to policy please she has a plan to defund the police she has a plan to confiscate everybody's gun president plan to not allow fracking in Pennsylvania or anywhere else that's what her plan is until just

recent I just former president has said something twice that I need to respond to I'm sorry we're going we're going to move on vient president Trump this is now your third time running for president you have long vowed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare you have failed to accomplish that you now say you're going to keep Obamacare quote unless we can do something much better last month you said quote we're working on it so tonight nine years after you first started running do you have a plan and can you

tell us what it is Obamacare was lousy Health Care always was it's not very good today and what I said that we come up with something and we are working on things we're going to do it and we're going to replace it but remember this I inherited Obamacare because Democrats wouldn't change it they wouldn't vote for it they were unanimous they wouldn't vote to change it if they would have done that we would have had a much better plan than Obamacare but the Democrats came up they wouldn't vote for it I had a choice to

make when I was President do I save it and make it as good as it can be never going to be great or do I let it rot and I felt I had an obligation even though politically it would have been good to just let it rot and let it go away I decided and I told my people the top people and they very good people I have a lot of good people in this that Administration we read about the bad ones we had some real bad ones too and so do they they have really

bad ones the difference is they don't get rid of but let me just explain 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 I did the right thing but it's still never going to be great and it's too expensive for people and what we will do is we're looking at different plans if we can come up with a plan that's going to cost our people our population less money and be better health care than Obamacare then

I would absolutely do it but until then I'd run it as good as it can be run so just so yes or no you still do not have a plan I have concepts of a plan I'm not president right now but if we come up with something I would only change it if we come up with something that's better and less expensive and there are Concepts and options we we have to do that and you'll be hearing about it in the not too distant future vice president Harris in 2017 you supported Bernie Sanders proposal to

do away with private insurance and create a government-run Health Care System two years later you proposed a plan that included a private insurance option what is your plan today well first of all I absolutely support and over the last four years as vice president private healthare options but what we need to do is maintain and grow the Affordable Care Act but I I I'll get to that Lindsay I just need to respond to a previous point that the former president has made I've made very clear my position on fracking and then this business about taking

everyone's guns away Tim Walls and I are both gun owners we're not taking anybody's guns away so stop with the continuous lying about this stuff as it relates to the Affordable Care Act understand let just look at the history to know where people stand when Donald Trump was President 6 times he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act 60 times I was a Senator at the time when I will never forget the early morning hours when it was up for a vote in the United States Senate and the late great John McCain who

you have disparaged as being you don't like him you said at the time because he got caught he was an American hero the late great John McCain I will never forget that night walked onto the senate floor and said no you don't no you don't no you don't get rid of the Affordable Care Act you have no plan and what the Affordable Care Act has done is eliminate the ability of insurance companies to deny people with pre-existing conditions I don't have to tell the people watching tonight you remember what that was like remember when an

insurance company could deny if a child had asthma if someone was a breast cancer survivor if a if a grandp parent had diabetes and thankfully as I've been vice president and we over the last four years have strengthened the Affordable Care Act we have allowed for the first time Medicare to negotiate drug prices on behalf of you the American people Donald Trump said he was going to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices he never did we did and now we have capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month since I've been Vice President we

have capped the cost of prescription medication for seniors at $2,000 a year and when I am president we will do that for all people understanding that the value I bring to this is that access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it and the plan has to be to strengthen the Affordable Care Act not get rid of it in terms of where Donald Trump stands on that I want to move to an issue that's important for a lot made a mistake at number one John McCain

fought Obamacare for 10 years but it wasn't only him it were all of the Democrats that kept it going and you know what we can do much better than Obamacare much less money but she won't improve private insurance for people private medical insurance that's another thing she doesn't want to get people are paying privately for insurance that have worked hard and made money and they want to have private she wants everybody to be on government insurance where you wait six months for an operation that you need immediately president Trump thank you we have another issue

that we'd like to get to that's important for a number of Americans in particular younger voters and that's climate change president Trump with regard to the environment you say that we have to have clean air and clean water vice president Harris you call climate change an existential threat the question to you both tonight is what would you do to fight climate change and vice president Harris we'll start with you one minute for you each well the former president had said the climate change is a hoax and what we know is that it is very real

you ask anyone who lives in a state who has experienced these extreme weather occurrences who now is either being denied home insurance or it's being jacked up you ask anybody who has been um the victim of what that means in terms of losing their home having nowhere to go we know that we can actually deal with this issue the young people of America care deeply about this issue and I am proud that as vice president over the last four years we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased

domestic gas production to Historic levels we have created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs while I have been Vice President we have invested in clean energy to the point that we are opening up factories around the world Donald Trump said he was going to create manufacturing jobs he lost manufacturing jobs and I'm also proud to have the endorsement of the United Auto Workers and Shan feain who also know that part of Bill building a clean energy economy includes investing in American made products American automobiles it includes growing what we can do around American manufacturing and opening

up Auto plants not closing them like happened under Donald Trump vice president Harris thank you it didn't happen under Donald Trump let me just tell you they lost 10,000 manufacturing jobs this last month it's going they're all leaving uh they're building big Auto plants in Mexico in in many cases owned by China they're building these massive plants and they think they're going to sell their cars into the United States because of these people what they have given to China is unbelievable but we're not going to let that we'll put tariffs on those cars so they

can't come into our country because they will kill the United Auto Workers and any auto worker whether it's in Detroit or South Carolina or any other place what they've done to business and Manufacturing in this country is hard horrible we have nothing because they they refuse you know Biden doesn't go after people because supposedly China paid a millions of dollars he's afraid to do it between him and his son they get all this money from Ukraine they get all this money from all of these different countries and then you wonder why is he so loyal

to this one that one Ukraine China why is he why did he get three and a half million dollars from the mayor of moscow's wife why did he get why did she pay him $ three and A5 million dollar this is a crooked Administration and they're selling our country down the tubes president Trump thank you thank you we'll be right back with closing statements from both of our candidates in historic night this ABC News presidential debate from Philadelphia back in a moment the ABC News presidential debate will continue after this Constitution Center in Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Here Again David mure and Lindsey Davis welcome back tonight the time has come for closing statements and vice president Harris we begin with you so 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 and I do believe that the American people know we all have so much more in common than what separates us and we can chart a new way forward and a vision of that

includes having a plan understanding the aspirations the dreams the hopes the ambition of the American people which is why I intend to create an opportunity economy investing in small businesses in new families and what we can do around protecting seniors what we can do that is about giving hardworking folks a break and bringing down the cost of living I believe in what we can do together that is about sustaining America's standing in the world and ensuring that we have the respect that we so rightly deserve including respecting our military and ensuring we have the most

lethal fighting force in the world I will be a president that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do I'll tell you I started my career as a prosecutor I was a DA I was an attorney general the 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 asked them are you okay and that's the kind of President we need right now someone who cares about you and his is not putting themselves first I intend to be a president for all Americans and focus on what we can do over the next 10 and 20 years to build back up our country by investing right now in you the American people vice president Harris thank you president Trump so she just started by saying she's going to do this she's going to do that she's going to do all these wonderful things why

hasn't she done it she's been there for three and A2 years years they've had three and a half years to fix the Border they've had three and a half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about why hasn't she done it she should leave right now go down to that beautiful white house go to the capital get everyone together and do the things you want to do but you haven't done it and you won't do it because you believe in things that the American people don't believe in you believe in things like

we're not going to Frack we're not going to take fossil fuel we're not going to do things that are going to make this country strong whether you like it or not Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants we're not ready for it we can't sacrifice our country for the sake of bad Vision but I just ask one simple question why didn't she do it we're a failing Nation We're a nation that's in serious decline we're being laughed at all over the world all over the world they're laugh

I know the leaders very well they're coming to see me they call me we're laughed at all over the world they don't understand what happened to us as a nation we're not a leader we don't have any idea what's going on we have wars going on in the Middle East we have wars going on with Russia and Ukraine we're going to end up in a third world war and it'll be a war like no other because of nuclear weapons the power of Weaponry I rebuilt our entire military she gave a lot of it away way

to the Taliban she gave it to Afghanistan what these people have done to our country and maybe toughest of all is allowing millions of people to come into our country many of them are criminals and they're destroying our country the worst president the worst vice president in the history of our country president Trump thank you and that is our ABC News presidential debate from here in Philadelphia at the national Constitution Center I'm lindsy Davis and I'm David mure thank you for watching here in the US and all over the world and from all of us

here at ABC News good night and we are here live on ABC with our post debate comments I'm Martha Ritz it was a lively debate from the economy to abortion to Afghanistan they had it all and it was historic John Carl fiery wow wow wow wow that was that was quite a debate uh and I'm Jonathan Carl here with of course Mary Bruce and Rachel Scott our reporters across the news Divi division have been updating our live blog looking at some of the allegations made back and forth doing fact checks you can find all of

that on abcnews.com but I would like to replay the moment at the very start of this debate because it was quite a moment the handshake and have a good de see you have fun thank you I mean quite a moment first of all cuz we hadn't seen a handshake we haven't seen a handshake in a long she initiated that one not only did she initiate it she walked over to him and sought him out put Dan out and also made the first words and and probably had a plan if he hadn't put his hand out

either interesting so so more at the bottom line what did you think I I think clearly what KLA Harris wanted to do was be the candidate of Hope the C candidate of the future Donald Trump seemed angry within four minutes I think we we saw him going from from very serious at the beginning never really seemed to look at her uh to just angry I mean really yelling at some points trying to make to to make his points I don't think we heard a lot of policy and plans on either side of that uh despite

those questions over and over again but what you had was that optic you had La Harris looking over baiting him again and again and again uh the microphones were muted when they weren't speaking but many times she didn't need a microphone you watch Donald Trump get mad uh scowl through things and you know John we were all talking leading up to this about how this would go what Donald Trump you would see I think he had a plan for talking about what he saw as as as a next as a next term but then he

was talking about uh rumors about people eating their neighbors pets so it really devolved into I mean look K Harris didn't really explain some of the big questions that were out there about why she changed her policy views on so many things part of the reason is Donald Trump really was not effective in bringing the debate to her I agree with you I think that he looked not just angry but also rattled and in contrast Harris who again much of the world doesn't know uh Harris looked like she belonged on the stage looked like she

is somebody that could serve as president and that is certainly how the campaign is feeling tonight I can tell you the Harris campaign feels very good they feel they had a very strong night that she was in command that she did look presidential and that she was able they feel to hold Donald Trump accountable for his actions and of course that was their goal going into this that she would be able to put Donald Trump's record under a microscope and they feel that the strongest example of that was that exchange on abortion where she was

able really to blame Donald Trump directly to his face I mean she said what you are putting women through is unconscionable yes she goated him she flat out trolled him many times got him off message but she also talked directly to voters even inviting them to a trump rally to underscore that Central argument in her campaign that she says he's only out for himself that she argues she's out for the American people Rachel yeah well look the Trump campaign is going to be seizing on the fact that vice president KLA Harris did not do a

great job today really explaining her policy shifts right and that is what they have been seizing on they're really trying to Define her for voters when voters have a lot of questions about her popy positions at the same time though almost every single thing that vice president KLA Harris said tonight got under Trump's skin and that is exactly what his allies and his advisers did not want to see I could tell you I do not think that part of Donald Trump's debate prep was people eating dogs in Springfield or comparing rally sizes they wanted him

to stay focused on the issues especially the ones that he has an edge on Harris economy and immigration I mean you get you want to get on Donald Trump's skin you question the people at his rallies and that was something else Martha you have I have with us right now Governor Tim Waltz of course the Democratic vice presidential candidate uh welcome Governor Waltz how are you feeling what's your reaction to the debate tonight Martha I'm feeling great because uh what I knew and I think so many knew and now many Americans know is you saw

a president for All America and KLA Harris you saw the confidence you saw the vision you saw the Poise and you saw the compassion for people understanding she spoke about an economy that moves us forward moves all of us forward lets everybody be a part of it and she continued to lay that out whether it's reproductive Freedom or how we start small businesses or making home ownership easier and on the other side you saw a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump angry unhinged and as you've been discussing talking about things that are deeply concerning because they make

no impact on the American public he shouldn't be anywhere near the White House and I have to tell you if if it weren't so dangerous it reminds you of of an old man yelling at the clouds that was his thing get off my yard that's what he contrast laying out matters so I think country can see what happened tonight we'll keep pushing forward that's the way that the country wants to see our politics be she laid it out clearly Donald Trump brought nothing tonight anger resentment governor Governor Waltz I I do want to ask you

she did not ask answer questions on abortion restrictions she never really answered that question can you clear that up where the Harris walls uh ticket stands on that certainly you couldn't get any different than this the reinstitution of Row versus Wade what was the law of the land uh for for 30 for 52 years you saw this in there and him pushing back to the States she's exactly right it's people like Amanda in which everybody saw on the stage in Chicago nearly bleeding out having sepsis twice because she can't get the care she's been absolutely

clear on this everything Donald Trump said that is untrue the clarity of this is row when you have row you have the the Protections in place where women make their own decisions with their health care providers not Donald Trump okay thanks so very much for joining us Governor Waltz John and we have the other side of the ticket we have Senator JD Vance Donald Trump's running mate joining us now Senator Vance thank you for joining us thanks Sean I appreciate it so uh I I want to get to one part in the debate where you

came up uh Donald Trump was asked if he would if he would veto a National Abortion ban uh he didn't answer the question suggested uh I guess that he wouldn't and then it was pointed out that you in fact said not that long ago that he would veto a National Abortion ban can you explain the the uh the mixup here well I think the president's been very clear that he doesn't want a National Abortion ban I think in some ways he finds the question a little bit ridiculous because why are we asking him about legislation

that's never going to actually happen and why he would veto it or not veto it when he says very explicitly that he doesn't support a National Abortion ban and he wants these policies to be made by the states but I think there's a deeper and more important issue here in this debate which is that you had kamla Harris effectively echoing platitude after platitude after platitude uh theic American people can't pay their grocery bills on platitudes they can't uh put their kids in a house on platitudes and kamla Harris had a lot to say but very

little actual substance behind it for how she's going to lower grocery prices secure the border and make housing more affordable in this country she's been the vice president for three and a half years she can't run on her record and she apparently can't run on much of her plans either because it's just a lot of slogans and not a whole lot of substance but but Senator Vance why won't he just say that he would veto the national ening man and by the way had you spoken to him about it before you were put in a

position to answer that question no I I hadn't spoken to him about it because again Donald Trump thinks the question is absurd because he doesn't support a National Abortion ban and he's been explicit about it and John I think that it's so Preposterous for the media to focus so much on an issue where Donald Trump has been crystal clear and not on the fact that people can't afford groceries and housing because of comma Harris's policies this election is actually quite simple and KLA Harris and apparently the media would like to distract Americans on issues by

the way that Donald Trump's been crystal clear about but they're not talking nearly enough this debate didn't talk nearly enough about the fact that Americans are struggling because they can't afford groceries they can't afford housing and a lot of their kids are dying of fit and all overdoses because kamla Harris has let the Mexican drug cartels take over the southern border this is a disgrace what's going on in our country John and we could do so much better if we just had better leadership we've got the best work ERS the most beautiful country the best

natural resources but kamla Harris's leadership is squandering the great benefits of this country it's why we've got to get back to Donald Trump's leadership Senator by by the way I asked because he hadn't been crystal clear and he said something different than what you said that's why I was seeking clarification but let me ask you about this just just very quickly I heard Donald Trump before this debate describe KLA Harris as I'll just read a few of them a low IQ individual somebody who doesn't have the mental capacity to be president really done unable to

put two sentences together is that what you saw on the stage tonight John what I saw was a lot of slogans I think the American people are smart and kamla Harris talks to them like their children she repeats these ridiculous platitudes where if you actually think about what she said you realize that it doesn't make any sense she talks a lot about her plans but then her plans when you analyze the substance don't make any sense and more importantly John the American people don't get fed on plans she has been the vice president for 3

and A2 years what she can't do refuses to do and has no ability to do is to say I accomplished lower prices because she didn't or I accomplished lower housing prices because she didn't or I secured the southern border because she didn't do that she is failed as vice president and the fundamental question is do we want to give her a promotion I think the answer has to be no John all all right Senator Vance thank you for joining us Mary one thing both sides can agree on this was a consequential night in this race

more reaction when we come back stay with us we're back now here at the national Constitution Center in Philadelphia and with Chris Christie so Governor Christie you heard the debate remarkable debate bottom line what' you think she was exquisitly well prepared she laid traps and he chased every rabbit down every hole instead of talking about the things that he should have been talking about this is the difference between someone who's well prepared and someone who's unprepared whoever did debate prep for Donald Trump should be fired uh he was he was not good tonight at all

and what Harris did was what she had to do which was to prove that she belonged on that stage she has a voice that wants to try to unite the country and Donald Trump spent more time talking about people eating pets people um and at his rallies and whether he had more or less than he did about the economy and that is a huge fail tonight I think what we're going to see is that kamla Harris is now being seen by a lot of Voters as a potential president that's what she needed to accomplish tonight

Trump better get to work or he's going to lose this election characteristically blunt assessment from Governor Chris Christie thank you Governor Mary all right let's go to former DNC chair Donna Brazil so Donna you have certainly studied many a debate in your career how does this one compare I think it was one of the best debate performances I've ever seen in my life and I've seen a lot and I've helped a lot of people prepare for these uh big moments she met the moment she sees the opportunity to tell the American people what she would

do in during her four years she commanded the issues and she did not allow the former president to bait her instead she led the way forward she turned the page and I think this race is about to get even more interested now we will see if it moves the needle Donna thank you all right over to the other side now former RNC chair Rens prevus all right RS the Harris campaign says they want another debate if you were advising the Trump campaign would you tell them to do it sure I would tell him to do

it I and the reason is is like I said before Donald Trump's numbers just don't move I mean the reality tonight I know Donna is excited but the truth is she didn't Camala Harris didn't address the most important thing that the American people care about which is the economy and the cost of living she had no answers on immigration she had no answers when she was asked about defunding the police she had nothing to say about the families that were lost in Afghanistan which was a true layup she should have been fact checked a lot

more on some of the things she said in regard to this comment about a blood bath which was about the Auto industry so look I think a lot of things uh were were not said tonight that she needed to say in order to move the numbers and I don't think Donald Trump numbers move at all they haven't moved at all for months R previous Donna Brazil both thank you for your time all right well I got to say again what a incredible debate consequential debate no doubt I don't know how many votes will actually be

moved I don't know how many persuadable voters are actually out there uh but KLA Harris had a chance here to introduce herself to the country uh to people who know who she is but don't know where she stands now could debate how much she did in terms of the specifics of where she stand but she stood up there and I think it was very significant to Chris Christie say uh that she acted like she seemed like she belonged exactly and and Chris was clearly impressed with that but I your to your point John what matters

is what the voters think KLA Harris was hurling things against Donald Trump and he's been convicted and January 6th and everything else she could throw at him but in the end right now he is tied with KLA Harris does this change anything we've all seen debates where people are very proud of what they did Hillary Clinton thought she won that debate many debates in 2016 and she didn't win so you have to be very careful and it's very important to see what the voters think and look the Harris campaign certainly thinks that they were you

know they put him on the defensive they are going to keep getting out and making this message he's going to be out there in those critical Battlegrounds again this week they're so optimistic they want that second debate as Rachel said the message from the campaign tonight vice president Harris is ready for a second debate they're looking for one in October they say is Donald Trump question mark one last goting of him to end the night wow that is something else I did not predict that at the beginning raal bottom line voters out there want a

change that's what the polls say and both of these candidates really trying to present themselves as the Agent of Change we will have to see in the polls who did the most effective job of doing that tonight we will same all right that is it for us here in Philadelphia A Night to Remember for sure our race for the White House post debate coverage continues on ABC News live Disney Plus Hulu and anywhere else you stream live news and your local news is next