Donald Trump and Kamala Harris met Tuesday for the first — and perhaps only — debate of their closely fought presidential contest.
The June face-off between Trump and President Biden resulted in the incumbent’s withdrawal from the race after his disastrous performance. Vice President Harris was nominated as his replacement.
Tuesday’s debate was the first time she and former President Trump ever met face to face.
Los Angeles Times columnists Lorraine Ali, Mark Z. Barabak, Anita Chabria and Doyle McManus watched the debate live, discussing the highs and the lows.
How to watch the debate| Debate moderators| What to expect
8:23 p.m.: I’ll just say it wasn’t Trump versus Biden. People tend to forget, because Biden was so awful, how bad Trump was at their debate.
He was bad again Tuesday night. He lied, repeatedly. He was insulting and demeaning. Harris was forceful and pushed the former president back on his heels more than once, showing she was quite capable of holding her own against a blustering bully.
Will it result in a huge surge of support for Harris? Probably not. But she certainly didn’t hurt her candidacy and, in a close contest, that has to be considered a victory.
And with that, we’re ending our live commentary. Thanks for tuning in and please join us again here at latimes.com for more election coverage in the days and weeks to come.
— Barabak
8:20 p.m.: I know we want to focus on the presidential candidates here, but I’ve got to hand it to the moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC News. They took on a thankless job — wrangling Trump on live television — and managed to do it better than anyone else dating back to the 2016 election. Though it was made clear that there would be no fact-checking during the debate, the moderators pushed back on more than a few mistruths throughout the 90-minute telecast. They should be recognized for doing what no one else has been able to do with the former president: maintain order and control onstage.
As for Harris and Trump? She made Trump look like old news. He relied on worn tactics, from scare-mongering about pet-stealing immigrants to lying about his record to repeatedly insulting the vice president and President Biden as the worst-ever [fill in the blank]. It was predictable and stale, and she said as much in her messaging: He’s the past, she’s the future. No chance she moved the MAGA base, but there’s plenty of young and first-time voters out there that have been waiting for someone to speak for them. Harris did exactly that, and rattled Trump in the process.
– Ali
7:53 p.m.: Harris came out nervous. Trump came out mean. About 20 minutes in, it was clear that Harris realized she had him. She felt confident that this guy’s alibi was that he was at his mom’s house, and even his mom wasn’t backing him.
Meanwhile, Trump dissolved. He crumbled into tired lines and rambling grievances. Literally, it got weird. At one point, trying to speak about IVF, he claimed, “I have been a leader on fertilization,” which just sounds like an admission of some sort.
I don’t think Trump supporters will have their minds changed by this performance. But I do think some undecideds will see in Harris something calm and reassuring. Meanwhile, if any on-the-fence folks found Trump compelling enough to seal the deal with this 90 minutes, I have to think they were always secretly MAGA anyway.
–Chabria
7:52 p.m.: Kamala Harris arrived at this debate with three goals. One was to look and sound commanding and presidential. The second was to tell voters that she has concrete plans for improving the economy, including housing subsidies and a child tax credit, and the third was to repeat her theme that she represents “a new generation of leadership” that is focused on the future, not the past. She hit all those marks — and, as a bonus from her standpoint, got under Trump’s skin more than once. If judges were awarding points, I think she clearly won on points.
Trump did not seem to have a clear strategy beyond repeating his favorite lines of attack against President Biden and Harris — “the worst president in our history and the worst vice president in our history,” in his telling. He spun a dizzying series of myths and lies, including the current social-media hallucination about Haitian immigrants eating people’s cats and dogs in Ohio. (For the record: There are no credible reports of any pets being eaten.) He repeated his doom-laden diagnosis of the country’s condition — “we’re a nation in decline” — but unlike Harris, he offered no concrete plans for solving those problems. An angry, unfocused performance that offered no new information for undecided voters. Not a good night for Trump.
– McManus
7:50 p.m.: OK, folks. That’s a wrap. Final thoughts?
–Barabak
7:48 p.m.: In that parting shot, the sweat accumulation on Trump’s upper lip spoke louder than anything in his closing statement. She got to him.
—Ali
7:42 p.m.: We’re already at closing statements? This debate flew by, as opposed to the last time around. Pretty sure the Biden-Trump debate lasted for 10 hours. I’m still recovering.
—Ali
7:40 p.m.: I think you are right, Doyle. Definitely the moderators let Trump go on more than once — and also cut Harris off when she tried for a rebuttal. It will be interesting to see that time clock.
—Chabria
7:37 p.m.: I’m looking forward to seeing the timekeepers’ accounting of who spoke longest. Three or four times, by my count, the moderators have failed to stop Trump from speaking out of turn, and he’s used those extra minutes to fire off barrages of his long-standing charges against Harris and the Biden administration. Harris asked to respond several times, but the moderators said it was time to move on.
—McManus
7:36 p.m.: Harris looked amused as Trump struggled to answer Muir’s question about race and politics. “Mr. President, you recently said of Harris, ‘I didn’t know she was Black until number of years ago when she happened to turn Black.’ Why do you believe it’s appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity of your opponent?”
“I don’t care what she is,” said Trump. “Whatever she wants to be is OK with me.” In his answer, he was doubling down on the suggestion that she’s flip-flopping about her identity. Again, he’s hung up on the idea that someone could be more than one race or ethnicity. Sigh.
But Harris used the moment to highlight how her opponent has consistently attempted to use race to divide the American people, from an investigation into a building he owned where “he refused to rent property to Black families,” to him calling for the execution of five wrongly accused young Black and Latino boys known as the Central Park Five.
He’s “the same individual who spread birther lies about the first Black president of the United States,” said Harris. “People want better than this.”
—Ali
7:36 p.m.: Twofer! Chinese-funded auto plants being built in Mexico, stealing U.S. manufacturing jobs at a torrential pace, Trump (falsely) claims.
—Barabak
7:24 p.m.: “I read where she is not Black,” Trump says of his Black opponent. “I read that she was Black. Either one was OK with me. That’s up to her.”
Incredibly magnanimous.
—Barabak
7:24 p.m.: “We see in each other a friend. We see in each other a neighbor,” Harris says of traveling the country, and the commonalities she finds.
She just brought up Trump’s continued statements that the now-exonerated Central Park Five — wrongly accused of rape as teenagers — are guilty. She’s giving her message of unity.
In response, Trump gives a weird answer insinuating the five, who are known to be innocent, are somehow not. This is a real moment. She is talking about America, and our future. He is talking about grievances.
—Chabria
7:18 p.m.: Fact-checkers will get to work on this unusual claim from Harris: For the first time in this century, she says, “not one U.S. soldier is on active duty in a combat zone.” That’s true in the sense of major wars, but U.S. soldiers are on the ground in Iraq and Syria, and U.S. sailors are protecting ships from missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthis in the Red Sea — so plenty of U.S. personnel are still in harm’s way out there.
—McManus
7:17 p.m.: Lot of Trump magical thinking. Russia never would have invaded Ukraine if he was president. Hamas never would have attacked Israel. If elected, he’ll wield his wand even before assuming office and instantly end both conflicts.
And pigs will fly.
—Barabak
7:14 p.m.: Lorraine, it is shocking that Trump will not support Ukraine, and you are right he is rattled. Trump says, “Quiet please,” to Harris after she destroyed him on why Ukraine’s independence matters for the safety of all of Europe. Not demure. Not respectful. Not good for democracy.
She is deep under his skin. And despite Trump’s clown-town claims, Harris’ appeal about the importance of NATO to worldwide democracy was clear and powerful.
—Chabria
7:10 p.m.: Trump comes back in hot. When Muir asks him, “Do you want Ukraine to win this war?” Trump appears to be responding to an earlier comment from Harris. She hit the target when she said that world leaders disrespect him because now he’s insisting that Putin likes and/or respects him. Harris stayed on it, saying Putin is a dictator who would “eat him for lunch,” and that Trump “adores strongmen instead of caring about democracy.” She’s really rattled him.
—Ali
7:04 p.m.: We are at our first commercial break and, Mark, I think you are right. Trump seems outgunned by Harris’ directness. That last bit before the break, he almost seemed flat — like he’s repeating old lines as a defense, rather than an offense.
—Chabria
7:02 p.m.: “You are a disgrace,” Harris says to Trump. Not holding back one iota. Can’t remember the last time anyone spoke that way to his face. He probably can’t either.
—Barabak
7:02 p.m.: On the Gaza conflict: “She hates Israel and the Arab population,” says Trump of Harris. So he cares about the Arab population all a sudden? This coming from the architect of the Muslim ban.
—Ali
6:57 p.m.: On the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Harris repeats her carefully balanced position: She will always help Israel defend itself, but how it fights the war is important — and “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.” But she has no new approach to bringing about a ceasefire, merely continuing the efforts the Biden administration has been working on for months.
Trump’s response is even less concrete. He claims, as he often does, that the war would never have started if he had been president — and that he would “end it quickly,” without a word on how he would do that. “She hates Israel,” he throws in for good measure.
—McManus
6:55 p.m.: OK, we have our answer to the question of which Donald Trump would show up tonight.
It sure as heck isn’t the “dial it down to appeal to independents” Trump.
It’s the crazy “I didn’t really lose the election” / “Jan. 6 rioters are heroes” / “Let’s trample the Constitution” / “Let’s coddle foreign dictators” Trump.
Hard to see how that’ll broaden his appeal.
—Barabak
6:54 p.m.: “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” says Harris of Trump. “So let’s be clear about that and, clearly, he’s having a very difficult time processing that.” It’s an amazing moment, that she tops that by saying world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. “They say you’re a disgrace.”
She’s really taking him to task for his mistruths, and getting under his skin. His counter: Viktor Orban likes me and Biden secretly hates her.
—Ali
6:53 p.m.: ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis are somewhat fact-checking, or at least challenging, Trump’s Big Lie. Perhaps they are responding to the rising chorus of complaints about the media “sane-washing” Trump’s increasingly bizarre and dangerous rhetoric. Trump is yelling in the mic at this point, and mentioning his friends at Fox News — Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham. They would certainly be nicer to him, especially when whitewashing the Jan. 6 insurrection.
—Ali
6:53 p.m.: Y’all, Harris has to be cheering in her head. Trump has lost it. He’s full J6, election-fraud ranting. Now Harris says, “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people.”
That comment forces him into his Joker smile, “I’m not weird, you’re weird,” face. And OMG, he responds by saying Viktor Orban, the Hungarian strongman, likes him. When you are highlighting the praise of a dictator to win a democratic election, you have run out of moves.
—Chabria
6:46 p.m.: And Harris uses the back-and-forth on Jan. 6 — in which Trump refused twice to say he “regretted” anything about that day’s events — to segue to her campaign’s main theme: “We’re not going back. Let’s turn the page.”
—McManus
6:46 p.m.: Trump denies any culpability whatsoever for Jan. 6. Suggests the only victim was a rioter who was shot trying to break into the House chamber. Not a word about the cop who was killed, or the scores of law enforcement officers who were injured. Shameful.
“I had nothing to do with that other than make a speech,” he said of the attempted insurrection. Re-ups lie about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington, D.C., refusing to allow the National Guard to move in ahead of time to prevent violence.
—Barabak
6:44 p.m.: “Nobody on the other side was killed,” Trump says of the insurrection. The other side? The side of democracy?
Then he doubles down and says it is a “disgrace” that Capitol Police officers shot Ashli Babbitt for attempting to break into Capitol chambers. OK, law-and-order guy, this is a huge slap in the face to the men and women who defended the Capitol with their lives.
Then Trump goes after Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi!
Harris’ rebuttal just sounds calm and reasonable.
—Chabria
6:40 p.m.: Harris noted that Trump claimed he would terminate the Constitution of the United States and weaponize the DOJ against his enemies should he win the White House again. It caused Trump to jump in when it was no longer his turn to speak.
“They [say] that I’m a threat to democracy. They’re a threat to democracy!” he complained. He’s turning red, and going off program. And he’s starting to talk over the moderators. In contrast, she looks cool and collected. The visual alone is striking. She’s rattling him.
—Ali
6:39 p.m.: “It’s up to the American people to stop him,” Harris says of her opponent. Let’s step back for a minute for the big picture. Harris has hit her stride and sounds calm and in control. Trump just belted out a “Russia, Russia, Russia.” The lady is not pulling a Biden. Trump is pulling a Trump.
—Chabria
6:37 p.m.: After being relatively sedate to start, Trump is getting wound up as we progress. The pet-eating immigrant thing. Millions of criminals overrunning our borders and cities. Crime rate through the roof. (Not true.) Creates a new category: “migrant crime.”
Harris hits back, noting Trump’s criminal cases and civil liability for sexual assault. One of her strongest moments of the debate.
—Barabak
6:35 p.m.: Harris chuckled at Trump’s mention of migrants eating pets. He’s starting to bristle, grimace, raise his voice. She’s getting under his skin.
—Ali
6:33 p.m.: Harris asked that question about rally crowds to get under Trump’s skin — and it worked. After his rant about migrants eating dogs and cats, a spurious report that ABC’s Muir knocked down, she laughed (the first Kamala Harris laugh of the evening) and noted the prominent Republicans who have endorsed her, including former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“If you want the inside track on who Donald Trump is, just ask the people who worked with him,” she said.
—McManus
6:32 p.m.: Harris seems to get under Trump’s skin with a crack about his rallies and claims people are leaving out of boredom. He claims “no one” goes to her rallies and then asserts that folks are being bused in to build phony crowds.
Then he goes off on a crazy immigrants-are-eating-pets rant.
—Barabak
6:32 p.m.: They’re (the immigrants!) are eating dogs, says Trump. Make America great again, save Spot. Seriously, I can’t believe this is a debate issue, but here we are.
—Ali
6:31 p.m.: Boom! She just called his rallies boring, noted the small crowd size! Ouch.
—Ali
6:30 p.m.: “Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for abortion. It’s insulting,” said Harris in response to Trump’s lies on the subject. But more than that, she’s appealing to the emotions of voters, talking about harrowing decisions women face when abortion is banned in their state.
—Ali
6:29 p.m.: Oh, Harris made Trump big mad by saying people leave his rallies early.
—Ali
“People don’t leave my rallies,” he claims. They’re the biggest in the history of politics, he wails.
—Chabria
6:27 p.m.: Mark, I love it! He didn’t even hesitate to push JD under the wheels!
—Chabria
6:25 p.m.: And there goes JD Vance under the bus! He says Trump would veto a national abortion ban. Trump says he hasn’t discussed the matter with his running mate and, trying to duck the issue, says the veto question is a nonstarter because it will never come to that.
—Barabak
6:21 p.m.: Trump trots out a familiar canard about abortions, saying Democrats support execution of newborns. Falsely claims that Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, “is OK with that.” Pats himself on the back for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.
Abortion is one of Harris’ strongest issues. Polls show a substantial majority of Americans agree with her pro-choice stance. She’s really leaning into it and speaking with great passion.
—Barabak
6:19 p.m.: Moderator Linsey Davis comes the closest to fact-checking in this debate when she said, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.” She was responding to Trump’s claims that Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz said abortion at the ninth month of pregnancy is fine, and execution of the baby after is fine.
—Ali
6:19 p.m.: Trump skedaddles away from Project 2025, the revanchist right-wing playbook for a second Trump administration. It’s not very credible, because he’s surrounded by Project 2025 authors and acolytes.
—Barabak
6:18 p.m.: And Harris throws her first hard punch in return: “You’re going to hear a bunch of lies, and that’s no surprise.”
—McManus
6:17 p.m.: Trump uses the example, “Run, Spot, Run” when trying to show how simplistic the Biden-Harris plan is around the economy. He’s clearly priming audiences for a follow-up comment on Haitians eating people’s pets. Watch out, Spot.
—Ali
6:16 p.m.: Tariffs! Trump recycles one of his all-time favorite whoppers: He says Americans “are not going to have higher prices” under his plan to slap tariffs of 20% or more on goods from China. That’s not what happened in 2017, when he did it the first time. The prices of washing machines and dryers from China went up by almost $100 per machine — and American manufacturers quickly matched those price increases.
—McManus
6:16 p.m.: And abortion is up, with the question going to Trump. He goes with the dumb-as-crumbs lie that we can “execute” babies after birth. No, murdering babies is not on the ballot. Makes for good drama, but it is bizarrely false. Does anyone believe this?
“Through the genius and heart and strength” of conservative Supreme Court justices we were able to overthrow Roe vs. Wade, Trump says. I am not seeing that as a winner.
Harris’ comeback on abortion is vicious, righteous and strong. Seriously, she ate him up on this. Trump looks sad. Sad!
But, he says, “I have been a leader on fertilization.” Um, OK?
—Chabria
6:15 p.m.: Fact-checker heads must be exploding. Trump misrepresents the effect massive tariffs would have on American consumers (if you think inflation was bad before…). The rate of inflation under President Biden. The rate of undocumented immigration. His ties to Project 2025. His policies toward China.
—Barabak
6:13 p.m.: Y’all, I am no fashion expert, but that looks like a “pussy bow” she’s rocking. You may recall that fashion item has appeared before.
—Chabria
6:13 p.m.: She also did the pussy bow thing when she accepted the nomination at the Democratic convention, Anita.
That was a fashion favorite of the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a fellow San Franciscan who served alongside Harris.
—Barabak
6:11 p.m.: Harris’ off-camera reaction is interesting. Trump pretty much stares straight ahead as she’s speaking. Harris is shaking her head, smiling (or smirking, if you prefer) as Trump delivers his (characteristically hyperbolic) opening statement.
—Barabak
6:10 p.m.: I feel like Harris sounded a bit nervous at the start, but now has found her stride. “Donald Trump has no interest in you,” she said. She’s on message, and sounding more confident. And that prosecutor’s smile, like the cat that sees the corner she’s herding the mouse into.
—Chabria
6:08 p.m.: “Same old tired playbook!” We have our first bingo card winner, followed shortly by, “Marxist.” Waiting for “lunatic.” How did we not include “Project 2025”?
Trump is denying involvement now with that ultraconservative policy platform, which may be his first hugely big lie. It’s quickly followed by his “greatest economy” line.
—Chabria
6:08 p.m.: Moderator David Muir makes the first mistake when throwing the opening economy question to Harris — he says she served with President Trump. Oh dear. Apparently no one is fact-checking the moderators, either.
—Ali
6:07 p.m.: Harris starts off pretty strong by ducking the question of whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago — and pivoting immediately to say she is from a middle-class family and has a plan for the middle class to cut housing costs and help with the cost of raising children. And she attacks Trump for his tariff plan — “the Trump tax,” she calls it.
—McManus
6:04 p.m.: And we’re off! We open with the candidates walking out and taking their place behind their lecterns. A brief, perfunctory handshake. Trump and Harris really dislike each other. It’s visceral. At least they managed that cordiality.
—Barabak
5:59 p.m.: And we are almost ready to go. Mark, you are spot on that most of us are looking for the fireworks and flare-ups, not the hard facts (which may be really good for truth-challenged Trump).
Will they shake hands? Scowl or smile? What will the first questions be? The tension is building.
We are hearing that the on-site spinners (including RFK Jr.) are already hard at work trying to set the narrative. But the first few minutes are likely to do that for themselves.
—Chabria
5:50 p.m.: While I’m as interested as the next guy, and gal, in the candidates’ issue positions, I really do think what matters most is their performance onstage and how they personally interact.
Most viewers (and voters) reacted to Trump stalking Hillary Clinton and Al Gore’s sighing and eye rolling much more than any of their specific positions on policy matters.
That’s one reason debate coaches review these face-offs with the sound muted—because what is said is often less important than how a candidate behaves.
—Barabak
5:40 p.m.: I’m sure I’ll regret saying this by the end of the evening, but I’m looking forward to tonight’s debate. This is the first meeting between Harris and Trump, ever, and “the most consequential debate of our lifetime” — at least since the last do-or-die debate in 2020. Or was it 2016?
But Tuesday’s showdown is truly a first in an election season full of them, from President Biden stepping out of the race to Harris’ historic candidacy. The only same-old, same-old on stage in Philly will be the former president, and that’s a difficult position for a guy whose prowess has been shocking folks with his unprecedented behavior. Can Trump, at 78, still suck up all the energy in the room while controlling his bully impulses, and deliver semi-cogent responses that don’t involve Hannibal Lecter?
Harris, 59, is a relatively fresh face to many Americans. How will her straightforward approach as a former prosecutor shape this debate? Will the vice president manage to get under her rival’s skin long enough to knock him off balance? Can she push her own messaging and policy ideas to the fore when her sparring partner is renowned for quashing substantive discourse in a barrage of insults, lies and red herrings? Unlike Biden in the last round, Harris may not prove so easily distracted.
It’d be great if the forum allowed for substantive answers on child care, reproductive rights, the economy and more, but I’m not betting on it. It’ll hinge on fireworks, zingers, knockdowns and callouts. Harris has everything to prove. Trump just has to maintain.
—Lorraine Ali
5:30 p.m.: Donald Trump has dominated American politics and our political discourse for the better part of a decade. There’s no reason why tonight should be any different.
The big question for me, to echo Doyle, is: Which Donald Trump shows up onstage in Philadelphia? Will it be the uninhibited, unleashed, unexpurgated Trump, leveling attacks and throwing out wild accusations faster than it’s possible for most people to process (or Harris can manage to fully rebut)?
Or will it be a tamer Trump — we’re grading on a curve here — who may not be a model of sober statesmanship, but isn’t totally unhinged?
Harris must be ready for either one, and the way the vice president responds could go a long way toward determining her chances of winning the White House.
—Mark Z. Barabak
5:20 p.m.: Both candidates spent much of Monday setting up talking points for the debate. Harris took a more standard route, announcing policy positions on issues including Social Security, housing and child care. I’ll be watching for her to lay out those plans for a broad audience — and introduce her idea about ending sub-minimum wages for service workers, which steals thunder from Trump’s no-tax-on-tips proposal. Although the sub-minimum wage is banned in California, it’s prevalent in the South and other states, where some workers can earn as little as $2.13 an hour, with the rest supposedly made up by tips.
But the real crazy I’ll be watching for comes courtesy of the Trump team. Right-wing media was ablaze Monday with accusations that undocumented Haitian immigrants have taken over Springfield, Ohio, and, wait for it, are stealing and eating people’s pets. Though this has been debunked, I guarantee Trump will bring it up as a terror-inducing example of the decline of America due to immigration. Watch out, Fluffy!
I will also be watching for Trump to continue to lay the groundwork to challenge election results. In recent days, he has frequently been posting on social media about unfounded claims that undocumented people are voting. This performance should alarm us all — that he is already working to undermine a free and fair election just in case he loses.
— Anita Chabria
5:10 p.m.: Tuesday’s 90-minute debate will be the most important job interview of Kamala Harris’ life.
Polls show a close race, but many voters say they have not chosen whom to vote for (or whether to vote at all) because they don’t know enough about the vice president.
So Harris’ most important mission is to define herself in the eyes of those voters: Is she commanding enough to look presidential? Does she have credible answers to voters’ top concerns, including high prices and border security? And can she parry Trump’s relentless charges that she is a radical leftist?
Trump’s mission is to do the opposite: to “disqualify” Harris, as campaign strategists put it. He’ll undoubtedly do his best to cast her as an underqualified candidate who, if elected, would continue all the aspects of Biden’s presidency that voters haven’t liked.
Which Harris shows up? The prosecutor on the attack, or the optimist promising “a new way forward”? The progressive Harris who ran for president in 2019, or the increasingly moderate, center-left Harris who has softened many of her earlier positions?
Which Trump will show up? Will it be the uncaged Trump of his mass rallies, promising to deport millions of undocumented immigrants in a process he promises will be “bloody,” and charging that Harris and the Democrats are “communists and fascists”? Or will he temper his message to try to win back some of the independent and moderate voters who have drifted away from him since 2016?
— Doyle McManus
