Key quotes from Trump-Harris first presidential debate
Here are the key exchanges between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris from Tuesday night’s debate in Philadelphia:
Abortion
Trump: “What I did is something, for 52 years, they’ve been trying to get Roe v. Wade to the states, and through the genius and heart and strength of six Supreme Court justices, we were able to do that.”
Harris: “When Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law. … I think the American people believe that certain freedoms, the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body, should not be made by the government.”
2020 Election
Harris: “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 as he did in the past to the will of the voters in a free and fair election.”
Israel-Hamas war
Trump: “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.”
Harris: “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 in equal measure for the Palestinians.”
Wildcard
Trump: In Springfield, [Haitian migrants are] eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame
On the assassination attempt
Trump: “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.”
Ukraine
Harris: “If Donald Trump were president, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now … 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 [Putin, who] is known to be a dictator, who would eat you for lunch.”
Trump: “Putin endorsed her last week [and] 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 [Biden and Harris are] weak and incompetent, and they are. They’re grossly incompetent.”
Immigration
Trump: “Why are we allowing these millions of people to come through on the southern border? How come she’s not doing anything? … I’d like to see her go down to Washington, DC during this debate, because we’re wasting a lot of time … “You’ll get him out of bed, you’ll wake them up at four o’clock in the afternoon. You say, ‘Come on, come on down to the office. Let’s sign a bill.’ If he signs a bill that the border is closed, all he has to do is say it to the border patrol.”
National Security
Harris: “[Trump’s] former National Security Advisor 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 the election.”
Trump: “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, who 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.”
Economy
Trump: “I went to the Wharton School of Finance, and many of those professors think my [economic] plan is a brilliant plan. It’s a great plan. It’s a plan that’s going to bring up our work, our value as a country.
It’s going to make people want to be able to go and work and create jobs and create a lot of good, solid money for our country. And just to finish off, she doesn’t have a plan. She copied Biden’s 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.”
