The 9 biggest talking points from Trump’s disastrous debate with Kamala Harris

With the last US presidential debate marking the beginning of the end for Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, a lot of people were interested in the second debate of the race on ABC News on Tuesday night – which saw Kamala Harris go head-to-head with Donald Trump for the first time in a heated 90-minute programme.

Moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis, and held at Pennsylvania’s National Constitution Center, the debate touched on issues such as the cost of living, immigration and abortion.

Following the broadcast, a consensus was soon reached that Harris won the debate, with even Fox News analyst Brit Hume conceding that the former president “had a bad night”.

MSNBC presenter Joy Reid said Trump “got destroyed”, while conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson said he lost “because of his own performance while his lips were moving”.

It got underway in the early hours of Wednesday morning in the UK, so if you missed it, we’ve rounded-up its biggest moments below:

It started with a handshake

As both candidates were invited onstage, Harris immediately walked over to her opponent, introduced herself and shook his hand – something social media users have described as “dominance” from the Democratic nominee.

Trump branded Harris a “Marxist” – her reaction became an instant meme

Touching on the economy, Trump said Harris “has no policy” and that “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,” he claimed, before branding her a “Marxist” moments later.

He continued: “She’s a Marxist – everybody knows she’s a Marxist. Her father was a Marxist professor in economics and he taught her well.”

While all that was happening, Harris was seen putting a hand to her chin and watching on in shock, sparking countless memes as a result.

“Transgender operations on illegal aliens”

In comments which sounded like a word salad of the Republicans’ biggest talking points, Trump claimed Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison”, branding his opponent a “radical left liberal”.

Baseless claims of people “eating dogs” in Springfield – which prompted countless Simpsons memes online

The latest baseless conspiracy theory to take hold within the Republican Party is that Haitian migrants living in Springfield, Ohio are eating cats and dogs, and it was peddled by Trump during the debate when it turned to the controversial subject of immigration.

“We have millions of people crawling into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re coming in and they’re taking jobs, they’re occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics.

“You see what’s happening in your towns throughout the United States. You look at Springfield, Ohio, you look at Aurora in Colorado, they are taking over the towns.”

Except, Muir later explained that ABC News had reached out to the city manager in Springfield and they told the broadcaster “there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community”.

Despite being presented with facts, Trump protested: “But I’ve seen people on television. There are people on television saying, ‘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, but the people on television are saying their dog was eaten by the people that went there.”

After the Republican argued with Muir about the legitimacy of the claims, Harris was invited to speak, at which point she laughed and began her comments by saying: “Talk about extreme.”

Trump backtracks on ‘lost by a whisker’ comments

Trump had previously angered his own supporters after he conceded to podcaster Lex Fridman that he “lost by a whisker” to Joe Biden in 2020 – remarks which were in stark contrast to his repeated false claims of electoral “fraud” in that year’s election.

Now, however, he claims the comment was “said sarcastically” – though Muir later commented that he “didn’t detect the sarcasm” when he heard the comments.

Trump “took the bait” on crowd sizes at rallies

Accusing Trump of being “someone who would prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing the problem”, Harris declared she was going to “do something really unusual” and invited viewers to attend one of her opponent’s rallies.

“It’s a really interesting thing to watch. You will see, during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lector, he will talk about ‘windmills cause cancer’, and what you will also notice is that people start leaving rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

“I’m going to 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 desires,” she said.

After this, Muir questioned Trump on why he tried to shut down a bill promising more border agents, only for the former president to use a significant amount of time defending his rallies instead.

“She said, ‘people start leaving’, people don’t go to her rallies, there’s no reason to go. The people that do go, she’s bussing them in and paying them to be there.

“People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, we have the most incredible rallies in the history of politics – that’s because people want to take our country back,” he said.

“Concepts of a plan”

When the debate turned to the topic of the Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – Davis asked if Trump had a plan to repeal it, to which he responded by criticising Obamacare as “lousy healthcare”.

“If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our population, less money and be better healthcare than Obamacare, then I will absolutely do it. But until then, I’d run it as good as it can be run,” he said.

Pressed again by Davis about whether he had a specific plan, Trump added: “I have concepts of a plan – I am not president right now. I would only change it if I we came up with something that’s better and less expensive.”

Trump tries out Harris’s “I’m talking” line

You may remember back in 2020 that Harris went viral for her response to then Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence’s interruptions during their debate, when she repeatedly told the politician “I’m speaking”.

Well, Trump tried his hand at using the same line on Tuesday, clapping back at Harris when she interjected “that’s not true” during his claim that the vice president “gave up … 15 different policies” and was “big on ‘defund the police’”.

Harris’ mic was muted, so it didn’t pick up her interruption, but we did hear Trump say: “Wait a minute, I’m talking now, if you don’t mind - please. Does that sound familiar?”

Davis praised for immediate Trump fact-check on abortion

And it wasn’t just Trump and Harris who got social media talking, as praise was also given to moderators Davis and Muir for a number of immediate fact-checks in response to claims from the former Apprentice star – from crime rates, to Springfield (as mentioned above) and abortion.

On the latter, Trump made the unsubstantiated claim that Harris’s vice presidential running mate (Tim Walz, who the Republican described as a “terrible pick for our country”) said “execution after birth … is OK”.

This was immediately responded to by Davis, who pointed out “there is no state in the country where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born”.

And it wasn’t long after the debate finished that Harris’s campaign called for a second debate with the Republican before the vote in November, with Fox News announcing it had formally invited both candidates to take part in another head-to-head next month.

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