An unhinged Donald Trump hijacked his first debate against Kamala Harris Tuesday with right-wing conspiracy theories, ranting about immigrants stealing and eating family pets and even suggesting that some states condone infanticide.
The debate ended with Harris, who remained poised and in control throughout the debate, immediately asking for a second showdown as observers in both parties panned Trump’s performance as dismal and declared Harris the clear winner. Global superstar Taylor Swift was so fired up she immediately endorsed the Democratic nominee.
The night began on a bizarre note. Initially talking about tariffs, Trump quickly veered off course and mentioned Springfield, Ohio, the city that this week became the center of an outlandish right-wing conspiracy theory about illegal immigrants kidnapping and eating people's domestic pets.
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“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
“Oh come on,” Harris appeared to say, laughing. (The candidates’ microphones were muted when they weren’t giving their allotted two-minute answers.)
ABC News anchor David Muir corrected Trump, saying ABC News contacted the city manager of Springfield, Ohio. “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,” Muir said.
But Trump doubled down, insisting, “People on television say, ‘My dog was taken and used for food.”
And thus was the thrust of the first and perhaps only presidential debate in Philadelphia Tuesday night between Trump and Harris less than two months out from Election Day. The former president appeared rattled and incoherent at times throughout the event.
Even Trump ally Lindsey Graham, the senator from South Carolina, acknowledged Harris landed a knockout blow.
CNN’s Jake Tapper said Trump’s performance was “like a 4chan post come to life.” And Chris Wallace said he didn’t think he would ever see a debate as horrible as Biden’s campaign-ending face-off with Trump in June, but that Tuesday night was “just as devastating” and that “Harris pitched a shutout on almost every subject.”
Trump also promoted a more chilling conspiracy, claiming parents in some states are electing to kill their newborn babies, prompting ABC News anchor Linsey Davis to firmly correct him. The former president falsely accused Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, of supporting killing babies: “He also says execution after birth... is OK, and that’s not OK with me.”
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill the baby after it’s born,” Davis corrected Trump.
Trump was also asked about his salacious, race-baiting comment last month when he suggested that Harris had only recently “happened to turn Black.”
“I couldn’t care less,” Trump insisted, at first. “Whatever she wants to be, is OK with me. I don’t know. I don’t know.” But then he doubled down: “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 OK.”
Trump was also asked if he wished he had done anything differently on Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the deadly assault on the Capitol, which led to a federal indictment against Trump for his alleged role in subverting democracy in trying to overturn the 2020 election results. He showed no contrition and instead blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington, D.C., for the security lapse after he called his supporters to the nation’s capital and ordered them to “fight like hell.”
Earlier in the night, after Muir asked the lead-off perennial question—“Are you better off today than you were four years ago”—the candidates’ answers couldn’t have stood in starker contrast. Harris, 56, answered by saying she was “raised as a middle-class kid," promising a child tax credit of $6,000 for young families and a $50,000 tax deduction to start-ups.
Trump, 78, focused on immigration, the Republicans’ top campaign issue, and in short order pushed conspiracies that his far-right supporters are hoping will get Trump elected to a second term in the White House.
As a debate victory seemed to slip away from Trump, the former president reminisced about his match-up with President Joe Biden. “I’ll give you a little secret: He hates her,” he said, as Harris glared at him with a look of mixed disgust and shock. “He can’t stand her.”
Trump also took a page out of Harris’ playbook. When she tried to interject at one point as he accused her of flip-flopping on defunding the police, Trump said, “Wait a minute, I’m talking now.” He paused. “Does that sound familiar?”
Both candidates arrived at the historic showdown in Philadelphia in a win-or-lose position, but Harris had the most to gain or lose. The former president is a known entity whose MAGA base seems more energized with each indictment, mug shot, criminal conviction, and false claim; Harris, on the other hand, is still introducing herself to voters and trying to convince them she has a solid plan to improve their lives and run the country.
Before either candidate had opened their mouths, Harris walked onto the debate stage, introducing herself to Trump and offering her hand to the GOP opponent, who she had never met, for a friendly shake. As Trump began to speak, she was barely able to hide a smirk while scribbling notes.
