Trump says he is ‘less inclined’ to participate in another debate
Donald Trump, speaking to Fox and Friends, said he didn’t know if he wanted to debate Kamala Harris again, claiming he “won the debate” last night.
Well, I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night. We won the debate.
Trump had previously agreed to participate in a debate hosted by Fox News, moderated by Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier. But this morning, he said:
I wouldn’t want to have Martha and Bret. I’d love to have somebody else other than Martha and Bret.
Key events
Philippe Reines, a former aide to Hillary Clinton who played Donald Trump during Kamala Harris’s debate prep, posted to X an image of him in his costume and makeup.
“To do: facial, hair cut, spiritual cleanse,” Reines wrote.
Key takeaways from last night’s debate
Gabrielle Canon
1. Trump repeatedly spewed misinformation: Throughout the debate Trump spread misinformation to make his points, repeating already debunked rhetoric on everything from the results of the 2020 election to his involvement in Project 2025 – a conservative-backed plan to change the US government from the inside out.
The former president distanced himself from the January 6 attack on the Capitol, saying he was there only to make a speech, and blamed the then House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for not beefing up security. He also incorrectly said crime rates had risen in the US when they have in fact fallen.
2. … and was frequently fact-checked by the moderators: ABC’s moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, were largely praised for delivering a strong performance. They effectively rerouted discussions back to the questions they had asked on key topics including the economy, immigration, abortion rights and the peaceful transfer of power, and made important clarifying fact-check statements when they were warranted.
3. Harris defended Democrats’ position on reproductive rights: When challenged on his changing take on access to abortion care, Trump made some alarming – and easily refuted – claims that Democrats supported executing babies after they are born. He also took credit for overturning of Roe v Wade, a decision made by the supreme court after he appointed three members to make a 6-3 conservative majority, that was unpopular with the majority of Americans. Trump did clarify his position, though, that he believes in exceptions for rape, incest and threats to the mother’s life.
Harris called his stances “insulting to the women of America”, and countered his statements that he delivered on a promise to bring the issue back to the states by saying “the people of American have voted for freedom”. She highlighted the difficult realities faced by women in states with abortion bans and would-be mothers who would struggle to access IVF care.
4. The candidates both touted their work to improve the economy: Harris was quick to tout her “opportunity economy”, a plan that includes tax reductions for those starting small businesses, relief for new parents and first-time homebuyers, and a crackdown on corporate price-gouging.
Trump, meanwhile, claimed that he oversaw the “best economy”, even with the downturn caused by the Covid pandemic, and accused his opponent of increasing costs on American families. “People can’t go out and buy cereal, or bacon, or anything else,” he said. Inflation did spike under the Biden-Harris administration, but it has fallen just as quickly. As of August, the US inflation rate settled at 2.9%.
5. Trump spouted salacious and sometimes racist claims about immigrants: Throughout the debate, Trump pivoted his talking points to immigration, spouting salacious claims about criminals being welcomed into the country and towns where pets are eaten by incoming immigrants.
While debate moderators attempted to counter the claims, challenging Trump on the validity and also on how he would execute the deportation of millions as he’s promised to do, Harris took the offensive. Highlighting her record as “the only person on the stage who has prosecuted transnational organizations”, she also accused her opponent of calling on the GOP to oppose legislation to bolster the border. “He preferred to run on a problem rather than fixing a problem,” she said.
6. The candidates sparred over Ukraine and how they would handle the war: Harris said that if Trump were currently in office, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would have taken Kyiv, saying Putin would “eat you for lunch”. “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,” Harris also said.
When Trump was asked by Muir how he would end the war – and specifically if he wanted Ukraine to win – the former president did not offer a clear answer. “I want the war to stop. I want to save lives that are being lost uselessly. People being killed by the millions,” he said.
7. Harris baited Trump by attacking him where it hurts: As moderators pushed Harris to respond to criticisms she and Biden have faced over border policy, the vice-president expertly derailed her opponent’s rhetoric on what is perhaps his favorite issue to discuss by deriding his performances at rallies.
She invited voters to view the speeches for themselves, saying that attenders can be seen leaving out of exhaustion and boredom, and characterized the events as a platform for Trump’s complaints and not plans that put the American people first.
The jab landed well. An offended and flustered Trump jumped on the chance to defend attendance at his rallies, claiming Harris pays attenders at her own campaign events, and then pivoted to insults that failed to hit their mark. He accused Harris of planning to turn the country into “Venezuela on steroids”, and called the US a “failing nation”, before resurfacing false claims that immigrants were eating people’s pets.
A top Harris campaign official said Kamala Harris was open to a second debate with Donald Trump in October.
Quentin Fulks, the Harris campaign’s deputy campaign manager, told CNN this morning:
I think that both campaigns are going to have to agree to a time but I think the vice-president is open to a debate in October.
Asked whether the vice-president would agree to a 25 September debate on NBC, Fulks declined to commit, adding that the “two campaigns are going to have to agree on a date.”
A senior Trump campaign adviser, also speaking to CNN, refused to definitely say whether Donald Trump would take part in an NBC debate on 25 September. Jason Miller, the Trump campaign’s senior adviser, said:
I thought this was a bit perplexing because President Trump has already said that he is going to do three debates. We had the September 4 debate, which was going to be on Fox, and Kamala Harris was a no-show. We had last night. And President Trump already said that on September 25, we would do a debate on NBC.
Miller continued:
But now Kamala Harris seems to have memory holed that and rather than just saying, we’ll see you on September 25 on NBC, is now throwing out some fictional day in October.
“So very clearly, we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board,” he added.
Harris and Trump shake hands at 9/11 memorial service
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump shook hands as they attended a memorial service to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of 9/11 in New York City.
Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, appeared to facilitate the handshake between Harris and Trump, according to AP.
Just hours after meeting in person for the first time, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have crossed paths again as they attend commemoration events marking the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Joe Biden, Harris, Trump and his running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, attended the traditional memorial service in New York City’s Memorial Plaza at Ground Zero.
Biden and Harris are then expected to travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Flight 93 memorial. They are then expected to travel to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, for another wreath-laying ceremony.
Trump will also travel to Shanksville today, according to reports.
Trump says he is ‘less inclined’ to participate in another debate
Donald Trump, speaking to Fox and Friends, said he didn’t know if he wanted to debate Kamala Harris again, claiming he “won the debate” last night.
Well, I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night. We won the debate.
Trump had previously agreed to participate in a debate hosted by Fox News, moderated by Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier. But this morning, he said:
I wouldn’t want to have Martha and Bret. I’d love to have somebody else other than Martha and Bret.
Donald Trump was asked on Fox & Friends this morning why he believed the country would be safer under him. “Because I deal with foreign policy,” Trump replied.
The former president repeated his attacks blaming the Biden administration on the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, claiming that the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley, was “incompetent” and should have been “fired and reprimanded like you’ve never seen”.
On Fox and Friends Donald Trump has said that today he will be attending memorial events for 9/11 in New York and in Pennyslvania with his VP pick JD Vance.
It was put to him that Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden would also be there, and he was asked “You guys are going to be at the site together. Are you going to say anything to them?”
Trump said: “Oh I don’t know. I’m not sure. It’s, you know, look, everybody should be very angry at how badly they’ve run this country.”
The former president then launched into a familiar diatribe about immigration.
Donald Trump expressed frustration that factcheckers corrected him more in last night’s TV debate than they corrected Kamala Harris.
In a call to Fox & Friends this morning, the former president cited his use of the word “bloodbath”, his comments after the murder of Heather Danielle Heyer in the Charlottesville car attack and his position on IVF treatment as areas where he claims he was wrongly corrected by moderators.
Trump maintained his use of the word “bloodbath” solely pertained to the economy, saying:
Bloodbath was referring to the economy. Everybody loved the term, because as soon as they heard the word, it’s sort of a vicious word, but referring to the economy. They have created an economy [sic]. Bloodbath was the word that I used, and it was fine in that context. They were trying to make it sound like it was a riot or something.
On IVF, Trump said:
IVF. I was a leader on IEF [sic]. The IVF. The IVF, which is fertilization. I was a total leader on that, when I first heard about it, like right from the beginning, I was one of the leaders on it, and the Republican party has been a leader on it.
He then complained he had been corrected six times in his statements about abortion during the debate, saying “the whole thing with abortion. What he said, I mean, it was incredible. I think he corrected me six times, and each time I was right. I believe each time I was right. Didn’t correct her at all.”
He also unexpectedly cited Laura Ingraham while defending his comments about Charlottesville, saying, “she said that in fact it makes it [sic] angry. She makes … she gets angry when people hear about Charlottesville.”
He said it was wrong to say he did not condemn neo-Nazis in Charlottesville because people do not refer to the full quote.
Trump said at the time: “You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides,” and then later said: “You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. And you had people – and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists – because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”
Donald Trump has called for ABC to lose their broadcasting license after the way the network moderated last night’s TV debate. Saying the network took “a big hit last night”, Trump said “They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that. I think they lost a lot of credibility.”
He told viewers of Fox & Friends that he had polls showing he had won the debate “by 80-20, 90, we we have one here, 92 to seven. And I sort of believe that’s right.” Trump did not name the polls.
He continued his attack on ABC, saying: “From the standpoint of ABC, they’re the most dishonest, in my opinion, the most dishonest news organization, and that’s saying a lot, because they’re all essentially really dishonest.”
He also managed to aim a jibe at his hosts this morning, insisting that he would not want to do a debate on Fox if Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum were the moderators, and he said that Fox’s Harold Ford Jr must have been watching a different debate, and was “just as dishonest as ABC in my opinion”.
Trump claims he won presidential debate ‘by a lot’ and that Taylor Swift will ‘pay the price’ for endorsing Harris
Donald Trump is currently being interviewed on Fox & Friends. We will have more detail on that interview soon. But he has told the show that it was his “best ever” debate, and that he won it by “a lot”.
He attacked the ABC news network and claimed “they kept correcting me”, saying that Kamala Harris told “outright lies” and was not corrected. In a familiar diatribe, he claimed the debate was “totally rigged”.
“So many things I said were debunked, like totally debunked,” he told the news programme. “But she could say anything she wanted. My stuff was right, but they would correct you.” He accused ABC, without evidence, of being the “most dishonest news organization” and that the debate was stacked against him.
Responding to Taylor Swift announcing she would vote for the Harris campaign, he said: “She’s a very liberal person, she always seems to endorse a Democrat and she will probably pay the price for that in the market.”
During the debate, Donald Trump repeated an unsubstantiated claim that immigrants are eating pets in an Ohio town, forcing the moderator to tell him that there is no proof of that.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” said Trump during the debate. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
As Alice Herman reports
Trump’s claims about immigrants allegedly killing and eating the pets of US citizens originated, apparently, with a viral video of a resident of Springfield, Ohio, claiming before the town’s council that immigrants in the community had killed ducks from a local park for food. The unsubstantiated and inflammatory video was shared widely on rightwing accounts, evolving quickly into a viral meme featuring AI-generated images of Trump surrounded by cats and dogs, appearing to protect them.
As our Fact Check makes clear:
The story of migrants allegedly eating pets has circulated in rightwing media in recent days and been repeated by Trump’s running mate JD Vance. These are false and unsubstantiated claims.
“You bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. 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,” moderator David Muir told Trump.
The Springfield News-Sun reported on Monday that police have “received no reports related to pets being stolen and eaten”.
The Harris-Walz campaign quickly capitalised on Taylor Swift’s support after she endorsed Kamala Harris for president in a post on Instagram.
Quickly available on the Harris-Walz campaign site were Taylor Swift-inspired friendship bracelets. Swift fans are famous for swapping friendship bracelets during concerts, tours and events inspired by her song You’re on Your Own, Kid, which includes the lyrics “so make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it”.
“As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can,” Swift wrote on Instagram to her 283 million followers late on Tuesday, adding: “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election”.
“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
‘It’s just sad’: Republicans express dismay at Trump performance as polling suggests Harris won debate
House Republicans have expressed dismay at former president Donald Trump’s debate performance against Kamala Harris, as snap polling suggested she was widely seen by the public to have won last night’s presidential election TV debate.
“It’s just sad,” one House Republican told website The Hill, adding “She knew exactly where to cut to get under his skin”. Trump allowed himself to get distracted from key talking points as Harris got him to talk about the size of the crowds at his rallies, or make false claims about abortion after birth.
“[It is] just overall disappointing that he isn’t being more composed like the first debate,” the anonymous House Republican told the Hill, adding “The road just got very narrow. This is not good.”
A CNN flash poll after the debate suggested that two-thirds of the watching public believed that Harris had out-performed Trump, with the news network reporting that “96% of Harris supporters who tuned in said that their chosen candidate had done a better job, while a smaller 69% majority of Trump’s supporters credited him with having a better night.”
Another House Republican source speaking anonymously told the Hill website “She talks to us like toddlers but is doing a good job provoking him. Many are disappointed he couldn’t stay focused or land a punch. Not sure much changes but it wasn’t a good performance,” while a third said “It’s not devastating – but it’s not good.”
The conservative Fox News political analyst Brit Hume also contended that Harris had won, telling viewers “She baited him, successfully. She came out ahead in this, in my opinion. No doubt.”
The CNN polling margin – 63% for Harris, 37% for Trump – marks a sharp reverse of the numbers Trump achieved when debating Joe Biden earlier in the year, which led to the sitting president pulling out of the race, and comes as megastar Taylor Swift announced she was endorsing Harris, signing her message as from a “childless cat lady”, a dig at Trump’s VP pick JD Vance.