Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were at the same 9/11 memorial the day after a fiery debate – their first of the 2024 US presidential election.
It has been 23 years since the 9/11 attack on downtown Manhattan – where both the US presidential election and the war it resulted in and the withdrawal from Afghanistan that followed still has political significance in America.
The country’s Afghan debacle made it into the debate and, not surprisingly, the issues surrounding it were dodged, dismissed, distorted.
Trump boasted again that he talked tough with the “head of the Taliban” who is “still the head of the Taliban.” He seemed to be referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the deal with the US. But he never headed the Taliban, and has been sidelined since the Taliban takeover.
Kamala Harris veered away from the question “do you bear any responsibility in the way that withdrawal played out?” in August 2021. She had made it clear she agreed with President Biden’s decision to leave.
Both contenders shifted their focus to the flawed deal with the Taliban. The truth is – the Trump team negotiated this exit plan; the Biden team hastily enacted it.
During the debate both candidates focused on policy but personal attacks also dominated the 90 minute event. Trump and Harris met for the first time on the presidential debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Harris said people leave Trump rallies early “out of exhaustion and boredom” – he said people don’t go to hers in the first place adding that he paid people to attend her own.
Trump criticised Harris’s record on immigration and the border, and also her shifting policy positions – Harris blamed him for “Trump abortion bans” and the 6 January attacks on the US Capitol
Snap polls suggest Harris won the debate, but Trump says afterwards that she “lost very badly”.
The former president appeared on the defensive when he called into Fox News the next morning, criticising the moderators and refusing to commit to another debate.
With the election taking place on 5 November, Harris is slightly ahead in national opinion polls – but key battleground states are very tight.
In a fiery 90 minutes, Harris frequently rattled the former president with personal attacks that threw him off message and raised the temperature of this highly-anticipated contest.
Her pointed digs on the size of his rally crowds, his conduct during the Capitol riot, and on the officials who served in his administration who have since become outspoken critics of his campaign repeatedly left Trump on the back foot.
The pattern for much of this debate was Harris goading her Republican rival into making extended defences of his past conduct and comments. He gladly obliged, raising his voice at times and shaking his head.
