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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced one another for their first presidential debate, and Hip-Hop Wired viewed the entire debate, capturing reactions from X, formerly Twitter.
On Tuesday (September 10), Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump met for their debate on ABC News. Trump seemed hesitant from the start, pausing in surprise as Vice President Harris strode over to greet him and introduce herself.
ABC News moderator David Muir opened the debate by asking Vice President Harris about the state of the economy and what she intends to create what she referred to as an “opportunity economy.”
“I believe in the ambition, the aspiration, the dreams of the American people,” Harris said. Trump retorted, reiterating his policy stance on employing tariffs against other countries, namely China.
Harris sagely stated that President Joe Biden’s administration had to “clean up Donald Trump’s mess”, taking digs at the business mogul over his assumed orchestration of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack and his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abortion proved to be one of the more intense exchanges of the debates as Harris championed more progressive policies as Trump again equivocated.
Her poise and strategy of prodding Trump into baffling rambles provided one of the more incredulous moments of the night after she spoke about his rallies. “You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter, he will talk about windmills cause cancer,” Harris began, “and what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will 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.”
Trump angrily replied that his rallies were “the best, then repeated a false claim from his campaign about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he yelled. He was swiftly fact-checked by Muir.
With the looming specter of Project 2025 hanging over this upcoming election, Trump distanced himself from the plan after Harris’ initial answers tying him to it, claiming he hadn’t even seen the controversial document.
“I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump said. “That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.”
Abortion is one of the touchier subjects of the race and one that Trump and his running mate JD Vance have faltered on regarding their messaging. ABC News moderator Linsey Davis’ question led to one of the more intense serve-and-volley moments of the debates with Harris leaning into the more progressive side of the debate while Trump seemed to display once more his changing stances on reproductive rights.
Seizing on conservative voters’ concerns that Harris would change the fabric of the country, Trump referred to the Vice President as a “Marxist” in a key moment in the debate. “If she ever got elected, she’d change it. And it will be the end of our country. She’s a Marxist everybody knows she’s a Marxist. Her father is a Marxist professor in economics, and he taught her well,” Trump quipped, referencing her father Donald J. Harris.
Muir also asked Trump about his repeated attacks on Harris’ racial identity. “I don’t care what she is,” he said before again saying that “I read where she was not Black”. Harris responded that it was a “tragedy” and a “disgrace” that he would
resort to that, bringing up his calling for the death of the Exonerated Central Park Five as an example of his past bigotry.
The debate questions would move to foreign policy, where Trump criticized President Biden for his support of Ukraine. “You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me,” Harris said, turning to face Trump. Trump would jab Harris and the Biden administration on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, but she would counter by hammering him on his love for authoritarians such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Meme fans gathered plenty of fodder due to the expressions of incredulity from Harris, especially as Trump would get combative with Muir after several questions. While the microphones were muted, crosstalk could still be heard. The feature proved to be effective for Harris, allowing her to respond vividly through her facial expressions which could be criticized by certain pundits and outlets. There was also praise for Muir and Davis as moderators, who strived to give each candidate time to respond while working hard to avoid being steamrolled by Trump’s petulant moods after Harris’ answers.
Take a look at some of the best responses to the debate below.
With additional analysis from D.L. Chandler.