By: Caleb Tobin, Editor in Chief
Debunked accusations of immigrants eating cats and dogs in Ohio, border security, abortion, and crime were the hot topics as former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in their first debate Tuesday night.
“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,” said Trump, referencing recent social media posts about Haitian immigrants stealing people’s pets to eat them. Conservatives on the social media platform X, including Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, have been making posts on the topic.
The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, Rob Rue, said these reports are unsubstantiated.
“We have not been able to verify any credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Rue said at a recent press conference. The Springfield Police Department also said it has not received any credible reports as of Tuesday.
The debate, hosted by ABC News and moderated by Linsey Davis and David Muir, is the first presidential debate between Harris and Trump since President Joe Biden ended his campaign on July 21. The candidates clashed on issues ranging from the economy and tax cuts to the war in Ukraine.
However, immigration and border security took up much of the debate, with Trump repeatedly circling back to the issue as one of his main lines of attack against the Biden-Harris Administration.
“…we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums,” he said. Trump has used this argument repeatedly at rallies over the past year, but he has not offered specific evidence to support his claim.
Trump also said that 21 million people have entered the United States under the Biden Administration, saying “But when you look at what she's done to our country and when you look at these millions and millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly where it's I believe 21 million people, not the 15 that people say, and I think it's a lot higher than the 21.”
A May 2024 report by the House Homeland Security Committee found that there had been “9.5 million encounters nationwide” since President Biden took office. Trump did not offer any specific evidence to support his claim of 21 million.
In response, Harris said Trump is responsible for sinking legislation that would have hired more Border Patrol agents and provided resources to prosecute criminal organizations.
In February, when the proposed bill was announced, Trump posted on Truth Social, “As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible, open borders betrayal of America. It’s not going to happen, and I’ll fight it all the way.”
Harris said the bill would have allocated resources to prosecute organizations that traffic guns, drugs, and humans into the U.S. “But you know what happened to that bill? Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress, and said kill the bill,” she said.
The bill would’ve included “new emergency authorities to shut down the border when the border is overrun, new hiring authorities to quickly increase officers, and new hearing authorities to quickly apply consequences for illegal crossings. It changes our border from catch and release to detain and deport,” according to Senator James Lankford’s website. Lankford, a Republican senator from Oklahoma, was one of the main negotiators of the legislation.
Trump also claimed that “crime here is up and through the roof” because of the Biden Administration’s immigration policies. Data from the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer website shows that violent crime rates decreased during 2021 and 2022 since they peaked in 2020. Arson and motor vehicle theft crime rates increased slightly from 2021 to 2022. Statistics from the FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report, released in June, indicate that overall crime levels have steadily decreased since 2020.
The topic of abortion also came up during the debate. Since the overturning of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022, Harris has been one of the Biden Administration’s main messengers on the issue and has made it a centerpiece of her campaign.
“Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe V. Wade. And they did exactly as he intended,” Harris said.
Trump has repeatedly bragged about appointing three justices to the Supreme Court that voted to overturn Roe v Wade, saying in a May 2023 Truth Social post that “I was able to kill Roe v Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone.” Abortion has been an issue for Trump throughout the campaign, as he needs to maintain support from his supporters who hold anti-abortion views while also appealing to moderates who do not support abortion bans.
When asked if he would sign a national abortion ban, Trump said “I’m not signing a ban. There’s no reason to sign a ban. Because we’ve gotten what everybody wanted.”
Harris said that if Congress passes legislation to put the protections of Roe v Wade back into place, she will sign the legislation into law if she is president.
Trump said it will be impossible for her to get the necessary votes in Congress to pass such a bill. He then veered off into talking about the Biden Administration’s student loan forgiveness program, saying “She can't get the vote. She won't even come close to it. So it's just talk. You know what it reminds me of? When they said they're going to get student loans terminated and it ended up being a total catastrophe.” A press release by the U.S. Department of Education in May 2024 said that $167 billion in student loans had been forgiven so far by the Biden-Harris Administration.
Trump also suggested that Democrats want to execute babies after they are born.
“… but the governor [of Virginia] before. He said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we’ll execute the baby,” Trump said. Moderator Linsey Davis pointed out that executing babies after they are born is illegal in all 50 U.S. states.
The governor referenced, former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, said in a 2019 interview “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” Northam did not say that babies should be executed after birth, but was speaking about what might happen if a baby is born with a very low chance of survival or with extreme deformities.
Moderator Linsey Davis also pressed Harris on policy changes from her previous presidential campaign in 2019.
“Vice President Harris, in your last run for president you said you wanted to ban fracking. Now you don't. You wanted mandatory government buyback programs for assault weapons. Now your campaign says you don't. You supported decriminalizing border crossings. Now you're taking a harder line. I know you say that your values have not changed. So then why have so many of your policy positions changed,” Davis said.
In response, Harris said her values have not changed and focused on the issue of fracking, a method used to drill for oil and gas. During her 2019 campaign for the White House, Harris voiced support for a ban on fracking, citing health and safety concerns for communities.
Harris has since changed her position, saying she will not ban fracking if elected president.
“I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as Vice President of the United States. And, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking,” Harris said.
Towards the end of the night, Harris and Trump got into a debate about foreign policy and the war in Gaza. Since Hamas’ attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people with over 200 taken hostage, an estimated 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. Vice President Harris said she supports an immediate ceasefire to end the conflict and work towards a two-state solution.
“I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel. But we must have a two-state solution where we can rebuild Gaza, where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve,” Harris said.
In response, Trump said Harris hates Israel and claimed that, if Harris is elected president, Israel will not exist within two years, saying “If she's president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now. And I've been pretty good at predictions.” He also claimed that Iran has an extra $300 billion due to the Biden Administration removing sanctions, but it is unclear where exactly he got this figure.
In his closing statement, Trump asked why Harris hasn’t done what she said she’d like to do during her three and a half years in office. “Why hasn't she done it? She's been there for 3 1/2 years. They've had 3 1/2 years to fix the border. They've had 3 1/2 years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasn't she done it,” he said.
Trump also said the U.S. is a failing nation that is being laughed at all over the world.
Harris used her closing statement to offer a positive vision for the country, saying her vision “includes having a plan, understanding the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes, the ambition of the American people, which is why I intend to create an opportunity economy, investing in small businesses, in new families, in what we can do around protecting seniors, what we can do that is about giving hard-working folks a break in bringing down the cost of living.”
A full transcript of the debate can be found here. It is unclear if there will be another debate at this time. Vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz are scheduled to debate on October 1 on CBS News.
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