[Music] in the first and perhaps only presidential debate between vice president kamla Harris and former president Donald Trump the two candidates sparred verbally often attacking each other in a very personalized manner whatever exchanges they had or differences they had over policy were largely overshadowed by their fiery exchanges over character and crowd size so who won the debate Harris or Trump let's find out political pundits analysts and commentators found that Trump had often found himself defensive on issues like abortion but that was expected but the bigger problem was that he allowed Harris to bait him on multiple occasions and then he just veered off message in one such instance the vice president belittled the crowds that were attending or at least the size of the crowds that were attending Trump's rallies that forced Trump into a Meandering ramble which ended up with his rather bizarre claim which was really the most hilarious moment of the debate where Trump said that immigrants were eating up cats and dogs in Springfield Ohio at another point in the debate Harris even suggested that American military leaders including many who have worked with Trump viewed him as a disgrace Trump often responded to these smirks to these Jabs very angrily he declared that Harris had no policies of her own and that she was the worst vice president in the history of America after the debate many Democratic strategists and officials were all cheers for Harris in her performance declaring her to be the winner from the handshake in the fact she came over and she commanded the room and she put Donald Trump on the defense throughout the entire night I can't imagine it won't move the needle on those poles on the other hand Republicans complained about the tenor of the questions uh the balance of the moderators and also acknowledge that Trump did Miss quite a few opportunities to land his punches yeah I mean look I think K has made a lot of mistakes tonight but again I go back to what I said earlier which is that there was no real substance if you listen to K's talk for 90 B you would hear a person talking as if she marked the sitting vice president at the United States here she is in office sty and has been c 3 and 1/2 years it's her policy that caused these problems all in all it seemed like Harris had a better debate night than Trump let's start at the beginning as both candidates walked in Harris walked across the room to deliver a handshake Trump was caught a bit off guard this was after all the first handshake in a presidential debate since 2016 which is when Trump first ran for office it was the first time that Harris had met Trump in person and it was an awkward handshake which started things off after a nervous start for about the first five odd minutes or so kamla Harris stepped up her game she laid the bait and Donald Trump took it it began with her needling Trump that his rallies were boring his supporters were leaving his rallies so on and so forth it continued with her comments that Donald Trump had inherited so many billion dollars from his father and yet fil for bankruptcy six times and it went on as Harris invoked some of Trump's foremost Republican critics including those who've worked with him who've served in his administration in the past at one point in the debate Harris invited viewers to watch a trump rally for a more unfiltered view of the former president she said and I quote you will never hear him talk about your needs that's the point where she sort of sniggered at him for the rally size the crowds the poultry crowds that he was inviting and of course also about the fact that they were lead his rallies halfway through he responded to it this was bait he took it he responded to it not by talking about the voters or their needs but about crowd numbers now this remember is a bit of a sore point with Trump he has in the past accused Harris and her campaign of using AI images to bolster her crowd sizes he started off and he pushed back by saying and I quote again people don't leave my rallies and then came what was the funniest and easily the ziest moment of the the debate where Trump went on to say that immigrants from Haiti are eating pets dogs and cats in an Ohio city and that led to a fact check in a push back from David meire one of the ABC News moderators on foreign policy Harris often forced Trump to defend his closeness to authoritarian leaders like prime minister Orban of Hungary and his past Bromance with President Putin of Russia she went on to say that Trump if he became president again then Putin would eat him for lunch she also said that if Trump was still president then Putin would be sitting in keev right now Trump of course countered that by saying that it was Putin who endorsed kamla Harris and not him just in the last few days running after the debate she also pressed him on the Israel Hamas War when he pushed back trying to frame Harris as anti-israel and anti-jew and pro Palestine saying that she even refused to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli Prime Minister who came to Washington a few months ago abortion was one of the biggest missed opportunities for President Joe Biden in the first debate it was the first debate that knocked off Biden out of the race but Harris made sure that in this debate it was one of her strongest moments Trump of course is keenly aware of his vulnerability on a topic like abortion he of course had appointed the Supreme Court Justices who helped overturn roie Wade the long-standing federal judgment which protected women's Reproductive Rights Trump clarified quite defensively he said that he was not in a favor of a National Abortion ban and that he would leave it to individual states to decide Harris responded to that by saying that Trump's position and abortion is an insult to most American women kamla Harris warned that world leaders were laughing at Donald Trump and saw him as a disgrace and when she referred to the 2020 election loss as the moment when Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people Trump grew visibly angry Harris repeatedly baited him into going off topic or doubling down on positions which are not particularly Trump's strong suit positions that are unpopular she cleared the bar both in terms of telling her own personal story and at the same time going deep enough on policy now this remember is a tough Balancing Act most Americans still view KLA Harris as an unknown commodity and that was one of the big findings of the recent New York Times poll when the debate focused on the border or the economy Trump had the upper hand but too often he took the bait from Kam Harris and he gave her a pass instead while the vice president clearly got under Trump's skin she offered little Beyond platitudes there was not a definitive defense of her and Biden's track record over the last four years whether it's on immigration or on the economy but then Trump did not put Harris on the mat either Harris played the long game in the debate tonight she let the former president Take debate on some of his closed relationships with dictators like Orban Kim Jong-un and Putin but the most memed line of the debate and perhaps what will be remembered most in this debate were the conspiracies around immigrants eating dogs and cats in American cities Trump will find that one hard to live down