U.S. Election Watch | Key Takeaways From Trump Vs Harris Debate | NDTV Profit

Trump and Harris battle it out over the economy immigration and other issues Harris slams Trump for his tired old handbook Trump accuses Harris of being a Biden [Music] copycat a boost for Harris the day after the elections inflation Falls to its lowest level in 3 [Music] years Taylor Swift endorsed is Cala Harris for President we need a warrior is what Swift [Music] says the United States commemorates the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Harris and Trump meet and shake hands at a 9/11 memorial service a day after the debate [Music] Democratic nominee Camala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump met face to face for the first time ever in that long awaited presidential debate it was a fiery night with lots of intense moments Harris baited Trump constantly and Trump was often on the defensive hosted by ABC the debate ran approximately 90 minutes both candidates also came down heavily on each other over the economy abortion rights immigration and more here's what was said on key issues in Tuesday night's Showdown Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression 16 Nobel laurates have described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation and by the middle of next year would invite a recession I went to the Wharton School of finance and many of those professors the top professors think my plan is a brilliant plan it's a great plan she's a Marxist everybody knows she's a Marxist Trump abortion banss that make no exception even for rape and incest Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body if Donald Trump were to be reelected he will sign a National Abortion ban and I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies because it's a really interesting thing to watch you will see during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter he will talk about windmills cause cancer and what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom people don't go to her rallies there's no reason to go and the people that do go she's busting them in and paying them to be there and then showing them in a different light 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 she's destroying this country and if she becomes president this country doesn't have a chance of success not only success will end up being Venezuela on steroids as the battle on stage came to a close the question on everyone's mind was who won the presidential debate according to a CNN flash ball 63% of viewers believe Cala Harris delivered a better performance while 37% thought Donald Trump outperformed her in contrast though a C-SPAN poll showed that 64% of Voters crowned Trump as the Victor compared to the 36% who favored the Democratic nominee now the majority of that Focus coming into Tuesday was about how Harris would handle her first ever debate there with uh with the Donald Trump let's also try and look at what happened in terms of what was said the various amounts of perhaps falsehoods and lies that went through it's time for our very own truth Orit our own fact checking on what each of the candidates said to each other on debate [Music] night as expected there was a plethora of false claims during the Harris Trump debate mostly from the former US president the first one was Trump saying millions and millions of people are pouring into the country each month well the actual number isn't close to the the figures cited by the former US president the highest monthly migrant encounter tally was recorded in December 2023 when over 3 lakh migrants were processed Trump then claimed that under the Biden Administration the US had the highest inflation in history this couldn't be further from the truth though year-over-year inflation peaked at 99.1% in June 2022 it was not the highest ever the 1970s and early 80s saw inflation rates between 12% and 14% now to the issue of fracking which is a method of extracting oil and natural gas it has been one of the most talked about topics in US elections Trump brought this up by claiming that Harris would end fracking on her day one in office as US president well the truth is that Harris had reversed her stance on fracking years ago and continues to say that she won't ban fracking if elected Trump also falsely claimed that har is paying people to attend his rallies now to kamla Harris while Harris seemed more straightforward and factual in the debate there were a few misleading claims from her as well she said that if voted to power Trump will sign National Abortion ban however Trump has repeatedly stated that the issue of abortion belongs to the respective States saying there will not be a federal ban talking about US military personnel Harris claimed that not not one member is on active duty in a combat zone this is a narrow definition of what constitutes a combat zone as dozens of US military personnel have come under deadly fire in the Middle East over the last year okay so time to debate the debate we are joined by Democratic strategist Spencer kitley he is former Communications adviser for the Obama campaign also with us Republican strategist Matt clink and debate analyst with over two decades of experience St Graham joining us to is a professor of debate at Southern Illinois University so guys I really want to know whom you thought won the debate we're going to really save that for one of the last things that we chat about this morning so let's start though from the beginning instead uh the moment Kamala Harris walked onto stage from the body language you could tell that she was trying to make eye contact with Trump from the get-go and then she introduces herself saying Kamala Harris Trump said it's good to see you have fun Todd what do you think she did that of course Trump knows very well that she's Camala Harris well I mean the two hadn't officially met from what we've been told so it seemed like the right thing to do to go Shake someone's hand I didn't put too much off of that original handshake only because I've coached so much debate and there have been so many times that my teams have also had the awkward handshake do we do it now do we wait till after the debate do we not do it after the debate so I didn't really put too much weight into that I was glad to see them at least shaking hand before the debate so that was a good start mat what did you make of the initial moment between Trump and Harris I thought it sent a powerful message for uh KLA Harris it showed that she was going to be more aggressive I mean if you look at how she was I mean she was clearly over almost behind his Podium so she went to him she again it's a metaphor of taking the attack to him uh and I agree they had never met before uh and I mean look it was it wasn't as awkward as it could have been put it that way so I think it's a great way for her to start it certainly eases eases any anxiety that she has by immediately making contact with him to know that he's a real living Flesh and Blood person well since we already have you on this now Harris repeatedly tried to really rattle Trump for instance she said that Trump was fired by 81 million voters that's the number that voted for Joe Biden in 2020 then she said people leave his rallies out of boredom we heard that in that package that just played out Trump could have just let that slide if he did maybe Harris would have come across as a petty bringing up rally numbers for instance but no he allowed Harris to get under his skin she repeatedly baited him and he bit how do you think Trump handled the very thing that he should have really been prepared to ignore you know um I think that that was one of what were probably a few key objectives that kamla Harris had going in one being to introduce herself to voters who uh have not learned much about her in the past um another to contrast herself with uh Trump on a policy basis but a third to do exactly that um Trump's emotional instability uh is well known to people who have been paying close attention to politics and of course she knew that if she poked at his famously sensitive ego it would quite likely destabilize him which is exactly what happened I actually don't think Trump is capable of controlling his impulses there he's demonstrated that repeatedly not just during his time in politics but throughout his time in public Life as a a well-known but famously emotionally volatile uh businessman right uh Spencer uh Trump may have been rattled during the debate as we saw but just let's look at Harris for a bit now some say that she she should really have done a better job and why she's changed her mind on certain issues let's take a fracking for example the technology that's used to drill oil and gas she said that she's not going to ban it okay we get that but when asked very pointedly in the debate why she's changed her mind it was a very generic response something on along the lines if we can increase a thriving a clean energy economy without Banning fracking do you think that she had to be clearer on these issues really come out strongly and tell us why she's changed her mind on some of these issues well yes and no uh I would lead by saying that actually being consistent on policy or having any kind of coherent policy I'm sorry to say really doesn't matter all that much to most voters even those voters who think that it does most people who do care about policy care about how that policy feels as presented by the candidate and if a candidate especially in a compressed format like a debate um on the national stage as we saw last night gets into the details of describing why she changed from One technical position on policy to another technical position on policy you will lose the great majority of Voters within the first couple of sentences out of your mouth so I think that in general um she's doing the right thing politically not to get drawn into that kind of technical discussion especially when she's explaining a change in her own position there's an old saying in politics if you're explaining you're losing no matter how good the explanation is but all that said um one thing I think she could do a little better is when challenged on something like that don't give as you describe a fairly General answer which I think she did use it as an opportunity to make a posit positive statement of what you do stand for you can almost always turn it into a positive statement and an honest statement uh of what you do stand for and of course you can acknowledge that yes you have changed your mind on this subject and I think voters would appreciate the authenticity of a at least a passing comment like that on the way to as I say seizing the uh framing of that question and using it to make a positive statement on your own behal to as a debate expert what do you think about how Harris handles some of her flip-flops on the debate stage I wasn't really concerned about the flip flops and I don't really think the people at home were too concerned about that either Harris just need to show up on the debate stage last night and basically not be Joe Biden Trump is trying to tie Harris and Biden together and find some you know negative things about Biden's presidency but the problem is a lot of the stuff Biden got accomplished was fairly popular it's just that Joe Biden wasn't popular so KLA Harris needed to come on stage and not necessarily focus on the policy aspect as much as is most of the the guests are saying she just needed to get the feels out right because Joe Biden he might have technically beat Donald Trump in the debates four years ago but didn't really feel like it right you couldn't walk away from that and go that was obvious and the same thing with Hillary Clinton in 2016 so I think last night that it was a successful debate for Harris if she walked away and went yeah that felt good I got to do that and she was doing an excellent job that the one thing I would point out is I just call it she could have done better oh yeah of course she could always do a couple things better I don't like how she organizes her answers I think you got to start by answering the question first and then going back into attack so I think you have the same and the other thing she should always do is repeat the question out loud because then you can remind everybody oh by the way and that was the question but Donald Trump was talking about these things instead so yeah there's a couple of things she could have done to get a little bit better all right Matt now uh some of what Trump said honestly struck me as a bit farfetched even if the points he was making had say wide resonance amongst voter bases that he appeals to now the whole thing about immigrants eating their pets this kind of messaging will to me do nothing for moderate swing state voters who he should have really been targeting do you really think that was perhaps a missed opportunity on stage last night well let's be clear what what what he he inarticulately said uh the thing the the thing about the pets however what he was talking about was that you know in a a town of 60,000 people in Springfield Ohio the Biden Harris Administration has put 20,000 haian refugees into that town and while the city manager says they have no evidence that pets are are disappearing uh anecdotal evidence from people on the ground says that their pets aren't there and that people are killing ducks in the park so it does highlight a larger issue that the Biden and Harris Administration has let anywhere from 10 to 12 million people into this country uh that you know many of most of those 10 million people here illegally we have no idea who they are and we have no idea where they are so I mean look I wouldn't have said that current example it's exploding all over the Internet it was before the debate it will after the debate actually some of the memes are quite funny um but it does highlight the problem that Mrs Harris has with the border and that you know immigration in America is now a national issue and it's a loser for the Democrats because every Community is negatively affected by illegal immigration Spencer would you agree with that no I I you know I think it's um this is a case where one could get into a techn discussion of immigration policy and missed the big picture the big picture here is that Donald Trump has always made a practice of describing immigrants in terrifying terms in in terms like poisoning the blood of our country terms that are literally reminiscent of Nazi Germany there is a long history of this it goes back many centuries of people targeting Outsiders this is the history of anti-Semitism for example but we unfortunately see it in countries around the the world where there'll be one group who depicts another group as Invaders and subhuman and that is the big obvious point that has been at the center of Donald Trump's political career since he was spreading the birther conspiracy lies about Barack Obama uh he was the birther in Chief as he was described back then obviously trying to make people afraid of this black man with an African sounding name launching his campaign with a descrip deson of rapists and murderers supposedly flooding across the border from Mexico and elsewhere to the south at the same time Trump and his allies have no problem apparently with immigrants like me for example I immigrated to the United States from Canada U originally from Canada and Bermuda apparently there is no problem whatsoever with immigrants like me and the reason for that is obvious we can have an intelligent discussion of immigration policy and there are solutions to the security challenges at the southern border which are real given the flood of Asylum Seekers the Trump has shown not only no interest in Solutions but he's actually rejected one of the toughest border enforcement measures anybody has ever seen because he thought it would damage him his chances politically because it's more valuable to him to exploit this issue without doing anything to try to solve the problem all right do stay with us we have lots more to talk about but let's take a look at calls for a rematch less than an hour after the presidential debate ended Harris called for another debate with Trump Harris's campaign quink C sent out an email praising her performance and criticizing Trump's responses and mea Donald Trump quickly responded stating that the Harris campaign was only asking for a rematch since they lost and that the Trump campaign will consider the request uh Matt as a Republican strategist would your advice be to Trump and the Trump campaign that they should perhaps push for another debate maybe on Fox which uh Trump feels would be perhaps more balanced towards him look I I think that the American people are I'll take off my partisan hat for a second I think that the American people deserve to see the two candidates for the highest office in the land Beyond stage together not just once but multiple times uh the challenge here is that the devil will be in the details you know the Trump campaign agreed to two debates when Joe Biden was the candidate on CNN and ABC I think that they would want to press for uh a little bit more closer to Center uh news organizations certainly than ABC and CNN the problem is is that will Harris agree to that unlikely but you know what leaving politics aside it's that it's best for the American people to see their two candidates side by side I think last night that Mrs Harris got the better of Mr Trump uh and all the more reason why they deserve another opportunity to see if this is a oneoff or if she can consistently uh beat him so I hope that it happens let's put the pettiness aside and I Me Maybe we have multiple anchors from different stations I don't know but it needs to happen thought you would agree with that because I was listening to one of your videos as a debate expert where you stressed the real importance of having more than one debate uh this Americans need to know more from the Canada just give us a quick very brief explainer as to why this is so important for the American public to have a second or perhaps a third round well it starts with the moderators generally the moderators aren't uh going to do the same job from one debate to the next and I think if you just simply improve moderators you improve the debate usually but the reason I like having a series of debates is because in debate number one they could talk about issues like the economy and inflation but they probably won't get very deep in debate number two you can literally pick up where you left off and say all right in that last debate we talked about inflation uh and what exactly was your plan again and then you can go deeper and deeper uh famously when Mitt Romney was running for president I think he had 22 debates that year and Mitt Romney was the best debator I've ever seen from start to finish he was very consistent but it's because he was able to use previous debates information in a current debate that he was in and that's why I like seeing more than one debate is because you can build on that and you really do know if somebody has a plan has a solution Etc after a couple debates you got to know for example in this debate Donald Trump went asked three times on the same question do you have a plan to replace Obamacare he finally came out with an answer which i' had not heard in the debate yet which was I have concepts of a plan it's that kind of thing that we can get out with repeated questioning of the same thing of the same topic okay we have basically 20 seconds here so I want to get your take on who won just a yes or quick answer here Matt who do you think won was it Trump or Harris uh uh KLA Harris won but like most presidential debates it's not going to make that much of a difference uh in polling okay Spencer what do you think I think it's clear that Kamala Harris won and of course you won't find anybody disagreeing with that neutral debate expert your take yeah you won't find many people disagreeing with that you got to tell the thank you very much for joining us here thank you so much that was Matt Spencer and Todd joining us here on nv's us election watch moving on to other news now while tens of millions watched the debate there was one viewer who stole the spotlight right after just minutes after the candidate stepped off stage Taylor Swift revealed that she would support Kamala Harris the American pop star was has a massive social media following as you might know amongst younger voters Desa bakshi has more on the tailor made thumbs up for Harris that came fast and Swift in what many would see as a win for the Democrats us pop star Taylor Swift with a massive Global presence and connect with young voters has endorsed Democrat presidential candidate kamla Harris moments after the end of the ABC presidential debate in a lengthy Instagram post Swift who had long remained tight lipped about her choice of candidate in the November election called Harris a warrior for the causes she believes in posing with a pet cat Benjamin Button Swift signed a post as childless cat lady a nod to comments made by Trump's running JD Vance about women without children Vance had faced a backlash for calling several prominent Democrats including Harris a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives she also attacked the Trump campaign for using AI generated images of her falsely showing her endorsement of the former president Tesla CEO and Trump Ally Elon Musk was quick to respond to Swift's endorsement writing on X fine Taylor you win I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life Swift's endorsement of Harris does not come as a surprise to most as the pop star had previously endorsed US President Biden in 2020 her backing could give the Democratic ticket a further boost among young and female voters which is already a haris supporter base however it could have a much larger impact on voter registration her endorsement post where she also urged firsttime voters to register has received more than 2 million likes on Instagram in just half an hour in 2023 one of her Instagram posts to her 283 million followers encouraging voters led to 35,2 52 new voter registrations in a single day a significant spike in a non-election year all eyes are now on Harris waltz's campaign to see whether this Swift push will make an impact in the race to the White House with disa Baki Bureau report NDTV [Music] world even before the presidential Showdown ended Twitter was in a frenzy with memes circulating as the two candidates farted out take a look at some of those we'll have that on your screen there leave you with that thank you so much for your company here that's it for for us election watch I am Alisa dusza in Washington DC [Music]