Even if you haven’t watched it yet, you may have already heard of it. The 2024 Presidential Debate between Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump and Democrat Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris took place on the night of September 10, 2024 and was hosted by ABC News. This debate has been something that many Americans around the world have looked forward to ever since it was announced due to this year’s changing political candidates. 

The debate starts off with addressing what many voters would consider the country’s number one issue: the economy and high cost of living. In response to this prompt, Kamala Harris says “I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people. And that is why I imagine and have a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy.” Kamala addresses issues like the shortage of housing and the high cost of housing and living. She explains her plans of extending $6,000 tax cuts for families that need support, and $6,000 tax deductions for the start-up of small businesses. In response, Donald Trump explains that “I have no sales tax” and that “We’re doing tariffs on other countries. Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world.” He explains that he plans to take back billions of owed dollars from other countries such as China. He explains the drawbacks of inflation and how it harms countries. He also addresses the amount of people “pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums.” He explains the effects of immigration on the state of the American economy. 

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris explain their plans and what they intend to do if they become president. Kamala Harris adds that there is “a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again.” Donald Trump denies this, saying, “Number one, I have nothing to do, as you know and she knows better than anyone, I have nothing to do with Project 2025.” Donald Trump then explains that he has a brilliant plan that was approved by top professors from the Wharton School of Finance. He then explains that compares his plan to Harris’s, stating that Harris only copied Biden’s plan. He explains that immigration is the worst thing that has happened to the U.S. economy. Kamala Harris responds to this by stating that the U.S.economy was not doing so well under Trump’s former presidency, explaining that the Trump administration resulted in the highest trade deficit that’s ever been seen in the history of the United States.

Then comes the topic of abortion. Moderator Lindsey Davis asks, “Trump, you’ve often touted that you were able to kill Roe v. Wade. Last year, you said that you were proud to be the most pro-life president in American history. Then last month you said that your administration would be great for women and their reproductive rights.” This addresses the confusion that may result from Trump’s words and actions, as it isn’t very sure if he is for or against abortion because his actions and words always contradict each other, and make it difficult for people to come to a definitive conclusion on his views. Trump responds with, “Well the reason I’m doing that vote is because the plan is, as you know, the vote is, that they have abortion in the ninth month…In other words, we’ll execute the baby.” Trump states that “The democrats are radical” when talking about not doing the vote because of the abortion in the ninth month and the execution of the baby after birth, being something that he is not okay with. Kamala Harris responds to this by saying “Trump abortion bans that make no exception even for rape and incest. I understand what that means. A survivor of a crime, a violation of their body, does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral.” She talks about the consequences of what would happen to women’s rights if Trump were to become president.

On the topic of immigration and border security, Trump responded by saying something that caught the attention of many people on the internet. “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.” Although, it’s important to consider that not everything said in this debate is true, and fact-checkers actually stated that Trump’s above claim is false and that there is no evidence that immigrants are actually eating the pets of the residents in Springfield.  

As the debate went on, it became very noticeable that there were more personal attacks being made on each other. Some of them made the debate more amusing to some audiences, especially younger ones, as the candidates remarks have been quoted on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. One of them was Kamala Harris saying “The values I bring to the importance of home ownership knowing not everybody got handed $400 million on a silver platter and then filed bankruptcy six times,” and then a quote from Trump saying that “we have a president that doesn’t know he’s alive.” when talking about President Joe Biden. Kamala downgrades Trump’s rallies, stating that Trump never talks about “you”, the American people, saying that he only looks out for himself. On the topic of crime, when Trump talks about the negative effects of immigration and migrant crime, Kamala responds by making a jab at Trump about him being prosecuted of crimes himself. 

Despite the debate’s purpose being to discuss the plans of each candidate, it’s clear that there were very obvious tensions. Many people online would even consider it to be chaotic. And despite all the somewhat chaotic personal remarks the two candidates made towards each other, overall, various topics were discussed in this presidential debate, such as immigration, plans for the future, crime, abortion, foreign policies, and the economy.