Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off in their first presidential debate hosted by ABC in Philadelphia Tuesday night. Here are three takeaways from the night as each candidate shared their stances, solutions and criticisms on the country’s most divisive issues.
Trump reaffirmed his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, Harris vowed to reinstate abortion access
Trump touted the part he played in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, saying that he agrees with the decision to rid abortion as a constitutionally protected right. The former president praised the six conservative-leaning justices, three of whom he appointed to the court, that voted to overturn Roe before falsely claiming that the court’s decision was “what every legal scholar” wanted.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, an 1849 law banning abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest went back into effect in Wisconsin. Wisconsinites showed their dissatisfaction with the court’s decision when they elected liberal-leaning Justice Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April 2023.
Abortion access remains a pivotal issue for many Wisconsinites. An August Marquette University poll found that 27% of Wisconsin Democrats listed abortion as their most important issue in deciding who to vote for, the highest percentage among the poll’s eight options.
Harris maintained her position during the debate to reinstate Roe’s abortion protections, saying that if Congress passed a bill protecting the right to an abortion at the federal level, she would “proudly” sign it into law.
“I think the American people believe that certain freedoms, in particular the freedom to make decisions about one's own body, should not be made by the government,” Harris said.
Harris toed the line on Israel’s war on Gaza, Trump claims war ‘never would have started’ if he were president
Harris continued to strike a delicate balance when addressing Israel’s war on Gaza during the debate, sharing her previous position that “Israel has a right to defend itself” against the terrorist group Hamas but said that “how it does so matters.” Harris condemned the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and expressed a broad goal to end the war on Gaza and “chart a course for a two-state solution.”
“There must be security for the Israeli people and Israel and an equal measure for the Palestinians,” Harris said.
Israel’s war on Gaza has remained a divisive topic within the Democratic Party, especially among younger voters.
During the Democratic primary in April, 32% of voters in University of Wisconsin-Madison-area wards voted uninstructed, a warning to the Biden administration that sending military aid to Israel and not pushing for a permanent ceasefire would lose him support among young voters, a demographic he relied on to win in 2020. Though Harris has shown more sympathy toward Palestinians in her public statements, her policy stance on supporting the Israeli military has not differed from Biden’s.
Trump claimed the war“never would have started” if he were president but soon began to make false attacks toward Harris, claiming she “hates” Israelis and Arabs and baselessly claimed Israel will no longer exist if she is president.
Republicans are more unified in their support for Israel than Democrats, with 66% of Republicans saying they approved of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu as opposed to only 12% of Democrats, according to a June Gallup poll.
Immigration remained at the forefront of Trump’s campaign
Immigration remains one of Trump’s most prominent issues. The former president brought up the U.S.-Mexico border several times throughout the debate, attacking Harris and the Biden administration for what he said is their mishandling of the border.
Trump falsely said that crime has gone up under the Biden administration due to “millions of criminals” from other countries entering the U.S.
Additionally, Trump falsely claimed during the debate that Haitian immigrants are “eating the pets” of people who live in Springfield, Ohio, referring to a viral social media post that has been debunked by Springfield city officials.
“There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Karen Graves, a spokeswoman for the city of Springfield, said in a statement.
In February, the Senate unveiled a bipartisan bill that would add hundreds of additional border patrol and ICE agents, fund a new border wall and tighten restrictions on the border if illegal crossings were to surge. Trump initially backed the bill, and many Republicans lobbied for some security measures it includes. But Trump later urged Republicans to not vote for the bill, causing it to not get passed in congress.
Harris claimed during the debate that Trump urged that the bill be killed so that he could still run his presidential campaign on the issue of immigration.
“He’d prefer to run on a problem than actually fix a problem,” Harris said.
Immigration remains a prominent issue for GOP voters. According to August’s Marquette poll, 26% of Wisconsin Republicans in the state said immigration and border security was their most important issue in deciding who to vote for, the second-highest percentage of the poll's options.
