Kamala Harris said Tuesday that Donald Trump made a "mess" of the United States of America and the Republican shot back that she was a "Marxist" in a fiery debate clash that could shift the narrative in the tight US presidential election.
The Democratic vice-president and Republican former president shook hands – to the surprise of many – when they took to the podiums in the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
But the niceties soon ended.
Within minutes, 78-year-old Trump called her a "Marxist" and also falsely claimed that she and US President Joe Biden had allowed "millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums."
Harris, 59, responded to much of Trump's extreme language by smiling and shaking her head, before hitting back, pointing out that he was a convicted felon and calling him "extreme."
Dismissing Trump's boast that he had unprecedented successes as president, she said that in reality, "What we have done is clean up Donald Trump's mess."
"Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression... the worst public health epidemic in a century (and) the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War," she said, referring to his management of the Covid-19 pandemic and his instigation of attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.
The live clash on ABC News, watched by tens of millions of voters, lasted around 90 minutes.
Abortion clash
Their most intense exchange was on abortion, with Trump insisting that while having pushed for the end of the federal right to abortion, he wanted individual states to make their own policy.
Harris accused her opponent of telling lies and "insulting the women of America" with his policies and statements.
"You're going to hear a bunch of lies," Harris said, before dismissing Trump's claim that Americans on both sides of the political divide wanted the 1973 ruling enshrining the constitutional right to abortion to be overturned by the Supreme Court.
Accusing the Republican former president of facilitating "Trump abortion bans that make no exception, even for rape and incest" in states across the country, Harris called for Americans to "understand what that means."
"A survivor of a crime of violation to their body does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next," she said.
"You want to talk about this is what people wanted, pregnant women who want to carry pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot," she continued, turning to face Trump and pointing at him, while he stared ahead, stone-faced.
"They didn't want that," Harris continued. "Her husband didn't want that. A 12- or 13-year-old survivor of incest, being forced to carry a pregnancy to term? You don't want that."
Earlier, she stated: "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."
Trump, for his part, continued to insist that "every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal conservative, they all wanted this issue to be brought back to the states."
He insisted that it took "courage" to do it, and said again that Democrats are allowing babies to be executed after birth, even as ABC News debate moderators stated that was not true. Harris said the comment was "insulting to the women of America."
When the moderator asked him about a statement by his running mate JD Vance, who said that Trump would not sign a national abortion ban if it reached his desk as president, he obfuscated, pivoting to attack Harris over student loans.
Harris gets under skin
The last presidential debate in June doomed Biden's re-election campaign, after he delivered a catastrophic performance against Trump.
Harris took over as nominee amid Democratic fears that Biden was too old and infirm to defeat the scandal-plagued Republican.
The US vice-president has earned a reputation in past debates and while serving as a senator for ice-cold put-downs and tough questions.
But Trump is the most brutal public speaker in US politics.
He also benefits from an incredible ability to survive any scandal – and his fervent base if anything enjoys his frequent gaffes, fabricated stories and promotion of conspiracy theories.
He has been convicted of falsifying business records to cover up an affair with an adult film star, found liable for sexual abuse, and faces trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election that he lost to Biden.
But Harris clearly got under his skin by needling him on one of his favourite topics – the size of trademark rallies.
Attendees, she said, prompting an angry retort, were leaving early out of "exhaustion and boredom."
"You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about [how] windmills cause cancer," she said.
"And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you, the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you."
At another moment where Trump appeared to be losing his cool, he talked at length about a debunked conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants have been eating local people's pets in Ohio.
"They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats," he said before being corrected by the ABC News moderator that the authorities in the town of Springfield have said this did not happen.
Trump also refused to recognise his defeat in the 2020 electionas the topic turned to his false voter fraud claims.
The US president claimed he was being sarcastic when he appeared to concede defeat recently, adding: "Look, there's so much proof. All you have to do is look at it... I got almost 75 million votes, the most votes any sitting president has ever gotten. I was told if I got 63 [million], which was what I got in 2016, you can't be beaten the election."
Chance to change narrative
With only 56 days left before the November 5 election, the intense spotlight was a rare opportunity for both candidates to shift the balance in what polls show is an almost evenly split contest.
A single zinger or gaffe could dominate TV screens and social media platforms for days to come.
One such moment came when Harris said Trump couldn't accept that he had been "fired by 81 million people."
The debate was a key chance for Harris to introduce herself to more voters after only jumping into the race less than eight weeks ago, when 81-year-old Biden abruptly quit.
Trump touched down in his plane – dubbed Trump Force One – just over two hours ahead of the debate, while Harris arrived in the eastern city on Monday.
The pressure was arguably greater for Harris, the United States of America's first female, Black and South Asian vice-president, as she takes part in her first presidential debate.
Both candidates are vying to be seen as championing change.
Harris's favourite rally slogan is "we're not going back" to the chaos of the Trump years, while Trump is working to define Harris as responsible for many of the unpopular policies in the Biden administration.
Under the rules, the debate was being held without an audience, while the rivals' microphones were only to be on when it was their turn to speak in order to avoid interruptions.
– TIMES/AFP
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