The ABC News presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia began at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. This was Trump’s second debate in the 2024 presidential run — he faced President Joe Biden on June 27. Due to Biden’s poor performance, Democrats succeeded in pressuring him into ending his reelection bid less than a month later, on July 21.
With the election just eight weeks away, this was Harris’ first presidential debate. She was expected to defend her dramatic shift from her past positions on key policy issues while attempting to appeal to moderates. She released her campaign policy platform two days ago — 49 days after announcing her 2024 campaign for president.
ABC News anchor David Muir started the debate by asking the candidates about their economic plans:
I want to begin tonight with the issue that voters repeatedly say is their number one issue, and that is the economy and the cost of living in this country. Vice President Harris, you and President Trump [sic] were elected four years ago, and your opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?
Both candidates answered Muir. In her response to Trump’s answer, Harris attacked him, claiming he was behind the Heritage Foundation’s Presidential Transition Project, aka Project 2025, saying, “What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former President intends on implementing if he were elected again.”
Trump responded to Harris’ claim by stating:
Number one, I have nothing to do — as you know, and as she knows better than anyone — I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That’s out there. I haven’t read it, I don’t want to read it; purposely, I’m not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas — I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do…. Everybody knows — I’m an open book — everybody knows what I’m going to do: Cut taxes very substantially and create a great economy, like I did before.
We had the greatest economy. We got hit with a pandemic, and the pandemic was — not since 1917 where 100 million people died has there been anything like it. We did a phenomenal job with the pandemic. We handed them over a country where the economy and where the stock market was higher than it was before the pandemic came in. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. We made ventilators for the entire world, we got gowns, we got masks, we did things that nobody thought possible. People give me credit for rebuilding the military, they give me credit for a lot of things — but not enough credit for the great job we did with the pandemic. But the only jobs they got were “bounce back” jobs. These were jobs bounced back; it bounced back and it went to their benefit, but I was the one that created them. They know it, and so does everybody else.
Yesterday on CNN, former director of Project 2025 Paul Dans rejected the Harris campaign’s claims that Trump was involved in the project, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins:
The breaking news is Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025. Sure a lot of us have worked in the admin and came together, but this started long before he even announced for president. It was really a coming together of the conservative movement, and I think that’s what has been so threatening to the Left. Our side’s always been prone to infighting, and what we were able to do here was bring together 110 groups and really lay out a common sense plan. You know, not everyone agrees [with] what’s in that book, but the book’s only actually part of the plan. What we did was really invite people from all over the country to get back into their government.
Before the debate, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) predicted that Trump would expose Harris’ “radical” record, stating on X:
Tonight at the debate, President @realDonaldTrump will expose VP Kamala Harris’ radical record. As Vice President, Harris has failed to lower costs or secure the border over the past 3 and a half years. Lying about her record and positions will not work. Instead, President Trump has a strong agenda that will secure our border, fix our economy, and deliver peace through strength once again! 🇺🇸
