Democrat Kamala Harris opened her presidential debate with Republican Donald Trump by touting her economic agenda, saying she was the only candidate on stage with a plan focused on “lifting up the middle class and working people of America.”

Harris addressed one of her biggest electoral vulnerabilities, high prices and costs that have hammered US households and left voters skeptical of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. The vice president noted her plans for expanding the child tax credit, offering mortgage assistance to new homebuyers, and a deduction for small businesses — while attacking Trump over his proposed tariff policy.

“The cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people we know,” Harris said at Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia hosted by ABC News. She defended the administration’s efforts on the economy saying she and Biden had to “clean up Donald Trump’s mess.”

“I had tariffs yet I had no inflation,” Trump countered. “Look, we’ve had a terrible economy because inflation — which is really known as a country buster, it breaks up countries — we have inflation like very few people have ever seen before.”

Trump in his opening remarks criticized Harris over the border, pointing to Springfield, Ohio, a town where an influx of Haitian immigrants has spurred widespread coverage, particularly in conservative outlets.

Migrants “are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently,” he said, a bid to pivot the conversation to immigration policy, another issue where polls show voters disapprove of the Biden administration’s response.

Later in the debate, Trump returned to the town — floating a unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that migrants were eating pets, and earning a laugh from Harris.

“The people on television say ‘my dog was taken and used for food,’” Trump said. “The people on television are saying my dog was eaten by the people that went there.”

“Talk about extreme,” Harris responded.

The former president was on the defensive early, distancing himself from Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for his second term written by some of his closest allies — but which he has disavowed in the face of Democratic attacks.

“I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it. Purposely, I’m not going to read it,” Trump said after Harris jabbed him over the initiative. “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.”

Abortion rights

Trump and Harris also clashed at length over abortion — an issue with Democrats believe will mobilize suburban women and independents in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade spurring restrictions on the procedure in states across the country.

Harris labeled abortion restrictions adopted by states in the aftermath of the ruling “Trump abortion bans” and said the former president was responsible for situations where women were denied abortion care or access to IVF. She repeatedly pressed Trump on whether he would veto a bill imposing a national restriction on abortion.

“Trump abortion bans make no exception, even for rape and incest,” Harris said, prompting Trump to call her a liar.

Trump said that while he is not in favor of abortion, the issue is now up to the states, an approach he said he shares with former President Ronald Reagan. Asked by the moderators if he would veto a national abortion ban, Trump deflected, stating, “I wouldn’t have to.”

“They wanted to get it out of Congress and out of the federal government, and we did something that everybody said couldn’t be done,” Trump said.

Trump, for his part, claimed Harris would allow late-term or even post-birth abortion, earning a rebuke from the moderator, who noted no state allowed the killing of a baby post-birth.

“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and in asking for an abortion, that is not happening,” Harris said. “It’s insulting to the women of America and understand what has been happening under Donald Trump’s abortion ban.”

Trump nominated three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe and has used that ruling to cement his grip on evangelical voters and the Republican party. But he’s also tried to neutralize abortion as an election issue in a bid to expand his electoral appeal, criticizing GOP messaging on the issue and declining to endorse a national ban backed by evangelical leaders.

Harris also expanded the conversation beyond abortion to fertility treatments. Democrats have warned that abortion rulings could also threaten fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization.

“Couples who pray and dream of having a family are being denied IVF treatment,” Harris said.

Trump in response claimed to be “a leader on IVF.” He has vowed to mandate that the federal government or insurance companies cover the entire costs of in vitro fertilization.

Exchanging jabs

Trump spoke at length about the violent Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters seeking to block the certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump mourned the shooting death of protester Ashli Babbitt as “a disgrace” and blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not doing more to secure the situation.

Trump also attacked Harris for backtracking on some of her past policies. The vice president has distanced herself from some policies she supported in the 2020 presidential cycle when she sought her party’s nomination.

“Everything she believed three years ago or four years ago is out the window,” Trump said. “She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist.”

As Trump delivered his jab, Harris brought a hand to her chin and stared at the former president quizzically. She also repeatedly shook her head in disbelief as Trump.

The contentious nature of the debate followed a fight between the campaigns over the forum’s rules with Harris’ team seeking and failing to get an agreement to allow microphones to remain live even when it was not a candidate’s turn to speak – a bid to have audiences hear Trump’s potential interjections.

Harris baited Trump by suggesting his iconic political rallies no longer have the same pull — even among his supporters.

“I’m going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies,” she said, noting that he regularly talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. “You will also notice is 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.”

Trump, who was asked about the border, instead veered back to the rallies in his response. “People don’t go to her rallies; there’s no reason to go,” he said. Both Harris and Trump have attracted thousands of supporters to their rallies.

“We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” Trump said.

The Republican presidential nominee at one point bristled at Harris’ attempts to interject.

“I’m talking now, if you don’t mind please. Does that sound familiar?” he said. Trump’s remark referred to a viral moment in Harris’ 2020 vice presidential debate with Republican Mike Pence, where she told him “I’m speaking.”

Pivotal debate

The debate, potentially the only face-to-face showdown between Harris and Trump this cycle, comes with early voting poised to begin in some states within days and as polls show the two candidates locked in a tight contest.

Hanging over Tuesday’s event was the shadow of one of the most consequential debates of modern US history, a June forum where Biden delivered a calamitous performance against Trump, leading to his replacement by Harris atop the Democratic ticket.

Harris and Trump on stage highlighted what has already been a tumultuous and unprecedented contest. Harris, 59, is seeking to be the first Black woman and first Asian-American US president. Trump, 78, is in his third race for the White House – looking to return to power as the first former president convicted of a felony and with an agenda that offers to test the boundaries of US political norms.

The stakes are high for both in an already tumultuous presidential contest with Election Day less than two months away.

Surveys show a deadlocked race, with Trump and Harris jockeying for advantage in the seven battlegrounds likely to determine November’s outcome. Harris is leading or tied with Trump in each of the seven states, according to an August Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey of voters.

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(With assistance from María Paula Mijares Torres, Hadriana Lowenkron, Jennifer Epstein, Stephanie Lai and Skylar Woodhouse.)

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