Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris put Republican Donald Trump on the defensive at a combative presidential debate on Tuesday with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes, as both candidates sought a campaign-altering moment in their closely fought election.
In a boost to the Harris campaign, pop megastar Taylor Swift told her 283 million followers on Instagram in a post immediately following the debate that she would back Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the Nov. 5 election. The post had been liked nearly 2 million times within 25 minutes.
A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, appeared to get under the former president's skin repeatedly, prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to deliver a series of falsehood-filled retorts.
At one point, she brought up Trump's campaign rallies, goading him by saying that people often leave early "out of exhaustion and boredom."
Trump, who has been frustrated by the size of Harris' own crowds , said, "My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics." He then pivoted to an unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are "eating the pets" of residents.
"Talk about extreme," Harris said, laughing.
The candidates clashed over issues such as immigration, foreign policy and healthcare, but the debate was light on specific policy details.
Instead, Harris' forceful approach succeeded in putting the focus on Trump, leaving her allies jubilant and some Republicans acknowledging Trump's struggles.
"Trump missed an opportunity to stay focused prosecuting the case against Biden-Harris on the economy and border, and instead took her bait and chased down rabbit holes on election denialism and immigrants eating our pets," said Marc Short, who served as chief of staff for Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence.
Online prediction market PredictIt's 2024 presidential general election market showed Trump's likelihood of victory declining during the debate, to 47% from 52%. Harris' odds improved to 55% from 53%.
In a sign of confidence in the debate's outcome, Harris' campaign challenged Trump to a second debate immediately.
Trump, who has spent weeks launching personal attacks on Harris including racist and sexist insults, largely avoided that pattern during the debate's early moments but quickly became agitated under Harris' offensive.
While tens of millions of Americans tuned in to watch the debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on their television screens on Tuesday, a secondary battle played out on social media through clips and video edits of memorable debate moments.
Social media users were off from the opening moment of the debate, with Democrats seizing the moment Harris walked across the stage to shake Trump's hand and introduce herself.
"Kamala said you’re gonna shake my hand dammit!" social media user Adam James Smith posted on X, to 40,000 likes.
Part of Vice President Harris' debate plan was to goad Trump into saying things that could become viral social media clips, advisers said earlier, and the debate suggested that strategy paid off.
Supporters circulated images of Harris' sometimes bemused, sometimes skeptical facial expressions as Trump cycled through a series of familiar falsehoods and repeated a false conspiracy that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet dogs and cats.
"THEY'RE EATING THE DOGS," quickly trended on social media platform X, buoyed by thousands of posts - including many confused at the quote's relevance in a presidential debate, after Trump said "They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats."
Trump supporters, meanwhile, jumped on his response as he discussed Harris' economic plan, saying it was simplistic and copied her boss President Joe Biden's agenda. "Run, Spot, run," he said, referring to a popular childrens' book series used to teach kids to read in decades past. Social media is playing an even more significant role in this year's election cycle than it has in the past, political strategists say. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have drafted content creators, or influencers, to push information on their party's policies and their candidates.
Overall, Trump outperforms Harris and her campaign on X and TikTok based on followers. The Harris campaign's official Kamala HQ account has 1.3 million followers on X, compared to Trump's 2.4 million. However, her campaign has received over 100 million "likes" on its videos on TikTok versus Trump's 44 million.
