Trump-Harris presidential debate: Live updates, reaction after candidates clash on abortion, immigration, economy

Neither campaign has officially committed to a Sept. 25 debate on NBC.

Trump adviser Jason Miller told CNN that Trump would do the debate, set to be hosted by NBC, so long as Harris "quit playing games, quit running" and shows up. Trump, however, called into Fox & Friends this morning and said, "I don't know that I want to do another debate."

Quentin Fulks, Harris's deputy campaign manager, told CNN that "both campaigns are going to have to agree to a time but I think the vice president is open to a debate in October."

There has been a lot of back-and-forth between the two campaigns over debate dates and rules. Initially, Trump proposed three debates against Harris — Sept. 4 with Fox News, Sept. 10 with ABC News and Sept. 25 with NBC. Harris declined the Sept. 4 debate option and said she would only agree to future debates after meeting Trump on Sept. 10.

David Plouffe, a senior adviser for the Harris campaign, told CNN Wednesday morning that the campaign plans to focus on some of Trump's responses at Tuesday night's debate.

Plouffe zeroed in on a few aspects:

• Trump's health care plan, of which Plouffe said: "We have waited 11 years for his health care plan. We’ve never seen it."

• Abortion: "He refused to say he wouldn’t sign an actual abortion ban."

• Ukraine: "He basically said ... he wouldn’t take Ukraine’s side."

Reuters spoke to several investors about how the financial markets responded to the debate performances last night. The consensus seemed to be that "no knockout blow has landed" and there wasn't enough for the "markets to sink their teeth into."

Presidential elections do affect the stock market, although to a lesser extent than economic and inflation trends do.

"This debate doesn't seem to be changing the fact that it's going to be a very close election," Jack Ablin, the chief investment officer at Cresset Capital told the outlet. "If people don't feel their lives are improving, that will shape their behavior in November."

Harris and Trump shook hands after they both arrived for the 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York City on Wednesday morning. They notably shook hands at the beginning of the debate last night, which was the first time the candidates met in person.

In addition to Harris and Trump, President Biden, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg are at Ground Zero this morning.

In a call to Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, Trump repeatedly attacked ABC News, accusing the network's debate moderators of over-fact-checking him instead of Harris — and he even suggested the network should have its broadcasting license revoked.

“It was three to one. It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be,” he said. “I think ABC took a big hit last night. To be honest, they’re a news organization, they have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.”

Vice President Kamala Harris attended a watch party at the Cherry Street Pier in Philadelphia following the presidential debate. Her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, accompanied her to greet supporters.

During a live interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC on Tuesday night, vice presidential nominee Tim Walz found out in real time about the pop music superstar’s sudden announcement: that she is planning to vote for Kamala Harris in November.

Maddow read Swift’s lengthy Instagram post explaining her decision out loud in full, in which Swift specifically praised Walz for “standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

Walz responded by saying he was “incredibly grateful” for Swift’s support. “That’s the type of courage we need in America,” he said.

The governor of Minnesota then followed up with a call to action for Swift’s dedicated fan base. “This’ll be the opportunity, Swifties,” he said. “Give us a hand. Get things going.”

Less than an hour after the debate ended, Donald Trump entered the spin room in Philadelphia, where he declared victory.

"It was my best debate ever, I think," Trump told reporters. "I think it was the best debate, personally, that I've ever had."

Trump cited unspecified polls showing he won the debate but would not commit to doing a second one, as was proposed by the Harris campaign.

"I don't know if we're going to do another one," he said, before adding: "I wouldn't mind."

After the debate concluded, the Associated Press reported that both candidates said "thank you" after they delivered their closing statements.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff joined Harris on stage while Trump exited alone, according to AP. Former first lady Melania Trump did not join him in Philadelphia.

Moments after the debate ended, pop singer Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president in an Instagram post.

"I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them," Swift wrote.

Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, made the case that tonight’s debate provided a stark contrast between two visions for the country.

“You saw the confidence. You saw the vision. You saw the poise. You saw the compassion for people,” Walz told ABC News of her performance after the debate ended.

He described Trump as “angry” and “unhinged” and reminiscent of “an old man yelling at the clouds.”

“He shouldn’t be anywhere near the White House,” Walz said.

In a statement released moments after the debate concluded, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon called for a second debate between Harris and Trump.

“Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump," O’Malley Dillon said. "That’s what they saw tonight and what they should see at a second debate in October. Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”

In his closing remarks, Trump repeatedly asked why Harris as vice president hasn't accomplished her political agenda. "Why hasn't she done it?" he asked.

He also returned to one of his favored tactics in the debate: attacking Harris for allegedly allowing too much illegal immigration.

"They're destroying our country," he said in the final line of the event. "The worst president, the worst vice president in the history of our country."

In her closing statement, Vice President Kamala Harris said, "I think you've heard tonight two very different visions for our country: One that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past and an attempt to take us backward. But we're not going back."

Harris then tried to present a unifying vision for the American people.

"I'll tell you, I started my career as a prosecutor. I was a DA, I was an attorney general, a United States senator and now vice president. I've only had one client, the people. And I'll tell you, as a prosecutor, I never asked a victim or a witness. Are you a Republican or a Democrat? The only thing I ever ask them Are you OK?"

Near the end of the debate, Harris responded to an assertion Trump made earlier in the evening: That she and her running mate want to take away Americans' Second Amendment rights.

"This business about taking everyone's guns away: Tim Walz and I are both gun owners," Harris said. "We're not taking anybody's guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff."

Harris has previously stated that she is a gun owner. In 2019, while defending her call for a ban on assault weapons, she said, "I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do — for personal safety."

A Harris campaign aide later confirmed that she owns a handgun.

Trump: “I had a choice to make. Do I save it and make it as good as it can be or do I let it rot? And I saved it.”

This claim needs context: Trump’s promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was a centerpiece of his 2016 presidential campaign and he came within a single Senate vote of fulfilling that pledge. More recently, he has said he no longer wants to eliminate the law, but instead wants to make it “much better.” He has not provided any details on how he might improve the ACA.

When asked directly tonight whether he has a plan for improving or replacing the ACA, Trump responded that he has “concepts of a plan.”

ABC News asked Harris if she bore any responsibility for the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Harris responded by saying she agreed with the decision to withdraw, but she blamed Trump for handing the Biden administration a bad deal on the matter.

Harris: “Donald Trump, when he was president, negotiated one of the weakest deals you can imagine. He calls himself a dealmaker. Even his national security adviser said it was a weak, terrible deal. And here’s how it went down. He bypassed the Afghan government. He negotiated directly with a terrorist organization called the Taliban.”

This claim needs context. As U.S. troops concluded their pullout of Afghanistan in August 2021, a suicide bomber launched an attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and approximately 170 Afghan civilians, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

While Trump and other Republicans have attacked Harris and Biden for how the administration handled the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, some former Trump administration officials have said that Biden was simply following through with a deal Trump negotiated with the Taliban.

David Muir: "Mr. President, you recently said of Vice President Harris, 'I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black.' I want to ask a bigger-picture question here tonight. Why do you believe it's appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity of your opponent?"

Trump: "I don't, and I don't care. I don't care what she is, I don't care. You make a big deal out of something. I couldn't care less. Whatever she wants to be is OK with me."

This claim needs context.

Trump attended the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention earlier this summer and chose the venue to falsely accuse Harris of embracing her Black identity only recently when it was politically convenient.

Harris, who is biracial, has long identified as both Black and South Asian. As a student, she attended Howard University, one of the nation’s most famous historically Black colleges, where she pledged at a historically Black sorority. As a senator, she joined the Congressional Black Caucus.

Read more from Yahoo News: “#WhenITurnedBlack trends after Trump attacked Harris’s racial identity. It’s Black Twitter’s way of ‘dealing with pain through humor.’”

Trump talked about the threat of Russia and its leader, President Vladimir Putin, during an exchange in the debate.