- Last night, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took to the stage in Philadelphia for their first debate in the run up to the 2024 presidential election
- The pair disagreed on a number of subject matters – and made their feelings about each other very clear
- Here are the top five bizarre lines and blistering take-downs delivered by the candidates
Last night (September 10) saw Donald Trump and Kamala Harris take to the stage to debate each other for the first time in the run up to the 2024 presidential election.
The former president, 78, and the current vice-president, 59, battled it out throughout the fiery 90 minutes in Philadelphia this week, disagreeing on a number of matters and attempting to talk over each other.
But aside from scowling at his opponent throughout the debate, Republican candidate Trump came out with a series of bizarre and baffling statements throughout the hour and a half long debacle, while Harris shared some fierce take-downs of her opponent.
Pubity.com unpacks our favorite lines…
‘In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs’
In a heated answer on immigration, Trump raised eyebrows by repeating an already-debunked online conspiracy theory claiming that Haitian immigrants had been eating stolen domestic pets in the Ohian small town of Springfield.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” he ranted. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
‘He talks about Hannibal Lecter’
While she did treat us to a series of scathing statements about her opponent, Harris’s best attack line of the talk was brutal.
“He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter,” she said. “He will talk about how windmills cause cancer… The one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.”
‘People leave his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom’
In yet another burn to former president Trump, VP Harris poked fun at crowd sizes at his rallies.
“People start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom,” she said.
However, Trump didn’t take that one lying go – and childishly retorted, “People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go.”
‘There is no state where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born’
Of course, the pair clashed over the subject of abortion came up during the debate, after Trump’s overturned Roe v Wade abortion protections in 2022.
“One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government – and Donald Trump, certainly – should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said.
She said Trump would “sign an abortion ban” if re-elected, and cited conservative states that prohibit the procedure while allowing limited exceptions.
While reiterating that he supports exceptions for cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk, Trump countered, “What she says is an absolute lie. I am not in favor of an abortion ban.”
But at one point, the Republican candidate spouted an outright lie, claiming that some babies were being subjected to “executions” after birth.
One of the ABC moderators stepped in to fact-check him, saying, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”
‘She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison’
I mean… where to even start with this one.
As Trump claimed Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison”, more context is needed to his wild claims.
The statement was made in referral to Harris’s response to a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire, in which she said she supported using taxpayer funds to give access to gender-affirming care to transgender and non-binary people – including those in immigration detention and prison.
