NEW YORK: On Tuesday, ABC News hosted the first televised debate between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump ...
NEW YORK: On Tuesday, ABC News hosted the first televised debate between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Trump mentioned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name six times and referred to Russia 10 times in the debate, while Harris mentioned Putin four times and Russia two times.
TASS has collected the key statements made by the two presidential hopefuls.
On Russia and Ukraine conflict
Trump criticized US President Joe Biden for failing to talk to Russia about resolving the Ukraine conflict in any way: "He hasn't even made a phone call in two years to Putin." The Republican presidential nominee reiterated that putting a swift end to the Ukraine conflict should be a top priority. Trump argued that he, for one, would end the conflict even before taking office, should he be elected. According to the former US leader, hostilities in Ukraine broke out after Russia realized how incompetent the US leadership was following what he described as a "chaotic" withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. He also admitted that Russia had not been threatening the United States with nuclear weapons.
On the other side, Harris wasted no time coming after her opponent for his position on Ukraine and Russia’s special military operation. The Democratic presidential nominee maintained that Trump was essentially quitting on Ukraine. "I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up," she said.
Harris suspected that Trump was willing to halt US assistance to Ukraine "for the sake of favor" and "friendship" with Russia’s Putin. She also acknowledged that she had met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky over five times and that she had shared American intelligence with him several days prior to the Russian special military operation.
On situation in Middle East
Harris believes that the conflict between Palestine and Israel must be resolved based on a two-state solution in which the security of both sides is guaranteed. Since the conflict in the Gaza Strip erupted, "too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, children and mothers," she said. "This war must end immediately., and the way it will end is we need a cease-fire deal and we need the hostages out," Harris emphasized.
Trump argued that the conflict "would have never started" if he were president.
Trump, Harris get salty
The Republican nominee noted that foreign leaders view Harris and her party mates as weak and incompetent politicians. "The leaders of other countries think that they're weak and incompetent. And they are. They're grossly incompetent.," he insisted. Trump also called Harris a Marxist. "She's a Marxist. Everybody knows she's a Marxist," he said. Whatever Harris said she believed four years ago "is out the window," Trump maintained as he accused his rival for flip-flopping on a number of issues.
Harris rebuked Trump for launching trade wars. "The Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit, one of the highest we've ever seen in the history of America," she stressed. According to her, under Trump, the US administration "ended up selling American chips to help them improve and modernize their military." He "basically sold us out," Harris insisted.
While world leaders are actually laughing at Trump, Harris continued, US military leaders called the former US leader "a disgrace." Trump dealt the worst attack on US democracy since the Civil War of 1861-1865, Harris argued. "And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump's mess," she concluded.
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