Trump and Harris attend same 9/11 memorial after fierce debate

• Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are at the same 9/11 memorial the morning after a fiery debate – their first of the 2024 US presidential election

• They debated policy but personal attacks also dominated the 90 minute event

• Harris said people leave Trump rallies early “out of exhaustion and boredom” – he said people don’t go to hers in the first place

• Trump criticised Harris’s record on immigration and the border, and also her shifting policy positions – Harris blamed him for “Trump abortion bans” and the 6 January attacks on the US Capitol

• Snap polls suggest Harris won the debate, but Trump says afterwards that she “lost very badly”

• The former president appeared on the defensive when he called into Fox News the next morning, criticising the moderators and refusing to commit to another debate

• With the election taking place on 5 November, Harris is slightly ahead in national opinion polls – but key battleground states are very tight

Live Reporting

Edited by Caitlin Wilson

1. ‘We’re more hopeful than ever,’ says Harris supporterpublished at 15:49 British Summer Time

   Jack Gray
   BBC Newsbeat

   

   For Sohali Vaddula from the College Democrats of America, Kamala Harris “most definitely won this debate – without a doubt”.

   She says Trump was “off topic” at points and “attacking [Harris] personally regarding her identity”.

   “She responded well by not allowing him to define her.”

   And it’s given Sohali a boost after the last head-to-head in June, which saw President Joe Biden – then the party’s nominee –falter against Donald Trump.

   “My friends are more hopeful than they’ve ever been,” Sohali tells Newsbeat.

   Like Harris, Sohali has South Asian heritage and says “being represented at the highest level of the national stage is an incredible feeling”.

   “I see myself in Kamala Harris so much,” she says. “We have truly come so far.”

2. Inflation eases further – to Harris’s benefitpublished at 15:38 British Summer Time

   Sam Cabral
   Reporting from Washington

   Image source, Getty Images

   New economic numbers this morning are bringing good news for Kamala Harris.

   Inflation in the US continued to cool last month, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.

   Consumer prices rose by 2.5% over the 12 months to August, down from 2.9% in July. It marks the slowest pace of price rises since February 2021.

   With the Federal Reserve’s official 2% target now within range, analysts expect these figures will convince the Fed that high borrowing costs are working to return inflation back to normal and that it is time to cut interest rates.

   Inflation was a major flashpoint of last night’s debate, with Donald Trump falsely claiming that Vice-President Harris and President Joe Biden are responsible for “inflation like very few people have ever seen before, probably the worst in our nation’s history”.

   Trump – who referred to inflation as “a country buster” – has touted the economic gains and low inflation seen in the first three years of his administration, arguing voters were better off under his leadership.

   Harris has pushed back that she and Biden’s post-pandemic economy is “the strongest in the world” by several indicators, including job gains and the unemployment rate.

3. Trump’s Ukraine statements add to worry in Kyivpublished at 15:28 British Summer Time

   Nick Beake
   Reporting from Kyiv

   On the debate stage, Donald Trump was asked by moderator David Muir: “Do you want Ukraine to win this war?”

   “I want the war to stop,” he responded.

   The Republican nominee’s failure to say if he wanted Ukraine to win may not have surprised people here, but it adds to their worry about what a second Trump term would bring.

   Trump has long boasted he could end in the conflict in 24 hours – a prospect many Ukrainians assume would mean an incredibly bad deal with Kyiv forced to give up huge swathes of the land Russia has seized over the past two-and-a-half years.

   Rather than attacking Kamala Harris’s position on Ukraine, Trump took aim at President Biden and criticised him for not phoning President Putin since the full-scale invasion. Trump claimed Biden was missing in action, while failing to get European allies to match US defence spending on Ukraine.

   In contrast, Ukrainians will have been reassured by Kamala Harris’s responses, with no sign she would deviate from the current position of staunch American support.

   Publicly, there has been a deafening silence from Ukraine’s current ministers and senior military in reaction to the debate.

   It’s President Zelensky who so far has gone furthest in articulating, albeit somewhat euphemistically, what a Trump victory would mean for Ukrainians.

   Speaking to the BBC in July he said it would mean “hard work, but we are hard workers”.

4. What was said about the Israel-Gaza war during the debate?published at 15:21 British Summer Time

   Paul Adams
   Diplomatic correspondent

   The two candidates did not stray much from their previously stated positions last night, even if Donald Trump did add, with characteristic hyperbole, that Israel wouldn’t exist in two years if his opponent becomes president.

   Here in the Middle East, the race for the White House is being keenly watched. With the war in Gaza raging and a ceasefire deal still elusive, some of Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics suspect that Israel’s prime minister is deliberately stalling until after the election, in the hope that Donald Trump will be more sympathetic to Israel than Kamala Harris.

   There’s a whiff of history perhaps being about to repeat itself. In 1980, Ronald Reagan’s campaign team was suspected of urging Iran not to release American hostages held in Tehran until after the former California governor had beaten President Jimmy Carter, saying Mr Reagan would give Iran a better deal.

   Could something similar be afoot now? Certainly Mr Netanyahu’s opponents believe he is now the chief obstacle to a ceasefire deal. Kamala Harris has indicated that she might be tougher on Israel than Joe Biden, something Donald Trump has seized on, saying last night that the vice president “hates Israel” (though, typically wanting to have it both ways, he said she also hates Arabs).

   Palestinians, deeply sceptical about Donald Trump (based on his previous record as president), but dismayed by the Biden administration’s inability to stop the war in Gaza, are possibly inclined to see Kamala Harris as the lesser of two evils. They’ve long since abandoned any notion of the US as an honest broker in the Middle East, but will have noticed that Ms Harris, unlike Mr Trump, says she’s committed to Palestinian statehood.

5. Israel-Gaza war an issue for some undecidedspublished at 15:16 British Summer Time

   Bertin Huynh
   BBC Asian Network

   Maryam Issa watched the debate from New York and says she is leaning towards Kamala Harris, but she is put off by the vice-president’s stance on the Israel-Gaza war.

   “Her approach to it is not what I like, so I’m deciding to be undecided,” she tells BBC Asian Network.

   “Kamala has to do more for Palestine. Our money [tax dollars] is being used to kill people in Gaza.”

   Issa, 23, says that she and her friends have been looking at the Green Party, led by Jill Stein, as an alternative.

   “I feel our leaders can do better. They have to bring out their empathy and love for humanity.”

   She noted, however, that she felt she could not support Trump after his presidency – particularly when she reflected on “how he responded when he was defeated” – and did have some kind words for the vice-president.

   “Kamala did well, came up with the facts and I liked her approach to the abortion [issue]. I also liked the way she talked about immigration.”

6. WATCH: Harris and Trump attend 9/11 memorial in Manhattanpublished at 15:06 British Summer Time

   Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump attended a 9/11 memorial in Manhattan on Wednesday morning.

   The two had never met before they debated each other in Philadelphia on Tuesday, but they shook hands when they saw each other at the New York City ceremony.

   Harris appeared alongside President Joe Biden, and Trump stood next to his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio.

7. Trump speaks about the Taliban during debatepublished at 14:45 British Summer Time

   Lyse Doucet
   Chief international correspondent

   Its been 23 years since the 9/11 attack on downtown Manhattan – today both presidential candidates are attending a memorial there. It triggered American’s longest war and still resonates politically.

   The debacle of America’s pullout in August 2021 and the Taliban return made it into in the debate and, not surprisingly, the issues were dodged, dismissed, distorted. It left some wondering who is “Abdul” and why is he meme on the internet this morning?

   Trump boasted again that he talked tough with the “head of the Taliban” who is “still the head of the Taliban.” He seemed to be referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the deal with the US. But he never headed the Taliban, and has been sidelined since the Taliban takeover.

   Kamala Harris veered away from the question “do you bear any responsibility in the way that withdrawal played out?” in August 2021. As a correspondent who followed the chaotic pullout closely, I never heard she was in the room where decisions were taken in those final fateful weeks.

   But she made it clear she agreed with President Biden’s decision to leave.

   Both contenders shifted their focus to the flawed deal with the Taliban. The truth is – the Trump team negotiated this exit plan; the Biden team hastily enacted it.

   Trump said the deal was good because “we were getting out.” There were no good ways to go. But the departure turned into a disaster and all sides are to blame.

8. All smiles as Trump and Harris meet at 9/11 memorialpublished at 14:15 British Summer Time

   Image source, Getty Images

   At the 9/11 memorial in Manhattan, Americans who lost family members on 11 September 2001 are currently reading out the names of victims and memorialising them.

   Both 2024 presidential candidates are attending the event this year. Cameras picked up Kamala Harris walking up to Donald Trump and, as she did in the debate, offering to shake his hand. Her opponent accepted.

   Attendees are standing through the event as a sign of respect. Harris is separated from Trump by two people – President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

   Also seen at the event are Trump’s running mate JD Vance; Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who represent New York in the US Senate; New York Governor Kathy Hochul; and, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump ally.

9. Trump and Harris at 9/11 memorial morning after debatepublished at 14:10 British Summer Time

   Phil McCausland
   Reporting from New York

   Image source, Getty Images

   Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden have arrived at the 9/11 memorial in Manhattan ahead of ceremony that will commemorate one of America’s greatest tragedies.

   Donald Trump arrived at the same memorial with his running mate Senator JD Vance of Ohio just moments before.

   Stick with us as we bring you more about the two presidential contenders, who seeing each other for the first time after a fiery debate in Philadelphia.

10. US news organisations agree Harris did better than Trumppublished at 13:55 British Summer Time

    Coverage of the debate by news organizations across the political spectrum appeared to come to the same conclusion on who won, Kamala Harris, though some conservative outlets criticised the moderators for fact checking.

    The conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal published articles and commentary pieces from multiple opinion writers, external that called the debate for Harris. Trump “threw away his chance to deliver some knock-out blows”, one commentator wrote.

    Opinion pieces in the New York Post, another conservative publication, say Harris rattled Trump and appeared well prepared, external, but it criticised her policy shifts and the moderators for “targeting far more tough questions at Trump than Harris”.

    Fox News bluntly declared Harris “won” the debate, external but also said she had help from moderators.

    The liberal-leaning MSNBC framed the debate as one in which Harris “brushed off” Trump’s attacks while pushing the former president’s buttons, causing him to be on the back foot.

    The New York Times and The Washington Post also noted Harris’s attacks and her ability to put Trump on the defense. A Times opinion piece says the former president “made a raving, rambling fool of himself, external“.

    The Post’s opinion writers said Harris did a good job and may have persuaded voters despite coming off as “scripted” to some watching.

11. Was it Trump’s ‘best debate’? Here’s what a young Republican had to saypublished at 13:32 British Summer Time

    Jack Gray
    BBC Newsbeat

    

    Donald Trump said last night was his “best debate” – do his supporters agree?

    “I think he did very well,” says Patrick Burland from the New Haven Young Republicans, stopping short of calling it the former president’s best.

    “Some of his 2016 debates were even better,” the Connecticut native adds.

    Even if it wasn’t the Republican nominee’s number one performance, Patrick tells BBC Newsbeat that his candidate still came out on top and “skewered” Kamala Harris.

    Patrick agrees with Trump’s claims that moderators were against him, arguing there’s a “liberal” bias in the media.

    He says it doesn’t mean the media is always wrong, but the moderators “definitely followed up and would try and pin [Trump] down… They gave Harris a lot more leeway.”

    His final verdict?

    “I think this will be a very close election but Trump will get it over the line.”

12. Harris and Trump to attend same 9/11 ceremony – morning after debatepublished at 13:05 British Summer Time

    Image source, Getty Images

    Kamala Harris and Donald Trump had never met in person or directly spoken to each other before Tuesday’s debate.

    On Wednesday, though, there is a chance they may cross paths again – and in consecutive days.

    Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, when 2,996 people died on 11 September 2001. It’s typically a day when presidential campaigning gives way to remembrances of the deadliest attack on American soil.

    Both presidential candidates are planning to attend the traditional memorial service that begins at 08:30 local time (13:30 BST) in New York City’s Memorial Plaza at ground zero.

    Also attending the day’s activities are Harris’s boss, President Joe Biden, and Trump’s running mate, JD Vance.

    Harris and Biden are then expected to travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 crashed.

    Harris’s vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz, will meanwhile attend a 9/11 commemoration in his home state of Minnesota, where he currently serves as governor.

13. Trump responds to Taylor Swift’s Harris endorsementpublished at 12:57 British Summer Time

    Fox News is first to ask Donald Trump about the news that dropped immediately after the debate – a Kamala Harris endorsement by pop culture icon Taylor Swift.

    The former president says he is not a Swift fan and “it was just a question of time”.

    “She couldn’t possibly endorse Biden,” he went on. “But she’s a very liberal person. She seems to always endorse a Democrat, and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.”

    Trump also needles the singer by referencing her close friend Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Super Bowl champion quarterback Patrick Mahomes. She has ignited backlash in recent weeks by appearing to show support for Trump and Republican policies.

    “I actually like Mrs Mahomes much better if you want to know the truth,” Trump quipped. “She’s a big Trump fan.”

14. Trump appears reluctant to participate in another debatepublished at 12:34 British Summer Time

    While speaking to Fox News, Trump did not seem enthusiastic about participating in another debate after sharing a stage with Harris on Tuesday.

    He aired numerous grievances about how the event was moderated by ABC News. And he even seemed opposed to the invitation from Fox – a network he had pushed to host during debate negotiations with the Harris campaign – when asked about three potential dates.

    “Well, I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night. We won the debate,” he said.

    For its part, the Harris campaign said in the aftermath of Tuesday’s debate that it would be eager for its candidate to face Trump again.

    Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said the debate showed voters their choice in November. The options were “between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump”, she 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?”

15. Trump defends ‘great’ debate performancepublished at 12:24 British Summer Time

    Donald Trump had just phoned into Fox News to defend his performance in last night’s debate.

    “I think we did great,” he said.

    The Republican nominee went on to attack the ABC moderators who presided over the debate and fact checked multiple claims, which he said amounted to a “three-on-one”.

    “When you look at the fact they were correcting everything and not correcting with her,” he said.

    Trump then falsely claimed “every single poll last night had me winning like 90-10”.

    63% of registered voters said Harris was the better performer while 37% went with Trump, according to a CNN/SSR poll, external of 600 voters conducted after the debate.

16. Was the Kremlin watching? Here’s what they had to say about the debatepublished at 12:03 British Summer Time

    Steve Rosenberg
    BBC Russia editor

    It was 04:00 (02:00 BST) in Moscow when Donald Trump and Kamala Harris began their debate in Philadelphia.

    Was the Kremlin watching?

    “We didn’t have the opportunity to watch live,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the BBC. “But this morning we saw the news reports about what was said.”

    “We noted that both candidates mentioned President Putin and our country. The USA retains a negative, unfriendly attitude towards Russia. Putin’s name is used as one of the instruments for the internal battle in the US. We don’t like this and hope they will keep our president’s name out of this.”

17. A fierce debate that appears to have left Trump rattledpublished at 11:42 British Summer Time

    Phil McCausland
    Reporting from New York

    Hello from the US, where Americans are waking up after a fierce evening presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

    Many expected Tuesday’s event to serve as Vice-President Harris’s introduction to American voters, and the Trump campaign promised the former president would use his time on stage to define his opponent as out-of-touch and extreme – particularly on issues like immigration and the economy.

    But Harris was regularly able to bait and trap him on his past policies and rhetoric in a way that seemed to fluster and rattle the former president.

    Early reviews of the pair’s debate performance suggests that voters found Harris did a better job than Trump, but both sides will continue to attempt to spin the evening to aid their own political narratives.

    Stick with us, and we will bring you the latest.

18. What do the polls say about who won the debate?published at 11:28 British Summer Time

    Mike Hills
    Visual Journalist

    We will have to wait a few days until the bigger national and state-level polls reflect any changes in the electoral mood following this debate, but we did get one limited snap poll immediately after.

    In a CNN/SSRS poll, external of 600 registered voters who watched the debate, 63% said Harris was the better performer while 37% went with Trump. Prior to the debate, the same voters were evenly split on who they thought would perform best.

    That does not necessarily translate to votes though – only 4% said the debate changed their minds about who they might vote for.

    We’ll be tracking the polls every day as we approach the election here.

19. Trump repeats baseless claims about immigrants and voter fraudpublished at 11:12 British Summer Time

    Mike Wendling
    US reporter

    Last night Donald Trump once again repeated his unsubstantiated claim that he would have won the 2020 election, were it not for “cheating” from the other side.

    After moderator David Muir suggested that Trump may have recently accepted his defeat when he said on a podcast that he lost by “a whisker”, the former president insisted his comments were made in jest.

    He then launched into his standard attack on the US electoral system.

    “Our elections are bad, and a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote,” he said.

    “They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in, practically. And these people (Democrats) are trying to get them to vote.”

    Immigrants who haven’t obtained US citizenship aren’t allowed to vote in presidential elections – breaking the law is punishable by up to a year in prison and deportation.

    And while there are definitely scattered cases of vote fraud, there’s no evidence that immigrants to the US vote in any noticeable numbers.

    But the idea of “rigged” elections has become a core part of Trump’s appeal to his fervent base. No doubt he’ll keep repeating these falsehoods as the election approaches.

20. Beijing thinks little will change – whoever is in the White Housepublished at 11:03 British Summer Time

    Laura Bicker
    China correspondent, reporting from Beijing

    Image source, Reuters

    Kamala Harris was an unknown quantity to leaders in Beijing. She still is – even after the debate.

    She represents something China does not like – uncertainty. That is why President Xi used a recent visit by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to call for “stability” between the superpowers – perhaps a message to the current vice-president rather than President Joe Biden.

    The prevailing view among Chinese academics is that she will not stray too far from Biden’s slow and steady diplomatic approach.

    Instead of clarifying if this will indeed be the case, she went on the attack and accused Donald Trump of “selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernize their military,” during his time as president.

    She also said he “invited trade wars”. China would agree with this, but it will also be asking itself, does this line of attack suggest she will not do the same?

    Donald Trump has made it clear he plans has to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese goods. China retaliated and numerous studies suggest this caused economic pain for both sides.

    Beijing believes Washington’s trade tariffs are a way of containing China and ministers bristle with contempt at any attempt to curb the country’s rise as a global economic power.

    For Chinese leaders, this debate will have done little to assuage beliefs that Trump represents something else they don’t like – unpredictability.

    But in truth, there is little hope here that US policy on China will change significantly – no matter who sits in the White House.