Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a Presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Pennsylvania on Tuesday (September 10, 2024).
| Photo Credit: AFP

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he will end the Russia-Ukraine war if he wins the November Presidential elections, an assertion dismissed by his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, who said the former U.S. President would “just give up”.

Trading barbs with Vice President Harris on Tuesday (September 10, 2024) at their first Presidential debate in Pennsylvania ahead of the U.S. General Elections on November 5, Mr. Trump said the war would have never started had he been the President.

“I’ll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended. If I’m President-elect, I’ll get it done before even becoming president,” Mr. Trump (78) said in response to a question during the debate.

Asserting there was no threat of war in the four years he was President from 2017 to 2021, Mr. Trump said, “I know (Russian President Vladimir) Putin very well. He would have never — and there was no threat of it either, by the way, for four years — gone into Ukraine and killed millions of people when you add it up”.

Mr. Trump blamed the Biden-Harris Administration for not preventing the war in Ukraine and said, “If I were President, it would have never started.” The former President asserted that he wanted the war to stop and claimed that millions were being killed in it.

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“I want to save lives that are being uselessly people being killed by the millions. It’s the millions. It’s so much worse than the numbers you’re getting, which are fake numbers,” he said.

“I know (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy very well and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship. They respect me, they don’t respect (incumbent President Joe) Biden,” he said.

“How would you respect him (Biden)? He hasn’t even made a phone call in two years to Putin. He hasn’t spoken to anybody. That is a war that’s dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become President if I win when I’m President-elect,” Mr. Trump said.

Disagreeing with him, Vice President Harris said, “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. And that’s not who we are as Americans.” Ms. Harris said she met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and shared “American intelligence about how he could defend himself” a few days before the Russian invasion and went to NATO’s eastern flank to Poland and Romania days later, bringing 50 countries together to support Ukraine in its “righteous defence”.

“Because of our support, because of the air defence, the ammunition, the artillery, the javelins, and the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent and free country,” she said.

“If Donald Trump were President, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now and understand what that would mean because Putin’s agenda is not just about Ukraine,” she said.

Addressing Mr. Trump, she said, “Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer President and that we understand the importance of…NATO. And what we have done to preserve the ability of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to fight for their independence. Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland.”

During the debate, Mr. Trump claimed that when Putin endorsed Ms. Harris last week, saying ‘I hope she’ wins, the Russian President meant it “because what he’s gotten away with is absolutely incredible”.

“It wouldn’t have happened with me. The leaders of other countries think that they’re weak and incompetent and they are grossly incompetent,” he said, referring to the Biden-Harris administration.

Ms. Harris alleged it was well known that Mr. Trump was weak and wrong on issues of national security and foreign policy. “It is well known that he admires dictators and wants to be a dictator on day one, according to himself. It is well known that he said of Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants and go into Ukraine. It is well known that he said when Russia went into…,” she said.

“In Ukraine, it was brilliant; it is well known. He exchanged love letters with (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un. It is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be President again because it’s so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favours,” she said.

Alleging that military leaders with whom Mr. Trump has worked have told her that he is a “disgrace”, Ms. Harris said, “That is why we understand that we have to have a President who is not consistently weak and wrong on national security, including the importance of upholding and respecting in the highest regard our military.”

This was the second Presidential debate, but the first between Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris. The first presidential debate in Atlanta on June 27 was between Mr. Trump and President Biden. Following his terrible performance at the debate, Biden withdrew from the race and paved the way for Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the November elections.

Washington:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris will take the stage for their first televised debate today. Ahead of the November 5 presidential election in the US, this will be the first and probably the only chance for around 240 million voters to watch their candidates debate and argue over policies of national and international concern.

TRUMP-HARRIS PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

The June presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was a disappointing one for the outgoing President. Weeks after that, President Biden decided to withdraw from the race, setting the stage for US Vice President Kamala Harris to run for the top office.

While today’s debate is a chance for Harris to establish her political identity for millions of people who will tune in to watch, it also affords Trump yet another opportunity to showcase that he is prepared to lead the country again.

For Kamala Harris, it is an opportunity to lay out her priorities and prove her mettle against Trump, who has in recent times subjected her to racist and sexist attacks. The former US president will once again attempt to blunt Harris’ momentum in the presidential race, which has tightened considerably after she was named the Democratic nominee, as per polls.

WHEN AND WHAT TIME IS THE TRUMP-HARRIS DEBATE?

Hosted by ABC News, the 90-minute debate is scheduled at 9 PM ET on September 10 (6:30 AM on September 11 in India) at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The debate will be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis.

WHERE TO WATCH?

The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will be aired on ABC and streamed across ABC News Live as well as Disney+ and Hulu. Besides them, several networks have also agreed to carry the event live.

RULES OF THE DEBATE

As far as the rules are concerned, ABC News will likely mirror the format used during the Trump- Biden debate in June by CNN.

The two candidates – Trump and Harris – will get two minutes to answer along with two-minute rebuttals. There will be an additional minute for each candidate for any clarifications and follow-ups.

This debate will also have no live audience, while the two candidates will stand for the entire debate.
 

The campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris clashed on Monday over next month’s U.S. presidential debate, with the vice president’s team seeking a return to open microphones while her Republican rival threatened to pull out entirely, suggesting the previously agreed-upon ABC network was biased.

“Why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump, who is making his third bid for the White House, wrote in a social media post late Sunday night that also accused the network of bias. “Stay tuned!!!”

Harris spokesperson Brian Fallon said on Monday the vice president’s campaign wanted the broadcaster to keep the candidates’ microphones on throughout the event, not muted when their opponent was speaking as in the last presidential debate. So-called “hot mics” can help or hurt political candidates, catching off-hand comments that sometimes were not meant for the public.

“The Vice President is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real-time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button,” Fallon said in a statement.

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said in a statement they had already agreed to the same terms as CNN’s June debate, which had muted microphones, adding: “We said no changes to the agreed-upon rules.”

But Trump later told reporters that he preferred to have his microphone kept on, adding that he did not like it muted last time and that he was not preparing much for the face-off against his new rival.

“Doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have it, probably, on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time,” Trump said.

“I’m not spending a lot of time on it. I think my whole life I’ve been preparing for a debate,” Trump added. “You can’t cram knowledge into your head, for you know, 30 years of knowledge in one week. So, you know, there’s a little debate prep, but I’ve always done it more or less the same way.”

Representatives for ABC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Harris secured the Democratic nomination after President Joe Biden stepped aside last month, and had said they would do the Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC News previously agreed to by Biden and Trump.

Biden had pushed for earlier debates, hoping to boost his campaign and cast a brighter light on Trump. But his own halting performance at the June 27 face-off triggered alarm within his party, with him ending his reelection bid weeks later.

Trump had floated another debate hosted by Fox News on Sept. 4, which he later said would be a televised town hall with just himself and host Sean Hannity. The Harris campaign said no.

The vice presidential candidates, Republican U.S. Senator JD Vance and Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are scheduled to debate Oct. 1 on CBS News.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Raleigh:

A fired-up Joe Biden came out swinging Friday as he tried to make up for a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, insisting he was the right man to win November’s US presidential election.

Biden’s appearance at a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina came amid rumblings in his alarmed Democratic Party about replacing the 81-year-old as their nominee — and shortly before the nation’s most influential newspaper urged him to step aside.

“I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden admitted to supporters in unusually confessional remarks.

“But I know how to tell the truth. I know how to do this job,” he said to huge cheers, vowing, “When you get knocked down, you get back up.”

Biden’s team was in damage-control mode after Thursday’s debate when he often hesitated, tripped over words, and lost his train of thought — exacerbating fears about his ability to serve another term.

He had hoped to allay qualms about his advanced age, and to expose Trump as a habitual liar.

But the president failed to counter his bombastic rival, who offered up a largely unchallenged reel of false or misleading statements about everything from the economy to immigration.

On Friday, Biden delivered the lines Democrats wished they had heard in the televised debate.

“Did you see Trump last night? My guess is he set — and I mean this sincerely — a new record for the most lies told in a single debate,” Biden said.

“Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat for everything America stands for.”

Trump also returned to the campaign trail Friday, speaking at a rally in Virginia and launching his familiar attacks on Biden in a rambling speech.

“It’s not his age, it’s his competence,” Trump said.

“The question every voter should be asking themselves today is not whether Joe Biden can survive a 90-minute debate performance, but whether America can survive four more years of crooked Joe Biden.”

A New Democrat?

Trump addressed the chances of Biden being replaced by another candidate, saying “I don’t really believe that because he does better in polls than any of the (other) Democrats.”

So far, no senior Democratic figure has publicly called on Biden to withdraw, with most toeing a party line about sticking with the existing ticket.

“I will never turn my back on President Biden,” California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has figured prominently on lists of possible replacement candidates, said immediately after the debate.

Forcing a change in the ticket would be politically fraught, and Biden would have to decide himself to withdraw to make way for another nominee before the party convention next month.

Biden overwhelmingly won the primary votes, and the party’s 3,900 delegates heading to the convention in Chicago are beholden to him.

If he exits, the delegates would have to find a replacement.

“Bad debate nights happen,” Biden’s former boss, Barack Obama, wrote on X.

But the election is “still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”

The show of Democratic loyalty and Biden’s defiance in North Carolina were not enough for The New York Times, however.

The daily newspaper slammed Biden’s campaign as a “reckless gamble” in the face of the threat posed by Trump, with its editorial board — which is separate from the newsroom — calling for the president to stand aside.

The “greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election,” it said.

A logical — but not automatic — candidate to take Biden’s place would be his vice president, Kamala Harris, who loyally defended his debate performance.

As the Democrats scrambled, Trump allies sought to project calm assurance.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a senior Republican figure, said it was clear Biden was not “up to the job.”

“Donald Trump is the only man on that stage that’s qualified and capable of serving as the next president,” he said. “The election cannot get here soon enough.”

A second debate is scheduled for September 10.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

President Joe Biden forcefully tried on Friday to quell Democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing in his debate with former President Donald Trump, as elected members of his party closed ranks around him in an effort to shut down talk of replacing him atop the ticket.

Mr. Biden’s halting delivery and meandering comments, particularly early in the debate, fueled concerns from even members of his own party that at age 81 he’s not up for the task of leading the country for another four years. It created a crisis moment for Biden’s campaign and his presidency, as members of his party flirted with potential replacements and donors and supporters couldn’t contain their concern about his showing against Mr. Trump.

Mr. Biden appeared to acknowledge the criticism during a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, saying ”I don’t debate as well as I used to.” But he added, “I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.” Speaking for 18 minutes, Biden appeared far more animated than his showing the night before, and he excoriated Mr. Trump for his “lies” and campaign aimed at “revenge and retribution.”

“The choice in this election is simple,” Mr. Biden said. “Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it.”

He added, alluding to his candidacy, “When you get knocked down, you get back up.”

Even before the debate, Mr. Biden’s age had been a liability with voters, and Thursday night’s faceoff appeared to reinforce the public’s deep-seated concerns before perhaps the largest audience he will garner in the four months until Election Day.

Privately, his campaign had spent the previous hours working to tamp down concerns and keep donors and surrogates on board. Democratic lawmakers on Friday acknowledged Mr. Biden’s poor showing, but tried to stop talk of replacing him as their standard-bearer, and instead tried to shift the focus onto Mr. Trump’s attacks and falsehoods that they hoped would remind voters of the daily turbulence of his presidency.

“Well, the president didn’t have a good night, but neither did Donald Trump with lie after lie and his dark vision for America,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told The Associated Press on Friday, hours before he introduced the president in Raleigh. “We cannot send Donald Trump back to the White House. He’s an existential threat to our nation.”

Former President Barack Obama backed up his former vice president, posting on X that “Bad debate nights happen.” Alluding to his own poor showing in the first debate of his reelection campaign in 2012, Obama continued, “Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”

He added: “Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries answered with a flat “no” when asked Friday if Mr. Biden should step aside.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York, said, “Since performance last night, I had to take a few more antidepressants than usual.”

“People have asked me, ‘Do I feel comfortable with the debate?’ You know, a Donald Trump presidency would cause me far greater discomfort than a Joe Biden debate performance.”

Mr. Biden’s campaign billed the Raleigh event as the largest-yet rally of his reelection bid in the state Mr. Trump carried by the narrowest margin in 2020. He’ll then travel to New York for a weekend of big-dollar fundraisers that his campaign now needs more than ever, as it looks to stave off Mr. Trump.

Mr. Biden’s campaign announced that it raised $14 million on debate day and the morning after, while Mr. Trump’s campaign said it raised more than $8 million from the start of the debate through the end of the night.

Vice President Kamala Harris, whom the Mr. Biden campaign sent out to defend his performance, was set to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada. She told CNN hours after the debate, “There was a slow start, but it was a strong finish.”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said he could hardly sleep because of the number of telephone calls he got after Mr. Biden performed “horribly” in the debate.

“People were just concerned. And I told everybody being concerned is healthy, overreacting is dangerous,” Cleaver said. “And I think I wouldn’t advise anybody to make rash decisions right now.”

Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who was formerly a longtime fixture in House Democratic leadership, said he would likely speak to Mr. Biden later Friday and his message would be simple: “Stay the course.”

Mr. Biden and his allies were looking to brush aside concerns about his delivery to keep the focus on the choice for voters this November. They seized on Mr. Trump’s equivocations on whether he would accept the will of voters this time around, his refusal to condemn the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden, and his embrace of the conservative-leaning Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade that had legalized abortion nationwide.

But Mr. Biden fumbled on abortion rights, one of the most important issues for Democrats in this year’s election. He was unable to explain Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. A conservative Supreme Court with three justices nominated by Mr. Trump overturned Roe two years ago.

As elected Democrats united behind Mr. Biden publicly, donors and party operatives shared panicked text messages and phone calls Thursday night and into Friday expressing their concern that Mr. Biden’s performance was so bad that he may be unelectable this fall.

But there were no immediate signs of organized efforts among donors, his campaign leadership or the Democratic National Committee to convince the president to step aside, according to interviews with several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive conversations.

Still, morale was poor among some Biden campaign staffers across the country, who had been encouraged by top campaign officials in Delaware to organize hundreds of debate watch parties to get as many eyes as possible on the Biden-Trump showdown. The morning after, some embarrassed lower-level campaign staffers privately expressed their desire for Biden to quit the race.

It was the same among some top Democratic donors in New York, southern California and Silicon Valley, who talked up the need to embrace a Biden replacement during a series of text chains and private conversations. There were informal conversations between donors and those close to potential Biden alternatives to gauge their willingness to step into the race. But there was no sense that a sitting governor or member of Congress would be willing to risk the political fallout that might come with a public break from the Democratic president.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat frequently mentioned as a 2028 contender and speculated about as a potential replacement for Mr. Biden on the ticket should he step aside, released a statement backing him on Friday.

“The difference between Joe Biden’s vision for making sure everyone in America has a fair shot and Donald Trump’s dangerous, self-serving plans will only get sharper as we head toward November,” she said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom also dismissed questions on whether he would consider stepping in for Mr. Biden, telling reporters after the debate, “I will never turn my back on him.”

Under current Democratic Party rules, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace Mr. Biden as the party’s nominee without his cooperation or without party officials being willing to rewrite the rules at the August national convention.

Mr. Trump, meanwhile, flew to his golf club in Virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward Democrats in recent years but that his aides believe can flip toward the Republican in November. He was set to hold at rally in Chesapeake Friday afternoon.