Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced off for the first time in their presidential debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, less than two months before Election Day.

In the run-up to the debate, Harris appeared to have more to gain — and more to lose. A New York Times/Siena College poll found that 28% said they “need to know more about Kamala Harris,” compared to just 9% who said the same about Trump. Overall, Trump led Harris by 1 point among likely voters, with 5% unsure or supporting neither.

The debate covered a wide range of topics and featured a series of intense exchanges between the two bitter rivals. Harris presented himself as a pragmatic problem solver and downplayed Trump as a wannabe dictator who cannot keep his rally audience engaged. Trump attacked Harris as a radical and regularly returned to his theme of criticism of immigration, sometimes digressing into conspiracy theories.

Here are six key takeaways from the debate.

Harris moves quickly to reduce costs

Harris used the first question to underpin her plan for an “opportunity economy,” attempting to undermine Trump’s lead among swing voters by presenting herself as a middle-class candidate and calling Trump a corporate tax cut.

“I grew up as a middle-class kid, and I’m really the only person on this stage who has a plan to lift up the middle class and working people of America,” Harris said. “We know we have a housing shortage and housing shortage, and the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people. We know that young families need support to raise their children, and I plan to extend a $6,000 tax cut for those families, which is the largest child tax credit we’ve given in a long time, so that those young families can afford to buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy clothes for their children.”

Trump criticized the Biden-Harris economy, saying, “I’ve never seen a worse period.” He also defended his tariff plans, calling Harris “a Marxist” while accusing her of copying his policies: “I wanted to send her a MAGA hat.”

Both candidates strive for change

In the opening minutes, both rivals attempted to take responsibility for change in a country full of voters hungry for it.

“In this debate tonight, you’re going to hear the same old tired playbook: a bunch of lies, a bunch of grievances and a bunch of name-calling,” Harris said of Trump. “What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president plans to implement if he were to get elected.”

Harris returned to that message later in the debate: “The American people are exhausted by the same old, worn-out playbook.” She returned to it later when she criticized Trump for inciting the January 6 riots.

“Let’s turn the page. Let’s not go back,” she said.

Trump wanted to portray Harris as a continuation of President Joe Biden on immigration and the economy.

Speaking about migrants entering the US illegally, he said: “These are the people that they and Biden brought into our country, and they are destroying our country. They are dangerous.”

And on the economy, he said, “She copied Biden’s plan. And it’s about four sentences. Run, Spot, run.”

Trump attacks as Harris defends policy changes

A key weakness for Harris in the campaign was the left-wing positions she took as the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020 that she has since abandoned or backed away from — such as banning fracking, mandating buybacks of semi-automatic firearms and decriminalizing border crossings. She was asked again about her evolution.

“I made it very clear in 2020, I will not ban fracking,” Harris said. “I did not ban fracking as vice president. In fact, I was the tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened up new concessions for fracking,” an environmentally controversial way to extract oil and natural gas.

Harris added: “My values ​​haven’t changed.”

Trump tried to take advantage of this.

“She wants to perform transgender surgeries on illegal aliens who are in prison. This is a radical left-wing liberal who would do this. She wants to confiscate your guns and she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania,” he said. “If she wins the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will stop on day one.”

Trump Dodges Veto of Federal Abortion Ban

Trump and Harris have been locked in a long-running conflict over abortion, with Trump twice refusing to say whether he would block a federal ban on abortion if Congress passed one.

“Well, I don’t have to do that,” Trump responded. He said he would “not sign” such a ban because “there’s no reason to,” and argued that “everybody” is happy with the end of Roe v. Wade.

When told that his vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, had said he would block such a ban, Trump contradicted Vance, who had recently made his comments on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“Well, I haven’t discussed it with JD, frankly. JD — and I don’t care if he has a particular opinion, but I don’t think he spoke for me,” he said, claiming that Congress will not pass any major abortion legislation.

“I promise you, if Congress passes a bill to restore Roe v. Wade protections as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it,” she said. “But understand, if Donald Trump were re-elected, he would sign a nationwide abortion ban.”

Harris Lures Trump to Missed Opportunities

Harris went into the debate hoping to unsettle Trump, and at times she seemed to succeed, luring the president into a defensive posture rather than highlighting his biggest problem: worries about inflation and the cost of living.

She attacked him on abortion rights, linked him to the right-wing policy plan Project 2025, highlighted his praise for Chinese President Xi Jinping around the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Both times he jumped in to defend himself. She invited Americans to watch a Trump rally.

“He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He talks about ‘windmills cause cancer.’ And what you’ll also notice is that people leave his meetings early because they’re tired and bored,” Harris said, looking into the camera.

That didn’t sit well with Trump, who said he has “the most incredible rallies in the history of politics” and went off on a tangent by invoking a debunked conspiracy theory about migrants eating pets. “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said.

Trump lashes out at Biden, prompting terse response from Harris

Trump’s performance included a wide range of attacks on Biden, who retreated after his disastrous debate performance against Trump in late June. He criticized Biden’s handling of classified documents, criticized him for opposing the Keystone XL pipeline and called Biden’s administration “the most divisive presidency in the history of our country.”

“Where is our president? We don’t even know if he’s the president,” Trump said toward the end of the debate. “They threw him out of the campaign like a dog. We don’t even know. Is he our president? We have a president who doesn’t know he’s alive.”

Harris responded: “It’s important to remind the former president: You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me.”

When Trump later said, “She is Biden,” Harris responded, “Obviously I am not Joe Biden. And I am certainly not Donald Trump.”