This is the fourth in a series on the Trump/Harris debate. Prior posts are here, The debate transcript is available here.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Excuse me. Every one of those cases was started by them against their political opponent. And I'm winning most of them and I'll win the rest on appeal. And you saw that with the decision that came down just recently from the Supreme Court. I'm winning most of them. But those are cases, it's called weaponization. Never happened in this country. They weaponized the justice department. Every one of those cases was involved with the DOJ, from Atlanta and Fani Willis -- to the attorney general of New York and the D.A. In New York. Every one of those cases. And then they say oh, he was -- he's a criminal. They're the ones that made them go after me. By the way, Joe Biden was found essentially guilty on the documents case. And what happened in my documents case? They said oh, that's the toughest of them all. A complete and total victory. Two months ago it was thrown out. It's weaponization. And they used it. And it's never happened in this country. They used it to try and win an election. They're fake cases.
COMMENT: This is a strategic error on Trump's part: Harris is very happy with Trump talking about himself vs. the economy or the border.
No, trump isn't winning any of the 4 major cases, 2 state and 2 federal. He got a partial immunity ruling but the charges don't reflect him acting in the official capacity as POTUS, but an a personal capacity as an election candidate. There is no partisan conspiracy. In fact, that's the reason for Jack smith being named as an independent. The Alice Cannon dismissal of the classified documents case, which will almost certainly be reversed, is based not on case specifics but on Jack Smith's status; the status of an independent counsel has precedent.. In the worst case, the AG can simply replace Jack Smith with a US Attorney. The Georgia trial has been stymied by the status of the DA and 5 of 13 counts dismissed, some of those under appeal. And no, Biden was not guilty of what Trump did. Trump stole over 300 classified documents, not to mention over 15 boxes of Presidential papers. Trump fought NARA a year over Presidential papers, claiming they were his property. Some of the boxes unexpectedly included classified documents for which he had no need to know as former POTUS. NARA escalated to the Justice Dept. and Trump was served a subpoena for remaining classified documents. Only some documents were returned, resulting in a subsequent authorized search, from which some 100 documents were recovered after Trump's lawyers certified he had submitted all. By any objective standard, Pence's and Biden's document counts were lesser, older, and/or less significant, and they were fully cooperative with government searches; Furthermore, special prosecutor Hur didn't think he could convict (cognitively impaired?) Biden on intent.
I just don't buy this crackpot political conspiracy that Biden was after Trump in the same way Trump went after Biden in Ukraine. Three of the charges reflect Trump\s post-election behavior. I think if Trump had complied with the documents query, he wouldn't have been charged in that case. He's just in a state od denial. He always makes excuses for his behavior. Even when his own nominees don't support his election claims, ehen he loses 60 election cases, he stubbornly clings to these election conspiracies.
DAVID MUIR: President Trump, thank you. A really quick response here, Vice President Harris, on this notion of weaponization of the justice department.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well let's talk about extreme. And understand the context in which this election in 2024 is taking place. The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that the former president would essentially be immune from any misconduct if he were to enter the white house again. Understand, this is someone who has openly said he would terminate, I'm quoting, terminate the constitution of the United States. That he would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies. Someone who has openly expressed disdain for members of our military. Understand what it would mean if Donald Trump were back in the white house with no guardrails. Because certainly, we know now the court won't stop him. We know JD Vance is not going to stop him. It's up to the American people to stop him.
COMMENT: No, SCOTUS did not rule he was not immune from any misconduct as POTUS. Immunity extends to conduct in carrying out official duties. For example, the Constitution explicitly notes a POTUS can be tried after he leaves office for criminal acts. Justice Roberts specifically says a POTUS is not above the law. The court distinguishes between personal and official conduct. That's the whole reason Ford pardoned Nixon. I'm sure that Harris is correct: Trump thinks almost anything he does while President is above the law. I don't think so. When Trump tried to get Georgia to flip election results, it was not as POTUS but as a candidate with a vested interest in election results. Most of this though is a personal attack on Trump. I do think there's no doubt Trump has and would continue to abuse the powers of the Presidency for personal purposes, including going after his political adversaries
DAVID MUIR: Vice President Harris, thank you. Linsey?
LINDSEY DAVIS: Vice President Harris, in your last run for president...
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This is the one that weaponized. Not me. She weaponized. I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me. They talk about democracy. I'm a threat to democracy. They're the threat to democracy – With the fake Russia Russia Russia investigation that went nowhere.
COMMENT: Trump is a liar.. He's on the record in social media posts, speeches, etc. vowing retribution. Consider the following excerpt:
Donald Trump’s sweeping threats if he wins the presidency again to name a special prosecutor to “go after” Joe Biden and take legal action against other foes would subvert the rule of law in America and take the country towards authoritarianism, former justice department officials and scholars have warned.
Trump’s escalating legal threats have targeted “corrupt election officials” lawyers, donors and others he falsely deems out to steal November’s presidential election, and have popped up variously on his Truth Social platform, at campaign events and at an elite police group he addressed this month in North Carolina.
DAVID MUIR: We have a lot to get to. Linsey?
LINSEY DAVIS: Vice President Harris, in your last run for president you said you wanted to ban fracking. Now you don't. You wanted mandatory government buyback programs for assault weapons. Now your campaign says you don't. You supported decriminalizing border crossings. Now you're taking a harder line. I know you say that your values have not changed. So then why have so many of your policy positions changed?
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: So my values have not changed. And I'm going to discuss every one -- at least every point that you've made. But in particular, let's talk about fracking because we're here in Pennsylvania. I made that very clear in 2020. I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as Vice President of the United States. And, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking. My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil. We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over rely on foreign oil. As it relates to my values, let me tell you, I grew up a middle-class kid raised by a hard-working mother who worked and saved and was able to buy our first home when I was a teenager. The values I bring to the importance of home ownership knowing not everybody got handed $400 million on a silver platter and then filed bankruptcy six times, is a value that I bring to my work to say we are going to work with the private sector and home builders to increase 3 million homes, increase by 3 million homes by the end of my first term. My work that is related to having a friend when I was in high school who was sexually assaulted by her stepfather. And my focus then, on protecting women and children from violent crime, is based on a value that is deeply grounded in the importance of standing up for those who are most vulnerable. My work that is about protecting social security and Medicare is based on long-standing work that I have done. Protecting seniors from scams. My values have not changed. And what is important is that there is a president who actually brings values and a perspective that is about lifting people up and not beating people down and name-calling. The true measure of the leader is the leader who actually understands that strength is not in beating people down, it's in lifting people up. I intend to be that president.
COMMENT: Harris' bragging about record domestic energy production is totally disingenuous. The following post makes the point:
“We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over rely on foreign oil.” Yeah. And you had nothing to do with. At all. In just four years, you and POTUS created the single worst regulatory and legislative environment in our industry's 160 year history. You've put into place 250 separate actions designed to put us out of business. You wanted to put our CEOs in jail, confiscate our capital and prevent our investors from getting any return. And while we were digging ourselves of the hole you put the economy in, through the summer of 2022, you and your boss went and shook the tin cup at OPEC "please give us more..." To you - Saudi and Venezuelan crude is great - and US or Canadian crude is bad. And in spite of all that - we worked around you, over you and have beat your team. Now you want to take credit for what we did in spite of you. Not gonna let it happen. cnn.com/2024/10/15/pol
Let's now review the Biden Administration's record of shutting down ANWR oil/gas development, canceling leases in the Gulf and elsewhere. Harris' vote to save the $800B oxymoron Inflation Reduction Act had zero to do with "saving fracking" and everything with getting her desired clean energy priority passed. Manchin, a coal state then Dem senator, leveraged his clout in the caucus to win said provision.
Finally, she never really addresses the moderator's questions on how her values led her to flip multiple positions in a transparent attempt to attract centrist support just before the general election.
LINSEY DAVIS: President Trump, your response.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, first of all, I wasn't given $400 million. I wish I was. My father was a Brooklyn builder. Brooklyn, Queens. And a great father and I learned a lot from him. But I was given a fraction of that, a tiny fraction, and I built it into many, many billions of dollars. Many, many billions. And when people see it, they are even surprised. So, we don't have to talk about that. Fracking? She's been against it for 12 years. Uh, defund the police. She's been against that forever. She gave all that stuff up, very wrongly, very horribly. And everybody's laughing at it, okay? They're all laughing at it. She gave up at least 12 and probably 14 or 15 different policies. Like, she was big on defund the police.
COMMENT: Once again, Trump is obsessed with defending himself, a deliberate ploy on Harris' part. There were ways he could have turned the argument back on Harris. For example, Fred Trump made his wealth building middle-class homes for returning WWII vets. Trump could argue that he knows more about affordable housing than some leftist politician and her crony capitalist backers. Yes, this is one time Trump effectively turned the flip flop record on Harris, although the moderator set it up on a platter for him.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: That's not true. [mouthed, not audible]
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: In Minnesota, she went out -- wait a minute. I'm talking now. If you don't mind. Please. Does that sound familiar?
COMMENT: Trump is using Harris' own don't interrupt me catchphrase against her.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Don't lie. [lie is audible]
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: She went out -- she went out in Minnesota and wanted to let criminals that killed people, that burned down Minneapolis, she went out and raised money to get them out of jail. She did things that nobody would ever think of. Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. This is a radical left liberal that would do this. She wants to confiscate your guns and she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania. If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one. Just to finish one thing, so important in my opinion, so, I got the oil business going like nobody has ever done before. They took, when they took over, they got rid of it, started getting rid of it, and the prices were going up the roof. They immediately let these guys go to where they were. I would have been five times, four times, five times higher because you're talking about 3 1/2 years ago. They got it up to where I was because they had no choice. Because the prices of energy were quadrupling and doubling. You saw what happened to gasoline. So, they said let's go back to Trump. But if she won the election, the day after that election, they'll go back to destroying our country and oil will be dead, fossil fuel will be dead. We'll go back to windmills and we'll go back to solar, where they need a whole desert to get some energy to come out. You ever see a solar plant? By the way, I'm a big fan of solar. But they take 400, 500 acres of desert soil--
COMMENT: Trump is engaging in deliberate distortion here and/or rehashing positions she took as a Senator or as a 2020 candidate. First, on fracking: about 75% of US energy (somewhat more for natural gas) comes from private property and USG has no legal authority over that production. Moreover, Biden ran against a fracking ban in 2020. Harris has repeatedly denied a ban is part of her 2024 policies. Much of the this in energy costs came from strained global production during a global recovery from the pandemic, complicated with economic sanctions over the Ukraine invasion, and Trump is in a state of denial that his pandemic relief has had a lagging effect on subsequent inflation. The principle issue with alternative energy is reliability (storage technology isn't there yet), and Trump, at least here, is not discussing the obvious nuclear power solution. Trump could also embrace hybrid vehicles as critical transitional technology.
LINSEY DAVIS: President Trump--
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: These are not good things for the environment that she understands.
LINSEY DAVIS: President Trump, we have a lot of issues that we have to get to. We're out of time. Thank you.
DAVID MUIR: Linsey, thank you. We have an election in just 56 days. I want to talk about the peaceful transfer of power, which of course we all know was a cornerstone of our democracy and the role of a president in a moment of crisis. Mr. President, on January 6th you told your supporters to march to the Capitol. You said you would be right there with them. The country and the world saw what played out at the Capitol that day. The officers coming under attack. Aides in the West Wing say you watched it unfold on television off the Oval Office. You did send out tweets, but it was more than two hours before you sent out that video message telling your supporters to go home. Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You just said a thing that isn't covered. Peacefully and patriotically, I said during my speech. Not later on. Peacefully and patriotically. And nobody on the other side was killed. Ashli Babbitt was shot by an out-of-control police officer that should have never, ever shot her. It's a disgrace. But we didn't do -- this group of people that have been treated so badly. I ask, what about all the people that are pouring into our country and killing people? That she allowed to pour in. She was the border czar. Remember that. She was the border czar. She doesn't want to be called the border czar because she's embarrassed by the border. In fact, she said at the beginning, I'm surprised you're not talking about the border yet. That's because she knows what a bad job they've done. What about those people? What's, when are they going to be prosecuted -- when are these people from countries all over the world, not just South America, they're coming in from all over the world, David, all over the world. And crime rates are down all over the world because of it --
COMMENT: Basically, Trump dodges accountability for his n=misconduct on J6. Notice that Trump, who panders for police support, doesn't mention the 140 Capitol police injured by his mob or the fact that Ms. Babbitt was trespassing and ignored police warnings. Ms. Harris' role as border czar had more to do with Central American diplomacy not operational management at the border.
DAVID MUIR: But let me just ask you--
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But when are those, David, when are those people going to be prosecuted? When are the people that burned down Minneapolis going to be prosecuted or in Seattle? They went into Seattle, they took over a big percentage of the city of Seattle. When are those people going to be prosecuted?
COMMENT: I think he's talking about the post-Floyd riots, which were state enforcement issues, not federal.
DAVID MUIR: But let me just ask you--
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You might ask her that question.
DAVID MUIR: You were the president. You were watching it unfold on television. It's a very simple question as we move forward toward another election. Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day? Yes or no.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I had nothing to do with that other than they asked me to make a speech. I showed up for a speech. I said, I think it's going to be big. I went to Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington, D.C. And the mayor put it back in writing, as you know. I said, you know, this is going to be a very big rally or whatever you want to call it. And again, it wasn't done by me. It was done by others. I said I'd like to give you 10,000 National Guard or soldiers. They rejected me. Nancy Pelosi rejected me. It was just two weeks ago, her daughter has a tape of her saying she is fully responsible for what happened. They want to get rid of that tape. It would have never happened if Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington did their jobs. I wasn't responsible for security. Nancy Pelosi was responsible. She didn't do her job.
COMMENT: Trump is lying here. Pelosi had no direct role on Capitol police requests. She had 1 of 3 appointees on the Capitol Police Board. There is zero evidence. Trump made any move after his mob breached the Capitol. His Acting DoD Secretary has explicitly rejected Trump's purported advance request of 10K troops. The only rumor I heard was Trump was worried about the risk to his rallygoers, not of the Capitol. YES, he had responsibility to thwart the attack on the Capitol, and yes, just like the Speaker, POTUS has one appointment to the Capitol Police board. And, no, Trump is the one who wanted his rallygoers to protest the Congressional ratification vote. It was no accident his rally was scheduled on the day of the ratification vote. He himself wanted to lead the protest.
DAVID MUIR: The question was about you as president, not about Former Speaker Pelosi. But I do want Vice President Harris to respond here.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: I was at the Capitol on January 6th. I was the Vice President-Elect. I was also an acting senator. I was there. And on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation's Capitol, to desecrate our nation's Capitol. On that day, 140 law enforcement officers were injured. And some died. And understand, the former president has been indicted and impeached for exactly that reason. But this is not an isolated situation. Let's remember Charlottesville, where there was a mob of people carrying tiki torches, spewing antisemitic hate, and what did the president then at the time say? There were fine people on each side. Let's remember that when it came to the Proud Boys, a militia, the president said, the former president said, "Stand back and stand by." So for everyone watching who remembers what January 6th was, I say we don't have to go back. Let's not go back. We're not going back. It's time to turn the page. And if that was a bridge too far for you, well, there is a place in our campaign for you. To stand for country. To stand for our democracy. To stand for rule of law. And to end the chaos. And to end the approach that is about attacking the foundations of our democracy 'cause you don't like the outcome. And be clear on that point. Donald Trump the candidate has said in this election there will be a bloodbath, if this -- and the outcome of this election is not to his liking. Let's turn the page on this. Let's not go back. Let's chart a course for the future and not go backwards to the past.
COMMENT: Harris is lying here. Law enforcement officers did not die on J6. One died of natural causes some hours later, and one or 2 committed suicide. I'm not sure why Harris is citing Charlottesville, other than possibly to bait Trump on the "very fine people" kerfuffle. And the bloodbath comment has been debunked by multiple sources, He was referring to alleged job losses in the auto industry.
DAVID MUIR: Let me just follow up here--
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I have said blood bash, bath. It was a different term, and it was a term that related to energy, because they have destroyed our energy business. That was where bloodbath was. Also, on Charlottesville, that story has been as you would say, debunked. Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Jesse -- all of these people, they covered it. If they go an extra sentence, they will see it was perfect. It was debunked in almost every newspaper. But they still bring it up just like they bring 2025 up. They bring all of this stuff up. I ask you this. You talk about the Capitol. Why are we allowing these millions of people to come through on the southern border? How come she's not doing -- and I'll tell you what I would do. And I would be very proud to do it. I would say we would both leave this debate right now, I'd like to see her go down to Washington, D.C. during this debate 'cause we're wasting a lot of time. Go down to -- because she's been so bad, it's so ridiculous. Go down to Washington, D.C. And let her sign a bill to close up the border. Because they have the right to do it. They don't need bills. They have the right to do it. The President of the United States, you'll get him out of bed. You'll wake him up at 4:00 in the afternoon, you'll say come on. Come on down to the office, let's sign a bill. If he ... if he signs a bill that the border is closed, all he has to do is say it to the border patrol, who are phenomenal. If they do that, the border is closed.
COMMENT: I have written a recent post on the Charlottesville controversy, and I argued that while Trump paid lip service to rejecting neo-Nazis and white supremacists, he made specific reference to UVA right-wing protesters as "very fine people", but were actually chanting "blood and soil" and other Nazi rhetoric. His comments really just equated those groups with violent people, not ideology. Also, Trump does not know US law permits asylum seekers, and Presidents do not make laws: that's the function of Congress.
DAVID MUIR: Mr. President --
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Those people are killing many people, unlike J-6.
COMMENT: Trump is in a state of denial of his mob's attacks on public property and violence on cops, Trump is trying to exploit a handful of violent crimes by unauthorized aliens. I will point to Cato Institute which show immigrants tend to have lower crime rates than born Americans, Not zero, but lower rates. Texas maintains comprehensive stats. The ones I've seen show unauthorized aliens at comparable rates as born Americans and legal immigrants as significantly lower,
DAVID MUIR: We talked immigration here tonight. I do want to focus on this next issue to both of you. Because it really brings us, this into focus. Truth in these times that we're living in. Mr. President, for 3 and a half years after you lost the 2020 election you repeatedly falsely claimed that you won, many times saying you won in a landslide. In the past couple of weeks leading up to this debate, you have said, quote, you lost by a whisker, that you, quote, didn't quite make it, that you came up a little bit short.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I said that?
DAVID MUIR: Are you now acknowledging that you lost in 2020?
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, I don't acknowledge that at all.
DAVID MUIR: But you did say that.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I said that sarcastically. You know that. It was said, oh we lost by a whisker. That was said sarcastically. Look, there's so much proof. All you have to do is look at it. And they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval. I got almost 75 million votes. The most votes any sitting president has ever gotten. I was told if I got 63, which was what I got in 2016, you can't be beaten. The election, people should never be thinking about an election as fraudulent. We need two things. We need walls. We need -- and we have to have it. We have to have borders. And we have to have good elections.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Our elections are bad. And a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they're trying to get them to vote. They can't even speak English. They don't even know what country they're in practically. And these people are trying to get them to vote. And that's why they're allowing them to come into our country.
COMMENT; First of all, unauthorized aliens cannot vote in federal elections. Evidence shows almost no noncitizen voting. Trump is spreading FUD.
DAVID MUIR: I did watch all of these pieces of video. I didn't detect the sarcasm, lost by a whisker, we didn't quite make it, and we should just point out as clarification, and you know this, you and your allies, 60 cases in front of many judges. Many of them --
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No judge looked at it.
DAVID MUIR: And said there was no widespread fraud.
COMMENT: I agree with the moderator but feel he's doing Harris' job in fact-checking Trump. However, Trump is in a state of denial over his crackpot fraud claims
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They said we didn't have standing. That's the other thing. They said we didn't have standing. A technicality. Can you imagine a system where a person in an election doesn't have standing, the President of the United States doesn't have standing? That's how we lost. If you look at the facts, and I'd love to have you -- you'll do a special on it. I'll show you Georgia and I'll show you Wisconsin and I'll show you Pennsylvania and I'll show you -- we have so many facts and statistics. But you know what? That doesn't matter. Because we have to solve the problem that we have right now. That's old news. And the problem that we have right now is we have a nation in decline and they have put it into decline. We have a nation that is dying, David.
COMMENT: FALSE. It is true that SCOTUS rejected TEXAS's lawsuit against battleground states (as if PA had standing to stand in judgment of TX's elections!) on grounds of standing. In fact, there were numerous state-specific lawsuits. I'm not going to review over 60 failed election cases here, but Trump's assertion that court decisions were based on legal technicalities is wrong; several suits touched on specific allegations of fraud and varioud complaints of procedures and found no compelling evidence. Not only that but Trump's Attorney General Barr denied evidence of fraud in the election.
DAVID MUIR: Mr. President, thank you. Vice President Harris, you heard the president there tonight. He said he didn't say that he lost by a whisker. So he still believes he did not lose the election. That was won by President Biden and yourself. But I do want to ask you about something that's come up in the last couple of days. This was a post from President Trump about this upcoming election just weeks away. He said, "When I win, those people who cheated," and then he lists donors, voters, election officials, he says "Will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, which will include long-term prison sentences." One of your campaign's top lawyers responded saying, "We won't let Donald Trump intimidate us. We won't let him suppress the vote." Is that what you believe he's trying to do here?
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. So, let's be clear about that. And clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that. But we cannot afford to have a president of the United States who attempts as he did in the past to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election. And I'm going to tell you that I have traveled the world as vice president of the United States. And world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you. And they say you're a disgrace. And when you then talk in this way in a presidential debate and deny what over and over again are court cases you have lost, because you did in fact lose that election, it leads one to believe that perhaps we do not have in the candidate to my right the temperament or the ability to not be confused about fact. That's deeply troubling. And the American people deserve better.
COMMENT: First, the popular vote is irrelevant from a Constitutional perspective; Biden won by a majority of elector votes. Poor response here: the moderator talked about Trump trying to intimidate election officials and the like, not unlike how he tried to manipulate Georgia results. Much of her response here was a personal attack.
DAVID MUIR: I'll give you one minute to respond, Mr. President.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Let me just tell you about world leaders. Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men -- they call him a strong man. He's a tough person. Smart. Prime Minister of Hungary. They said why is the whole world blowing up? Three years ago it wasn't. Why is it blowing up? He said because you need Trump back as president. They were afraid of him. China was afraid. And I don't like to use the word afraid but I'm just quoting him. China was afraid of him. North Korea was afraid of him. Look at what's going on with North Korea, by the way. He said Russia was afraid of him. I ended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and Biden put it back on day one but he ended the XL pipeline. The XL pipeline in our country. He ended that. But he let the Russians build a pipeline going all over Europe and heading into Germany. The biggest pipeline in the world. Look, Viktor Orban said it. He said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president. But when this weak pathetic man that you saw at a debate just a few months ago that if he weren't in that debate he'd be running instead of her, she got no votes, he got 14 million votes, what you did, you talk about a threat to democracy. He got 14 million votes and they threw him out of office. And you know what? I'll give you a little secret. He hates her. He can't stand her.
COMMENT: Harris once again has Trump on the defensive. Note he doesn't really touch on the allegation of intimidation of election officials. The fact was Trump was largely isolated during a 2019 NATO summit {"US president cancels press conference after video captured group of leaders apparently ridiculing him"). He's quoting a recently elected far-right leader from Hungary. And he ends with a shot over Harris' nomination replacing Biden. He then goes on to mock her failed 2020 campaign (below)
DAVID MUIR: Mr. President --
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But he had 14 million votes. They threw them out. She got zero votes. And when she ran, she was the first one to leave because she failed. And now she's running. I don't understand it but I'm okay with it – because I think we're going to do pretty well.
DAVID MUIR: Mr. President, your time is up. We've got a lot more to get to.
LINSEY DAVIS: Turning now to the Israel-Hamas war and the hostages who are still being held, Americans among them. Vice President Harris, in December you said, "Israel has a right to defend itself" but you added, "It matters how." Saying international humanitarian law must be respected, Israel must do more to protect innocent civilians. You said that nine months ago. Now an estimated 40,000 Palestinians are dead. Nearly 100 hostages remain. Just last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there's not a deal in the making. President Biden has not been able to break through the stalemate. How would you do it?
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, let's understand how we got here. On Oct. 7, Hamas, a terrorist organization, slaughtered 1,200 Israelis. Many of them young people who were simply attending a concert. Women were horribly raped. And so absolutely, I said then, I say now, Israel has a right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters. Because it is also true far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end. It must when, end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a cease-fire deal and we need the hostages out. And so we will continue to work around the clock on that. Work around the clock also understanding that we must chart a course for a two-state solution. And in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel and in equal measure for the Palestinians. But the one thing I will assure you always, I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel. But we must have a two-state solution where we can rebuild Gaza, where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve.
COMMENT: I'm not sure how she's differing from Biden, as the moderator asked. I'm not sure why she's bringing up a 2-state solution here with Palestinian leadership failing to recognize the state of Israel.
LINSEY DAVIS: President Trump, how would you negotiate with Netanyahu and also Hamas in order to get the hostages out and prevent the killing of more innocent civilians in Gaza?
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If I were president it would have never started. If I were president Russia would have never, ever -- I know Putin very well. He would have never -- and there was no threat of it either, by the way, for four years. Have gone into Ukraine and killed millions of people when you add it up. Far worse than people understand what's going on over there. But when she mentions about Israel all of a sudden -- she hates Israel. She wouldn't even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers. She wanted to go to the sorority party. She hates Israel. If she's president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now. And I've been pretty good at predictions. And I hope I'm wrong about that one. She hates Israel. At the same time in her own way she hates the Arab population because the whole place is going to get blown up, Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone. It would have never happened. Iran was broke under Donald Trump. Now Iran has $300 billion because they took off all the sanctions that I had. Iran had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah or any of the 28 different spheres of terror. And they are spheres of terror. Horrible terror. They had no money. It was a big story, and you know it. You covered it. Very well, actually. They had no money for terror. They were broke. Now they're a rich nation. And now what they're doing is spreading that money around. Look at what's happening with the Houthis and Yemen. Look at what's going on in the Middle East. This would have never happened. I will get that settled and fast. And I'll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended. If I'm President-Elect, I'll get it done before even becoming president.
COMMENT: First, Trump talks about Ukraine, not in the moderator question.. She had a preestablished speech commitment before Israel's PM visit and while Biden was still the presumptive nominee. Trump's claim that Harris "hates Israel" is rubbish. No, "The sanctions that were in place in 2020 when Trump was president remain in place today....If you go back 40 years, during the Iran-Iraq war when the Iranians were as broke as they literally could ever be, they were still supplying arms to Hezbollah" Trump is incompetent on foreign policy. His idea that he could end the Ukraine/Russia war is nothing but baseless hype. Russia intervened in Ukraine during the Obama Administration. Russia and Trump had differences (e.g., Syria), and Trump signed Ukraine military aid into law.
LINSEY DAVIS: Vice President Harris, he says you hate Israel.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: That's absolutely not true. I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people. He knows that. He's trying to again divide and distract from the reality, which is it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy. It is well known that he admires dictators, 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 when that he said when Russia went into Ukraine it was brilliant. It is well known he exchanged love letters with Kim Jong un. And it is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because they're so clear, they can manipulate you with flattery and favors. And that is why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace. 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 highest regard our military.
COMMENT: I do think Trump's approach to diplomacy is unorthodox. For example, and Harris doesn't mention this, Trump's first Secretary of State was an oil company executive. I think Trump has unrealistic expectations over his personal, unconventional style trumping the agenda of autocratic states. Some of his moves, like the unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital had destabilizing effects in the Middle East. But she spins most of her time on a personal attack on Trump, instead of fleshing out her vision of foreign policy and dealing with a hardline Israeli government and with humanitarian crises in Gaza/
LINSEY DAVIS: Vice President Harris, thank you.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They're the ones -- and she's the one that caused it, that's weak on national security by allowing every nation last month for the year, 168 different countries sending people into our country. Their crime rates are way down. Putin endorsed her last week. Said I hope she wins. And I think he 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. They're grossly incompetent. And I just ask one question. Why does Biden go in and kill the Keystone pipeline and approve the single biggest deal that Russia's ever made, Nordstream 2, the biggest pipeline anywhere in the world going to Germany and all over Europe? Because they're weak and they're ineffective. And Biden, by the way --
COMMENT: Putin explicitly said he was being sarcastic in endorsing Harris. There is no evidence of migrants being criminals, etc. The Biden Administration chose to waive opposition based on maintaining good relations with ally Germany. Trump's personal attacks on Biden and Harris are no better than Harris'
LINSEY DAVIS: President Trump...
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Gets paid a lot of money --
LINSEY DAVIS: Thank you. We have a lot of issues to get to.
DAVID MUIR: We'll be right back with much more of this historic ABC News presidential debate from the National Constitution Center right here in Philadelphia. Back in a moment.
DAVID MUIR: And I want to turn to the war in Ukraine. We're now 2 1/2 years into this conflict. Mr. President, it has been the position of the Biden administration that we must defend Ukraine from Russia, from Vladimir Putin, to defend their sovereignty, their democracy, that it's in America's best interest to do so, arguing that if Putin wins he may be emboldened to move even further into other countries. You have said you would solve this war in 24 hours. You said so just before the break tonight. How exactly would you do that? And I want to ask you a very simple question tonight. Do you want Ukraine to win this war?
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I want the war to stop. 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 that you're getting, which are fake numbers. Look, we're in for 250 billion or more because they don't ask Europe, which is a much bigger beneficiary to getting this thing done than we are. They're in for $150 billion less because Biden and you don't have the courage to ask Europe like I did with NATO. They paid billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars when I said either you pay up or we're not going to protect you anymore. So that may be one of the reasons they don't like me as much as they like weak people. But you take a look at what's happening. We're in for 250 to 275 billion. They're into 100 to 150. They should be forced to equalize. With that being said, I want to get the war settled. I know Zelenskyy very well and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship. And they respect your president. Okay? They respect me. They don't respect Biden. How would you respect him? Why? For what reason? He hasn't even made a phone call in two years to Putin. Hasn't spoken to anybody. They don't even try and get it. 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, and what I'll do is I'll speak to one, I'll speak to the other, I'll get them together. That war would have never happened. And in fact when I saw Putin after I left, unfortunately left because our country has gone to hell, but after I left when I saw him building up soldiers, he did it after I left, I said oh, he must be negotiating. It must be a good strong point of negotiation. Well, it wasn't because Biden had no idea how to talk to him. He had no idea how to stop it. And now you have millions of people dead and it's only getting worse and it could lead to World War 3. Don't kid yourself, David. We're playing with World War 3. And we have a president that we don't even know if he's -- where is our president? We don't even know if he's a president.
COMMENT: There is no evidence to suggest Trump's boast he could have averted the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Trump didn't stop any war in his term in office, including our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.. Estimates of war dead are not on Trump's scale but significant.
