Trump, Harris touched on big issues between attacks at debate

WASHINGTON — The verbal jabs and viral exchanges between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump dominated most of the 90 minutes of their first presidential debate, but the faceoff also featured some details about the policies each would pursue if elected.

Presidential debates are historically light on policy specifics and heavy on attack lines, and Tuesday’s meeting was no exception. Both candidates used their two-minute response windows to pivot from the questions moderators asked to attack their opponent, said political analysts interviewed by Newsday.

There were "missed opportunities" for the candidates to address each other on policy differences, said Meena Bose, director of Hofstra University’s Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency. "It’s very difficult in a 90-minute debate to get into a sustained discussion of policy issues.

"Presidential debates are about substance, image and style, so there’s a lot that has to be packed into the 90 minutes," Bose said. "People are really looking closely to see not just what the candidates say, but whether they demonstrate leadership qualities, how they address tough questions, how they react to the moderators."

The debate, which took place at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, might have been the last opportunity for voters to hear from the candidates side by side. Trump on Thursday announced on social media that he would not agree to a second debate with Harris.

With both candidates now back on the campaign trail, here are five key policy points the candidates touched on during the debate.

The economy

With the economy top of mind for most voters, the candidates sparred over which of their economic road maps would boost the country.

Harris, describing herself as a "middle-class kid," said her economic plan focuses on "lifting up the middle class." She touted her proposals for a $6,000 child tax credit for parents of newborns, $25,000 in federal assistance for first-time homebuyers and a $50,000 tax credit to startup small businesses.

"My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations," Harris said, describing Trump’s 2017 tax bill that cut the corporate tax rate and set a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT), a cap Long Island lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been fighting to lift since.

Trump doubled down on his call to enact a 10% to 20% tariff on imported foreign goods and a 60% tariff on goods from China, despite economists noting that the costs would be shouldered by consumers.

"Everybody knows what I'm going to do, cut taxes very substantially, and create a great economy like I did before," Trump said.

Martha Johnson, a political science professor at Mills College at Northeastern University, said Harris chose to relay economic proposals viewed as popular among voters. But Johnson noted that there has been debate among some economists over whether government assistance for first-time homeowners potentially drives up housing prices.

"She's definitely going for the popular policies, and not the most well-analyzed policies," Johnson said.

Trump’s assertion that his tariffs would not raise the cost of goods for American consumers was "blatantly untrue," Johnson said.

"Trump saying ‘the Chinese are going to pay this’ is factually inaccurate," Johnson said. "Tariffs drive up the price in the United States. There's no other way to say that. That's the point of a tariff. The point of a tariff is to make that product more expensive in the U.S. so that we don't consume it and instead, we buy an American product."

Abortion

Trump asserted that he does not support a national abortion ban but stopped short of saying whether he would veto such a ban if it were to be approved by Congress.

A faction of congressional conservatives has been trying to pass a federal abortion ban, but the proposals have failed to go anywhere in a narrowly split Senate and House.

Trump, asked about his running mate JD Vance's telling a reporter that Trump would likely veto a federal ban, said only that he had not discussed the issue with Vance. He deflected when asked to answer yes or no on whether he would sign a veto.

"I didn't discuss it with JD in all fairness," Trump said. "JD — and I don't mind if he has a certain view — but I think he was speaking for me, but I really didn't."

Harris, who has made preserving abortion access a key part of her campaign messaging, said she supports "reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade" — the decades-old Supreme Court ruling providing federal abortion protections that was overturned by the court in 2022.

A bill by Senate Democrats to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law was blocked by Senate Republicans in July, underscoring the challenge of either party's passing a filibuster-proof abortion bill.

Health care

The debate revived the long-running divide over the Affordable Care Act, the Obama-era series of health care reforms enacted in 2010.

Trump said he had "concepts of a plan" to replace it, while Harris said "we need to maintain and grow" the act, which added consumer protections, including barring private insurance companies from denying coverage to those with preexisting medical conditions.

Trump campaigned in 2016 vowing to overturn the act as president, but failed to do so when Republicans were in control of both chambers of Congress during his first two years in office. He also pledged during his 2020 campaign to overturn the act but never proposed a replacement.

At the debate, when asked whether he would keep the act or replace it with a new plan, Trump said: "I would only change it if we come up with something better and less expensive, and there are concepts and options we have to do that. And you'll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future."

Harris, when asked about a change in positions on the issue of private health insurance over the course of her failed 2020 presidential run, insisted that she "absolutely" supports private health insurance. But she also pledged to "strengthen" the Affordable Care Act, noting the current administration’s work to reduce prescription drug costs.

In 2019, as a U.S. senator, Harris co-sponsored a "Medicare for All" bill by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have ended private health insurance and replaced it with a government-run insurer. But months later, when running for the Democratic presidential nomination, she backed away from Sanders’ plan and proposed a plan that called for expanding government-run health insurance while also keeping private health insurance as an option.

"Since I've been vice president, we have capped the cost of prescription medication for seniors at $2,000 a year, and when I am president we will do that for all people," Harris said Tuesday.

Immigration

Trump, who has campaigned on a promise of "mass deportations," used his time to cast Harris as ineffective on immigration enforcement. But when pressed for details about his deportation plan and his calls to use the U.S. National Guard and local police in the effort, he avoided answering directly and instead spoke about crime in the foreign countries migrants are fleeing.

Harris, when asked why President Joe Biden waited until six months before the election to sign a series of executive orders aimed at reducing the flow of migrants at the U.S. Southern border, instead brought up Trump’s role in killing a bipartisan border security deal that would have funded more border security agents and closed loopholes for those seeking asylum. Harris said she supports that bill.

Ukraine

Harris argued that the United States should continue to back Ukrainian forces in their fight against Russia’s invasion, while Trump said a deal should be brokered between Ukraine and Russia to end the war.

Trump, without offering details, said that if reelected he would negotiate a peace agreement before assuming office. "I think it’s in the U.S.’s best interest to get this war finished and just get it done and negotiate a deal because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed," Trump said.

But Harris charged that doing so would cede a victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She argued that allowing Putin to continue with his invasion of Ukrainian sovereign territory would signal to the longtime Russian leader he could "keep his eyes on the rest of Europe."

"The reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up," Harris said.

Matthew Kroenig, a senior director at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan foreign policy think tank based in Washington, D.C., said in a post on the group's website that "foreign policy does not usually swing a large number of voters in elections, but with major wars in Europe and the Middle East, undecided voters in swing states may have been looking for reassurance in a world of growing global disorder.

"Voters tuning in, in search of new or detailed foreign policy plans to help make their decisions were likely disappointed," Kroenig said.

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.