Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are facing off for the first time for the ABC News presidential debate. This is the only debate they have scheduled and comes as polls show a neck-and-neck race.
During the debate on Tuesday, September 10, Harris told viewers that the former president "basically sold us out” on China. “A policy about China should be in making sure the United States of America wins the competition for the 21st century, which means focusing on the details of what that requires, focusing on relationships with our allies, focusing on investing in American based technology so that we win the race on AI, on quantum computing, focusing on what we need to do to support America’s workforce,” the veep added.
‘What we have done is clean up Donald Trump's mess’
Harris also blamed Trump for unemployment related to the Covid-19 pandemic. “Let's talk about what Donald Trump left us,” Harris said. “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century. Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War, and what we have done is clean up Donald Trump's mess.”
Trump said in response that the country “got hit with a pandemic” not seen “since 1917.” “We did a phenomenal job with the pandemic,” he added. “We handed over a country with an economy and where the stock market was higher than it was before the pandemic came in.”
{{/usCountry}}Trump said in response that the country “got hit with a pandemic” not seen “since 1917.” “We did a phenomenal job with the pandemic,” he added. “We handed over a country with an economy and where the stock market was higher than it was before the pandemic came in.”
{{/usCountry}}During the debate, Trump also dismissed allegations that his suggestion to increase foreign tariffs will bring up consumer prices. "They're not going to have higher prices," he said. "Who's going to have higher prices is China and all of the countries that have been ripping us off for years."
Trump also noted that Joe Biden kept Trump's tariffs on China after taking office. "We are going to take in billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars. I had no inflation, virtually no inflation," he said. "They had the highest inflation, perhaps in the history of our country."