An angry clash over January 6 proved to be one of the key moments of the debate after a question and interjections by moderator David Muir.
Vice President Kamala Harris said early in the debate that Trump ‘left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War,’ and the topic returned when Muir brought it up later.
‘I had nothing to do with that other than they asked me to make a speech,’ Trump said. He brought up the shooting of Ashli Babbitt outside the House chamber on January 6 and said ‘nobody on the other side was killed.’
Harris, whose campaign has tried to reframe the President Biden’s emphasis on calling Trump a threat to democracy as part of her own revamped campaign, said Trump ‘incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s Capitol.
Harris said Trump was ‘indicted and impeached for exactly that reason,’ then shifted to her campaign message. ‘We don’t have to go back. Let’s not go back. We’re not going back. It’s time to turn the page.’
She did a bit of going back herself, pointing to Trump’s statement in a 2020 debate when asked a question about the Proud Boys, and reciting a statement about Charlottesville was a cornerstone of Biden’s 2020 campaign run.
She used the question to make an appeal to Trump critics, after early pointing to military members who have broken with Trump. ‘There is a place in our campaign for you. To stand for country to stand for our democracy to stand for rule of law.’
Trump stood by his claims he prevailed in the election after ABC News anchor Muir told him he ‘falsely claimed that you won,’ in an angry exchange that came before each candidate was set to head to New York and Pennsylvania to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks.
‘They said we didn’t have standing. A technicality,’ Trump said of court cases that went against him during his election overturn effort.
He also pushed back when Muir brought up his recent statement that he ‘lost by a whisker’ – an apparent acknowledgement that he did lose.
‘That was said sarcastically,’ Trump said, days after telling podcaster Lex Fridman ‘I got millions more votes than that and lost by a whisker.’
On stage in the prime time debate Tuesday, Trump said he got ‘almost 75 million votes,’ rounding up from 74 million, ‘the most votes any sitting president has ever gotten.’
‘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,’ she said.
Trump repeatedly tried to pivot to immigration, and pin the influx of migrants of undocumented immigrants on Harris.
‘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,’ he said.
‘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?’ he said.