Trump-Harris debate live: presidential nominees to face off in high-stakes showdown

Speaking to reporters in Philadelphia, Rick Scott, the Republican senator from Florida, said Donald Trump has been “very clear” about his position on abortion, after the former president sought to moderate on an issue he fears will hurt Republicans in the November election.

Trump recently suggested he would support a Florida ballot initiative enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution, only to say the following day, amid blowback from conservative Christians, that he would vote against it.

“The supreme court made a decision. It’s a state issue,” Scott told reporters in the spin room, summarizing Trump’s view on the matter. He said Trump would have an opportunity to turn the issue on Democrats, whom he falsely claimed support laws allowing people to get abortions after the baby is born. This is untrue: infanticide is criminalized in all 50 states.

During the debate, Scott predicted that Trump would seek to tie Kamala Harris to Biden’s record, and expected her to face sharp criticism from the former president over the administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

He also sought to set expectations, pre-emptively accusing the press of not giving the president a fair shake.

“Well, first off, he’s going to have a big win tonight,” Scott said. “Now the question will be, will the mainstream media say he’s had a big win?”

David Smith

Now from Olivia Troye, a former homeland security and counter-terrorism adviser to Mike Pence, the vice-president under Donald Trump.

Troye is holding a press conference as a surrogate of the Harris campaign before the debate, and was asked whether she fears retribution from the former president because of her staunch opposition to him.

Troye highlighted a social media post by Trump on Saturday threatening to jail “corrupt” election officials if he wins. The former president wrote: “Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”

Troye told reporters in Philadelphia: “Just this weekend, he threatened to throw election workers in jail. Actually wanted law enforcement to go after them. Think about that. Take a step back and think about what that means for our elections right now, when you have a former president of the United States who seeks the Oval Office again and he’s advocating attacks on our election officials.”

She added: “By the way, they’ve already suffered from threats – we saw that in Georgia especially. Even some of the threats to Governor Kemp who just simply held the line and told the truth and stood by the 2020 election, which was a free and fair election.

“When you have someone that’s speaking in that way, I think, yes, he has said there’ll be retribution. I have no doubt there’ll be retribution against myself and others who don’t fall in line with exactly his type of cult.”

Young voter groups have criticized the Republican National Committee’s gun store debate watch party, calling Trump’s team “evil” and the former president “out of touch” for hosting the event so close to a mass school shooting site.

The groups, which include Voters of Tomorrow, College Democrats of America, Leaders We Deserve, College Democrats of Georgia, Georgia High School Democrats, Young Democrats of Georgia, Path to Progress and Blue Future issued a joint statement condemning the committee’s decision:

Just days after students and teachers were murdered in Apalachee High School, Republicans are hosting a debate watch party an hour away at the world’s largest gun store. The Trump team is evil for disrespecting the victims like this – and by continually refusing to support life-saving gun violence prevention policies.

Donald Trump is out-of-touch with the vast majority of Americans on gun violence prevention. He continues to suck up to the gun lobby and insult victims, as shown by today’s event. As young organizers in Georgia and across the country, and members of a generation that has been defined by mass shootings, we know Donald Trump’s flagrant disregard for young Americans’ lives will cost him this election.

The Republican National Committee has scheduled a watch party for tonight’s debate at a gun store in Georgia just miles away from Apalachee high school, where two teachers and two students were killed by a 14-year-old shooter last week.

Gun-control advocacy group Moms Demand Action condemned the event on X:

Adventure Outdoors, which proudly proclaims itself as “the Greatest Store on Earth”, carries more than 15,000 guns and has a 17-lane shooting range. The store has hosted debate watch parties before, including last June when Donald Trump debated Joe Biden.

The event, which includes dinner and refreshments, is sponsored by a slew of conservative groups, including Tea Party Patriots Action, the Fulton county Republican party and Pac Turning Point Action.

Earlier, we described this race as “neck and neck”. We mean that literally – our polling average shows the two candidates tied nationally, at 47.3% support each.

Of course, America’s use of the electoral college means that seven swing states – Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – are expected to decide this election.

For an idea of how Trump and Harris are faring in each, check out our poll tracker:

Whether you’re in the United States or abroad, we have a handy guide that’ll tell you how to tune in to this evening’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and that covers its ground rules.

Read it here:

Good evening, US politics blog readers, and thanks for joining us as we cover tonight’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, which we expect to be a milestone in what has already been a historically tumultuous presidential race. The two contenders will square off for 90 minutes at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, with ABC News hosting and their anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis moderating. The Democratic and Republican candidates are meeting as polls indicate a neck-and-neck race between them, particularly in the seven swing states expected to decide the winner.

This will be the first debate between Harris and Trump. Joe Biden and Trump faced off in June, but the president put in such a poor showing that it sparked a plunge in his poll numbers and a Democratic pressure campaign that contributed to his decision to end his bid for a second term. Though Harris has been vice-president since 2021, she has done only one formal interview since launching her presidential campaign, and polls have indicated that voters are looking to find out more about her plans, if elected. This debate could present her with the opportunity to do that – while, for Trump, he’ll be given the chance to make the case for his return to the White House.

Here’s what we’ll be watching out for:

• Will either candidate deliver a knockout blow to the other? Biden certainly received one when he encountered Trump just over two months ago, though he was far from the only candidate to emerge from a debate with their campaign hanging by a thread.

• Will Trump say something insensitive about Harris’s racial identity? Just days after she launched her campaign, the former president claimed that the vice-president was not really Black, sparking outrage.

• What will Harris say about her policies? She inherited a campaign from Biden, but has slowly deviated from some of his proposals. Look out for anything she has to say about US support for Israel, and her previous stances on immigration – a subject Trump is sure to bring up.