Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania- Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump offered their conflicting plans and policies for president during the ABC News debate on Tues., Sept.10 in Philadelphia, the first official debate between the two nominees for president of the United States of America.

The candidates took vastly different positions on how each would govern if elected president in November, particularly on issues such as healthcare, border control, inflation, national security, and the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars.

National media pundits said afterward that Harris, the nation's first Black and first female vice president, won the televised debate hands down and that Trump came off as angry and confused while Harris was better prepared, often looking at Trump with disgust.

Harrris did a good job of baiting Trump and putting him on the defensive, pundits said.

The nation's first Black and female vice president, Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party. She formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president on Aug. 22 and gave the keynote address during the final night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois. Trump, a Republican, accepted his party's nomination for president at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Wisconsin in July.

Both candidates agreed to debate rules for Tuesday's debate similar to the Biden- Trump CNN debate held on June 27, including muting the microphone when the other candidate is responding to a question. It was clear, said pundits, that the two candidates do not like each other in the least.

The candidates were obviously prepped on policy initiatives and both of them dodged some key questions from moderators by substituting campaign rhetoric for substantive responses.

"They destroyed the economy," Trump said in referencing the Biden-Harris administration, with Harris responding with a run down of problems she says the former president caused during his first term as president.

Trump lost reelection to Biden in 2020 and Harris said that if he wins the presidential election on Nov. 5 the country will face even more problems. She said that American voters should elect her as president and "turn the page on this same old tired rhetoric."

Trump blamed Harris and Biden for the country's border problems and Harris reminded him that he killed a bipartisan border bill by lobbying GOP members of Congress to quash the deal so he could later grandstand on the controversial issue. She said that while she supports the right of Israel to defend itself against the Hamas attacks she denounces the prolonged inhumanitarian efforts by Hamas against Palestinians in Gaza and wants "a two-state solution."

Asked by the moderator if it were inappropriate to say Harris is not Black, Trump said he does not care what race she is. Harris shot back, saying Trump is a divisive race baiter and that she will be a "president for all Americans."

Turning to the controversial issues of abortion and reproductive rights Harris blamed Trump for stacking the U.S. Supreme Court with three justices he appointed who were among the majority relative to the court's 5-4 reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, a decision that also gave individual states the authority to legislate abortion.

Several states, including Ohio, have since passed ballot issues that enshrine the legal right to abortion and other reproductive measures in the Constitution. But Harris said that a multitude of states have banned abortion since the reversal of Roe v Wade, and she blamed Trump.

"The government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body and when Congress passes a bill to put back the protections of Roe v Wade as president I will surely sign it into law," Harris said.

In response to Harris' complaint that he supports a national ban on abortion Trump replied that " she lied, I am not signing a ban, there's no reason to sign a ban." Harris, however, says actions speak louder than words and that Trump and his fellow Republicans support a national ban on abortion, period.

Tuesday's fierce and contentious debate between the two presidential candidates lasted nearly an hour and 45 min. and there was hardly a dull moment.

If she wins the November election that she and her fellow Democrats have deemed historic and the most important election in the country's history, Kamala Harris will become the nation's first Black and first female president. Polls show her leading nationally and gaining ground in key battleground states.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most-read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWs.COM