Harris gets under Trump’s skin, over and over

Kamala Harris set a hook. And Donald Trump took the bait — over and over again.

In the first face-to-face showdown between the two presidential candidates, she taunted him for his crowd sizes, his past bankruptcies, his inherited wealth and more. Mocking Trump’s stature on the global stage, Harris claimed that world leaders laugh at him — a barb aimed squarely at his personal insecurities.

The result left Trump on the defensive — and struggling to land hits even as the discussion turned to territory friendlier for him like immigration and the economy.

“I’m not signing a ban,” Trump said, as he vacillated between shrugging off Harris’ attacks on abortion and defending the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade. As for Project 2025, the ultra-conservative agenda that Harris has portrayed as a blueprint for a Trump presidency, he said, “I don’t want to read it.”

And after Harris belittled the size of Trump’s rallies, the Republican — who allies had counseled to remain calm and under control — couldn’t help himself: “People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” Trump insisted, as Harris looked on, smirking and shaking her head.

The early exchanges quickly set the tone for the much-anticipated debate, in which Harris moved to take command on a number of topics. While Trump started out measured and collected — reminiscent of his face-off with President Joe Biden — he appeared increasingly frustrated as Harris needled him.

“Talk about extreme,” Harris said, after Trump gave an extended recounting of baseless stories about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating household pets that have circulated in right-wing circles and among conspiracy theorists.

Tuesday marked the first face-to face-meeting for Harris and Trump, in what may be the only time voters will hear from the candidates in a side-by-side match-up before Election Day. The two candidates, battling it out in a race that began just seven weeks ago, remain deadlocked just days before early voting begins in some key states.

The mics were muted Tuesday night when the candidates weren’t speaking, a point of tension in recent weeks as the Harris campaign pushed for mics to be unmuted for the entirety of the debate. Harris aides warned in recent days that the format disadvantaged the vice president, shielding viewers from hearing Trump’s direct exchanges with Harris and denying the former prosecutor the ability to fully cross-examine Trump.

But the muted mics didn’t appear to hamper Harris, who used her response time to briefly fact check Trump and respond to his attacks. Harris’ body language was also notable from the moment she stepped on stage, walking to the former president’s podium to ensure they shook hands. And she often looked at Trump as she spoke, even as the former president avoided eye contact with her.

“One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said at one point, staring directly at Trump as she described individual instances of women who faced health emergencies because they could not access abortion.

Just two months from Election Day, the stakes were high for both candidates, as Trump has struggled to calibrate a message against a new opponent. And Harris, who has been forced to introduce herself to voters on a truncated timeline, has mostly avoided unscripted moments on the campaign trail, while coming into Tuesday night’s showdown with far less experience than Trump on a debate stage.

Polling in the run-up to the debate showed Trump and Haris effectively tied, with the race within the margin of error across several battleground states.

Emmy Martin contributed to this report.