Transcripts For CNN CNN Special Event Second Presidential De

Never let you go to lumi dotcom and get your first Starter Pack for 30 off. Im Hanako Montgomery In Tokyo and this is cnn tonight. The high Stakes Showdown here in philadelphia between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, their first Face To Face Meeting in this president ial election, their first Face To Face Meeting ever. A historic race for president upended just weeks ago. President biden withdrawing after his last debate Donald Trump, now up against a new opponent. The candidates separated by the smallest of margins, essentially tied in the polls nationally and in the key battlegrounds including right here in pennsylvania all still very much in play. The abc News President ial debate starts right now. This is an Abc News special. The most consequential moment of this campaign. Kamala harris together we will chart a new way forward. Donald trump, we will soon be a great nation again, Face To face historic the abc News President ial debate. Here now david Muir And Linsey davis good evening. Im David Muir and thank you for joining us for tonights abc News President ial debate. We want to welcome viewers watching on abc and Around The World. Tonight, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump are just moments away from taking the stage in this unprecedented race for president. And im linsey davis. Tonights meeting could be the most consequential event of their campaigns with Election Day now less than two months away for Vice President Kamala Harris, this is her first debate since President Biden withdrew from the race on july 21st. Of course, that decision followed his debate against President Donald Trump in june. Since then, this race has taken on an entirely new dynamic. And that brings us to the rules of tonights debate. 90 minutes with two commercial breaks, no topics or questions have been shared with the campaigns the candidates will have two minutes to answer questions, and this is the clock. Thats what theyll be seeing. Two minutes for rebuttals and one minute for follow ups, clarifications or responses. Their microphones will only be turned on when its their turn to speak. No prewritten notes allowed there is no audience here tonight in this hall at the national Constitution Center. This is an intimate setting for two candidates who have never met President Trump won the coin toss. He chose to deliver the final Closing Statement of the evening. Vice president harris selected the podium to the right so lets now welcome the candidates to the stage Vice President Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump Kamala Harris, whats up . Good to see you. Have fun. Thank you. Thank you welcome to you both its wonderful to have you. Its an honor to have you both here tonight. Good evening. We are looking forward to a spirited and thoughtful debate. So lets get started. I want to begin tonight with the issue that voters repeatedly say is their Number One issue. And that is the economy and the cost of living in this country. Vice president harris, you and President Trump were elected four years ago, and your opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, are you better off than you were four years ago . When it comes to the economy, do you believe americans are better off than they were four years ago . So i was raised as a middle Class Kid, and i am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the Middle Class and working people of america i believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the american people and that is why i imagine and have actually a plan to build what i call an Opportunity Economy. Because heres the thing we know that we have a shortage of of homes and housing, and the cost of housing is too expensive for too many people we know that young families need support to raise their children, and i intend on extending a Tax Cut for those families of 6,000, which is the largest Child Tax Credit that we have given in a long time. So that those young families can afford to buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy clothes for their children my passion one of them is small businesses. I was actually my mother, raised my sister and me, but there was a woman who helped raise us. We call her our second mother. She was a small business owner. I love our small businesses. My plan is to give a 50,000 Tax Deduction to start up small businesses knowing they are part of the backbone of americas economy. My opponent on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a Tax Cut for billionaires and big corporations, which will result in 5 Trillion to americas deficit. My opponent has a plan that i call the trumps Sales Tax, which would be a 20 tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month economists have said that that trump Sales Tax would actually result for Middle Class families in about 4,000 more, a year because of his policies and his ideas about what should be the backs of Middle Class people paying for Tax Cuts for billionaires President Trump ill give you two minutes. First of all, i have no Sales Tax. Thats an incorrect statement she knows that were doing tariffs on other countries. Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that weve done for the world and the tariff will be substantial in some cases i took in billions and billions of dollars as you know, from china. In fact, they never took the tariff off because it was so much money. They cant it would totally destroy everything that theyve set out to do theyre taking in billions of dollars from china and other places. Theyve left the tariffs on. When i had it, i had tariffs. And yet i had no inflation. Look, weve had a terrible economy because inflation has, which is really known as a country buster. It breaks up countries we have inflation like very few people have ever seen before probably the worst in our nations history. We were at 21 . But thats being generous because many things are 50, 60, 70 and 80 higher than they were just a few years ago. This has been a disaster for people, for the Middle Class. But for every class on top of that, we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums, and theyre coming in and theyre taking jobs that are occupied. Right now by african americans. And hispanics and also unions unions are going to be affected very soon and you see whats happening. You see whats happening with towns throughout the united states. You look at springfield ohio, you look at aurora in colorado. They are taking over the towns. Theyre taking over buildings. Theyre going in violently. These are the people that she and biden let into our country. And theyre destroying our country. Theyre dangerous. Theyre at the highest level of criminality. And we have to get them out. We have to get them out fast. I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country. Ill do it again. And even better, we are going to get to immigration and Border Security during this debate. But i would like to let Vice President harris respond on the economy here well, i would love to. Lets talk about what Donald Trump left us. 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 Trumps mess what we have done and what i intend to do is build on what we know are the aspirations and the hopes of the american people. But im going to tell you all in this debate tonight, youre going to hear from the same old tired playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances and name calling. What youre going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called project 2025, that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again i believe very strongly that the american people want a president who understands the importance of bringing us together, and we have so much more in common than what separates us. And i pledge to you to be a president for all americans. President trump will give you a minute here to respond. Number one, i have nothing to do as you know and as she knows better than anyone, i have nothing to do with project 2025. Thats out there. I havent read it. I dont want to read it purposely. Im not going to read it this was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas, i guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do. Everybody knows im an open book. Everybody knows what im going to do. Cut taxes very substantially and create a great economy like i did before. We had the greatest economy. We got hit with a pandemic and the pandemic was not since 1917, where 100 Million people died. Has there been anything like it. We did a phenomenal job with the pandemic. We handed them over a country where the economy and with the Stock Market was higher than it was before the pandemic came in. Nobodys ever seen anything like it. We made ventilators for the entire world. We got gowns, we got masks. We did things that nobody thought possible, and people give me credit for rebuilding the military. They give me credit for a lot of things, but not enough credit for the great job we did with the pandemic. But the only jobs they got were bounceback jobs. These were jobs bounce back and it bounced back. And it went to their benefit. But i was the one that created them. They know it. And so does Everybody Else. Vice president harris, ill let you respond. So Donald Trump has no Plan For you. And when you look at his economic plan, its all about Tax Breaks for the richest people i am offering what i describe as an Opportunity Economy and the best economists in our country, if not the world, have reviewed our relative plans for the future of america. What goldman sachs has said is that Donald Trumps plan would make the economy worse. Mine would strengthen the economy. What the Wharton School has said is Donald Trumps plan would actually explode. The deficit. 16 nobel laureates have described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation, and by the middle of next year, would invite a recession. You just have to look at where we are and where we stand on the issues. And id invite you to know that Donald Trump actually has no Plan For you because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you. Thats just a soundbite. They gave her that to say look, i went to the Wharton School of finance and many of those professors, the top professors, think my plan is a brilliant plan. Its a great plan its a plan thats going to bring up our worth, our value as a country. Its going to make people want to be able to go and work and create jobs and create a lot of good, solid money for our for our country. And just to finish off, she doesnt have a plan. She copied Bidens Plan and its like four sentences like Run Spot run, four sentences that are just oh, well try and lower taxes she doesnt have a plan. Take a look at her plan. She doesnt have a plan. Mr. President i do want to drill down on something you both brought up. The Vice President brought up your tariffs, you responded. And lets drill down on this because your plan is what she calls is essentially a national Sales Tax. Your Proposal Calls for tariffs, as you pointed out here on foreign imports across the board. You recently said that you might double your plan imposing tariffs up to 20 on goods coming into this country as you know, many economists say that with tariffs at that level, costs are then passed on to the consumer. Vice president harris has argued it will mean higher prices on gas, food, clothing medication, arguing it costs the typical family nearly 4,000 a year. Do you believe americans can afford higher prices because of tariffs . Theyre not going to have higher prices. Whats going to have and whos going to have higher prices is china and all of the countries that have been ripping us off for years, i charge i was the only president ever china was paying us hundreds of billions of dollars and so were other countries and, you know, if she doesnt like him, they should have gone out and they should have immediately cut the tariffs. But those tariffs are there 3. 5 years now under their administration we are going to take in billions of Dollars Hundreds of billions of dollars. I had no inflation virtually no inflation. They had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of our country, because ive never seen a worse period of time. People cant go out and buy Cereal Or Bacon or eggs or anything else. These the people of our country are absolutely dying with what theyve done. Theyve destroyed the economy. And all you have to do is look at a poll. The polls say 80 and 85 and even 90 that the Trump Economy was great, that their economy was terrible Vice President harris, i do want to ask for your response and you heard what the president said there, because the biden administration did keep a number of the trump tariffs in place. So how do you respond . Well, lets be clear that the Trump Administration resulted in a trade deficit. One of the highest weve ever seen in the history of america, he invited trade wars. You want to talk about his deal with china. What he ended up doing is under Donald Trumps presidency, he ended up selling american chips to china to help them improve and modernize their military basically sold us out. When 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 a. I. , on quantum computing, focusing on what we need to do to support Americas Workforce so that we dont end up having on the short end of the stick in terms of workers rights. But what Donald Trump did, lets talk about this with covid. Is he actually thanked President Xi for what he did during covid. Look at his tweet. Thank you president Xi Exclamation point. When we know that xi was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about the origins of covid, President Trump, ill let you respond. First of all, they bought their chips from taiwan. We hardly make chips anymore because of philosophies like they have. And policies like they have. I dont say her because she has no Policy Everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out. The window. Shes going to my philosophy now in fact, i was going to send her a Maga Hat shes gone to my philosophy but if she ever got elected, shed change it. And it will be The End of our country