Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump had their first and only scheduled debate Tuesday, providing a stark contrast between the two candidates with just eight weeks to go before the November 5 election. Harris repeatedly put Trump on the defensive as they debated abortion, immigration, Israel’s war on Gaza, race, January 6 and other issues. Trump repeated his false claim that he won the 2020 election and again questioned Harris’s race, painted diverse cities as inherently unsafe, repeated a debunked claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets and more. Carol Anderson, professor of African American studies at Emory University, says Trump’s basic pitch is that “white Americans need to be fearful” of people of color. “What he is basically saying is, ’I’m your white savior.’”
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