Sold for less than 20. Go to dealdash. Com and see how much you can save this election. Stay with cnn with more reporters on the ground and the best political team in the business, follow the candidates follow the voters. Follow the facts. Follow cnn live from the national Constitution Center in philadelphia, pennsylvania here again, David Muir and Linsey Davis. Welcome back. Tonight, the time has come for closing statements. And Vice President harris we begin with you so i think youve heard tonight two very different visions for our country one that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past and an attempt to take us backward but were not going back. And i do believe that the american people know we all have so much more in common than what separates us, and we can chart a new way forward and a vision of that includes having a plan, understanding the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes, the ambition of the american people. Which is why i intend to create an Opportunity Economy investing in Small Businesses in new families, in what we can do around protecting seniors, what we can do that is about giving hardworking folks a break and bringing down the cost of living. I believe in what we can do together. That is about sustaining americas standing in the world and ensuring that we have the respect that we so rightly deserve including respecting our military and ensuring we have the most lethal Fighting Force in the world. I will be a president that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do. Ill tell you, i started my career as a prosecutor i was a da, i was an attorney general, a united states senator, and now a Vice President. Ive only had one client, the people. And ill tell you, as a prosecutor, i never asked a victim or a witness. Are you a republican or a democrat . The only thing i ever ask them. Are you okay and thats the kind of president we need right now someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first. I intend to be a president for all americans and focus on what we can do over the next ten and 20 years to build back up our country by investing right now in you, the american people. Vice president harris, thank you. President trump so she just started by saying shes going to do this shes going to do that. Shes going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasnt she done it . Shes been there for 3. 5 Years Theyve had 3. 5 years to fix the border. Theyve had 3. 5 years to create jobs and all the things we talked about why hasnt she done it . She should leave right now. Go down to that beautiful white house, go to the capitol, get everyone together and do the things you want to do. But you havent done it and you wont do it because you believe in things that the american people dont believe in. You believe in things like were not going to frack. Were not going to take Fossil Fuel were not going to do things that are going to make this country strong. Whether you like it or not. Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants. Were not ready for it. We Cant Sacrifice our country for the sake of bad vision but i just ask one simple question why didnt she do it . Were a failing nation were a nation thats in serious decline. Were being laughed at all over the world, all over the world. Theyre laughing. I know the leaders very well. Theyre coming to see me. They call me. Were laughed at all over the world. They dont understand what happened to us as a nation. Were not a leader. We dont have any idea whats going on. We have wars going on in the middle east. We have wars going on with russia and ukraine. Were going to end up in a third world war, and it will be a war like no other because of nuclear weapons. The power of weaponry. I rebuilt our entire military. She gave a lot of it away to the taliban. She gave it to afghanistan. What these people have done to our country and maybe toughest of all is allowing millions of people to come into our country many of them are criminals, and theyre destroying our country. The worst president , the worst Vice President in the history of our country, President Trump. Thank you. And that is our abc News President ial debate from here in philadelphia at the national Constitution Center. Im Linsey Davis and im David Muir. Thank you for watching. Here in the u. S. And all over the world. And from All Of Us here at abc news, good night an historic night with a current Vice President. The first ever woman and first ever person of color to be Vice President. Debating a former president of the united states. Before the Debate Trump supporters expressed hope that the former president would stay focused on issues such as in inflation and immigration and that did appear to be a struggle for Donald Trump. Perhaps too often, most notably when he invoked what authorities in Springfield Or Ohio or are saying is just false, a debunked meme that haitian migrants are stealing and eating pets he said that on the Debate Stage Tonight, if illegal immigration is the most important issue to you as a voter. He did talk about it aggressively, but Vice President Harriss Supporters have got to be pleased with her performance this evening, which was focused on an a telling voters that she cares about them and she has a plan for them and over and over baiting Donald Trump into talking about Crowd Sizes and court cases and Nancy Pelosi and russiagate and grievance. And he took the bait almost every time, if not every time. He cited fox hosts as Fact Checkers. He invoked hungarian Strongman Viktor Orban as a character witness. It was like a Fortune Post come to life. He really took her bait almost every time. If youre a fisherman, as i struggle to be, you would be lucky to have your bait taken so often instead of focusing on Trump Filling in the blanks for those voters unfamiliar with her he focused on stuff as if he was the incumbent. Im not sure harris necessarily did enough to fill in the blanks that undecided voters might have about specifics about her plans but theres no question democrats have to feel good tonight about the trade of biden for harris, who showed herself to be a strong candidate. She delivered a strong message. And yes, she prosecuted the case against trump. She started the debate. She began the debate approaching Donald Trump, shaking his hand at the podium, kind of forcing him to shake her hand introducing herself and from that moment on dana, she took the Fight Right to him. You know, im just looking up this is the quote that i think really sums up what Kamala Harris, her whole message was tonight. Youre not running against Joe Biden, youre running against me. It was obviously a planned line but it deftly explains how she kind of triangulated and she separated herself obviously, from Donald Trump and where she needed to from Joe Biden. And what was so fascinating is that she didnt do it on defense. She did it on offense, really, in every turn. There are real weaknesses in the biden, Harris Administration, from the economy to immigration to afghanistan. Just take afghanistan for an example instead of talking about the disastrous, chaotic withdrawal, she turned it to the fact that he invited the Taliban To Camp David and talked about started talking about Abbe Lowell and exactly and then you mentioned that she was baiting him. She baited him and he took the bait every single time, as you said. She was also using the language that he usually uses. She she kind of stole it from him. Disgrace week, things like that. That really get to him. The other thing that i just want to add is that she began to turn to who she is by saying, im not Joe Biden, im Donald Trump. Im from a new generation, a different generation of of of leaders and she clearly wanted people to understand what shes made of for people who are really wanting to know all of her 17 Point Policy plans they might be disappointed. But for people who want to know who she is and what shes made of, they got it tonight. Now the voters are going to have to decide and its going to take them a while to digest it, and we dont want to suggest that we have any idea how this is going to play. But those are the observations for how she handled that and the way that he did not handle it well i think its pretty simple. I mean, she had a plan. She executed on that plan. The plan was to quite simply bait Donald Trump to force him to battle on her turf at every turn. I mean she talked about china. He starts defending his love for for xi jinping. She talks about you know, she she talks about his Sexual Assault cases. He starts defending himself on that turf she wanted to do that. But i also think i did see her trying to kind of really lay the groundwork on the policy issues that the campaign thinks will matter particularly in the state of pennsylvania. Right the commonwealth, excuse me, of pennsylvania. Um she the very first answer that she gave was about her economic policy, where she talked about the 50,000 that they want to they want to put out there for Small Business Owners that they would get an a tax refund. I thought that was incredibly important because they clearly know that there were a lot of things that they put out on economic policy. Not all of them were received well. That one was received well and i and i also thought you know, there were other moments where she talked a lot about her family. She talked about her upbringing. She talked about how she was raised. I mean, the plan was to not just introduce herself, but to introduce herself specifically to Pennsylvania Voters so that they understood on economic policy, on fracking, where she stood. And she executed that plan whereas trump i dont know what the plan was that he had jake i didnt think i was ever going to witness a debate as devastating as The One that you and dana moderated back in, in june, where Joe Biden basically tanked his reelection campaign. I think tonight was just as devastating. I think that Kamala Harris pitched a shutout uh, on almost every subject i can think of, she shut trump down on abortion. She shut trump down on january sixth, and democracy, she shut him down on national security and turned to the former president and said the Military Leaders who served with you think that youre a disgrace. And then, as dana mentioned, very powerfully at The End made the point that she is the candidate of change and we need to turn the page from a decade of Division And Polarization on substance. I think she she pitched a shutout, and i think she did on style as well. I mean my the image of the debate to me is shes theyre happy smiling, expressive, shaking her head. Uh and dismay at things. Trump was saying. And trump looked angry, scowling. She was looking directly at the audience. He was looking at the moderators and arguing with them and something else. And he was. He he. Donald trump looked old tonight and and you know some somebody said uh, on my show on saturday she wins just by showing up. I didnt know that that was going to be true. I think it was she was the candidate who was reacting to just from the moment the two of them were on the stage. Everything that she said, well, what you saw really was under control. Vice president Kamala Harris, prosecuting this debate with surgical precision. She was aware as she must have been as a prosecutor, that the second you were inside of a courtroom, the jury is looking at everything youre doing muted microphones doesnt matter. Her verbal nonverbal cues, her body language, her incredulous expressions, at one point putting her hand under her chin to demonstrate that she was completely baffled by his line of defense, losing a battle of expert witnesses. Youre talking about talking about national security advisers, talking about nobel laureates, talking about the whole litany of people who do not buy what hes selling. Also very well trained and seasoned, and knowing how to grapple with Somebody Who is going to possibly be bombastic, Petulant Defensive and have a derailed effort. She focused on all of those things. I saw Somebody Who, when she came out, allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Kamala Harris. On behalf of Kamala Harris. She came out with that in mind. I think she executed now Donald Trump tried to derail her a number of times. But notice im saying the words Donald Trump and the way she did it wasnt President Trump. She was referring to him as similarly as you would in a courtroom. The defendant, the defendant under his title reminding you of what how did she Phrase It . What he left us with. It was a really dynamite performance. So, anderson, i mean his lack of parrying his lack of making Kamala Harris and the bidenharris record, the focus. I mean, if you watch this debate and you didnt know that she was the incumbent Vice President you saw a debate where Donald Trump was really on defense, and he and his record were the subject of the debate not the incumbent leader Kamala Harris did tonight with no governor senator, politician, Business Person who has run against him in primaries for in 2016. And certainly anything he faced in 2020 has figured out what No One else figured out how to do certainly, Marco Rubio didnt figure it out by going after little hands. He debased himself, as many have. I want to show just some key moments where she needled Donald Trump on the most sort of obvious, basic things that we all know. He has said. We all know her weak points to devastating effect. Lets just take a look 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. What the Wharton School has said is Donald Trumps plan would actually explode the deficit im going to actually do something really unusual, and im going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trumps rallies because its a really interesting thing to watch. You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills, Cause Cancer and what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And i will tell you, The One thing you will not hear him talk about is you. If you want to really know The Inside Track On who the former president is if he didnt make it clear already, just ask people who have worked with him John King it was the moment she talked about his Crowd Size of all things and people. He was Crowd Size. It was people being bored and leaving his rallies early. I dont think he ever recovered from that. He was he started shouting and he never stopped. She triggered him there. I think she was uneven at the top. Not a bad answer first answer in the economy, but not a great answer she got her footing during the abortion conversation, where she felt more comfortable and then she triggered him with the people leave your rallies and he lost it and he was angry. From that moment on, his voice went up. He started angering. He told a lot of lies Daniel Dale is going to be up all night. We should start a Go Fund me for his Espresso Machine he he did. And so what did she do . She triggered him on covid January 6th and democracy, abortion chaos, lies. And his anger. What are those those are the issues that turn the american suburbs away from Donald Trump, and why he lost the 2020 election. Those are the voters who were waiting to see if she could stand there and be a plausible president next to him. She cleared that bar. That doesnt mean sHe Won their votes, but she cleared that bar with eight weeks left in the election, she stood next to a former president , and she more than held her own. And on many of the issues, she schooled him. She simply schooled him because she triggered him into his lies and into his anger, which does not sell well with the the middle of the electorate that will decide things eight weeks from tonight you know, ive been involved in a lot of these. I helped prepare a candidate for these debates six of them, and ive been watching them since i was a little boy. I have scarcely seen one like this uh, and the degree to which she dominated this and, you know, part of it was a Butt Kicking and part of it was kind of someone doing themselves in. I said earlier, jokingly, that you know, when they said hes a Muhammad Ali in the debates that you know, their fear has to be that he knocks himself out. He kind of helped. But she set him up as john said. But these things are more than about issues. These things are tests, these campaigns, these debates. Theyre oral exams for the hardest job on the planet and people judge you in these moments and they judge whether you have the mettle to stand up to that pressure to, to, to, to to, to be coherent, to deliver a case, uh and she certainly did that tonight. Then she whooped him she just whooped him uh, and i think that theres been a desire, you know, in good fiction, theres like Wish Fulfillment like, you know, you watch a movie because you want something to happen, like some great romance people have wanted to see somebody put this bully in his place. And people have watched contender after contender failed to put him in his place. She got up there and she put him in his place. She baited him and then she spanked him. She baited him and then she spanked him and and not only did she pass the commander in chief test, he failed it. He failed i