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Welcome to WatchMojo.WORLD In this video, we’re breaking down the most memorable, shocking, and game-changing moments from the second U.S. presidential debate of 2024. From fiery clashes between candidates to unexpected one-liners that went viral, these highlights defined the night and could shape the future of American politics.
Our countdown includes everything from policy clashes to personal attacks, with appearances from major 2024 presidential contenders. Whether you’re a political junkie or just love big debate drama, these are the moments you can't miss!
🗳️ Which moment shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments below!
✅ Don't forget to Like, Share & Subscribe for more Top 10 political and current events breakdowns.
Our countdown includes everything from policy clashes to personal attacks, with appearances from major 2024 presidential contenders. Whether you’re a political junkie or just love big debate drama, these are the moments you can't miss!
🗳️ Which moment shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments below!
✅ Don't forget to Like, Share & Subscribe for more Top 10 political and current events breakdowns.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00In Minnesota, she went out, wait a minute, I'm talking now, if you don't mind, please.
00:05Does that sound familiar?
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most buzzworthy moments
00:12from Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's first showdown.
00:15The people on television say my dog was taken and used for food, so maybe he said that,
00:20and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager.
00:23I'm not taking this from television, I'm taking it from the city manager.
00:24But the people on television saying their dog was eaten by the people that went there.
00:30Number 10, the opening handshake.
00:33Kamala Harris, let's have a good debate.
00:35Good to see you, have fun.
00:37It's a time-honored tradition.
00:40Before presidential candidates rhetorically tear each other to pieces in hopes of being
00:44the United States' next commander-in-chief, they engage in a friendly handshake.
00:48You know, in the spirit of democracy and decorum and stuff.
00:51So I was raised as a middle-class kid, and I am actually the only person on this stage
00:58who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle-class and working people of America.
01:02However, when Donald Trump is involved, that hasn't necessarily been the case.
01:07Hillary Clinton dodged a Trump handshake prior to a debate in October 2016, nodding at him
01:12in a polite but bare-bones acknowledgement.
01:15In Harris and Trump's case, the former strode over to Trump and initiated the classic handshake.
01:20Trump reportedly wished the vice president, quote, good luck in response.
01:24However, what was to follow was anything but cordial.
01:28First of all, I have no sales tax.
01:29That's an incorrect statement.
01:31She knows that.
01:32We're doing tariffs on other countries.
01:34Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we've done
01:39for the world.
01:40Number nine.
01:41You're running against me.
01:42They're in for $150 billion less because Biden and you don't have the courage to ask Europe
01:50like I did with NATO.
01:51It's been well reported that since Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race,
01:56Trump and his team have been scrambling to readjust and recalibrate their campaign in
02:00a way that accounts for Kamala Harris's sudden candidacy.
02:03This was no more pronounced than in Philadelphia on this Tuesday evening.
02:07I want to get the war settled.
02:09I know Zelensky very well and I know Putin very well.
02:12I have a good relationship and they respect your president, okay?
02:16They respect me.
02:17They don't respect Biden.
02:18How would you respect him?
02:19Why?
02:20For what reason?
02:21Early on in the debate, Harris and Trump came to verbal blows over the latter's repeated
02:26invocation of President Biden's perceived ousting as the Democratic nominee.
02:30At one point, Harris explicitly called out the Trump campaign's biggest struggle.
02:35Indeed, Trump is no longer running against Biden, stoking fears among conservatives that
02:40he may be an unfit opponent for Harris.
02:42Well, first of all, it's important to remind the former president, you're not running against
02:47Joe Biden, you're running against me.
02:50I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours
02:55is because he would just give it up.
02:56Number eight, VP Harris owns a handgun.
02:59She wants to confiscate your guns and she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania.
03:04If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one.
03:09We're not sure what surprised us more.
03:11The fact that Kamala Harris is a proud gun owner or that it's been a matter of public record
03:15for a number of years now.
03:17When accused by her Republican rival of intending to confiscate individuals' guns, Harris pushed
03:22back, noting that Governor Tim Walls of Minnesota, her running mate, is also a gun owner.
03:27I've made very clear my position on fracking and then this business about taking everyone's
03:32guns away.
03:33Tim Walls and I are both gun owners.
03:34We're not taking anybody's guns away.
03:36So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.
03:39Kellen Browning, writing for The New York Times, pointed out that, quote,
03:42When she was running for president in the 2020 Democratic primary, Ms. Harris, a former
03:47prosecutor, said that she kept a gun for safety, defending her choice by highlighting her choice
03:52of occupation.
03:53President Trump, we have to move on.
03:55President Trump.
03:56Let's turn to policy, please.
03:58Number seven, Trump distances himself from Project 2025.
04:03Number one, I have nothing to do, as you know and as she knows better than anyone, I have
04:06nothing to do with Project 2025.
04:09That's out there.
04:10I haven't read it.
04:11I don't want to read it.
04:12For the uninitiated, a quick primer.
04:15This is the brainchild of conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, operating under
04:19the unitary executive theory.
04:21This posits that the president directly oversees the executive branch.
04:25Critics of Project 2025 describe the initiative as a threat to liberal democracy that aims to
04:31erode political accountability.
04:33While Trump has repeatedly denied knowledge of, affiliation with, and contributions to Project
04:382025, the Guardian's Rachel Leingang asserts that, quote, Trump well knows the Heritage
04:43Foundation and has spoken at their events.
04:46And Kevin Roberts, Heritage's leader, has previously said he and Trump have talked several
04:50times.
04:51Vice President Harris suggested the former president's involvement in the initiative,
04:55which Trump once again strongly disavowed.
04:58This was a group of people that got together.
05:00They came up with some ideas.
05:01I guess some good, some bad.
05:03But it makes no difference.
05:04I have nothing to do.
05:05Everybody knows I'm an open book.
05:06Everybody knows what I'm going to do.
05:08Cut taxes very substantially and create a great economy like I did before.
05:12Number 6.
05:13Trump, Harris, and fracking.
05:15So my values have not changed and I'm going to discuss every one of the, at least every
05:20point that you've made.
05:21But in particular, let's talk about fracking because we're here in Pennsylvania.
05:24As noted by Sahil Kapoor of NBC News, one area that Kamala Harris has exhibited noticeable
05:30weakness is in, quote, the left-wing positions she took as a Democratic presidential primary
05:35candidate in 2020 that she has since abandoned or backtracked from.
05:38These include, quote, banning fracking, mandating buybacks of semi-automatic firearms, and decriminalizing
05:45border crossings.
05:46I will not ban fracking.
05:48I have not banned fracking as Vice President of the United States.
05:50And in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened
05:56new leases for fracking.
05:58Justin Moreland, analyzing the debate for time, noted that the September 10th debate represented
06:03yet another flip from Harris, who claimed, quote, that she now supports fracking, a technology
06:08used to drill oil and gas wells, after asserting in 2019 that she favored a ban of it.
06:14This was despite President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which was, quote,
06:18estimated to provide $370 billion in support for emissions-reducing programs.
06:23My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our
06:31reliance on foreign oil.
06:33We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history.
06:40Number five, I'm speaking.
06:42Fracking?
06:42She's been against it for 12 years.
06:45Defund the police.
06:46She's been against that forever.
06:48She gave all that stuff up very wrongly, very horribly.
06:53In one of the debate's admittedly more amusing moments, Trump called back to a viral Harris
06:58line.
06:59The jab stemmed from her 2020 vice presidential debate with then-VP and 2024 presidential candidate
07:05Mike Pence.
07:06While attempting to respond to a question, the current vice president was interrupted by
07:10the former vice president, to which she politely but firmly asked Pence to allow her to finish
07:15her statement.
07:16Smash cut to...
07:17Wait a minute, I'm talking now, if you don't mind, please.
07:22Does that sound familiar?
07:23Criticizing Harris's supposed inability to remain committed to certain issues, Trump brushed
07:28off an attempt by her to address said criticisms.
07:30We can only speculate as to why the debate's organizers made the choice to turn the candidates'
07:35microphones off when they weren't speaking.
07:37And everybody's laughing at it, okay?
07:39They're all laughing at it.
07:40She gave up at least 12 and probably 14 or 15 different policies.
07:45Like, she was big on defund the police.
07:48Number four, Trump's comments on abortion.
07:50Vice President Harris says that women shouldn't trust you on the issue of abortion because
07:55you've changed your position so many times.
07:58Therefore, why should they trust you?
08:00Over the course of his campaigning for re-election, Trump has often faced heat from all sides as
08:05to his positions on abortion.
08:07As noted by NPR's Sarah McCammon, the 45th president, quote,
08:11repeatedly called for leaving abortion policy to the states.
08:14But anti-abortion rights activists, who make up a key part of the Republican base, have
08:19called on Republican elected officials to work toward national abortion restrictions.
08:23The reason I'm doing that vote is because the plan is, as you know the vote is, they have
08:28abortion in the ninth month.
08:31Trump went all out at the second debate, baselessly claiming that Democrats supported abortions
08:35even after a baby is born.
08:37Lindsey Davis, one of the debate's moderators, was quick to note that no such act is legal
08:42in any state.
08:43They even have, and you can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of
08:48West Virginia, not the current governor who's doing an excellent job, but the governor before,
08:53he said, the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby.
08:57In other words, we'll execute the baby.
08:59Number three, concepts of a plan.
09:01The Affordable Care Act, which Trump failed to shoot down in 2017, was a hot-button issue
09:18during the September 10th debate.
09:19As the New York Times noted, while a poll of likely voters indicated that they needed
09:24to know more about Harris's policies, the Democratic presidential candidate skimped on
09:28such details.
09:29That said, Trump was far off the hook either.
09:32I inherited Obamacare because Democrats wouldn't change it.
09:36They wouldn't vote for it.
09:37They were unanimous.
09:38They wouldn't vote to change it.
09:40If they would've done that, we would've had a much better plan than Obamacare.
09:44While Trump had indeed put plans in motion to repeal that legislation, the late Senator
09:48John McCain ended the former president's efforts.
09:51In 2024, Trump falsely declared that he had single-handedly saved the Affordable Care Act,
09:57and when asked if he had a plan to replace it, vaguely replied that he had, quote, concepts
10:02of a plan.
10:03So just a yes or no, you still do not have a plan?
10:05I have concepts of a plan.
10:07I'm not president right now.
10:09But if we come up with something, I would only change it if we come up with something that's
10:15better and less expensive.
10:16Number two, Harris's supposed operations, according to former President Trump.
10:21She went out in Minnesota and wanted to let criminals that killed people that burned down
10:28Minneapolis, she went out and raised money to get them out of jail.
10:32When Harris responded to the aforementioned question on fracking, she declared that her
10:35values remained the same, despite her flip-flopping on the issue being a matter of record.
10:40Smelling blood in the water, Trump pounced, declaring that, quote,
10:44She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.
10:48This is a radical left liberal that would do this.
10:51Health policy journalist Cheryl Gay Stolberg linked Trump's bizarre accusations to an ACLU
10:56questionnaire that Harris filled out when running for president in 2019.
11:00Stolberg notes that at the time, quote,
11:02She supported using taxpayer funds to give access to gender-affirming care to transgender
11:06and non-binary people, including those in immigration detention and prison.
11:10This is a radical left liberal that would do this.
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11:29Number 1. Dogs and Cats
11:33In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in.
11:38They're eating the cats.
11:39They're eating the pets of the people that live there.
11:45This is definitely a statement that requires a little bit of context.
11:49In the days immediately leading up to Harris and Trump's face-off,
11:52Senator J.D. Vance posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had, quote,
11:56raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services
12:00and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.
12:04I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio,
12:07and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there.
12:10He told us there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed,
12:14injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.
12:18And that, quote,
12:18reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country.
12:24Police officers, the city manager, and even the mayor of Springfield
12:27have all reported that they are unaware of any credible evidence of this having taken place.
12:32People on television say my dog was taken and used for food.
12:36So maybe he said that and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager.
12:40I'm not taking this from television.
12:42But the people on television say their dog was eaten by the people that went there.
12:46Which moment from the second U.S. presidential debate shocked you the most?
12:50Be sure to let us know in the comments.
12:52And I'm going to actually do something really unusual.
12:54And I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies
12:57because it's a really interesting thing to watch.
13:00Did you enjoy this video?
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