US prez debate: Aliens to immigrants eating dogs, Trump’s bizarre claims

Harris baits Trump to lose control, he does

Kamala Harris spent the better part of the 1 hour 45-minute debate throwing challenges at Donald Trump, who consistently took the bait. Early in the debate, Harris struck where it would hurt the most.

“I’m going to do something unusual and invite you to one of Donald Trump’s rallies,” Harris said. “People leave his rallies early due to boredom and exhaustion.”

The topic was immigration, Trump’s hallmark issue. But Harris ended with a jab at the size of Trump’s crowds, to which Trump couldn’t help but respond. He said — without any evidence —Harris had paid people to attend her rallies. Clearly agitated, Trump made bizarre claims, including one about immigrants consuming people’s pets.

“Migrants eating dogs’, claims Trump

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs and cats,” Trump said, without evidence. “They’re eating the pets of the residents.”

Trump’s unverified claims appeared to stem from a viral video in Springfield, Ohio, where a resident claimed immigrants had killed local ducks for food. The video, though lacking evidence, gained momentum across right-wing platforms and soon morphed into memes showing Trump ‘protecting’ pets, according to The Guardian.

During the debate, Trump often appeared out of control. He mentioned conspiracy theories about widespread fraud in the 2020 election and Democrats supporting post-birth abortions, which he incorrectly described as ‘legal’.

As the event wrapped up, Harris received a significant endorsement from music icon Taylor Swift, who announced her support for the Democratic ticket via Instagram. Swift signed off as ‘Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady’, in a pointed nod to remarks made by Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, which alienated many women.

Doomsday rhetoric

During the debate, Trump portrayed the country in a bleak light, much like his “American carnage” speech in 2017.

“We have a nation that is dying,” he declared, without going any further into a reasonable explanation for how and why the nation is dying except for personal attacks on his opponent.

Aliens also brought in

“Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. This is a radical-left liberal,” Trump said at another point, sneering at a rival he earlier called a Marxist.

Crime stats and conspiracy theories

When the debate turned to crime, Trump claimed that the US was experiencing a crime wave. However, moderator David Muir countered with FBI statistics showing a decline in crime over the past few years. Trump, undeterred, fell back on a familiar claim that the FBI was corrupt and manipulating the data.

The moderator had to intervene and cite data from the FBI that found that violent crime decreased during the Trump administration, spiking in 2020 during the pandemic, and continuing to trend downward afterward.

Later, Trump called the US election system ‘a mess’ and alleged that Democrats were attempting to allow undocumented immigrants to vote.

Trump throws JD Vance under the bus on abortion

On the topic of abortion, when Trump was asked about his running mate, JD Vance’s recent comment that Trump would veto an abortion ban, Trump denied having discussed the matter with Vance. “I didn’t talk to JD about this, but I’m fine if he holds that view,” Trump said, adding that Congress was unlikely to pass any major abortion legislation.

Trump continued to challenge data

As the debate progressed, Trump continued to make exaggerated claims about immigration, crime statistics, and even the war in Ukraine, accusing international monitors of lying about death tolls. He also alleged that government economists had inflated job numbers under Biden and Harris.

First Published: Sep 11 2024 | 10:36 AM IST