Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's first presidential debate

well vice president KLA Harris and former president Donald Trump went head-to-head last night and there much anticipated US presidential debate KLA Harris Let's Have a good debate see you have fun thank you welcome to you both it's wonderful to have you it's an other two took to the stage in Philadelphia with no audience present it was seen as offering Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that's dramatically changed since President Joe Biden bowed out of the race the heated debate a range of topics from the economy to abortion immigration the January 6th riots and Trump's legal rules than you were for millions and millions of people to come into our country and look at what's happening to the towns all over the United States and a lot of towns don't want to talk not going to be Aurora or Springfield a lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it in Springfield they're eating the dogs the people that came in they're eating the cats they're eating they're eating the pets of the people that live there and this is what's happening in our country how you doing I have traveled the world as vice president United States and world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump I have talked with military leaders some of whom worked with you and they say you're a disgrace and when you then talk in this way in a presidential debate and deny what over and over again are court cases you have lost because you did in fact lose that election and for a close a look at last night's debate we're joined live by John mik politics editor at masslive.com John good afternoon I don't even know where to start so I'm just gonna say what is your take uh Bari good afternoon nice to be with you again uh vice president Harris last night though many Americans know her it was really an opportunity for her to reintroduce herself um to the American public and you can make a pretty incredible argument that she did it in fine style um this is what happens when you are a former prosecutor it was watching her I've covered courts um setting trap after trap for the former president to walk into um needling him as we saw in that tape a moment ago on his reputation uh among world leaders about the crowd sizes at his rallies um about some about his uh about his criminal travails um again and again we saw Harris needling the former president and again and again we saw the former president losing his temper um you know the analysis here in the United States is that the vice president walked away with a win and that is a a pretty compelling narrative okay so you had the moderators David Mur and Lindsey Davis let's talk about the real time factchecking you know during the debate uh what about that effect there have been some arguments in Republican circles uh this morning barari that um mu and his colleague were biased in for in favor of the vice president um that wasn't the case from where I was sitting uh you saw um I'm sorry I forget Lindsay's last name but factchecking um the vice for the former president on his assertions about abortion him falsely claiming uh that babies could be executed after birth and her just Calo saying that that's not legal in any state in the United States uh you saw David newor stepping up in fact checking uh the president with his claims by uh migrants in in the midwest eating dogs and cats uh the city manager in that Comm in that particular community saying there is no evidence of that um at all um it was it was a you know was a pretty welcome thing to see them sort of stepping up and factchecking the former president on the fly so John also the microphones were supposed to be muted it almost didn't seem like that because whenever they started talking you actually heard what they were saying you heard the cross talk um more than once former president Trump would jump in to rebut um Vice pres something vice president Harris said you could hear them turn his microphone back on again uh that was supposed to be a fairly Ironclad rule uh that turned out not to be the case and I guess B you could make the argument that it added to it made for a more lively debate even though that was not supposed to be the ground rules and speaking of let's talk about decorum at the beginning you know you have um Harris walking over uh you know on the Trump side to shake his hand and then they began let's talk about that setting the stage for the rest of the evening that was a pretty pretty big Power Play I got to to say on the part of the vice president to walk directly into the former president's space um you could tell from his body language that he's a little taken aback by that and was not quite sure how to respond um marari it's a political truism that whoever takes control uh of a debate within the first 15 minutes is more than likely to go on to uh to win the evening um and that certainly seemed to be the case last night okay so let's talk about the preparation that went into this because we know that KLA Harris has a background as a prosecutor so you know debate that's in her blood that is true uh it is also true that the former president is a seasoned debater he's now been through um two presidential cycles of primary debates and general election debates he had one debate with uh President Joe Biden back in July so he did come to the table with a good deal of experience but I don't think he was prepared really for the prosecutorial way uh the kamla Harris came at him on Tuesday night um this is the same woman it bearss noting that got that got future uh US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh to admit in US Senate uh that there is no uh no existing American law that governs uh men's body while there are plenty of laws that govern women's bodies okay and as we wrap up let's talk about public perception because there was a lot of posting on social media last night and even more this morning that is true you know debates like this should move the needle in public opinion mcari uh it remains to be seen whether it will run move the needle in public opinion uh they came into the debate last night in a statistical Dead Heat this is going to remain a race that remains tight to the very end um the next round of public polling we see uh in the next week or so uh will tell the story certainly uh independent voters The Washington Post has been reporting about this today uh independent voters in swing States who were skeptical about the vice president were on her side by the end of the evening uh we'll have to see if that moves in any significant direction all right John my politics editor at ml.com thanks a lot for your time this afternoon