The tone of the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was heated and hostile to say the least.
Trump accused Kamala Harris of “hating” both Israel and the Arab population – claiming that all of Israel and its neighborhoods would “get blown up” if she becomes president – and she in turn claimed that if Trump were president, Putin would have conquered Kiev by now.
The presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump covered a range of topics – not least the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and on the former, Trump expressed a firm belief that “the war must end” and declared that he “wants to save lives”.
– People are being killed by the millions, exclaimed the presidential candidate, who also stressed that the US will have to pay $250 billion or more for the war – and that European countries should pay instead, as they are the ones who benefit the most from supporting Ukraine.
According to Trump, President Biden has shown that he “lacks the courage” to demand funding from the EU for US military support – unlike himself, who has previously declared that he will no longer “protect” European countries unless they increase their contributions to NATO.
“Will bring them together”
Trump also declared that he is the right person to end the war – and that he knows both Zelensky and Putin from before.
– I know Zelensky very well and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship and they respect your president, okay? They respect me. They don’t respect Biden. How would you respect him? Why? For what reason? He hasn’t even made a phone call in two years to Putin. Hasn’t spoken to anybody. They don’t even try and get it.
– If I win, when I’m president-elected, what I’ll do? I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other. I’ll get them together. That war would never happen. Biden had no idea how to talk to him. He had no idea how to stop it. And now you have millions of people dead, and it’s only getting worse. And it could lead to the World War III, Trump continued.
Donald Trump eats Kamala Harris' lunch on foreign policy, exposing her for a weak speech at the Munich Security Conference that led to Putin invading Ukraine 3 days later:
Kamala Harris: "I actually met with Zelenskyy, a few days before Putin invaded."
Trump: "She is a horrible… pic.twitter.com/111KdGNZ2p— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) September 11, 2024
According to him, it is in the US interest for the war to end and for negotiations to take place. He also accused Harris of being a poor negotiator, claiming that Putin decided to launch a large-scale invasion of Ukraine shortly after she visited Zelensky and that the Biden administration is responsible for the war.
Kamala Harris, in turn, criticized Trump for not giving Ukraine his full support, arguing that if Trump were president today, Putin would have won the war and conquered Kiev by now.
Harris wants a two-state solution
Israel’s invasion of Gaza was also debated, and here the tone was, if possible, even more heated. Harris argued that the war “must end immediately” – citing the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza, although she assured that she continues to support Israel’s fight against Hamas.
– Israel has a right to defend itself. We would. How it does so matters, because it is also true far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed — children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end. It must end immediately, she said.
However, she did not present a plan to end the war, referring instead to Biden’s earlier announcement that the remaining hostages must be released and a “ceasefire agreement” – something she said they will “will continue to work around the clock” to achieve.
– We must chart a course for a two-state solution, and in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel, and an equal measure for the Palestinians. But the one thing I will assure you always: I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran, and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.
“Israel will disappear”
Trump reiterated his previous position that the October 7 Hamas attacks would never have happened under his leadership because of the sanctions he imposed on Iran, which is said to be funding Hamas. He further promised to “resolve” the war – “and quickly” – a line of reasoning that was not developed further.
Instead, he attacked Harris, claiming that “she hates Israel” and repeating the assertion that Israel will be destroyed if she becomes president. He also criticized his opponent for not attending Netanyahu’s speech to Congress last summer – insinuating that it showed she was not interested in what he had to say.
– If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now, and I’ve been pretty good at predictions, and I hope I’m wrong about that one.
– At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up, Arabs, Jewish people, Israel will be gone, he continued.
Donald Trump: "She hates Israel."
ABC's Linsey Davis to the rescue!: "VP Harris, he says you hate Israel."
Kamala: He's trying to divide and distract from the reality that he is weak and wrong on national security. He wants to be a dictator! pic.twitter.com/iCGts6OdMq
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) September 11, 2024
However, Kamala Harris consistently denied that she hates Israel, stating that “I have, my entire career and life, supported Israel and the Israeli people”.
Competing conflicts
The two wars are costing the United States a lot of money and there is also discontent in various quarters. Many young or more left-leaning Democrats are fed up with unconditional US support for Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and want funding and aid cut off and the Netanyahu government’s actions condemned.
Meanwhile, several Republicans have expressed reluctance to continue funding Zelensky’s Ukraine, arguing that the US has already spent far too many billions on that conflict with little to show for it.
Analysts have pointed out that the two conflicts are in a way “competing” with each other as there is a perception that you cannot fund several wars at the same time – and also pointed out that the escalating situation around Taiwan is draining the US of military resources.
