Philadelphia’s presidential debate covers plenty of ground – and digs into PA fracking

For 90 minutes, the nation’s eyes were on Philadelphia and the two presidential candidates standing six feet apart inside the National Constitution Center. 

Vice President Kamala Harris and her opponent, GOP candidate Donald Trump, went back and forth during the presidential debate Tuesday night on issues ranging from the economy and reproductive rights to immigration and national security. 

Harris and Trump often attacked each other’s political records and the performance of their respective administrations, with many of their campaign messages refocused on the debate stage. When they weren’t torching the other’s policy stances, Harris and Trump each attempted to paint the other as an extreme and existential threat to the country. 

“The problem that we have right now is we have a nation in decline – and they have put it into decline,” Trump said of President Joe Biden and Harris’ administration. “We have a nation that is dying.”

“For everyone watching who remembers what Jan. 6 was, I say, ‘We don’t have to go back,’” Harris said when asked about the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, fomented to a large degree by Trump, who has been charged for his role in the rioting. “It’s time to turn the page…there is a place in our campaign for you to stand for country, to stand for our democracy, to stand for the rule of law and to end the chaos.”

Focus on fracking

Fracking – and each candidate’s stance on energy policies – became a focal point of the debate. 

Trump claimed that Harris would “not allow fracking in Pennsylvania and anywhere else,” while Harris stated that her position on fracking was “very clear.” 

“I have not banned fracking as Vice President of the United States, and in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking,” Harris said in response. “My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”

Trump, who touted his energy and economy policies, avoided answering questions directly on many occasions, with some responses and claims being met with fact-checks in real-time by the ABC moderators, including backtracking on his recent spate of finally conceding he lost the free and fair 2020 election by repeating numerous falsehoods about it, as well as parroting decisively debunked far-right claims about housepets being abducted and eaten by immigrants. He also deflected blame for the events of Jan. 6, 2021, saying he “had nothing to do with it” other than “giving a speech.” 

The candidates’ closing statements were a made-to-order microcosm of Harris’ consistent refrains throughout the debate that she is offering the American people the opportunity to choose a new generation of president who will lead the country forward and not continue with the “same old, tired politics” that she sees Trump espousing. “We're not going back,” she said. “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.”

Trump, who won the coin toss and opted to have the final closing remarks, used his time to double down on the idea that the nation is “failing.” Stating that the Biden-Harris administration has had more than three years to made progress, he questioned that if she has a plan to solve the issues at hand, “why didn't she do it?”

Scenes in the spin room

Politicos on both sides of the debate – including Trump himself, in the first instance in recent memory of a presidential debate participant doing his own spinning in real time – worked the media spin room throughout Tuesday night, offering words of encouragement for the candidates and prognostications for what undecided voters are looking for from the debate. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a vocal Democrat, told reporters that Harris should focus on her “why” and “what” – meaning her motivations and what she looks to accomplish. 

“This is about your tomorrow, not Trump’s grievances,” Newsom said prior to the debate. Harris must “make the case she is not Biden – and she’s definitely not Trump.”

U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat representing nearby Montgomery County, said before the debate she wanted Harris “to be herself.” 

Following the debate, representatives from both campaigns flooded the spin room to offer their remarks and reactions. U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said Harris’ performance provided a “lack of answers” to voters. 

“She couldn't answer a simple question about what their plan (is) to stop inflation…a simple question about what she would do to secure the border,” Cotton told reporters. “I think President Trump laid out a clear contrast between his record as president and Kamala Harris' failed record as the vice president.”

Conversely, Shapiro told reporters he thought Harris “helped herself in a big way tonight.” 

“I thought she not only laid out her vision for what she wants to do in this commonwealth and in this country,” he said, “I thought what she also did was prosecute the case effectively against Donald Trump (and) show him to be the unhinged person that he is, peddling more conspiracy theories and bringing more chaos to this country.”

The keystone to 2024

The commonwealth’s battleground status and 19 electoral votes have been a top focus for both campaigns as they seek a feasible path to the White House. 

Within the last calendar year, Trump has visited Pennsylvania eight times, including five times since July. Harris has also visited the commonwealth eight times, including a bus tour of western Pennsylvania in the days leading up to the debate. 

According to AdImpact, which tracks political ad spending, each candidate is spending more on advertising in Pennsylvania than any other states. The Harris campaign and its Democratic allies have more than $75 million in television ads through Election Day, while the Trump campaign and its Republican allies have reserved about $64 million worth of ads to run in Pennsylvania. AdImpact reported that Trump’s campaign is spending more on ads in Pennsylvania than every other state combined. 

Trump, who famously said “Bad things happen in Philadelphia” in reference to baseless and repeatedly debunked claims of widespread voter fraud in 2020, is once again casting doubt on the election before ballots are even cast. 

Trump, who is facing criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, made a false claim on Truth Social on Sunday that 20% of Pennsylvania’s mail ballots are fraudulent, citing an interview conducted by former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson.

There is no evidence of widespread cheating or voter fraud in Pennsylvania’s mail voting or election administration, which Trump has targeted since he lost the state to President Joe Biden in 2020.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was the commonwealth’s attorney general in 2020 while election fraud cases were being brought forward, responded to Trump on Monday via X, formerly known as Twitter. Shapiro noted that ballots had not yet been sent out and that the state audits every election to ensure votes are legitimate.

“If Trump really wants to start this again, let me remind him of 2020: We beat him in court 43 times,” Shapiro said, referring to his work defending the results of the last presidential election, when he was Pennsylvania attorney general. “We’re ready to defend our democracy again.”

As of Tuesday morning, the latest polls show Harris leading Trump by nearly 1 point in Pennsylvania – 46.6% to 45.7% – well within the margin of error for all major polls. Some polls show Harris with a lead as large as 3 points, while others show Trump with anywhere from a 1- to 2-point lead.