Trump vs Harris: Key quotes from the historic US presidential debate

US Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump locked horns in a fierce debate on Tuesday (Sep 10).

This will likely be their only official presidential clash before the elections that are scheduled to take place on November 5.

Both the presidential hopefuls touched upon a series of topics which included the economy, the Israel-Gaza conflict, the Ukraine-Russia war, abortion, COVID-19 and immigration.

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Here are the key quotes:

- Economy

"Look, we've had a terrible economy, because inflation, which is really known as a country buster," said Trump.

"People can't go out and buy cereal or bacon or eggs or anything else. The people of our country are absolutely dying with what they've done. They've destroyed the economy," Trump added.

"I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people, and that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy," said Harris.

"My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations," Harris further added.

-Israel-Gaza conflict

"It must end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal, and we need the hostages out," said Harris.

"She hates Israel. If she's president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now," said Trump to which Harris responded: "That's absolutely not true. I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people."

-Russia-Ukraine war

"I want the war to stop. I want to save lives," Trump said when asked if he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia.

"If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now," replied Harris.

-Abortion

"I pledge to you, when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v Wade as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law," said Harris.

"Now, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. ... Now states are voting on it. ... Each individual state is voting. It's the vote of the people. Now it's not tied up in the federal government," Trump retorted.

-Immigration

"I'll tell you something, he's going to talk about immigration a lot tonight, even when it's not the subject that is being raised," said Harris.

While Trumpreferring to people crossing into the country illegally said,"Our country is being lost, we're a failing nation."

- Assassination Attempt

"I probably took a bullet to the head for the things they say about me," said Trump.

- Jan 6, 2021, Capitol Attack

"I had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech," said Trump, when asked if he regretted anything that day.

"I was at the Capitol. I was the vice president-elect. I was also a senator and on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation's capital, to desecrate our nation's capital," said Harris.

- Covid-19

"But what Donald Trump did, let's talk about this, with COVID, is he actually thanked President Xi for what he did during COVID," said Harris.

(With inputs from agencies)