PHILADELPHIA — Kamala Harris put up a forceful battle against Donald Trump on Tuesday in their first and perhaps only debate before the presidential election.

During the 90-minute clash, she repeatedly goaded him, showcasing their starkly different visions for the country on abortion, immigration and American democracy.

The Democratic vice president opened the faceoff with a power move, marching across the stage to Trump’s lectern to shake his hand.

“Kamala Harris,” she said, introducing herself as the pair met for the first time. “Let’s have a good debate.”

“Nice to see you. Have fun,” the former Republican president responded.

The exchange set the tone for the debate to come: Harris provoked Trump with jabs at his economic policy, his refusal to concede his 2020 election loss which he still denies, and even his performance at his rallies.

She also derided his false claims and emphasized the Republican former president's role in the Supreme Court's overturning of a national right to abortion two years ago.

Trump, while measured early on, grew more annoyed as the night went on.

He tore into Harris as too liberal and a continuation of Biden's unpopular administration, launching the freewheeling personal attacks and digressions his advisers and supporters have tried to steer him away from.

The debate took place less than two months from Election Day and hours before the first early ballots will begin to be mailed Wednesday in Alabama.

Harris’ performance seemed to be the opposite of President Joe Biden’s in June, with sharp, focused answers designed to showcase the contrast between her and Trump. Biden had, at times, been muddled, halting and at times incoherent.

Harris used her body language and facial expressions to confront Trump and express that she found his answers ridiculous, amusing or both. A contrast from Biden's slack-jawed expression when Trump attacked him.

Harris appeared intent on casting herself as a relief for voters seeking a break from Trump’s acerbic politics.

In one moment, Harris turned to Trump and said that as vice president, she had spoken to foreign leaders who “are laughing at Donald Trump,” and said she had spoken to military leaders, “and they say you’re a disgrace”.

Trump, who appeared to stand on his back foot by Harris's provoking, again questioned her racial identity.

59-year-old Harris, the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president, responded, “I think the American people want better than that, want better than this”.

Trump in turn tried to link Harris to Biden, questioning why she hadn’t acted on her proposed ideas while serving as vice president. Trump also focused his attacks on Harris over her assignment by Biden to deal with the root causes of illegal migration.

“Why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there for three and a half years,” he said.

Harris promised tax cuts aimed at the middle class and said she would push to restore a federally guaranteed right to abortion overturned by the Supreme Court two years ago.

Trump said his proposed tariffs would help the US stop being cheated by allies on trade and said he would work to swiftly end the Russia-Ukraine war, though he twice refused to say he believed it was in America's interest for Ukraine, which bipartisan majorities in Congress have backed, to win the war.

Trump again denied that he lost to Biden four years ago, when a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol to try to stop the certification of his loss based on false or unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

He tried to reverse the question of threats to American democracy and suggested criticism of him could be linked to the assassination attempt he survived in July.

“I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me,” he said. “They talk about democracy, I’m a threat to democracy. They’re the threat to democracy.”

Trump has in recent days ramped up his threats of retribution if he returns to the White House, saying he would prosecute lawyers, donors, and other officials whom he deems to “cheat” in the election.

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people," Harris said, "So let’s be clear about that. And clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that.”

Her campaign ended the debate by expressing openness to another meeting in October and welcomed an endorsement from singer, Taylor Swift, who labeled herself a “ childless cat lady ” in a dig at Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as she encouraged her fans to vote.

The debate opened with an unexpectedly wonky exchange on the economy: Harris took on Trump for his plan to put in place sweeping tariffs and for the trade deficit he ran as president; Trump slammed Harris for inflation that he incorrectly said was the worst in the country’s history.

Trump said people look back on his presidency’s economy fondly. “I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country,” he said. Harris flatly told viewers: “Donald Trump has no plan for you.”

Throughout his campaign, Trump has leaned on illegal immigration, an issue that has bedeviled Biden and Harris with rising numbers of illegal border crossings and the arrivals of thousands of people needing shelter in Democratic-led cities.

He accused Democrats of abetting large numbers of unauthorized crossings, though they have dropped in recent months in part due to new asylum restrictions by the Biden administration.

But as he often does in his rallies and on his social media account, Trump reeled off a series of falsehoods or unproven claims about migrants.

One of those claims was a debunked rumor that Trump and his allies have spread online in recent days, alleging Haitian immigrants in an Ohio town are hunting and eating pets. Officials in Springfield, Ohio, say they have no evidence of that happening.

“Talk about extreme,” Harris said after Trump talked about dogs and cats being eaten.

Harris sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs. She even backed away from her position that plastic straws should be banned as pragmatism.

Asked about her changing positions on a number of issues, she twice repeated a phrase she has used to try to explain it away, saying, “My values have not changed.”

Trump, meanwhile, quickly went after Harris for abandoning some of her past liberal positions and said: “She’s going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat.” Harris smiled broadly and laughed.

Harris, in zeroing in on one of Trump’s biggest electoral vulnerabilities, laid the end of a federally guaranteed right to abortion at Trump’s feet for his role in appointing three US Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving more than 20 states in the country with what she called “Trump abortion bans.”

Harris gave one of her most impassioned answers as she described the ways women have been denied abortion care and other emergency care since that ruling, and said Trump would sign a national abortion ban if he wins.

Trump declared it “a lie,” and said, “I’m not signing a ban and there’s no reason to sign a ban.”

The Republican has said he wants the issue left to the states.

Trump, who is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House, continued to call Harris a “Marxist” and said, “Everyone knows she’s a Marxist.”

Harris’ eyebrows shot up and she made an amused face, bringing her hand to her chin and staring at him.

Trump has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes and falsely claiming that Harris, who attended a historically Black university, hid her race during her career.

“I read where she was not Black,” Trump said when asked about comments questioning Harris' race, adding a minute later, “and then I read that she was Black.” He seemed to suggest her race was a choice, saying twice, “That’s up to her.”

“I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people”.

Harris, however, had her opening and she rattled off a long list of Trump’s racial controversies: his legal settlement for discrimination against prospective Black tenants at his New York apartment buildings in the 1970s; his ad calling for the execution of Black and Latino teenagers, who were wrongly arrested, in the Central Park jogger case in the 1980s; and his false claims that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

“I think the American people want something better than that, want better than this,” Harris said.

Trump accused Harris of trying to “divide” people and dismissed her claims as dated and irrelevant.

“This is a person that has to stretch back 40, 50 years ago because there’s nothing now,” he said.

In a divided nation, Harris made an explicit appeal to voters across the political spectrum — including Republicans.

She noted that she is a gun owner. She cited the “late, great John McCain,” a reference to the Arizona Republican senator and war hero whom Trump criticized for being captured by enemy soldiers. And she listed the many Republicans who formerly served in the Trump administration who have now endorsed her campaign.

Trump, meanwhile, offered little outreach to voters in the middle, ignoring the calls for unity that framed his summertime convention speech.

Harris seized on the 6 January attack on the Capitol to make another explicit appeal to undecided voters.

“It’s time to turn the page,” she said. “And if that was a bridge too far for you, well, there is a place in our campaign for you.” — Euronews