The 3 moments Donald Trump lost the debate with Kamala Harris

One of the biggest moments in the US presidential race took place on Tuesday night (September 10), with Vice President Kamala Harris facing off against former President Donald Trump in a debate.

The pair met for a live debate for the first time in the run up to the election in November. The common consensus was, to put it lightly, not good for Trump - especially as Taylor Swift came out and endorsed Harris on the night.

“Make no mistake about it, Trump had a bad night,” Brit Hume said on Fox News, while Chris Wallace spoke on CNN and said that Trump’s performance was “just as devastating” for him as Biden’s disastrous performance in June was for his chances of reelection.

While there were plenty of rambling answers from Trump, as well as blatant falsehoods, people on social media believe they saw three key moments that lost Trump the debate.

The first of the three moments came right at the very beginning, when Harris walked right over and shook Trump’s hand and said her own name – which Trump has been wilfully mispronouncing for months.

One wrote: “Yall Kamala Harris has been dominanting this debate from the handshake on. This is the best I’ve ever seen her. This is what a president looks like."

“Harris walking up and almost forcing the handshake while saying ‘Kamala Harris’ is such a subtle power move,” another said.

"We have not seen a handshake during a presidential debate in almost a decade, and Kamala Harris made it a point to shake hands (and introduce herself),” a Twitter/X user pointed out.

"It sent an important message out of the gate."

Harris hit out at Trump over his rallies, claiming people leave them out of "boredom" and making fun of his obsession with Hannibal Lecter.

“I’m gonna invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies because it’s a really interesting thing to watch,” she said.

“He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about, is you.”

Trump, clearly irritated by the comment, replied: “She said people start leaving. People don’t go to her rallies. So she can’t talk about that. People don’t leave my rallies.”

One commentator shared the clip and wrote: “The turning point of the debate, and maybe the 2024 campaign right here.

“When Kamala said people left Trump’s rallies early. He was doing good. He was unable to recover from that. He lost it.”

The next significant moment, certainly according to commentators online, came when Trump repeated the baseless conspiracy that migrants are stealing and eating people’s cats and ducks – which was debunked by the debate monitor.

Right-wingers are alleging that Haitian migrants living in the town of Springfield, Ohio are capturing defenceless animals then cooking and eating them.

Trump repeated this claim during the debate, with Harris watching on laughing in disbelief – and the moderator stepping in to question the conspiracy.

Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen posted a clip of the moment Trump claimed "they're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people that live there".

Cohen added: "You can literally pinpoint the exact moment where Trump lost the debate."

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