When Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took the debate stage Tuesday night, the vice president took a direct route toward the former president with an outstretched arm and an awkward introduction.
“Kamala Harris,” the vice president said, as if her opponent had no idea what her name was. “Let’s have a good debate.”
“Nice to see you,” Trump replied. “Have fun.”
It was the first handshake in a presidential debate since Hillary Clinton and Trump’s first debate in 2016.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris during an ABC News presidential debate at the National Constitution Center, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia.
Although the two men did not know each other, the three-time presidential candidate surely knew the name of the sitting vice president and his rival in the primaries, a name he has said hundreds of times.
But the former president’s allies and Harris’s supporters couldn’t believe their eyes.
“Did he really just say ‘Kamala Harris’?” Trump’s vice presidential nominee JD Vance posted on X in reaction to the awkward meeting.
Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly posted something similar: “I’m Kamala Harris. I’m trying to be professional, but it actually just seems like bullshit.”
One One X user posted: ‘This will go down in history as the most awkward handshake ever.’
“Trump headed straight to his podium while Harris crossed the stage to shake his hand and introduce herself,” wrote another. “A true metaphor for the character of these two candidates.”
Some Harris supporters believed her attempt to shake his hand was a power gesture.
It was the first handshake in a presidential debate since 2016.
The vice president chased former President Trump across the debate stage to force him to shake her hand before the two began.
“Yeah… he didn’t seem like he had any intention of shaking VP Harris’s hand… but she forced him to (sorry, had to say it),” another X user said.
“Trump didn’t even want to shake Kamala’s hand before the debate started,” another user posted. “The nonsense is already starting.”
“Donald Trump wasn’t going to shake Kamala Harris’s hand. She made him do it. Domination. I love it,” wrote Harris ally Shannon Watts.
“Proving that Kamala Harris is a decent person and Trump is a rude baby nepo,” another user said.
But despite the seemingly lukewarm greeting, things quickly became tense and the two began attacking each other over their policies and political positions.
“She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist. Her father is a Marxist economics professor. He taught her well,” Trump said.
Her microphone did not allow a response, but the vice president put her hand on her chin with a look of disbelief.
Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a presidential debate hosted by ABC on Tuesday
That came after Trump criticized her for changing her stance.
“Everything she believed in three and four years ago went out the window,” he said, adding, “I was actually going to send her a MAGA hat.”
Harris criticized Trump for his tweet at the start of the pandemic thanking Chinese President Xi Jinping. “He actually thanked President Xi for what he did during the pandemic,” she said.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris began their debate by discussing the economy.
Harris repeated what she had said many times during the campaign, speaking quickly because she was the first to speak in the debate.
“I’m the only person on this stage who has a plan to help the middle class and the working people of America. I believe in the ambition, the aspirations and the dreams of the American people. That’s why I envision and have a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy,” he said.
Trump criticized her for her management of the economy alongside Joe Biden, highlighting record inflation during his administration.
“She doesn’t have a plan,” he said of Harris. “She copied Biden’s plan. And it’s like four sentences, like, ‘Run, run, do whatever you want.'”