Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a Presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Pennsylvania on Tuesday (September 10, 2024).
| Photo Credit: AFP

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he will end the Russia-Ukraine war if he wins the November Presidential elections, an assertion dismissed by his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, who said the former U.S. President would “just give up”.

Trading barbs with Vice President Harris on Tuesday (September 10, 2024) at their first Presidential debate in Pennsylvania ahead of the U.S. General Elections on November 5, Mr. Trump said the war would have never started had he been the President.

“I’ll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended. If I’m President-elect, I’ll get it done before even becoming president,” Mr. Trump (78) said in response to a question during the debate.

Asserting there was no threat of war in the four years he was President from 2017 to 2021, Mr. Trump said, “I know (Russian President Vladimir) Putin very well. He would have never — and there was no threat of it either, by the way, for four years — gone into Ukraine and killed millions of people when you add it up”.

Mr. Trump blamed the Biden-Harris Administration for not preventing the war in Ukraine and said, “If I were President, it would have never started.” The former President asserted that he wanted the war to stop and claimed that millions were being killed in it.

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“I want to save lives that are being uselessly people being killed by the millions. It’s the millions. It’s so much worse than the numbers you’re getting, which are fake numbers,” he said.

“I know (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy very well and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship. They respect me, they don’t respect (incumbent President Joe) Biden,” he said.

“How would you respect him (Biden)? He hasn’t even made a phone call in two years to Putin. He hasn’t spoken to anybody. That is a war that’s dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become President if I win when I’m President-elect,” Mr. Trump said.

Disagreeing with him, Vice President Harris said, “I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up. And that’s not who we are as Americans.” Ms. Harris said she met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and shared “American intelligence about how he could defend himself” a few days before the Russian invasion and went to NATO’s eastern flank to Poland and Romania days later, bringing 50 countries together to support Ukraine in its “righteous defence”.

“Because of our support, because of the air defence, the ammunition, the artillery, the javelins, and the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent and free country,” she said.

“If Donald Trump were President, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now and understand what that would mean because Putin’s agenda is not just about Ukraine,” she said.

Addressing Mr. Trump, she said, “Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer President and that we understand the importance of…NATO. And what we have done to preserve the ability of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to fight for their independence. Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland.”

During the debate, Mr. Trump claimed that when Putin endorsed Ms. Harris last week, saying ‘I hope she’ wins, the Russian President meant it “because what he’s gotten away with is absolutely incredible”.

“It wouldn’t have happened with me. The leaders of other countries think that they’re weak and incompetent and they are grossly incompetent,” he said, referring to the Biden-Harris administration.

Ms. Harris alleged it was well known that Mr. Trump was weak and wrong on issues of national security and foreign policy. “It is well known that he admires dictators and wants to be a dictator on day one, according to himself. It is well known that he said of Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants and go into Ukraine. It is well known that he said when Russia went into…,” she said.

“In Ukraine, it was brilliant; it is well known. He exchanged love letters with (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un. It is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be President again because it’s so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favours,” she said.

Alleging that military leaders with whom Mr. Trump has worked have told her that he is a “disgrace”, Ms. Harris said, “That is why we understand that we have to have a President who is not consistently weak and wrong on national security, including the importance of upholding and respecting in the highest regard our military.”

This was the second Presidential debate, but the first between Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris. The first presidential debate in Atlanta on June 27 was between Mr. Trump and President Biden. Following his terrible performance at the debate, Biden withdrew from the race and paved the way for Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the November elections.

Wisconsin, US:

Donald Trump delivered a dark speech to a rally Saturday in the US swing state of Wisconsin, while Democrat Kamala Harris hunkered down in another crucial battleground, Pennsylvania, preparing for next week’s televised presidential debate.

Trump and Harris are now essentially tied in the polls, with the Republican again shrugging off a mountain of scandals that would have sunk candidates of the past.

At the rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, the former president delivered his characteristic stream of insults, exaggerations and outright falsehoods, painting a picture of an apocalyptic America run by a leftist dictatorship — a “rogue regime.”

Under President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris, “your government imported murderers, child predators and serial rapists from all over the planet, while weaponizing law enforcement to jail political opponents,” Trump told several thousand supporters at an airport in the heartland of Trump’s mostly white, conservative base.

“With your vote this election, their lying, cheating, thieving, hoaxing and plotting will come to an end.”

He denounced the string of criminal cases he faces over everything from attempting to overthrow his 2020 election loss to Biden, to dozens of felony fraud convictions in New York.

Harris, taking a break from days of debate preparation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, visited a spice store where she drew a contrast to Trump’s grim tone.

Asked what message she would most like to get across in their debate Tuesday, she replied: “It’s time to turn the page on the divisiveness. It’s time to bring our country together — chart a new way forward.”

Harris said she was “honored” by the recent endorsements of two prominent conservatives, former vice president Dick Cheney and his daughter, former representative Liz Cheney, adding, “It’s important to put country above party.”

Asked if she was ready to face Trump, Harris said simply, “Yes, I am.”

Crowds outside cheered as she left the shop, and the Harris campaign released video of the vice president hugging emotional supporters there, including a young girl.

Police union for Trump

Trump got a boost Friday when the country’s largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, endorsed him despite his historic status as a convicted felon.

And he enjoyed a legal victory earlier in the day when a New York judge delayed his sentencing for hush money paid to a porn star until after the November election.

Trump also appeared before reporters to rail against the women who have accused him of sexual impropriety.

Harris, a former California prosecutor, is leaning heavily on her message that she represents law and order in a contest against a convicted criminal who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss — another unprecedented element in a political season that has the country on edge.

Harris’s policies

The vice president jumped into the 2024 race at the last minute after Biden abruptly dropped out on July 21, amid fears over his stamina and mental acuity.

Despite a burst of initial enthusiasm from Democrats, Harris has had to race to introduce and define herself.

The debate on Tuesday offers her a prime opportunity to present clear policy proposals — she has been criticized for a lack of detail — while sharpening her attack lines against Trump.

The former president, perhaps seeking to set expectations for the debate, said Saturday that the “crooked system” would not acknowledge if he won on Tuesday.

“They’ll say, ‘Trump suffered a humiliating defeat’,” he asserted.

Pennsylvania, where Harris is preparing, is closely divided between Republican and Democratic voters, and may be the deciding piece in the puzzle of the state-by-state Electoral College battle that decides US presidential elections.

The debate will be the first-ever meeting between Harris and Trump. He refused to attend Biden’s inauguration — he would have met her there — after falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)