Vice President Kamala Harris hit former President Donald Trump on the economy at their debate Tuesday night in Philadelphia, saying he left the Biden administration with a “mess” to fix.
“Let’s talk about what Donald Trump left us. Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression, Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century, Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War,” Ms. Harris said.
“And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess,” she said. “What we have done, and what I intend to do, is build on what we know are the aspirations and the hopes of the American people.”
Mr. Trump blamed the Biden-Harris administration for soaring inflation.
“We’ve had a terrible economy because inflation has — which is really known as a ‘country buster’ — we’ve had inflation like few people have ever seen before, probably the worst in our nation’s history,” he said. “This has been a disaster for people.”
Ms. Harris fired back that Mr. Trump wrecked the economy, accusing him of mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said Americans are “going to hear from the same old, tired playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling.”
This is the first time Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump have met. It’s Mr. Trump’s second presidential debate this year, after previously squaring off against President Biden in June before Mr. Biden dropped out of the race.
Ms. Harris accused Mr. Trump of pursuing a tax cut for billionaires and large corporations, which she said would add $5 trillion to America’s deficit.
“My opponent has a plan that I call the ‘Trump sales tax,’ which would be a 20% sales tax on everyday items that you rely on to get through the month,” she said, adding that it would cost middle-class families about $4,000 a more each year.
Mr. Trump rejected that claim and said if the Biden administration disagreed with tariffs he imposed, Ms. Harris could have worked to rescind them.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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