As the old saying goes, even the dogs in the street know he was talking nonsense.

Donald Trump rolled out the long-debunked rumour that Haitian immigrants were eating pet dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio.

The debate moderator, in serious tone, duly interjected that they’d contacted the “city manager” who had played it down.

It felt like comedy (there was laughter in the spin room) until we were reminded this was the serious matter of who would be the next leader of the free world.

Trump v Harris debate: Live updates and reaction

It wasn’t, perhaps, the best performance by the leader of the Republican Party.

Kamala Harris will be content that she asserted an authority and stage presence that rattled Donald Trump – calling him weak, saying that Vladimir Putin would have him for lunch and saying that people left his rallies out of exhaustion and boredom.

It was a confrontation that Donald Trump has seldom experienced – in its aggression, disrespect and withering insult.

Read more:
Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris minutes after debate
How Vance used ‘hillbilly’ roots to become VP candidate
Migrants try to forget election could mean life or death
The arrest that changed Tim Walz’s life

Harris assailed him on his record and personality in a way that he doesn’t face in interview by journalists, neutral or otherwise.

She employed the structured hostility of the trained prosecutor and it unsettled Trump.

He was, nonetheless, robust in his response.

While she styled herself a president for all Americans, he dismissed her as a worst-ever vice president whose time in the White House had been a failure.

He made a best effort to orientate discussion onto subject areas – immigration, the economy – where he was confident he would score, deploying familiar arguments that will resonate with his support base.

Harris was never going to shift that section of the electorate. It is unshakeable through the highs and lows.

She will hope that a confident, assertive performance reaches the middle ground and demonstrates credentials for office and an excuse not to vote Trump.

To win this debate was to leave the viewer believing in one candidate over the other, to emerge with authority and credibility enhanced.

Democrats extolled the Harris performance, while Republicans were insistent that their man carried the day.

Curiously, Donald Trump made an unscheduled appearance in the spin room afterwards and took questions from journalists.

It begged the question: why not let a 90-minute debate performance speak for itself?

It was, perhaps, the action saying a lot of a man who hadn’t said enough.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have clashed over issues including abortion, the economy and illegal immigration in their first – and possibly only – debate before the US election.

Ms Harris’s attacks appeared to get under her rival’s skin at times, claiming people left his rallies out of “boredom” and Russian President Vladimir Putin “would eat him for lunch”.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump frequently resorted to accusing her of allowing massive illegal immigration, as well as being a dangerous “Marxist” and the worst vice president ever.

Trump v Harris debate live: Pivotal night in US election

The debate in Philadelphia began with Ms Harris approaching Mr Trump for a handshake – an awkward pleasantry in the 100-minute face-off.

Ms Harris addressed voters directly into the camera several times as she made promises including cutting the cost of living and restoring abortion rights.

The ex-president, however, focussed on the two moderators throughout as the debate took place without a live studio audience.

In the opening duels, Mr Trump claimed Ms Harris had no plan for the economy and – as part of the Biden administration – had presided over high inflation and a flood of illegal immigrants taking jobs.

The vice president, in turn, accused the Republican of planning “a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations”.

During one of Mr Trump’s frequent references to a “dangerous” immigrant influx, he made a bizarre claim there were cases of them eating people’s pets.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.

The debate moderator interjected to clarify that officials in Springfield, Ohio, had reported no credible reports of such incidents.

Abortion rights were another key moment of the evening.

Ms Harris hit out at “Trump abortion bans” and said it was “unconscionable” that government should dictate what women do with their bodies.

During his presidency, Mr Trump installed three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.

The 78-year-old defended the move, saying the issue had been “tearing the country apart” and that he had led on IVF rights.

“Each individual state is voting. It’s the vote of the people now. It’s not tied up in the federal government. I did a great service in doing it,” said Mr Trump.

Ms Harris said his claim her vice presidential pick, Tim Walz, supported abortion in the ninth month was a “bunch of lies” as she painted a sobering picture of what some women now go through.

“Now in over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care,” she said.

“In one state it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exception even for rape and incest.”

‘Love letters to Kim Jong-un’

The former president, who’s looking to return to the White House despite his numerous legal troubles, looked rattled early on when Kamala Harris claimed people left his rallies “out of exhaustion and boredom”.

Mr Trump hit back that his events were “the most incredible rallies in the history of politics” and said Ms Harris was “bussing” people to her events and “paying them”.

Among other subjects, the two nominees were questioned on Ukraine, Gaza and Afghanistan.

Mr Trump suggested a win for the Democrats would end up with World War 3 and painted Ms Harris as a “horrible negotiator” who wouldn’t be able to stand up for America.

She hit back that Putin “would eat you for lunch”, claiming he “exchanged love letters” with Kim Jong-un and “admires dictators”.

Ms Harris said America’s top military commanders viewed him as a liability who is easily manipulated.

“It is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again, because they’re so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favours,” said Ms Harris.

Mr Trump repeated his belief the Ukraine invasion wouldn’t have happened if he were in charge and claimed he would end it within days if he wins the election.

On Gaza, Ms Harris insisted Israel had a right to defend itself but that a ceasefire and a path towards a two-state solution was vital. Mr Trump claimed she “hated” Israel and had refused to meet President Netanyahu.

‘Not even close’

Ms Harris’s performance was praised by the man who she replaced as a candidate following his own debate debacle.

Joe Biden posted on X that the debate “wasn’t even close” – but the 59-year-old told supporters afterwards there remained “a lot of work to do”.

Read more:
Ultimate guide to the election
Three key challenges for Trump in US election
‘Comrade Kamala’ – Harris’s key challenges

Mr Trump called it his “best debate ever” and claimed his opponent “lost” as he made a rare move of entering the spin room to defend his performance.

There are so far no plans for a second debate – with the ex-president telling reporters he would “have to think about it”.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

Before Tuesday night, a summary of opinion polls by FiveThirtyEight put Ms Harris just ahead at 47.2% to 44.4% – it remains to be seen if the TV showdown will significantly shift those numbers.

There was also a boost post-debate for the Democrat hopeful when Taylor Swift posted on Instagram to say she backed Ms Harris.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” she wrote.

“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

Kamala Harris was a prosecutor for far longer than she’s been a politician.

Harris’s lengthy career in law started in 1990 when she became a deputy district attorney specialising in prosecuting child sexual assault offenders.

It ran until 2017 when she was overseeing the largest state justice department in the country as attorney general of California.

She says what drove her – and what still drives her – is “a very strong sense of responsibility to protect those who are vulnerable”.

But where did that sense of responsibility come from?

According to her, the catalyst was a devastating situation with her best friend at high school.

Ms Harris, who was raised in Berkeley in California, moved to Montreal in Canada for high school with her mother Shyamala Gopalan and sister Maya after Ms Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist, got a research job there.

It was at West Mount High School where she met fellow student Wanda Kagan, who was also new.

The pair quickly became best friends. But as they grew closer, Ms Harris could sense something was off.

She first spoke about the incident in a video uploaded to her social media in 2020, with permission from Ms Kagan.

“I suspected something, because she would come to school and just be sad,” Ms Harris said in a video.

“And there were times when she just didn’t seem to want to go home.

“And I remember asking her: ‘Is everything ok?’ I just sensed it.”

Her best friend then told her she was being sexually and physically abused by her stepfather.

“And so I said to her as soon as she told me: ‘Well, you have to come stay with us,'” Ms Harris said.

“And a big part of the reason I wanted to be a prosecutor was to protect people like her.”

Ms Gopalan took the teenager in and helped her navigate the system to get the support she needed, Ms Kagan told Sky News in 2020.

Expanding on her experiences last month, Ms Kagan told MSNBC Ms Harris “rescued” her and that she, along with her family, gave her “stability and structured me into believing I could continue my education”.

Ms Kagan, who still lives in Montreal and went on to have a career in healthcare, said it’s been an “emotional ride” to watch Ms Harris go on to “fight for the American people just like she fought for me over 40 years ago”.

“I want them [voters] to see that she’s exactly the kind of person that she’s always been from over 40 years ago in high school when she rescued me and it wasn’t just ‘say something’ – it was ‘do something’.

“She was going to make sure that something was done and to advocate for me even after I went to live with her and her mum and Maya.

“She has those protective instincts. She’s going to do something and fight for the people of America.”

Read more:
Harris criticises Trump for ‘political stunt’ at cemetery
Your ultimate guide to the US election
Former Republican vice-president says he’ll vote for Harris

The childhood friends drifted apart when Ms Harris left Montreal. But years later, when she was a prosecutor, Ms Harris called Ms Kagan and told her the impact of going through those experiences with her had led her to fight for children and women who had been sexually assaulted.

“That was a really special, touching moment when she shared the impact that I had on her life,” Ms Kagan said. “I know she’s always had an impact on my life and where I am today.”

How Harris got here

After finishing high school, she went on to graduate from Howard University and then the University of California Hastings College of Law, which she graduated from in 1989.

The following year she became deputy prosecutor in Alameda County in California, specialising in prosecuting child sexual assault cases, but also working on homicide and robbery cases.

She worked there until 1998 when she was made managing attorney of a criminal unit at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office before becoming head of the San Francisco City Attorney’s Division on Families and Children.

She became the first female district attorney for San Francisco in 2004. During her first three years in the position, the conviction rate in the city jumped from 52% to 67%.

She served for six years before being elected as attorney general of California in 2010, where she oversaw the largest state justice department in the country.

In 2016, she won the US Senate race in California, beating fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez who had 20 years’ experience in Congress.

Here, she built a reputation around her work as a prosecutor and gained national attention during her forensic questioning of Trump administration officials including Jeff Sessions, and then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

She had become a prominent politician by the time she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in January 2019, going with the slogan “Kamala Harris for the People”.

Democrats saw her as a promising candidate to overthrow Donald Trump’s presidency in the 2020 election, but Ms Harris ultimately dropped out of the race in December 2019, blaming a lack of finances.

Joe Biden selected her as his running mate in August 2021, describing her as a “fearless fighter for the little guy”.

It made her the first black female running mate for the two major parties, and only the third female running mate for the two major parties in American history.

Fast-forward around three years and President Joe Biden, who was struggling in the aftermath of a disastrous debate against Mr Trump, opted to bow out of the 2024 election and endorse his vice president for his position. She was formally made the Democratic nominee in August.