Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump took to the debate stage Tuesday night after much anticipation from both sides of the aisle. 

The debate, held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA, was the first—and potentially only—debate between the two candidates. The debate, hosted by ABC News and moderated by anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis, ran half an hour past its 90-minute runtime. The debate covered a wide array of topics, from immigration and foreign affairs to key differences in the candidate’s economic plans. 

The debate followed President Biden’s decision to step down from the presidential race and the subsequent nomination of Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate, an unprecedented circumstance in a presidential election. With only 54 days until Americans take to the polls, the debate served as a crucial moment for both candidates to showcase their platforms and potential strategies while in office. The debate was announced on August 29th by Donald Trump on his social media site, Truth Social, after much deliberation on the location and moderation. 

Outlets on the left were quick to call the debate a win for Harris, praising her effective rhetorical strategies and attacks against Trump. Many outlets on the right noted the apparent bias of the moderators, pointing out a stark lack of fact-checking and cross-examination of Harris’ statements when compared to Trump’s, but also criticized Trump for his overall performance. 

A Washington Times (Lean Right bias) writer agreed that Harris won, but argued it came with the help of “two ABC News moderators who seemingly felt the need to fact-check virtually everything the former president said.” The writer went into further detail, stating that Muir and Davis “frequently did ‘fact checks’ on Mr. Trump, sometimes incorrectly, and mostly gave Ms. Harris a pass.”

A writer for the New York Times Opinion (Left bias) stated that “In Kamala Harris’s big general-election debate four years ago, she faced off against an opponent with a fly on his head. In her immeasurably bigger debate on Tuesday night, she confronted an opponent with bats inside his.” He claimed that Vice President Harris “was more fully and fluently versed in his record than he was in hers, and that enabled her to make a methodical, compelling case about his lawlessness, untrustworthiness on abortion rights and adoration of autocrats the world over.”

Both sides did not hold back from criticizing their own candidates, though. 

A writer for The National Review Opinion (Lean Right bias) wrote that “the biggest problem for Trump last night was Trump,” calling him “a teapot boiling over — fuming, scowling, and shouting through most of the night.” The writer cited that “it was Trump’s job to go up there and make the best case for his election that he possibly could with the time he had — and instead he turned in a temper tantrum of a performance, taking the bait that Harris laid out every single time.”

On the left, a writer from The Guardian (Lean Left bias) argued that “Harris didn’t sketch out much in the way of a governing agenda, and the aspects she did expound on, like her policies on the border, fracking and Israel, were bad, politically and morally,” criticizing her for turning the debate into “a debate about Trump, with Harris dancing around her own record and policies to skillfully prosecute the case against Trump instead.”