Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris held their first presidential debate on Tuesday night – the first faceoff between the two coming weeks after Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed his vice.

The two candidates came face to face with each other onstage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, where they fielded questions on the economy, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, abortion, climate change, and immigration.

Donald Trump during the debate repeatedly reiterated that migrants arriving in the US after fleeing prisons and mental institutions will be deported if elected again on November 5

“We have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums,” Trump claimed.

The former president has often made this claim and has repeatedly alleged that jails and mental institutions are being emptied deliberately to somehow dump people in the US.

ABC News which hosted the debate had prior to the event made it abundantly clear that microphones would be live only for the candidate whose turn it was to speak. But this rule was grossly violated by both Harries and Trump who were heard constantly interrupting each other in flagrant violation of the set down rules.

The moderators, ABC journalists David Muir and Lindsey Davis ensured due diligence by fact-checking claims made by both candidates, more than what happened during Trump and Biden’s presidential debate in June.

This was the first debate to be held by Trump and Harries after the vice president replaced President Biden atop the Democratic ticket after Biden dropped out of the race in July following his much-criticized debate performance against Trump. It is, however, the second presidential debate to be held in 2024 in the race for the White House.