Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson has been accused of sexual assault and battery, Swedbank's former CEO Birgitte Bonnesen is facing prison time, and Kamala Harris and Donald Trump face off at their first debate. Have a wonderful Wednesday!
- Debate stage. During last night's U.S. presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris reminded former President Donald Trump that he's not running against President Joe Biden anymore. "You're not running against Joe Biden—you're running against me," Harris told Trump onstage in Philadelphia.
That fact was certainly visible throughout the ABC News debate, which saw Harris counter Trump forcefully as she pitched her vision for the future of the United States and forced Trump to defend his record. It was a total 180 from Trump's June debate against Biden—the night that derailed Biden's candidacy and led to Harris's ascendance as the Democratic nominee.
Harris greeted Trump at the beginning of the debate and shook his hand—the first debate handshake between GOP and Democratic presidential candidates since 2016.
The debate format allowed Harris to tap into her experience as a prosecutor, going on the attack. She was strongest on the issue of abortion, tying "Trump abortion bans" back to stories of a woman "bleeding out" in the hospital parking lot, unable to receive care from doctors scared of jail time, and a 12-year-old forced to carry to term a pregnancy conceived via incest.
Trump refused to answer a question about whether or not he would veto a national abortion ban. And his false statements about abortion "after birth" led to a sobering fact-check from moderator Linsey Davis: "There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born."
Trump largely failed to execute his campaign's strategy of linking Harris to Biden's unpopular administration until the very end of the face-off: “She’s going to do all these wonderful things,” he said of her policy agenda. “Why hasn’t she done it?”
The Trump and Harris campaigns haven't yet agreed to another debate, so it's unclear when the candidates will meet again. For now, this matchup has convinced at least one voter: Taylor Swift. The pop superstar weighed in last night to denounce Trump's false use of her AI likeness to claim her endorsement and back Harris. "Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight," she wrote on Instagram. "I've done my research, and I've made my choice," she added, signing her post "Taylor Swift, childless cat lady."
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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