Trump paints Harris as far left, distorting her record

In his rebuttals, the former president pushed to portray Harris as more left-wing than she actually is. He even called her a “Marxist”.

“She has a plan to confiscate everybody’s gun,” said Trump, in another exaggeration.

Harris responded that she and her vice presidential pick Tim Walz are, in fact, gun owners.
Trump also accused Harris of planning to defund the police.
As a senator in 2020, Harris voiced support for efforts to reexamine the budgets of police departments, but she has not called for defunding the police. The Biden administration has also backed increasing the number of police officers nationwide.

On healthcare, Trump said Harris “wants everybody to be on government insurance”. While Harris previously voiced support for universal, government-funded healthcare, she changed her position while running for president in 2020.
Trump’s charges at the debate fit into his larger campaign strategy of arguing that Harris is a far-left “radical” Democrat. That strategy, experts say, is designed to dissuade independent voters from backing her.