Was This The Weirdest Moment At The Presidential Debate In Philly?

PHILADELPHIA, PA — With the birthplace of democracy as the backdrop, the two candidates for the highest office in the United States sparred for a heated, meandering, and downright bizarre 90 minutes of political theatre Tuesday night.

The debate at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia marked the first ever debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. It was held without an audience, no notes were allowed, and microphones for candidates were turned off when their turn to speak was over.

Here's a glance at a handful of key takeaways from the evening.

Stranger things

In a night filled with mistruths, halftruths, outright lies, juvenile personal attacks, and bizarre claims and commentary, a few moments stick out as the strangest.

During a discussion on immigration, Trump voiced an Internet conspiracy theory claiming that Haitians recently arrived in Springfield, Ohio have been eating domesticated animals.

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

Police in Springfield said they have found no evidence of any dog or cat consumption by humans.

Time speaking, time attacking

Trump worked hard to gain the last word on the large majority of subjects and exchanges. He also spoke significantly longer than Harris: 42:52 to 37:36, according to CNN. While at times his insistence on getting the final rebuttal on consecutive issues may have made him seem the "winner," by the end of the debate, he came off to many as angry and rattled.

Of that time, however, Harris spent more of it attacking Trump personally, the New York Times found, though Trump levied plenty of attacks, too. Harris spent 17:25 of that speaking time attacking, while Trump spent 12:54.

Issues they avoided

Both candidates avoiding answering numerous questions directly from the moderators, who tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get firm, yes or no answers on a host of subjects.

An early example was abortion: moderators attempted several times to get Trump to give his opinion on whether he would support a federal abortion ban. Instead of answering, Trump insisted that it would never come up.

Trump then turned the onus to answer a specific question to Harris, asking her repeatedly if she would support allowing very late term abortions. She also refused to answer.

Only a single question related to climate change and the environment was posed during the debate, toward its conclusion. The pair spent almost no time discussing the matter, despite the moderator reminding Harris that she had once refrained a popular progressive line calling climate change an "existential threat. "

The debate instead devolved into a discussion of manufacturing jobs, during which Trump blasted the Biden administration's economy and repeated again that Harris supports a ban of fracking. Harris briefly mentioned "extreme weather."

When queried on their economic plans, Harris boasted that her plan was favored by Nobel Laureates and the Wharton School at Penn. Trump then said that he went to Wharton, and he knows professors that love his plan.

Both declined to go into details on their economic agenda. Trump ended his comments with the quip "you have no plan," and when Harris replied, she said "you have no plan."

Pennsylvania takes center stage in the debate with fracking

One of the few moments of concrete policy discussion came when Harris officially clarified - to some, flipped - her position on fracking.

During the 2020 Democratic primary debates, when it behooved candidates to show their progressive chops, Harris voiced support for the Green New Deal, an expansive green jobs program aimed at limiting carbon emissions and including a ban on fracking.

"I will not ban fracking, I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States, and, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking," she Tuesday night. "My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy, so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil. We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over-rely on foreign oil."

Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is an explosive process of drilling for natural gas that is deeply buried in the earth. It's excoriated by conservationists has extremely harmful to wildlife, the environment, and human health, beyond the longer term ramifications for carbon output.

Fracking and actual drilling for natural gas is done far from the millions of voters in southeastern Pennsylvania, as most Marcellus Shale wells are bunched in counties in the western and north-central parts of the state. However, fracking plays a huge role in how much natural gas is being funneled out of those wells and through pipelines that run across Chester and Delaware counties on its way to refineries in Marcus Hook.

In southeastern Pennsylvania, the focus has largely remained on improving the state's regulation process when it comes to building those pipelines, holding major natural gas companies responsible for safety violations, and preventing spills, groundwater contamination, and explosion hazards in densely populated suburban areas.

Harris at a glance

On election denialism

"Trump was fired by 81 million people. He's having a very difficult time processing that."

On the century-long conflict in Palestine and Israel apparently starting in late 2023

"Let's look at how we got here. On Oct. 7..."

On Trump's personality and interactions with Putin, Victor Orban, and Kim Jong Un

"It's well known that he admires dictators...it's so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors."

Trump at a glance

On the economy today

"People can't go out and buy cereal and eggs and anything like that."

On the consequences of virulent rhetoric

"I probably took a bullet to the head because of what they (Democrats) said."

On ending Ukraine-Russia war

"If I'm President elect, I'll get it done before I'm President."

On his popularity

"With me they can write books, with nobody else can they."

Who won the debate

A Newsweek reader poll of almost 9,000 individuals said that Harris came out on top, gaining around two thirds of the votes in the poll.

A CNN poll gave Harris a nearly identical 67 percent to 33 percent margin.

A general consensus of critics and voter panels from both NPR and Fox News also agreed that Harris was the likely winner.