[Source: Reuters]

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris put Republican Donald Trump on the defensive at a combative presidential debate with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes, as both candidates sought a campaign-altering moment in their closely fought election.

In a boost to the Harris campaign, pop megastar Taylor Swift told her 283 million followers on Instagram in a post immediately following the debate that she would back Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the Nov. 5 election. The post had been liked nearly 2 million times within 25 minutes.

A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, appeared to get under the former president’s skin repeatedly, prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to deliver a series of falsehood-filled retorts.

At one point, she brought up Trump’s campaign rallies, goading him by saying that people often leave early “out of exhaustion and boredom.”

Trump, who has been frustrated by the size of Harris’ own crowds, said, “My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” He then pivoted to an unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets” of residents.

The candidates clashed over issues such as immigration, foreign policy and healthcare, but the debate was light on specific policy details.

Instead, Harris’ forceful approach succeeded in putting the focus on Trump, leaving her allies jubilant and some Republicans acknowledging Trump’s struggles.

Online prediction market PredictIt’s 2024 presidential general election market showed Trump’s likelihood of victory declining during the debate, to 47% from 52%. Harris’ odds improved to 55% from 53%.

In a sign of confidence in the debate’s outcome, Harris’ campaign challenged Trump to a second debate immediately.

Trump, who has spent weeks launching personal attacks on Harris including racist and sexist insults, largely avoided that pattern during the debate’s early moments but quickly became agitated under Harris’ offensive.

Trump was asked by the moderators about one of those attacks, when he told an event with Black journalists in July that Harris had recently “become a Black person.”

Harris, who has both Black and South Asian heritage, responded, “I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people.”

She criticized Trump over his criminal conviction for covering up hush money payments to a porn star as well as his other indictments and a civil judgment finding him liable for sexual assault. Trump has denied wrongdoing and again accused Harris and the Democrats of orchestrating all of the cases without evidence.

Trump also repeated his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was due to fraud, called Harris a “Marxist” and asserted falsely that migrants have caused a violent crime spree.