Kamala Harris, Donald Trump meet in Philadelphia for presidential debate tonight

AP/Stephen B. Morton

Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris supports eliminating taxes on tips and expanding tax credits to parents and first time home buyers.

Harris recently revealed she supports ending taxes on tips for workers, mirroring a similar idea floated by former President Donald Trump throughout his campaign. The Democratic nominee also signaled that it is her intent to raise the minimum wage.

"It is my promise to everyone here, when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers," Harris said during a campaign event in Nevada.

Similar to Sen. JD Vance's proposed $5,000 child tax credit, Harris has also proposed a $6,000 tax credit for parents of newborns, available to families within their child's first year. Harris also said she supports a tax credit of $25,000 for first-time home buyers. 

The Biden-Harris agenda on tips also paints a picture for what a potential Harris presidency could look like. The Biden administration has advocated for tax credits for eligible Americans, previously pushing for citizens to receive the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

In what may be the defining moment of the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump face off Tuesday in their first and potentially only debate.

And with a margin of error race with eight weeks to go until Election Day and early voting getting underway this month in some crucial battleground states, there's no denying how much is on the line as Harris and Trump face-off for 90 minutes in primetime at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center.

"It's high, high, high stakes. This is going to be a really, really important moment in the campaign," longtime Republican strategist and veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns David Kochel told Fox News Digital.

With the presidency up for grabs, the intense jockeying by both candidates and their camps has been heating up ahead of the debate.

"There's no floor for him in terms of how low he will go. And, and we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth," the vice president charged in a radio interview on the eve of the debate.

The comment appeared to be the latest stab by Harris to roil Trump in the days leading up to the showdown.

Hours later, on Tuesday morning, another jab, as the Harris campaign launched a new ad that spotlights Trump's age and seeming obsession with crowd sizes, as it used clips from former President Barack Obama's much-talked about tweaks of Trump during his Democratic National Convention speech last month.

Trump has repeatedly insulted the vice president over her intelligence, mockingly nicknamed her ‘Comrade Harris,' and even questioned her racial identity in the month and a half since Harris replaced President Biden atop the Democrats' 2024 ticket.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Paul Steinhauser

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shifted course and called for his supporters to vote for former President Trump regardless of the state they live in Tuesday.

Kennedy had previously only urged his supporters to vote for Trump if they lived in a swing state. The former presidential candidate is working to remove his name from the ballot in several states after dropping out and endorsing Trump last month.

"No matter what state you live in, you should be voting for Donald Trump," Kennedy said in a video posted to social media. "That's the only way that we can get me and everything I stand for into Washington, D.C. and fulfill the mission of my campaign."

"Right now, freedom of speech is under withering an relentless attack in America and across the globe, but at least we still have enough of it here that you can watch this video. We can still run an opposition political campaign," he added.

Kennedy is one of two former Democrats to endorse Trump in 2024, with the other being former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Both have criticized the Democratic Party for moving too far to the left.

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Vice President Kamala Harris’ shifting view on immigration represents a broader trend among Democratic politicians shifting towards the center as Americans’ views on immigration have changed since the pandemic years.

In 2016, Harris spoke out against immigration raids and, in 2017, then-Sen. Harris publicly swore to oppose any funding bill unless Congress took action to protect the 700,000 DREAMers that were then in the United States.

“I will not vote for an end-of-year spending bill until we are clear about what we are going to do to protect and take care of our DACA young people in this country,” Harris said at a press conference. “Each day in the life of these young people is a very long time, and we’ve got to stop playing politics with their lives.”

Recently, in 2021, Harris backed a bipartisan border bill that would have closed the border after a certain number of crossings and hired new border security and asylum officers. 

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley says Vice President Kamala Harris will have a difficult time at Tuesday night's debate, arguing she has to both run from and defend her left-wing record.

Whately made the comments during a Tuesday morning appearance on Fox Business' "Mornings with Maria."

"I think what we're going to see tonight is a contrast of her trying to run from [her] record, but also trying to defend that record. I'm going to be very curious, I think millions of Americans are, to see which Kamala Harris is going to show up: Is she going to be the one that's going to double down on an open southern border...or she going to try to walk back from those positions?"

He went on to say Harris has a long history of "word salads," and he predicted that the vice president is likely to fumble again Tuesday night.

Whatley is among the Trump campaign surrogates who will talk to the press from the spin room after Tuesday night's debate.

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Former President Donald Trump has spoken out against Democratic efforts to forgive student loans, arguing that President Biden’s plan to forgive certain loans was a stunt to “get publicity with the election.”

Trump has also chosen a running mate who shares his view on the issue in Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who argued in 2022 that forgoing student loans would be a “massive windfall to the rich, to the college educated.”

“Republicans must fight this with every ounce of our energy and power,” Vance said in a post on X, then Twitter.

In an interview with Fox News later the same year, Vance said student loans “subsidize the life decisions of college-educated young people, primarily young people who are going to make a lot of money over the course of their lifetime.”

Republicans have resisted recent plans to forgive student loans in general, while recent court rulings have rolled back Biden administration efforts to forgive certain loans by executive action.

Vice President Kamala Harris derided former President Trump's debate style as "old and tired" ahead of their Tuesday night matchup this weekend.

Harris made the comments while speaking to radio host Rickey Smiley.

“He plays with a really old and tired playbook. There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go," Harris said. She accused Trump of not being “burdened by telling the truth” and of fighting for himself instead of the American people.

“I think he’s going to lie,” she said. “And you know he has a playbook that he has used in the past, be it his attacks on President Obama or Hillary Clinton. So we should expect some of that will come out.”

Harris and Trump will face off in Philadelphia Tuesday night. Trump's campaign has said it will be the first time Harris has had to defend her candidacy against tough questions in an unscripted environment.

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Vice President Kamala Harris’ flip-flopping on the border wall is a reflection of Democrat’s shift towards the center on immigration and border security.

In 2016, then-Sen. Harris called Trump’s border wall a “medieval vanity project” and claimed that she would never support one, even if DACA protections were on the table. In a 2019 tweet, Harris said “Let’s get this straight: billions of dollars for a border wall is a waste of money. American taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for the President’s vanity project. We simply don’t need it.”

In 2021, Harris backed a Senate bill that, amongst other things, would include funding for border wall construction. Harris’ campaign has downplayed the significance of the border wall to the bill and has attacked the Trump camp for allegedly killing the bill.

In a 2017 tweet, Harris stated “Trump’s border wall is just a stupid use of money. I will block any funding for it.”

Two well-known former Democrats turned independents who are backing Donald Trump will be in the spin room at Tuesday night's debate between the former president and Vice President Kamala Harris, to talk up Trump's performance.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the well-known environmental activist and vaccine skeptic who last month suspended his own presidential campaign and endorsed Trump, will be on hand at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, the Trump campaign confirmed to Fox News.

So will former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who unsuccessfully ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination before leaving the party and becoming an independent two years ago.

Gabbard, who's become a favorite of many on the political right, backed Trump last month.

Joining Kennedy and Gabbard in the spin room at the debate – which is the first and potentially only face-to-face showdown between Harris and Trump before Election Day on Nov 5 – is a squad of high-profile Republicans.

Topping the list is Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

Also in the spin room for Trump: Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump, who is the former president's daughter-in-law.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Paul Steinhauser

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Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly condemned the war in the Middle East since October, when terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel, pinning blame for the conflict on the Biden-Harris administration. 

As Trump enters the final fall leg of the election cycle, he has argued that war would not have broken out in Israel were he president, pointing to his sanctions on Iran during his administration. Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are terrorist groups that target Israel with the backing and direction of Iran.

“I will end every single international crisis that the current administration has created, including the horrible war with Russia and Ukraine, which would’ve never happened if I was president and the war caused by the attack on Israel, which would’ve never happened if I was president,” Trump declared during his nomination acceptance speech at the RNC in July. 

“Iran was broke. Iran had no money. Now Iran has $250 billion. They made it all over the last two and a half years,” Trump continued.

The former president met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, when Trump said he believes Vice President Kamala Harris had been “disrespectful to Israel.” 

Trump told reporters during the meeting that if he’s re-elected to the White House, he would end the war in the Middle East “very quickly,” while continuing to argue the Biden-Harris administration showed weakness on the world stage that could lead to a "third world war." 

Media "malpractice" has increased the importance of Tuesday night's debate for former President Trump, as reporters have failed to press Vice President Kamala Harris with tough questions, Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn argues.

McGun, a member of the Journal's editorial board, says the debate may be the only opportunity for Harris to face real questions before Election Day.

"Press failure has inflated it into the seminal event of the Trump-Harris race. Because reporters haven’t insisted that Ms. Harris answer basic questions, the debate, moderated by ABC News, may provide the only moment in the 2024 election when Americans get to see how Ms. Harris performs under pressure," McGurn wrote.

"This failure would be appalling at any time, but the circumstances of Ms. Harris’s campaign turn simple media bias into journalistic malpractice. The vice president secured the top slot on the Democratic ticket without having to contest a single primary—and therefore without having to lay out and defend her record. This leaves her largely unknown to American voters, a situation Ms. Harris is now exploiting to reinvent herself as a moderate challenger rather than a woke incumbent," he added.

Since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris has not held a single press conference. She has conducted one sit down interview, which she did on CNN alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

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Tensions are sure to run high at tonight’s debate as it is the first in-person meeting of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Expect issues like abortion, the border, the economy and instability in the Middle East to arise, along with Trump’s personal attacks on Harris, like when he said she “happened to turn Black.” 

The microphones will be muted between questioning after a back-and-forth over the rules. The Harris team had wanted open mics in the hopes that Trump might show himself in an unfavorable light by interrupting her. 

“I’m speaking,” Harris said in a viral moment in a debate with former Vice President Mike Pence in 2020 when he spoke over her. Trump has often described Harris as “dumb,” “inexperienced” and “too liberal” and will likely try to paint her as such. 

Harris likes to describe herself as the prosecutor and Trump as the felon. She’s framed him as “corrupt” and “dishonest” and claims he wants to set the country back and take away women’s reproductive freedoms. 

Vice President Kamala Harris holds a one-point lead over former President Trump as the pair prepare to debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, according to a new poll.

The NPR/Marist poll shows Harris at 49% among registered voters, compared to Trump's 48%. The poll shows the race has tightened since August, when Trump trailed Harris by 3 points in a 48% to 45% matchup.

The NPR poll surveyed 1,413 registered voters from Sept. 3-5. The poll advertises a margin of error of 3.3%.

The poll also indicated that voters believe Harris to be the more radical of the two candidates, with 47% of Americans saying Harris is "too liberal." Meanwhile, 43% of Americans said Trump is "too conservative."

Harris and Trump will meet in Philadelphia for their first presidential debate on Tuesday night. ABC News his hosting the event and the moderators will be David Muir and Lindsey Davis. It is unclear whether there will be a second debate.

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Pennsylvania is a must-win swing state in the presidential race, and both campaigns have been pouring money into media markets in the Keystone State. Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 and Biden won it in 2020. 

Trump and Harris are virtually tied in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and Trump’s debate with President Joe Biden was held in Atlanta. 

While Election Day on November 5 is nine weeks away, early voting in Pennsylvania begins this month. Whoever wins Pennsylvania cinches 20 electoral votes. 

Philadelphia is also conveniently situated on the northeast corridor between Washington, D.C. and New York City’s media hubs. 

Fox News

The first presidential debate, to be held Tuesday Sept. 10, will be moderated by ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis. Muir is the anchor of “World News Tonight” on ABC, while Davis anchors the Sunday edition of the program and hosts her own show “ABC News Live.” 

Muir has been at ABC since 2003. He was former President Donald Trump’s first White House interview as president. More recently, he interviewed President Joe Biden on the anniversary of the famous D-Day invasion. 

Davis, meanwhile, has been at the network since 2007. She previously interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris in July 2023, and also touts a long list of other high-profile subjects she has sat down with on camera. 

Both Muir and Davis have previously moderated presidential debates in 2016, 2019 and 2020.

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Among the most contentious rules of the upcoming debate is whether the candidates’ microphones will be muted when they are not speaking, or whether they will remain on. While former President Donald Trump has historically preferred the latter, his campaign wants to mute them.

Meanwhile, prior to President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance in July, his campaign wanted the microphones to be muted when Biden wasn’t talking, but now, Democrats want the mics to remain on for Harris, insisting it will “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.” 

It was announced Wednesday that the two candidates agreed on debate rules that said the mics would be muted when a candidate is not speaking. Other rules for the Sept. 10 debate mirror much of the rules from the last presidential debate between Trump and Biden.

The candidates will stand behind lecterns, will not make opening statements and will not be allowed to bring any notes. The debate will last 90 minutes.