No cats or dogs were killed during the completion of this debate scorecard

Media reactions to Tuesday’s US presidential debate tended to summarize it as “fiery” and to follow one general narrative: Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat in the race, set a series of traps for Republican former president Donald Trump, and he took the bait, turning angry and spouting obvious and sometimes risible falsehoods about a supposedly near-dystopic America overrun by criminal immigrant invaders who were—at least in one Midwestern town—even eating cats and dogs. (Just to be clear on the facts: Haitians are not eating pets in Ohio.)

Most news pundits viewed the result as a clear win for the smiling Harris over her glowering challenger, even as they expressed uncertainty as to whether the victory would have any effect on the November election. As the headline on a Washington Post analysis put it: “Harris dominated Trump in debate, but will it matter?”

Under questioning from ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, Harris and Trump did address issues of real substance, including, in the domestic sphere, the economy, immigration, abortion, energy, and efforts to undermine elections and democracy. On the international front, the moderators also prompted discussions of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. 

Along the way, the candidates made glancing references to nuclear weapons, climate change, and other existential threats the Bulletin emphasizes, without going into a huge amount of detail or providing much in the way of plans for dealing with the most important dangers the United States and the world face. But in a US presidential campaign, something of existential import is better than nothing and a clear improvement over the earlier debate between Trump and President Biden, which included only minimal mention of major global threats (even as it led to the president’s withdrawal from the race and Harris’s entry into it). Our editors have marked the key references from Tuesday’s debate on the existential risk scorecard displayed below. Let us know if you think we’ve missed any. We always want to give credit, if credit is due.  

Tap on each checked item to read what was said. Starred items are indirect mentions.

Russia and tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine

DONALD TRUMP: But eventually, you know, he’s got a thing that other people don’t have. He’s got nuclear weapons. They don’t ever talk about that. He’s got nuclear weapons. Nobody ever thinks about that. And eventually uh maybe he’ll use them. Maybe he hasn’t been that threatening. But he does have that. Something we don’t even like to talk about. Nobody likes to talk about it.

“Nuclear warming”

TRUMP: We have wars going on in the Middle East. We have wars going on with Russia and Ukraine. We’re going to end up in a third World War. And it will be a war like no other because of nuclear weapons, the power of weaponry.

Anything about extreme temperatures, storms, wildfires

KAMALA HARRIS: You ask anyone who lives in a state who has experienced these extreme weather occurrences who now is either being denied home insurance or is being jacked up. You ask anybody who has been the victim of what that means in terms of losing their home, having nowhere to go.

Environmental regulation / Project 2025 / Inflation Reduction Act

HARRIS: 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. My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.

——

TRUMP: But if she won the election, the day after that election, they’ll go back to destroying our country and oil will be dead, fossil fuel will be dead. We’ll go back to windmills and we’ll go back to solar, where they need a whole desert to get some energy to come out. You ever see a solar plant? By the way, I’m a big fan of solar. But they take 400, 500 acres of desert soil—

LINSEY DAVIS: President Trump—

TRUMP: These are not good things for the environment that she understands.

Fracking

DAVIS: Vice President Harris, in your last run for president you said you wanted to ban fracking. Now you don’t. … I know you say that your values have not changed. So then why have so many of your policy positions changed?

HARRIS: So my values have not changed. And I’m going to discuss every one — at least every point that you’ve made. But in particular, let’s talk about fracking because we’re here in Pennsylvania. I made that very clear in 2020. 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.

——

TRUMP: Fracking? She’s been against it for 12 years.

——

TRUMP: She wants to confiscate your guns and she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania. If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one.

——

TRUMP: She has a plan to not allow fracking in Pennsylvania or anywhere else. That’s what her plan is until just recently.

——

HARRIS: I’ve made very clear my position on fracking.

“Bird killers” (or windmills)

HARRIS: I’m going to actually do something really unusual and I’m going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies because it’s a really interesting thing to watch. You will see during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

——

TRUMP: If she won the election, the day after that election, they’ll go back to destroying our country and oil will be dead, fossil fuel will be dead. We’ll go back to windmills and we’ll go back to solar, where they need a whole desert to get some energy to come out.

AI-enabled disinformation / deep fakes / election interference

HARRIS: Well, I think this is so rich. Coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference, has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing. And let’s be clear where each person stands on the issue of what is important about respect for the rule of law and respect for law enforcement.

——

TRUMP: It’s weaponization. And they used it. And it’s never happened in this country. They used it to try and win an election. They’re fake cases.

——

TRUMP: They talk about democracy. I’m a threat to democracy. They’re the threat to democracy – With the fake Russia Russia Russia investigation that went nowhere.

——

DAVID MUIR: We have an election in just 56 days. I want to talk about the peaceful transfer of power, which of course we all know was a cornerstone of our democracy and the role of a president in a moment of crisis. … You did send out tweets, but it was more than two hours before you sent out that video message telling your supporters to go home. Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?

——

HARRIS: Donald Trump the candidate has said in this election there will be a bloodbath, if this — and the outcome of this election is not to his liking.

Regulation of AI

HARRIS: Making sure the United States of America wins the competition for the 21st century. Which means focusing on the details of what that requires, focusing on relationships with our allies, focusing on investing in American based technology so that we win the race on A.I. and quantum computing, focusing on what we need to do to support America’s workforce, so that we don’t end up having the on the short end of the stick in terms of workers’ rights.

Pandemic preparedness / global pandemic treaty

TRUMP: We got hit with a pandemic. And the pandemic was, not since 1917 where 100 million people died has there been anything like it? We did a phenomenal job with the pandemic. … We made ventilators for the entire world. We got gowns. We got masks. We did things that nobody thought possible.

COVID

HARRIS: Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century.

——

HARRIS: What Donald Trump did let’s talk about this with COVID, is he actually thanked President XI for what he did during COVID. Look at his tweet. “Thank you, President XI,” exclamation point. When we know that XI was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about the origins of COVID.

Regulation of risky biological research (or COVID lab leak theory)

HARRIS: We know that Xi was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about the origins of COVID.

“Comrade Kamala”

TRUMP: She’s a Marxist. Everybody knows she’s a Marxist. Her father’s a Marxist professor in economics. And he taught her well.

Add your own: World War III

TRUMP: What, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War 3, just to go into another subject.

——

TRUMP: Now you have millions of people dead and it’s only getting worse and it could lead to World War 3. Don’t kid yourself, David. We’re playing with World War 3.

——

TRUMP: We’re going to end up in a third World War. And it will be a war like no other because of nuclear weapons, the power of weaponry.