The accusation came as the two presidential candidates met for the first time since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race for the White House in July. The discussion was heated with the topic of the Ukraine war and relations with Russia providing a key platform for accusation and counteraccusation.
The United States goes to the polls in November to elect its next president.
"If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now,” Harris said. “And understand what that would mean. Because Putin's agenda is not just about Ukraine.”
The vice president stressed the importance of a strong NATO as a deterrent against Russian expansionism.
“Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland,” she said. “And why don't you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”
Trump repeated a claim from his TV debate with Biden that the Ukraine war “would never have happened” had he been in the Oval Office. He also accused Harris of culpability for Russia’s invasion.
“But just so you understand, they sent her to negotiate peace before this war started,” he said. “Three days later he went in and he started the war because everything they said was weak and stupid. They said the wrong things. That war should have never started. She was the emissary. They sent her in to negotiate with Zelenskyy and Putin. And she did and the war started three days later.”
Harris accused Trump of lying over her role.
“I said it at the beginning of this debate: you're going to hear a bunch of lies coming from this fella,” she retorted. “And that is another one.”
Should Ukraine win?
Trump twice refused to say categorically whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war. ABC News moderator David Muir asked Trump straight: “Do you want Ukraine to win this war?”
“I want the war to stop," Trump replied. “I want to save lives."
He went on to reiterate a claim in the Biden debate that if elected he would bring the war to an end before he was even inaugurated.
Falsely claiming that millions had been killed in the conflict, Trump also attacked the Democrats’ record on funding Kyiv and not pushing European countries to pay more.
“Look, we're in for $250 billion or more because they don't ask Europe, which is a much bigger beneficiary to getting this thing done than we are,” he said. “They're in for $150 billion less because Biden and you don't have the courage to ask Europe like I did with NATO.”
Trump said that following his statements in February that under his leadership the U.S. would not protect NATO members that failed to pay their share, European countries had paid “billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars.”
“So that may be one of the reasons they don't like me as much as they like weak people,” Trump said.
Muir pressed Trump again on Ukraine, “Do you believe it's in the U.S. best interests for Ukraine to win this war?” he asked. “Yes or no?”
“I think it's in the U.S. best interest to get this war finished and just get it done,” the Republican candidate answered. “All right. Negotiate a deal. Because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed.”
Harris countered by saying Trump claimed he would have the war over within 24 hours because “he would just give it up. And that's not who we are as Americans.”
In a snap poll conducted by SRRS for CNN immediately after the debate, 63% of American viewers said Harris had come out on top with 37% saying the same of Trump.
