The ABC News presidential debate. From the very first moment, Kamala Harris tried to own the stage.

Kamala Harris.

The handshake we had wondered about was forced on Donald Trump in his space and with an introduction to boot. Because this was the first time these two candidates for the presidency had ever come face to face, 90 minutes to present America with its choice. And from the off, blistering exchanges on an issue that could swing this election.

But her vice presidential pick says, Abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says, Execution after birth. It's execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born is okay, and that's not okay with me?

First came the moderator's fact check.

There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.

Then Harris's response, her core pitch to every woman in America.

One does not have abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.

Harris's strategy was to get under Donald Trump's skin, and she certainly seemed to.

I'm going to actually do something really unusual, and I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies. What you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

People don't go to her rally. There's no reason to go.

He then went where his advisors probably hoped he wouldn't.

In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there.

I just want to clarify. There have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals.

You talk about extreme.

It was the angry man his team were concerned would come out.

We have a nation that is dying, David.

But remember, that is the Donald Trump, the locked-in supporters love. The question is how the undecided respond to this. The focus then shifted to the vice president. What does she really stand for?

I know you say that your values have not changed. Then why have so many of your policy positions changed?

My values have not changed. What is important is that there is a president who actually brings values and a perspective that is about lifting people up and not beating people down and name calling.

If one criticism was that they gave Donald Trump the last word many times, another is that to straight questions, Kamala Harris's answers were often less than direct. There were jugular moments.

Wait a minute. I'm talking now, if you don't mind, please. Does that sound familiar?

As Donald Trump harnessed her flip-flopping for voters still trying to work out what Kamala Harris really stands for.

She has no policy. Everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out the window. She's going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat.

In a fast-moving debate, there was doubling back to correct the record.

This business about taking everyone's guns away. Tim Walls and I are both gun owners. We're not taking anybody's guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.

On foreign policy, Trump latched on to the many across the country who attached the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to an inept Biden. But Harris turned it on him.

That these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be President again because they're so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors. And that is why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace.

Do you want Ukraine to win this war?

I want the war to stop. I want to save lives.

Trump took nearly an hour and a half to get to the point which might sway the undecided.

She is Biden. She's trying to get away from Biden. I don't know the gentleman. She says, She is Biden.

Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump. What I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country.

Then from the debate to the spin and the surrogates doing their principles work.

I thought Kamala Harris had a great night, and I think she showed Donald Trump to be a rambling, confused man who was focused on dividing us as opposed to bringing people together.

Surely you wanted to come here and say that Donald Trump had a great night.

I think he had a fine night. I think that this was a night that was absolutely necessary. I am so happy we finally got to see these two people on a stage.

Well, remarkably, Donald Trump has now turned up here in the spin room himself. When you come to deliver your own top spin, it doesn't suggest it was quite the night you wanted.

Why did you say that people are eating dogs in Springfield, Ohio? You take a look at it. It's nonsense. The local authorities say it. You could check it out. Check with the authorities.

In eight weeks, America will choose from two such starkly different candidates. The worst call that we've had was.