neither candidate used their full minute to respond to climate change during abc’s presidential debate on tuesday night.   

moderators david muir and linsey davis asked current vice president and democratic presidential nominee kamala harris and former president and republican presidential nominee donald trump about their stances on climate change. one third of registered voters, or 62% of harris’s voters and 11% of trump’s voters, reported climate change as a “very important” issue when voting in this year’s presidential election. 

before discussing climate change, the candidates mostly used the presidential debate to discuss three hot button issues: abortion, the economy and immigration. 

trump and harris also attacked each other on other non-issues. trump called harris a “marxist,” stating her father, who is a professor in economics at stanford university, “taught her well.” harris also referred to trump as a “fella” and said viewers are going to hear a “bunch of lies.” 

the first question about climate change came more than 90 minutes into the presidential debate. davis was the one to ask the question: 

“we have another issue that we’d like to get to that’s important for a number of americans, in particular younger voters, and that’s climate change. president trump, with regard to the environment, you say that we have to have clean air and clean water. vice president harris, you call climate change an existential threat. the question to you both tonight is what would you do to fight climate change?”

the vice president, who responded first, began her statement by saying trump has previously called climate change a “hoax.” she said while working for the biden administration, they have invested heavily in clean energy.

“i’m proud that we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy as we have also increased domestic oil and gas to historic levels,” harris said. 

according to a fact-check reported by abc and what the new york times called “misleading,” the three laws passed by the biden administration addressing funding for climate change, the bipartisan infrastructure law, chips and science act of 2022 and the inflation reduction act, would not exceed $1 trillion.  

harris has cited this statistic multiple times in campaign speeches. 

beyond her work in the biden administration, she also said people who are denied or cannot afford home insurance and are “victims” of natural disasters have nowhere to go after they are displaced from their residences. 

she agreed with davis’ lead-up to the question on how young people “care deeply” about climate change. a cbs news poll from april stated 76% of americans aged 18-29 say the u.s. “needs to take steps” to slow down the effects of climate change. 

but harris then pivoted back to economic issues, discussing auto workers and how the biden administration has increased manufacturing jobs in the united states by 800,000. 

trump, in response to harris jumping back to the economy, avoided the moderator’s original question on climate change altogether.

he said in his response that the biden administration has lost 10,000 manufacturing jobs within the last month. the u.s. department of labor monthly payroll report stated manufacturing jobs declined 24,000 in august. 

due to this decrease in manufacturing jobs, trump said auto manufacturers are leaving the u.s. and building “big” auto plants in mexico with some owned by foreign countries like china. 

“what they’ve done to business and manufacturing in this country is horrible,” trump said in reference to the biden administration. 

he then moved over to talking about how current president joe biden and his son hunter biden are receiving money from foreign countries like ukraine along with $3.5 million from the mayor of moscow’s wife. 

“this is a crooked administration, and they’re selling our country down the tubes,” trump said. 

the house committee on oversight and accountability, the house committee on the judiciary, and the house committee on ways and means reported in june members of the biden family have received $35 million from countries like ukraine and russia. but they could only prove biden’s son hunter and brother james, along with their “related companies,” received money and not the current president. 

trump did not deny calling climate change a hoax. 

even though climate change is a “very important” issue among over one third of voters, both nominees pivoted away when the lone question was asked.