Analysis of the words Trump and Harris relied on in their first debate:
At the first and only scheduled presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, Harris mentioned Trump by name 38 times. Trump didn’t say Harris’ name a single time.
The former president mentioned inflation nine times; Harris only did so twice. Trump called Harris “weak” five times, and she returned the insult four times.
CBS News analyzed the words both candidates used during Tuesday night’s debate to determine what key themes and rhetoric they used to appeal to American voters as the 2024 election approaches. The analysis also compared the words used in this debate to the June 27 debate between President Biden and Trump. Here’s what we found.
Breaking down the words by topic
The debate kicked off with a question about the economy, but Trump’s response was mostly about immigration, a topic he returned to frequently throughout the night. He said “border” 12 times. Thirty percent of the times that Trump mentioned the word “people,” he was referring to migrants.
Repeatedly citing incorrect numbers, Trump said “million” or “millions” in reference to immigrants entering the U.S. 12 times. Seventeen times he referred to these migrants as “criminals” or referred to “crime” in the context of immigration.
When the candidates did talk about the economy, Trump and Harris said “tax,” “taxes” or “tariff” about the same number of times. Harris referenced “small business” or businesses seven times, a phrase Trump didn’t mention in either debate.
Trump emphasized inflation, using the term nine times — the same number of times he did in the June debate. Harris only mentioned it twice, and once was when she named the Inflation Reduction Act. Harris also made fewer references to “jobs” than Trump did.
On the topic of abortion, Trump spent time on late-term abortion and repeated the false claim that Democrats, including vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, condone killing newborns. He used the word “baby” six times, while Harris’ remarks about abortion more often focused on women’s bodily autonomy. In the context of abortion, she used the words “woman” or “women” seven times and “body” six times.
Examining how the candidates talked about each other
The candidates’ targeted attacks on Tuesday night included Harris calling Trump a “disgrace” twice and Trump labeling Harris a “Marxist,” echoing his social media nickname for her, “Comrade Kamala.” He also called her the “border czar” three times, a term that overstates her role in managing the country’s immigration policy.
One word that was one of the most frequent jabs the candidates employed was “weak.” Trump described Harris or Harris and Mr. Biden collectively as “weak” five times. He described Mr. Biden as “weak” once in the June debate and once on Tuesday. Harris called Trump or his actions “weak” four times.
Other insults included “incompetent,” used by Trump four times, and “immoral” and “unconscionable” by Harris each once.
