Amid the heavier subjects pertaining to the economy, immigration and foreign policy that featured in the debate between United States presidential contenders Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Tuesday night were some more bizarre moments and claims.

Tuesday night’s 90-minute head-to-head – seen by many as a “job interview” for the country’s top job – could very well be the only debate between the two candidates before November’s election.

The strange moments during a debate can tell us as much about the potential leaders as the serious issues. So what strange comments were made, and how did the political rivals handle them?

Trump: ‘Haitian migrants are eating pets in Ohio’

Trump made the claim that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets belonging to residents.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs – the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he thundered.

Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, made a similar claim on Monday, posting on his X account: “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”

This rumour appears to have been started in a private Facebook group for Springfield residents in which a claim was made that a cat had gone missing, then was later discovered hanging from a tree at the residence of a Haitian neighbour. The rumour was reported in the Springfield News-Sun.

Trump has long campaigned on the issue of reducing the numbers of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers to the United States, but the claim that immigrants are eating pets in Springfield is unsubstantiated.

According to a statement from the office of Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck: “There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

The Democratic presidential nominee, US Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks during the debate hosted by ABC as Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump listens, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night [Brian Snyder/Reuters]

Trump: ‘Transgender operations on illegal aliens’ in prison

“Now she [Harris] wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. This is a radical left liberal that would do this,” Trump asserted during the debate.

This claim relates to Kamala Harris’s answer to a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire supporting the use of taxpayer funds to provide gender-affirming care to transgender people.

The question, posed to candidates in the previous presidential election,

Harris answered “Yes” and wrote: “It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition.”

Although Harris’s response was recently referred to in a report by CNN, the Harris campaign has not confirmed whether she still holds this position.

Trump and the mystery of ‘Abdul’

During a heated back and forth on the subject of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, Harris accused Trump of being irresponsible when he invited the Taliban to Camp David in 2019 when Trump was president. This meeting was later cancelled by the White House after a Taliban attack in September that year that killed 12 people, including a US service member.

During the debate on Tuesday night, Trump then referred to “Abdul” in a rambling and confusing speech in which he said he had told the Taliban to stop killing US soldiers.

He said:

It is likely that Trump was referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, who during his peace talks with Trump in May 2020 was the Taliban’s chief negotiator. Baradar, however, is not the supreme leader of the Taliban. He is currently a senior Taliban commander and Afghanistan’s first deputy prime minister.

The Afghan deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, speaks in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 24, 2022 [Ali Khara/Reuters]

Trump: Democrats emboldened assassination attempt

Trump claimed that the assassination attempt on him during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 when he was grazed on the ear was provoked by Democratic rhetoric.

“I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me,” Trump said. “They talk about democracy. I’m a threat to democracy.”

Several days before the Trump assassination attempt, the Florida Democratic Party issued a statement responding to a Trump campaign rally at Trump National Doral golf club in Miami, stating: “And the vision that he did lay out, Project 2025, is an existential threat to our country. His threats against immigrants, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and more should terrify all of us – because if he wins, we know that he’ll do everything possible to make sure he ends democracy as we know it. That’s why we have to do everything possible to defeat Trump and re-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this November.”

During an event in September to honour the late Senator John McCain in Tempe, Arizona, President Joe Biden stated: “Their extreme agenda, if carried out, will fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it.”

He continued: “Trump says the constitution gave him ‘the right to do whatever he wants as president’. I’ve never even heard a president say that in jest.”

During Tuesday night’s debate, Harris also stated that Trump would “terminate the Constitution of the United States”.

On August 28, the FBI held a briefing to provide updates on the investigation into the Trump assassination attempt and gave details including possible motives of the suspect. Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office, said: “We continue to see through our analysis a mixture of ideologies. So I would say that we see no definitive ideology associated with our subject, either left-leaning or right-leaning. It’s really been a mixture and something that we’re still attempting to analyse and draw conclusions on.”

Donald Trump gestures while he is assisted by US Secret Service personnel after he was shot in the right ear during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024 [File: Brendan McDermid/Reuters]

Harris: Trump claims ‘windmills cause cancer’

Perhaps most bizarre of all, a question on abortion from ABC News Live anchor and debate moderator Linsey Davis led to Harris mocking Trump rallies and making a mention of Hannibal Lecter, a fictional serial killer in the movie Silence of the Lambs.

Harris stated: “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.”

There has been no official reporting of how many people leave early during either Harris’s or Trump’s rallies.

Trump decided to respond to this “offending” mention: “First let me respond as to the rallies. She said people start leaving. People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go. And the people that do go, she’s bussing them in and paying them to be there.”

Trump: ‘Illegal immigrants’ vote in presidential elections

Trump repeated his allegation that the Democratic Party draws on undocumented immigrants as a voting bloc. In a November 2016 tweet on X, Trump said millions of people had voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election, suggesting that undocumented immigrants were among them.

“Our elections are bad. And a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote. They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in practically. And these people are trying to get them to vote,” Trump stated during the debate.

Harris responded indirectly to the claim: “But we cannot afford to have a president of the United States who attempts as he did in the past to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election.”

According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a US-based nonprofit organisation that works with policymakers, it is illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote in US elections.

“The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, explicitly prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections. It is not legal in any state for a non-citizen to cast a ballot in a federal election.”