Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, squared off in a prime-time debate in Philadelphia that may have altered the course of an already unprecedented race for the White House, writes CNBC.

The two candidates quickly launched into a bitter, fast-moving, energized and occasionally angry back-and-forth. Trump soon appeared to veer off script, insulting Harris and repeating false conspiracies about immigrants who eat dogs.

Going into the debate, polling averages indicated the race was effectively tied at the national level, while surveys of the key battleground states showed Trump and Harris within a few points of each other, well within the polls’ margins of error.

The coming days may see a bump for Harris after a debate performance that both Republicans and Democrats largely agreed had been excellent.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, are scheduled to debate once, on Oct. 1, in New York City, hosted by CBS News.

Republican former New Jersey governor Chris Christie thinks Trump’s debate-prep team “should be fired”.

Harris “was exquisitely well prepared, she laid traps and he chased every rabbit down every hole, instead of talking about the things that he should’ve been talking about,′ Christie told ABC News after the debate. “This is the difference between someone who’s well prepared and someone who’s unprepared.”

Christie said Trump “spent more time talking about people eating pets,” than the economy and that if he doesn’t get to work he might lose the election to Harris.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham echoed the sentiment calling the debate a “disaster”, telling MSNBC that he thought Trump was unprepared and that his debate team should be fired.