Democratic candidate Kamala Harris put her Republican rival, Donald Trump, on the defensive in a combative presidential debate on Tuesday with a stream of attacks on his fitness for office, his support of abortion restrictions and his myriad legal woes.

A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, controlled the debate from the start, getting under her rival's skin repeatedly and prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to deliver a series of falsehood-filled retorts.

At one point, she goaded the former president by saying that people often leave his campaign rallies early "out of exhaustion and boredom."