As expected, the presidential debate Tuesday night between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump was must see TV.

It started with the handshake and quickly turned to a fistfight with Trump on the defensive for most of the evening, and Harris goading him into a flustered performance that even many of Trump's most loyal supporters admitted.

But what matters more is whether the debate will move the needle for undecided voters.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan got reaction from around the state today.

In this first and only scheduled debate between the candidates and Kamala Harris.

She started by introducing herself to her opponent and then to millions of voters who wanted to know who is Kamala Harris?

Most analysts think she not only delivered a strong debate performance.

Harris also goaded Donald Trump into losing his cool.

Take this exchange on a bipartisan immigration reform bill that Harris claimed the former president deliberately undermined.

He'd prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.

The people of our country actually need a leader who engages in solutions.

The vice president invited viewers to attend a Trump rally speech on immigration and poked him in a very sore spot.

People start leaving his rallies early.

Out of exhaustion and boredom.

And I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.

We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics 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.

That's stuck with Jersey folks who watched the debate.

He said something along the lines of people eating cats and dogs.

That was a crazy line, I call it.

I feel like she baited him a little bit there too, which is great.

Knowing how he was going to react and knowing he wasn't going to, have the self-control to stay on points.

Political pundits say how it shifted the dynamics of the debate and put Trump uncharacteristically on the defensive.

He's aggressive.

He lies.

He's a very difficult person to debate.

I thought she handled him masterfully.

Every time she laid out a trap, he took it.

Every time she laid out bait, he took it.

He went off on wild, insane tangents.

I think he showed, though, that level of grievance that you could tell that he's been under fire and, you know, sort of wanted to get all of his grievances out.

And I and I wish he would have focused on the border, which is the number one issue in every single poll.

Trump again denied that he lost the 2020 election and refused to accept responsibility for the January 6th insurrection.

He still had no concrete health care plan to replace Obama care.

Just a quote concept.

Even Republicans like Marcy Phelan admitted, I was hoping to see a little better from Donald Trump.

I look at somebody like Kamala Harris, and I think I think her intentions are all very good.

I don't think she's qualified.

Republicans wanted to hear Trump challenge Harris's record on border security, on the economy, on the Biden administration's foreign policy, including the war in Ukraine.

The moderators asked, do you want Ukraine to win this war?

I want to get the war settled.

I know Zelensky very well, and I know Putin very well.

What you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch.

They can manipulate you with flattery and favors.

Again, what did voters take away?

I think you got a point across to you.

Probably the biggest audience she's had.

The media wants to talk about scoring political points or debate points, which is really irrelevant to the issue here of the battleground states.

State GOP chair Bob Hugin thinks the debate won't sway voters in swing states that will decide this election.

I think the media will portray it as a great Kamala victory.

So I think she did a very good job in the debate.

She just didn't do what she had to do to win the election in the in the battleground states.

But what about new Jersey?

Jersey reliably votes blue for president, but will undecideds and unofficially Yates reconsider their choice in down ballot races?

They don't like Donald Trump, but they're really upset with the Republican leadership who has at least tacitly given him his that support.

Monmouth poll director Patrick Murray says this could impact the race and Jersey's seventh congressional district or incumbent Tom Kane Jr's facing off against Democratic activists Sue Altman, a bona fide swing district.

But the debate also galvanized voters over abortion in fluency.

Janine LaRue called it Harris's pivotal moment when she talked about how bodies, when she talked about reproductive freedom, and that no one has the right to have a say over a woman's body.

Trump refused to say whether he'd sign a national abortion ban, noting Congress would never pass such a bill.

Harris vowed to make reproductive health care legal everywhere.

So that was a moment, I think, not just for women, but I think there were even men allies who said, you know what?

She's right.

She's right.

LaRue says that impacted women on both sides of the aisle.

It certainly motivated one.

Taylor Swift, holding her cat, posted an endorsement of Kamala Harris, urging people to register to vote.

She signed it.

Childless cat lady.

Whether all this translates to a bump in the polls for Harris.

Well, that's TBA.

I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.