Harris and Trump meet again at 9/11 memorial day after debate

Solemn display of unity a stark contrast to fiery televised encounter the night before

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Ms Kamala Harris and Donald Trump shook hands on Sept 11 at New York's 9/11 memorial to mark the anniversary of the attacks, briefly putting politics aside hours after they clashed in a fiery presidential debate.

The solemn display of unity was a stark contrast to the scenes from the previous evening, when the Democratic Vice-President forced the rattled Republican former president onto the defensive in a bruising encounter in front of tens of millions of viewers.

Any sense of harmony from the commemoration of the 2001 AlQaeda attacks is likely to be shortlived, with the election still on a knife-edge with just two months to go, despite polls showing a crushing debate win for Ms Harris.

The 78-year-old Trump came out swinging even before the ceremony, claiming in an interview with Fox News - without evidence - that the ABC News debate in Philadelphia was "rigged" against him.

"It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be, because when you looked at the fact that they were correcting everything and not correcting with her," he complained, referring to pushback from the moderators to some of his more brazenly false statements.

The debate was watched by 67 million Americans, according to final figures from ratings agency Nielsen - way up from the 51.3 million who watched the catastrophic performance in June that forced President Joe Biden out of the race.