Donald Trump delivered his first public remarks since his debate against Kamala Harris at a campaign event on Thursday in Arizona, a key swing state that both candidates are eager to secure.

An estimated 5,000 people braved the blazing temperatures – which hovered just above 100F (37.8C) through the afternoon – to wait in line outside the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson, an auditorium rented by the campaign that holds about 2,300 people. Meanwhile, city emergency crews responded to dozens of calls for heat injuries before Trump took the stage, according to local public radio reporter Alisa Zaira Reznick.

Trump stood before a backdrop etched with his campaign promises of “make housing affordable again” and “no tax on tips” – a signal that the speech would focus heavily on amplifying his economic platform. But instead, the former president used much of his time to reframe his debate performance – which even Trump’s own aides have admitted will not win him new voters – by casting it in a far more favorable light.

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“We had a monumental victory over comrade Kamala Harris,” Trump said to cheers, using a deriding nickname and intentionally mispronouncing the vice-president’s first name. His depiction came in stark contrast to the widespread criticism over his subpar performance from conservatives and progressives alike.

Trump blamed the debate moderators, whom he called “low-life anchors”, complaining of mistreatment from the two veteran journalists who fact-checked his attempts at spreading misinformation during the debate.

But Trump made it clear: he has no desire for a do-over. “There will be no third debate,” he said.

Despite the advertised theme of the event, Trump did not spend much of the roughly hour-and-a-half speech sharing details of his economic plans. Instead, the Republican candidate dedicated the bulk of his time pandering to his base with meandering anecdotes, insulting his opponents, and reiterating many of his baseless talking points, including claims he won the last election.

He also focused heavily on immigration, a typical target for his rallies, stoking fears about waves of criminals crossing into the country and again accusing Haitian immigrants of eating animals in Springfield, Ohio.

“They take in the geese … and even walk off with their pets,” Trump said, repeating the unfounded and racist smear that has been challenged by the town’s officials and has inflamed tensions and attacks against members of the Haitian community.

Roughly an hour into his remarks, Trump shared some of his plans for the economy, promising no taxes on social security benefits and no taxes on tips, and announcing for the first time that he also wants to end taxes on overtime.

“We will defend the second amendment, restore free speech, and we will secure our elections. Everyone will prosper, every family will thrive, and every day will be filled with joy and opportunity and hope,” Trump said, asking his base to give him a landslide victory that’s “too big to rig”.

Arizona is a battleground state that the Trump and Harris campaigns have both devoted attention to this week. The second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, was also scheduled to visit Tucson, a Democratic-leaning enclave, on Thursday.

The Trump campaign was required to pay a $145,222.70 deposit for use of the auditorium and local police who would perform security duties at the event, a policy that was set by the city after the former president failed to settle an $80,000 bill for a rally held there in 2016.

“We learned our lesson,” Tucson city councilman Kevin Dahl told the Arizona Daily Star, adding that the city wrote off the debt.

Linda Ronstadt, the singer for whom the venue is named, issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the former president and declaring her support for Harris.

“I don’t just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty, and ignorance,” she said, after expressing her sadness that he brought his “hate show” to Tucson. The final straw, Ronstadt said, was the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrant families seeking asylum.

“Family separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies, and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers,” she continued. “Trump first ran for president warning about rapists coming in from Mexico. I’m worried about keeping the rapist out of the White House.”

‘We owe it to voters’: Harris calls for another debate at North Carolina rallies

Kamala Harris held rallies Thursday in North Carolina, first in Charlotte and then in Greensboro, calling for another round of debate with Donald Trump, two days after her strong showing in Philadelphia against the former president.

“I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate,” she said to applause, “because this election and what is at stake could not be more important. On Tuesday night, I talked about issues that I know matter to families across America, like bringing down the cost of living … but that’s not what we heard from Donald Trump.”

Holding rallies in two of North Carolina’s largest cities highlights the importance of the state as a national battleground that the campaign now sees as winnable.

In Charlotte, Harris laughed and mocked Trump’s answer during the debate when he was asked about his plan to replace Obamacare. “He has no plan to replace it. He said ‘concepts of a plan’ – no actual plan. Concepts. And understand what’s at stake with that: 45 million Americans are insured under the Affordable Care Act, and he’s going to end it based on a concept.”

Harris touched on familiar themes in her campaign, calling for an “opportunity economy” with support for small businesses and first-time homebuyers, and a renewed child tax credit. She noted the support of the former Republican representative Liz Cheney and her father, the former vice-president Dick Cheney. “I will always put country above party and be a president for all Americans,” Harris said.

She also called on voters to look up on Google “Project 2025”, a transition plan for a second Trump administration created by former Trump advisers through the Heritage Foundation. “It is a detailed and dangerous blueprint for what he would do if he was elected president,” she said.

Trump has repeatedly disavowed the document. “I have nothing to do – as you know and as she knows better than anyone – I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump said during Tuesday’s debate. “That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas. I guess some good, some bad. But it makes no difference.”

Harris has ignored Trump’s rejections. “Donald Trump will give billionaires and big corporations massive tax cuts and cut corporate taxes by a trillion dollars even as they pull in record profits,” she said in Charlotte. “He will add more than $5tn to the national debt.”

She said that one out of three women now live in states with abortion access restricted by the end of Roe v Wade protections, which she described as a “Trump abortion ban”.