Politics
What’s at Stake as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris Prepare for Tuesday’s Debate in Tight Race
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump go head-to-head for the first time at Tuesday night’s debate.
ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis are moderating the highly anticipated event in Philadelphia, and the stakes are high for both candidates as their performances could sway undecided voters and change the narrative in the campaign for president.
“They both have to try and define what the rest of the race is about,” said Mari Maseng Will, a former White House communications director who’s prepared candidates for national and local debates. “In terms of Trump, he needs to make it about the failures of the Biden-Harris administration and Harris needs to make it about how unpleasant Trump is personally and the chaos that follows him around,”
The rules of this debate remain the same as last time. The candidates are not allowed to bring written notes on stage, they can’t ask each other questions and their microphones will be muted while the opposition is talking.
There’s also no live audience.
Harris and her team had asked for the rule on muted mics to be dropped, which was initially imposed for the previous debate between President Joe Biden and Trump. In a statement, her campaign said that it would “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”
The latest polls show Harris has a marginal gain over Trump. However, she’s now out of the honeymoon period and has some challenges. Namely, she’s been called out for flip-flopping on certain positions like banning fracking and decriminalizing illegal border crossing, which are positions she stood for in her previous run for office and no longer identifies with.
“Will the moderators challenge her on her changes in positions? They are quite distinct from when she first ran for president,” said Maseng Will. “People do evolve on these things but she says she hasn’t changed her values.”
Maseng Will says Trump’s main struggles are with poor public perception because of the way he speaks. Meanwhile, his greatest asset may be the economy. Many Americans believe the economy was better under the Trump administration, and that’s one of the issues he leads with in the polls.
In the month since Harris secured enough delegates to officially become the Democratic nominee, the vice president has been continuing to define herself as a world leader and position her team as the “normal” option in contrast to the weirder Republican camp.
Her tactic for doing well tomorrow night may be found in nostalgia.
“There’s a huge amount of energy behind Vice President Harris right now and I think she defines a new way forward,” said Alexandra Sims-Jones, CEO of APS & Associates. “Think about the last four years of your life. Were they better then or previously? If you think about that, most voters will know that they were better with President Biden and Vice President Harris.”
The last debate left voters with much to be desired. Time that could’ve been reserved for talking about policy and plans for the economy, a top issue for many voters, was instead used to bicker about whose golf game is more impressive.
“I’m most excited about seeing Vice President Harris call Trump out on his lies, and a mix of hope,” said Sims-Jones. “She has to do both — she has to give us hope for the future, but also we’re ready to hear her call him out.”
