After a stormy campaign summer, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will face off in what could be their last debate on Tuesday night, giving both candidates a high-pressure chance to present their diametrically opposed platforms for the nation.
The event, which takes place at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will provide Americans with their best glimpse into a campaign that has undergone significant transformation since the June debate. Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, Joe Biden abruptly withdrew from the campaign following his dismal performance, and the candidates on both parties quickly selected their running mates.
Harris is determined to show that she is more capable than Biden of leading the Democratic opposition to Trump. To win over people who are wary of his return to the White House, Trump is attempting to portray the vice president as a leftist who is out of touch.
Being the first woman, Black person, and person of South Asian ancestry to hold the position of vice president has been challenging for Trump, 78, as he adjusts to Harris, 59. The former Republican president’s friends would prefer that Trump concentrate on their disagreements in policy with Harris rather than on his occasional use of racial and gender stereotypes.
While acknowledging the low points of the Biden administration and discussing her departures from her more liberal stances in the past, the vice president will attempt to take part in the credit for the administration’s successes.
With just one official interview under her belt for the last six weeks, Harris will experience a long period of questioning during the debate.
Republican communications consultant and ex-Press Secretary Ari Fleischer predicted that Democrats will be ecstatic if Hillary Clinton turns out well. It might throw the contest into disarray if Hillary makes the same mistake as Joe Biden. For that reason, it is more important.
Harris, a former attorney general of California, would bring “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage,” according to Tim Hogan, who oversaw debate preparations for Senator Amy Klobuchar during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
Having someone who can land a punch and interpret it is a very strong talent in that situation, according to Hogan.
Not long after the ABC News-hosted presidential debate, the first early ballots will be sent out. Alabama voters should expect to receive their absentee votes starting on Wednesday.
A leftist, Trump intends to attack Harris.
During her unsuccessful 2020 presidential candidacy, Trump and his campaign highlighted her extreme left-wing views. The former Democratic presidential candidate and congressman Tulsi Gabbard, who viciously attacked Harris in their primary debates, has been an informal adviser to him during his debate preparation.
Harris has tried to justify her moderate positions on fracking, Medicare for all, and mandatory gun buyback programs—as well as her reversal on banning plastic straws—by claiming that her “values remain the same” and pragmatism. A page outlining her stances on important subjects was launched on Monday on her campaign website.
While the Republican is once again making dire warnings about immigration and individuals in the nation illegally fundamental to his campaign, the former president has claimed that a Harris presidency poses a danger to national security, drawing attention to the fact that Biden chose her to handle the surge of migrants. His goal has been to make it seem like a Harris presidency would be just like Biden’s disastrous administration—especially his economic record—even if inflation has eased down in recent months; voters are still feeling its effects.
Even when Trump faces a female opponent, his staff maintains, his tone will remain unchanged.
During a phone conference with reporters on Monday, senior adviser Jason Miller assured them that President Trump would be candid.
Speaking on the call with Trump, Gabbard said that the president “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way he would speak to a man.”
The president’s advisors have said that Harris often uses a “word salad” of empty sentences when speaking, which led him to declare last week that his plan for the debate was to “let her talk.”
When speaking about policy, the former president often goes off on tangents. On a regular basis, he asserts the untruth about the previous election, criticizes an extensive roster of his detractors, praises foreign autocrats, and makes racial slurs, such as his July fake assertion that Harris “happened to turn Black.”
To support her claim that Trump is un
steady and unsuited
The VP, who has been the leading voice in the Biden administration in defending abortion rights since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Roe v. Wade decision, is likely to criticize Trump for his inconsistent stance on women’s reproductive health care, such as his declaration that he will support a statewide referendum this fall to uphold Florida’s six-week abortion ban.
In light of the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine (which began more than two years ago with Russia’s invasion) and Gaza (where Israel’s conflict with Hamas began), Harris was also planning to present herself as a more level-headed leader who could protect the country’s relationships.
From his 2020 presidential campaign efforts to rally his fans to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to his remarks as recent as this weekend, she will most certainly warn that Trump poses a danger to democracy. Again taking to social media, Trump threatened vengeance and said that “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including attorneys, political operatives, contributors, voters, and election officials, would be jailed if he were to win.
In Pennsylvania, Harris has spent the most of the past five days preparing for the debate, during which she and a Trump stand-in engaged in lengthy practice sessions. While preparing for the debate, she spoke with radio personality Rickey Smiley about her strategy for responding to Trump’s potential lies.
“As far as he is concerned, there is no limit to how low he will go,” she declared.