Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to debate Tuesday for the first time in what is widely considered the most important night of the 2024 campaign so far, as the two are in a neck-and-neck contest less than two months before Election Day—setting the stage for a litany of attacks by both candidates.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, addresses the Economic Club of ... [+]
Harris offered some hints about her approach to the debate in an interview with radio host Rickey Smiley released Monday, saying she expects “a lot of untruth” from Trump during the debate and she plans to “point out . . . he tends to fight for himself, not for the American people, and I think that’s going to come out during the debate.”
Harris plans to reiterate her economic policy proposals but is not expected to debut any new ones, an unnamed source told ABC News, adding she will also talk about her middle-class upbringing and prior career as a prosecutor—alluding to the challenge she faces as the truncated campaign timeline has left many voters feeling uninformed about who Harris is.
The vice president is also expected to contrast her background with Trump's, ABC says: She has repeatedly cast the race as prosecutor versus felon, an attack line Trump's staffers told The Washington Post they're preparing for, and her campaign debuted a new ad Monday featuring former Vice President Mike Pence and other ex-Trump officials criticizing their former boss while the narrator calls Trump "a danger to our troops and our democracy."
She’s also likely to attack him over his role in Roe v. Wade’s reversal and the fallout from the ruling, along with the controversial Project 2025 agenda widely considered by Democrats as an extreme proposal that would give the executive branch outsize power—both issues are featured on the newly debuted policy page on her website (Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, which was written partly by ex-Trump staffers).
Trump will attack Harris on the border and the economy, directly linking her to the Biden administration’s policies, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told The New York Times about his debate strategy, adding in a Washington Post statement Trump will raise the frequent GOP allegation that she’s deliberately avoided media interviews since she entered the race.
Trump is also preparing to attack some of Harris’ stances as a state-level prosecutor, and will highlight Harris’ more left-leaning record during her 2020 presidential primary campaign, such as her backing of Medicare For All and her previous endorsement of a fracking ban, which she has since walked back, an unnamed Trump adviser told The Washington Post.
Miller also told The Post the former president will push Harris to “answer why she hasn’t implemented any of these new plans during the last 3 ½ years.”
Trump’s advisers are concerned the genuine disdain he allegedly has for Harris will manifest itself on the debate stage, and have instead urged Trump to show up as “happy Trump” rather than “mean, bully Trump,” according to The New York Times, citing an unnamed ally. Harris reportedly hopes to capitalize on those tendencies, similar to what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did in a 2020 debate when she called Trump a “Russian puppet,” leaving Trump visibility frustrated. “She should not be baited, she should bait him,” Clinton told the Times.
Harris has been thinking about how she’d handle Trump on the debate stage since 2018. When an adviser asked her how she would react if Trump stood behind her as she answered questions on stage (as he did to Clinton in 2016), Harris replied that she would “turn around and say ‘why are you being so weird? What’s wrong with you?’” according to political reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere’s book “Battle for the Soul.” The term “weird” has since been popularized by Democrats to criticize Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.
Philippe Reines, a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, played Trump in debate simulations with Harris over the past four days at a Pittsburgh hotel, The Washington Post reported. Reines played Trump when he helped Clinton prepare for their 2016 debates. Washington lawyer Karen Dunn, who helped Harris with debate prep in her 2020 presidential campaign, and her longtime policy adviser Rohini Kosoglu, are leading the sessions alongside a team of advisers, according to The Post, including Harris’ brother-in-law Tony West and campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.
Rather than formal mock debate sessions, Trump and his advisers have been engaging in what they refer to as “policy time” to rehash his record, the Times reported, citing unnamed sources. Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a Democrat-turned-independent who recently endorsed Trump, is part of the team helping Trump prepare. Gabbard needled Harris during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary debates when they were both running for the nomination. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has been assigned to throw tough questions at Trump on touchy subjects, such as his criminal record and his character, according to The Times. Gaetz told the outlet in a text message Trump “doesn’t do debate prep” but instead “regularly assembles advisors to talk about how he will secure the border lower prices and stop the global chaos caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden,” describing the meetings as “just another day at Mar-a-Lago!”
Harris, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average that shows her up by 2.8 points, RealClearPolitics’ average that shows her leading by 1.3 points, and Nate Silver’s that shows her up 48.7% to Trump’s 46.2%.
9 p.m. EDT. All major networks will carry the debate live on both local and national TV stations and their websites.
The 90-minute debate will take place without a studio audience at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Each candidate will be given two minutes to answer each question with a two-minute rebuttal plus an additional minute for a follow-up, clarification or response. Trump will deliver the final closing statement. Candidates’ microphones will be muted when they’re not speaking—a point of contention after Harris’ campaign pushed for unmuted mics.
ABC News anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis.
The debate comes just over two months after Biden’s historically consequential debate with Trump on June 27 that effectively ended his presidential campaign. Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 amid an intraparty pressure campaign, and Harris announced her candidacy hours later. Biden promptly endorsed her, and she officially locked up the nomination during the first week of August when 99% of Democratic delegates voted in her favor. Harris has erased Trump’s lead over Biden nationally since entering the contest, but the race remains razor-thin in most polls of the six crucial battleground states that will decide the election. Tuesday’s debate will mark the first time Trump and Harris meet in person and is the only debate on the schedule before Election Day on Nov. 5.
What To Know About Next Week’s Harris-Trump Debate—Including The Muted Mic Rule (Forbes)
Trump Vs. Harris 2024 Polls: Trump Takes 1-Point Lead In First Major Survey In Weeks (Forbes)