The stage is set (again)
Harris, Trump to debate Tuesday
For several years, the consensus in politics has been that debates don’t matter.
Well, that debate in June between Donald Trump and Joe Biden (remember that?) mattered so much that we now have a completely different race. And the candidates are just hours away from meeting each other for the first time.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will square off in Tuesday’s first and likely only presidential debate of this “new” campaign. It will likely be the only big opportunity for either candidate to generate some movement in what remains a tied race.
It’s safe to say that Donald Trump is no stranger to presidential debate stages: Tuesday night will be his seventh time appearing on one. But unlike his two previous opponents, he now faces a candidate who remains largely untested on a national scale. Many viewers will be seeing Vice President Harris on a national stage for the first time.
Each candidate has a clear pathway to a successful debate. The only question is: will they go down that pathway or take a detour to disaster?
The former president has not been taking the tightening race well and has faced a series of distractions in recent weeks, from a dust-up with the staff at Arlington National Cemetery to a continuing stream of controversial comments from his running mate, J.D. Vance. Not to mention his repeated claims of fraud in both the previous election and the forthcoming one.
If Trump can stay on message without veering into personal attacks on his political rivals, he might not have a bad night. That is, if he doesn’t allow the Vice President to provoke him into veering off script.
The Harris campaign is already previewing a strategy to do just that. They began airing a new ad Tuesday morning featuring former President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention, where he poked fun at Trump’s obsession with crowd sizes.
But it will be Harris who will need to introduce herself and her policies to voters who want to know more about what she stands for. She has done few interviews or press conferences since becoming the nominee, so Tuesday’s 90-minute debate could be her last big chance to introduce herself to the American public before election day.
The debate will air live at 9 p.m. on ABC.