Debates are part performance and part policy. Tuesday’s debate will be no exception.
In October 2020, a day before Sen. Kamala Harris was set to meet Vice President Mike Pence for the only vice presidential debate, she and her team met in the ballroom of a hotel in Salt Lake City for the last time. Standing on a nearly identical version of the stage where she and her opponent would face off the following night, Harris did a final run-through of the coming debate, then huddled her with her prep team.
The vice president will be standing on a stage next to a former president she has never met.
The following evening, Harris delivered a strong performance, deftly handling Pence’s attempts to throw her off her mark. She proactively reminded the American people about the stakes of the election and the histories of her opponent and his running mate. She was personable, yet powerful. When Pence attempted to interrupt her, she effortlessly delivered a line everyone remembers: “Excuse me, Mr. Vice President, I am speaking now.” Backstage, her senior advisers were ecstatic. I should know — I was one of them.
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Nearly four years later, Vice President Harris has now set up shop in a hotel in Pittsburgh for final preparations for Tuesday’s debate against former President Donald Trump.
It is a fact that Trump has stood on more presidential debate stages than the vice president, but to suggest she is inexperienced on the debate stage is untrue. She participated in at least a dozen debates during the primary in the race for district attorney in San Francisco. Three during the race for attorney general in California. Three more during the 2016 U.S. Senate race. In 2019, she participated in five debates during the Democratic primaries.
Tuesday night, however, will be different in many ways.
First, the vice president will be standing on a stage next to a former president she has never met. After inciting the violent mob that attempted to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, then-President Trump declined to attend the inauguration. Still, Vice President Harris says she knows his type.
On the campaign, she has regularly drawn contrasts with the former president through her time as a prosecutor who took on “fraudsters who ripped off consumers, predators who abused women and cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” and she details how Trump fits her aforementioned descriptions. Tuesday presents another opportunity to do just that with a huge audience. Weaving in her personal narrative while contrasting with her opponent is an approach the vice president has leaned into since the switch at the top of the Democratic ticket. In an interview with Univision just last week, Harris leaned into her “middle class” upbringing versus Trump’s “rich daddy.”
Trump, too, will have a decision to make — will he repeat the vile and derogatory comments he has made online? It is one thing for him to post inflammatory rhetoric on his social media site about the most powerful woman in the country. It is another thing for him to stand on a stage next to her and say the same things just as forcefully. How will he react when Harris dismisses his comments to his face, as she has done in the past when asked about them?
Trump, too, will have a decision to make — will he repeat the vile and derogatory comments he has made online?
Second, unlike in the crowded early days of the 2020 Democratic primaries, Harris will not be one of 12 candidates on a stage looking to play to the audience in the room. Rather, the stage is set for two; while one candidate is speaking, the other’s microphone will be muted, and an audience will notably not be physically present.
In many of her past debates, Harris — like many candidates — has fed off the energy of the crowd. With the absence of a crowd, perhaps the vice president will pull from her experience in Senate hearings or courtrooms. Notably, she has thrived in both venues.
With the addition of the muted microphones, the onus will be on the vice president to decide whether or not to illuminate her opponent’s comments from the stage if he tries to interrupt her. She will also need to find moments, much like during the 2020 primary debates and again during her debate with Pence, when she rose above the discourse in the room and spoke to the voters watching at home.
The opportunity in this debate belongs to Harris, as there are voters who say they still do not know much about her or her policies. Donald Trump has a record of playing fast and loose with the truth both on and off the debate stage. Harris will have to make in-the-moment decisions about when she responds to Trump’s bluster — with words or her facial expressions — and when to ignore him and talk about her plans. She can still grow her support, while Trump has a ceiling. Yes, voters feel like they know who Trump is, and they rejected him and his policies in 2020. Harris has the opportunity to remind the American people of that by contrasting her joyful and positive vision for the future with Trump’s dark view of retribution.
As Vice President Harris has huddled with her debate prep team in Pittsburgh, I have no doubt she has stood on a stage nearly identical to the one she will meet Trump on and is well prepared to meet the moment.
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