Sign up for Inside Washington’s daily email to get exclusive U.S. reporting and analysis delivered straight to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
Get our free Inside Washington email
IThis is what it all comes down to. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will face off tonight in Philadelphia in their only scheduled debate so far.
Harris will follow the rules that were in place when President Joe Biden was the nominee. That means microphones will be turned off when it’s the other candidate’s turn to speak. There will be no live audience, and there will be no pre-written notes or seating.
Even if she must abide by the rules set by Biden, Harris must, to put it in one sentence, be freed from the burden of the past. Susan Estrich, who ran Michael Dukakis’ campaign in 1988, said: The Independent“There can’t just be Biden 2.0 – there has to be Harris 1.0.”
So what does Harris 1.0 look like? She had just one major one-on-one debate on the national stage in 2020, when she faced off against the stalwart Mike Pence. Otherwise, she mostly competed in the television game show that made up the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, though she famously gave Biden a good beating on the busing issue.
Frankly, Trump has a point to prove, too. In 2016, he endured the rigors of the Republican debates, but he largely avoided direct attacks as his opponents attacked each other. This year, he skipped all of the Republican primary debates, and thanks to the president’s meltdown, very few people remember his performance against Biden (aside from the infamous “black jobs” joke).
The Independent Several senators spoke, have I was in the ring with Harris and Trump and talked about what the experience was like and what their respective strengths and weaknesses were.
At one point, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Harris clashed onstage over whether Trump should be banned from using Twitter as Warren’s campaign gained momentum and Harris’s campaign lost ground.
“Donald Trump should be concerned about meeting a strong woman who will not be intimidated,” Warren said The Independent in August. “She’s smart. She’s always well prepared. And she just doesn’t put up with any nonsense.”
Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado also debated Harris during what he called his “low-profile presidential campaign,” but he is also friends with Harris, and they worked out one of their key policy goals: expanding the child tax credit.
When asked about Harris’s likely performance, he had only one sentence ready: “I think she will destroy Trump on the debate stage.”
Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Harris were two of the first senators to call on Al Franken to resign after he faced numerous allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct. Gillibrand was also part of those 2020 Democratic primary debates.
“I think she will be able to cross-examine Trump very effectively, especially when he says things that are not true,” Gillibrand said. The Independent“And I think she will be able to communicate a vision very clearly.”
The final stages of the 2016 primary turned into a showdown between Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Trump, with former Ohio Governor John Kasich serving as a fifth wheel. Cruz famously defeated Trump in the Iowa caucuses, after which Trump accused him of dishonesty and nicknamed him “Lyin’ Ted.”
Cruz, for his part, has an Ivy League debating pedigree, having participated in the debating competition scene as an undergraduate at Princeton. The Independenthe showed his special debating art that he had refined there: the Gish Gallop.
“You see, they are both successful debaters,” he said The Independent“Kamala’s weakness is her abominable record. This is a very different election.” Cruz – who is running for Senate in a closer-than-expected race – then delivered a monologue about Harris’ record on the U.S.-Mexico border and Trump’s own record as president.
“I thought the last debate against Joe Biden was by far the most effective debate Trump has had, and I think that bodes well for the next debate,” he concluded.
Of course, Trump didn’t just steamroll Cruz. He did the same to Cruz’s Florida counterpart, Senator Marco Rubio. Telegenic and charismatic, Rubio was once considered the “savior” of the Republican Party. Trump, however, constantly denigrated him, famously calling him “Little Marco.”
Rubio tried to respond by calling him “Big Don” and making fun of the size of Trump’s hands. This was perhaps an example of mud wrestling with a pig: Rubio got dirty and Trump liked it.
“We were on stage with 12 other people and eight other people, but he is a very good debater because he is a very good communicator,” Rubio said The Independent, when asked about the secret of Trump’s effectiveness: “He knows how to manipulate the television audience and get his message across. He is unorthodox. You can’t debate against him.”
Of course, there will be no in-person audience for Tuesday night’s debate, making it harder for Trump to sway the crowd the way he did in the Republican primary debates. And Harris has never debated as a front-runner, let alone against someone like Trump. Chances are, as a woman, she would face sexist reactions if she tried to say, “Will you shut up, man?” like Biden did in 2020.
Trump, for his part, won’t be able to dismiss Harris the way he did Cruz or Rubio. And he can forget about calling her “lacking energy” like Jeb Bush. Nor will he get away with calling Harris ugly, like he did to Carly Fiorina (before backing off his comments when confronted and calling her “beautiful” afterward).
That behavior just won’t get away with this time. And we’re not talking about what happened to Pence.
