Beat Trump at the debate

This year has already shown that debates can have an incredible impact.

Now we have another opportunity to see its significance. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris will have her first – and possibly only – opportunity to stand on a stage and debate Donald Trump.

Because Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021 were intended to prevent the peaceful transition of power, Harris and Trump never met. This adds some drama to the early moments of the debate and raises the question of whether they will shake hands. (In my opinion, they should try.)

Right now, Harris and her team are in Pittsburgh preparing for the debate. I bet they are thinking about three things:

• How she should respond to an attack by Trump. Trump loves to go on the offensive, and it’s more than likely that he’ll launch attacks that lack facts, are racist or sexist, and possibly all three at once. She and her team have developed a clever strategy to belittle Trump and ignore his most childish attacks. The challenge for her is that this debate is also about introducing herself to viewers who are still undecided. There’s a delicate balance between counterattacking and getting a message across about herself and her own approach.

• How she can expand her coalition. Harris has made tremendous progress in bringing voters back into the Democratic fold, especially key constituencies such as young people and black and Latino voters. But she needs to win more from these groups to achieve the values ​​on which Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden were in their elections at that time. To do this, she must link her answers in the debates with her forward-looking vision for the country, present herself as a candidate for change and Trump as a tired old dog with no new ideas.
• How she can create a contrast to Trump. Every election is a choice. There are few moments when that choice is more apparent than when the two candidates stand side by side on the debate stage. Harris and Walz have tried to frame the decision as if Trump is fighting for himself while they fight for working people. That contrast needs to be expressed loud and clear in this debate.

A story you should follow: Liz Cheney votes for Harris

Life comes at you quickly. Twenty years ago, Vice President Dick Cheney ran for re-election as a Republican. On Wednesday, his daughter, the former congressman, Liz Cheneyannounced that she would vote for the Democratic Vice President.

Given the years she has openly criticized Trump for his role in the attack on the Capitol, this was not necessarily shocking.

But this sentence is still significant. Only four years ago, the younger Cheney called Harris a “radical liberal” in an interview with Fox News.

And unlike other Republicans in the Never Trump campaign who have evaded and simply said they would not vote for Trump, she gave Harris her full support. In a speech at Duke University, she urged students to vote against Trump and stressed that they should avoid third-party candidates.

“I don’t think we have the luxury of putting candidates’ names on the ballot, especially in swing states. … As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I’ve thought about this carefully, and because of the danger posed by Donald Trump, not only will I not vote for Donald Trump, I’m voting for Kamala Harris,” she said.

Certainly, supporting Cheney will not attract MAGA supporters to the Harris-Walz team. But it could give independents and even democracy-loving conservatives permission not only not to vote for Trump, but to vote for Harris.

Someone you should know: Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco

While much of the spotlight falls on the Attorney General Merrick GarlandAnother key player in protecting our elections from foreign interference is the Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

This week, Monaco took a leading role as the Justice Department stepped up its efforts to combat foreign election interference.

Speaking at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting, Monaco highlighted the US Department of Justice’s efforts to help technology companies combat disinformation on their platforms. He said: “We will provide companies with actionable intelligence to help them make decisions about the misuse of their platforms by adversaries conducting malicious foreign influence operations, including targeted interference in our elections.”

Monaco has extensive experience in the field of national security. From 2013 to 2017, she served as advisor on internal security and counterterrorism to President Barack ObamaIn this role, she coordinated responses to a range of threats, from cyberattacks to terrorism, and was a leading voice on cybersecurity policy. She also led the development of the 2016 National Cybersecurity Action Plan, which laid the foundation for a long-term strategy to protect U.S. cybersecurity interests.