Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper says Harris is “her own person” and has already shown she wants a path forward while laying out some of her positions on the campaign trail. “For me, it’s a pretty clear decision,” Cooper told CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns before Tuesday’s debate:

Harris arrived at the debate site at the National Constitution Center at 8:17 p.m., with reporters accompanying her reporting that onlookers waved at her motorcade as it passed.

On the way, a digital display board on the highway read: “VOTE TRUMP.”

Harris has been in Philadelphia since Monday. She has been in Pittsburgh since last week, preparing for tonight.

President Biden and Trump faced each other in the first presidential debate of the cycle on June 27th and the race has been turned completely on its head in the 75 days since.

On July 13 Assassination about the former president sent shockwaves through the nation. Trump announced his vice president, Senator J.D. Vanceat the Republican National Convention two days later.

On July 21, Biden announced that he would leave the race under heavy pressure from members of his own party after his performance in the debate a few weeks earlier. With the President’s support, the party then united around Harris as the new candidate.

On August 6, Harris elected her vice presidentGovernor of Minnesota Tim Walz. The party mobilized the candidates at the Democratic National Convention, which ended on August 22nd.

When Harris and Trump take the stage on Tuesday, the state of the race will be unrecognizable from earlier this summer.

Before the debate on Tuesday evening, the race between Trump and Harris is close in the most important swing states, according to the latest CBS News/YouGov poll carried out last week.

The poll puts Harris at 50% in Michigan and Trump at 49%. In Pennsylvania, the two were tied at 50%, and in Wisconsin, Harris had a one-percent lead, 51% to 49%.

According to the same poll, Harris generates slightly more enthusiasm among Democratic voters in these key swing states than Trump does among Republican voters.

The presidential debate begins at 9:00 p.m. ET and lasts 90 minutes, with two commercial breaks.

There will be no opening statement – questioning by moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC will begin immediately. Both candidates will have two minutes for closing arguments at the end of the debate.

The debate will be moderated by ABC News, which allows other networks to simulcast it. CBS News prime-time coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET – Check your local listings.

Viewers can also stream the debate on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu, as well as on CBS News 24/7 in the player above, the CBS News app and on Paramount+. Post-debate analysis will continue on CBS News 24/7 until 11:35 p.m. ET.

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The former president has been going over policy positions with his advisers ahead of the debate, sources familiar with the former president’s preparations told CBS News, but his preparations are considered to be more informal and include speaking to voters and reaching out to the media.

In a phone call with reporters on Monday, Trump adviser Jason Miller said preparing for a debate with Trump was like “trying to prepare for Floyd Mayweather or Muhammad Ali.”

“You don’t know what angle they’re going to come at you from. You don’t know what kind of contrast they’re going to provide. There’s an amazing mix of humor and charm, as well as very hard facts about why we’re doing this: because Americans are suffering,” Miller said.

“In this debate, President Trump will associate Kamala Harris with her record, her record on the border, her record on global instability and her record of being the deciding vote on high prices,” Miller added. “And if President Trump associates Kamala Harris with her record, which we are very confident he will, that will be a success because the American people will see what a dangerous radical liberal she is.”

Trump told “Good Morning New Hampshire” last week that he had been “preparing for this debate my whole life.”

“You know, I do. I have meetings about it,” Trump added. “We talk about it, but there’s not much you can do.”

The vice president was in Pittsburgh over the weekend to prepare for the debate before arriving in Philadelphia on Monday. She practiced with extended mock debates on a stage with lights to recreate the debate atmosphere, focusing on policy issues and trying to draw a contrast with the former president. In preparation for the debate, Philippe Reines, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton, impersonated Trump, with one source saying he even dressed like the former president.

After Harris’ campaign unsuccessfully tried to unmute both candidates’ microphones during the debate, the vice president and her team also used their time in Pittsburgh to rethink their debate strategy, a senior campaign official said. Harris had planned to bombard Trump with questions, but her campaign had to find a new approach due to microphone restrictions.

Harris surrogates appear to be downplaying debate expectations, such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told CNN that “it’s going to take almost superhuman focus and discipline to deal with Donald Trump in a debate.” Buttigieg was involved in Harris’ debate preparations against former Vice President Mike Pence in 2020.

“This is not an ordinary proposal,” Buttigieg said. “Not because Donald Trump is a master at explaining political ideas and how they make people better off. But because he is a master at turning any form or format that is on television into a show that is all about himself.”

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