Debate Showdown: Tactics and Readiness of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris has been holed up in a Pittsburgh hotel for five days, conducting highly choreographed debate practice sessions ahead of Tuesday night’s showdown. There’s a stage, a replica of the TV lighting, and an adviser fully following Lee Strasberg’s method acting, who doesn’t just play Donald Trump, he plays him. inhabitswith a square suit and a long tie.

The former president’s preparations are more improvisational. They’re not called “debate prep” but “policy hour,” meant to refresh his memory of what he’s said. No one plays Harris; sometimes his aides sit across a long table from him and trade questions with him, and other times he pulls up a chair next to them. Trump has so far held only a handful of sessions, cutting one short at his Las Vegas hotel so he and his advisers could go up to his suite to watch Harris’ convention speech.

While the two sides’ preparations for the big night in Philadelphia couldn’t be more different, both sides view the debate in much the same way, according to interviews with nearly two dozen people close to the candidates, many of whom insisted on anonymity to discuss preparations. The Harris and Trump teams see it as a crucial moment to define Harris for millions of undecided voters who know what they think of Trump but are still curious about her.

Bringing out Trump’s more self-destructive instincts is a priority for Harris, as is displaying a cool head and presidential attitude.

Hillary Clinton, the last woman to debate Trump, said in an interview Thursday: “When I told him he was a Russian puppet, he just stammered on stage. I think that’s an example of how to bring up a fact about him that really baffles him.”

In Trump’s debate prep sessions, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida has taken on the role of asking him tough questions, including on uncomfortable topics like his criminal convictions, according to a person with knowledge of the meetings. Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman who memorably attacked Harris in a 2019 presidential primary debate, has also been helping Trump prepare.

Trump’s advisers are keenly aware of the risk that he could appear too aggressive, as he did in his disastrous first debate with Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, when Trump, sick with Covid, sweated profusely and incessantly interrupted his rival.

Trump’s advisers are concerned that he will be unable to avoid displaying his deep contempt for Harris or appearing to lecture a female opponent.

While he respected Clinton for being “smart” and hard-working, Trump clearly believes Harris is not smart, advisers and allies say. In private, he uses misogynistic language to describe her and gossips about her past romantic relationships, including with Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco.

The former president’s allies and advisers have urged him to be a “happy Trump” in the debate — rather than a “rough, tough Trump,” as one close ally put it — and to make a political case against Harris. This approach also carries risks: One ally warned that if Trump tried to remain on his best behavior, he could restrain himself too much and appear “low energy.”

Trump’s team also expects him to face tough questions about abortion, an issue on which he has been vague in recent weeks, appearing unsure of where to stand.

Trump’s team has a clear goal for the debate: to force Harris to embrace her partnership with the unpopular Biden and take responsibility for the parts of his presidency that voters are most unhappy with. Trump has focused in particular on the high cost of living; chaos around the world, especially in Ukraine and the Middle East; public safety; and immigration.

“You can’t ‘turn the page’ when you bear sole responsibility for our country’s current economic and border nightmare,” said Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, when asked about the campaign’s debate strategy.

Trump’s advisers hope he can create his own version of Ronald Reagan’s famous moment in his 1980 debate against President Jimmy Carter, when Reagan asked viewers if they felt better now than they did before Carter took office.

Harris has also hinted at how she plans to go after Trump.

Unlike Biden, she has not focused directly on portraying the former president as a fundamental threat to American democracy. She has sought to downplay him as an old character repeating his same old tricks. And she has painted him as a rich guy who only cares about helping other rich guys — a populist line of attack that resonates with voters in focus groups.

Harris has also abandoned Clinton’s fruitless strategy of denouncing Trump as a racist and a misogynist. The vice president’s advisers believe it is a waste of time to tell voters how terrible Trump is, given how difficult it is to find a voter who doesn’t already have a fixed opinion of his character, good or bad. Instead, Harris is trying to connect with the small sliver of undecided voters who are bitter about the economy and worried about the future, and who want to know what each candidate will do to improve their lives.

Harris and her advisers understand that the debate will be a race to define herself and her political brand before Trump does.

And for all the talk in liberal circles about Trump bombing her campaign with his unruly behavior, Harris and those in the hotel with her are not underestimating him.

One challenge for Harris is that Trump, who faced Biden on stage in June, has more recent debate experience than the vice president. She must try to shake off the rust while anticipating what it will be like to stand just a few feet away from someone she has never met but who has attacked her policies, her political past and even her racial identity.

Harris is bracing for attacks on her race and her political and personal relationships.

Harris’ sessions, at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, have been led by Karen Dunn, a Democratic lawyer who also helped Clinton prepare for the debates. Dunn’s co-pilot is Rohini Kosoglu, a former domestic policy adviser to Harris and chief of staff in the Senate.

A few other people Harris feels comfortable with and can trust to offer tough commentary have joined the sessions, people briefed on the process said.

Among them is Sean Clegg, a political consultant who was a top strategist on Harris’s 2020 campaign. Clegg’s talent, people who work with him say, is that he knows Harris well enough to encourage her to speak in a way that’s accessible; if he hears something that sounds too dense, he’ll let her know. Philippe Reines, a longtime Clinton adviser, reprises his role as Trump from 2016.

Trump’s team held a three-hour debate prep session Tuesday at his private club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Additional sessions are planned for Sunday and Monday.

When questioned, Gaetz, the Florida congressman involved in the preparations, stuck to the party line.

“President Trump doesn’t prepare debates,” he wrote on Friday. “He regularly gathers advisors to discuss how he will secure the border, lower prices, and stop the global chaos caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. Just another day at Mar-a-Lago!”

In fact, Trump has put more work into preparing for the 2024 debates than he did in 2016 and 2020.

He has been briefed on Harris’s performances in previous debates and her verbal tics. He well remembers the vice president’s viral moment in 2020 when she debated Vice President Mike Pence and cut off his attempted interruption by saying, “I’m talking.”

Referring to that exchange, Trump has privately told associates: “I’m not going to let him do to me what he did to Mike.” He had no problem letting his advisers negotiate muting microphones when the candidates were not speaking. (Harris’s team had been pushing for microphones not to be muted, hoping that Trump would talk unbearably over her and give her the opportunity for a scathing retort.) The two candidates will debate without an audience, behind lecterns.

Privately, Trump has repeatedly toyed with the idea of ​​walking out of the debate, which is being hosted by ABC News, one of his least favorite networks. (No other debates have been scheduled for now.) He has railed against what he sees as injustice toward him and has proposed debates on other networks. He has a particular hatred for ABC’s star host, George Stephanopoulos, to whom he has given a demeaning nickname.

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Trump filed a defamation suit against Stephanopoulos this year over an interview related to one of the former president’s court cases, and in discussions about the debate, Trump’s advisers told ABC that he would not consent to a debate moderated by Stephanopoulos. Trump has also complained about another ABC News reporter, Rachel Scott, who asked him pointed questions at a recent conference of black journalists, during which the former president questioned Harris’s racial identity. (The debate hosts ended up being ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis.)

Ultimately, Trump concluded that the cons of skipping the debate — especially the appearance of weakness — outweighed his concerns about attending. He has told aides that he has a good relationship with Muir and is comfortable with her selection as one of the debate hosts.

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What strategies did Kamala Harris use to dominate⁣ the ⁢debate against Donald Trump?

Vice President Kamala‌ Harris Dominates First Presidential Debate Against Donald Trump

In a highly anticipated presidential debate, Vice President ⁢Kamala Harris emerged victorious against former President Donald Trump, according to various news outlets and⁤ pundits. The debate, held on Tuesday night, marked a crucial⁣ moment in the presidential election, with both sides viewing it as ⁣an ​opportunity to define Harris for millions of undecided voters.

Harris’s Debate Prep: A Highly Choreographed Affair

According to sources, ⁣Harris ⁣spent five days holed up in a Pittsburgh hotel, conducting highly choreographed debate practice sessions. Her team’s preparations were meticulous, with a replica ‌of the TV lighting ⁢and an adviser who fully⁣ immersed himself ⁣in the role of Trump, complete with a​ square ⁤suit ⁣and​ a​ long tie.

Trump’s Preparations: More Improvisational

In contrast, Trump’s preparations were more improvisational, with his team referring to them as “policy⁢ hour” rather than ‍”debate prep.” Trump held only a handful⁢ of sessions, cutting one short to ⁢watch Harris’s convention speech.

The Debate: A Clash ‍of Styles and Approaches

The debate saw Harris and Trump employing different strategies. Harris aimed to bring out Trump’s ‌more self-destructive instincts and display a cool head and presidential‍ attitude. Trump, ​on the other hand, sought to avoid appearing too aggressive and lecturing, while making a political case​ against Harris.

Trump’s advisers were concerned that he would be unable to⁤ avoid displaying his deep contempt for Harris or appearing to lecture a female opponent [Source[Source[Source[Source[Source[Source[Source[Source].

Harris’s Approach: Focus on Trump’s Weaknesses

Harris ⁢took a different approach, downplaying Trump as an old character repeating his same old tricks and painting him⁣ as a rich guy who only cares about helping other rich guys. This populist line of attack resonated with voters in focus groups.

Post-Debate Analysis: Harris Emerges Victorious

Following the debate, pundits and ⁢analysts declared Harris ⁤the winner. “Trump couldn’t resist Harris’s personal digs at the debate, which threw him off⁣ message,” wrote Anthony Zurcher of ‌the BBC [1[1[1[1[1[1[1[1].

French news outlet Liberation reported that Harris “dominated” Trump in the⁢ debate, with the headline “Kamala Harris écrase Donald Trump dans un débat à sens unique” [2[2[2[2[2[2[2[2].

CNN’s⁢ analysis of the debate also noted that Harris baited Trump for nearly the ​entire debate, throwing him​ off message [3[3[3[3[3[3[3[3].

the first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald​ Trump saw Harris emerge victorious, with her‌ team’s meticulous‌ preparations and focus ⁢on Trump’s weaknesses paying off. Trump’s more improvisational approach and struggle to avoid appearing aggressive and condescending​ likely contributed to‍ his defeat.

– What are the key topics expected to be discussed in the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump presidential debate?

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Prepare for Crucial Presidential Debate

In a highly anticipated event, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are gearing up for a crucial presidential debate that could sway the opinions of undecided voters. With both candidates employing different strategies