Your trusted source for contextualizing Election 2024 news. Sign up for our daily newsletter .
When Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump face off Tuesday in their first and so far only scheduled presidential debate, watch for interruptions, raised hands and a flood of information — some of it wrong.
Over the 90-minute debate, Harris is expected to lean into her background as California’s top prosecutor to highlight legal cases against Trump related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol; his 34 felony convictions related to a scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election; and credible allegations of sexual misconduct against him . Trump will likely continue attacking Harris for her work on immigration and try to tie her to President Joe Biden’s economic policies that Republicans argue aren’t working.
Here’s what to know when Harris and Trump take the stage at 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. There will not be a studio audience. Harris and Trump are not allowed to bring notes or other materials, but they will each be given a pen, paper and bottle of water. The debate will air live on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu. ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir, who moderated debates in the last two presidential races, and Linsey Davis, who anchors “World News Tonight” Sunday and moderated Democratic debates in the last cycle, will be the moderators.
Talk to the hand
Presidential debates are as much about style as substance, and both Harris and Trump will bring their own approach.
During trials, prosecutors build a narrative that culminates with their closing argument, and Harris is an adept storyteller who can weave in her personal experiences to drive home key points — including on thorny issues like race and gender.
In June 2019, when Harris participated in the first Democratic primary debate of the 2020 cycle, she took on the man who would eventually choose her as his running mate: Biden. The first question was about the racial justice demonstrations that summer and police brutality. It was not yet her turn to answer but Harris interjected and went on the offensive: “On the issue of race, I couldn’t agree more that this is an issue that is still not being talked about truthfully and honestly,” she began. She addressed Biden, saying she didn’t believe he was racist. “It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and careers on segregation by race in this country, and it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me.” It was the most memorable exchange from the Democratic primary debates.
Recently, on the campaign trail, Harris used a favored tactic to quell interruptions from attendees protesting the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. “You know what?” Harris said. “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise I’m speaking.” As she spoke, she held up a hand, palm out, punctuating her words with gestures. She deployed the same gesture during her vice presidential debate in 2020 with Mike Pence. “Mr. Vice President? I’m speaking,” she said, holding her palm up in his direction. Harris could use the same gesture if Trump interrupts her on Tuesday night.
Interruptions, meanwhile, are central to Trump’s debate style. In one 2020 presidential debate, as Trump spoke over him, Biden interjected: “Will you shut up, man?” Many analysts have noted that the former president, knowingly or not, uses a debate method known as the Gish Gallop, named for Duane Gish, a creationist philosopher. Steve Bannon, who has advised Trump, has his own name for the disorientation strategy : “Flood the zone with shit.” Debaters who employ the Gish Gallop rapidly and confidently deliver overlapping and competing arguments that often contain falsehoods and non sequiturs. The idea is that their opponent — and often the debate moderators — will not have enough time to fact-check their answer or even respond to all of the points. Trump does this in non-debate contexts as well. When NPR reporters and editors fact-checked an hour-long Trump news conference last month, they identified 162 lies and distortions .
Trump’s rhetorical style is one reason Harris’ campaign wrangled with ABC for weeks over whether microphones would be muted when the candidates were not answering a question as they were during the debate between Biden and Trump before the president exited the 2024 race. A refrain from Harris on the campaign trail has become “say it to my face” — and her campaign argued that the microphones should be unmuted so the American people could hear Trump’s side remarks or interruptions. “Voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage,” Harris said recently.
Location, location, location
The debate will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, one of two major urban centers in a state that both Harris and Trump see as a must win. Pennsylvania has 19 votes in the Electoral College — more than any other battleground state. In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania and beat Democrat Hillary Clinton overall. In 2020, Biden won the state and beat Trump overall. A recent analysis of ad spending done by the Financial Times showed that both campaigns have spent more to run ads in Pennsylvania than in any other state. Women in Philadelphia’s suburbs could play a potentially determinative role in not only who wins Pennsylvania but the election overall.
Potentially gendered optics
The debate will not only be the first time Harris and Trump share a stage but also the first time they meet in person — Trump skipped the inauguration in January 2021 after refusing to acknowledge his loss to Biden.
It will also be the first time that Trump has squared off one-on-one against a woman since his three presidential debates in 2016 against Clinton. In one of the three, which came just days after audio resurfaced in which Trump bragged about groping women, Trump followed Clinton around the stage, often looming behind her as she answered questions. Clinton later wrote in a memoir that it made her “skin crawl.” “Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren’t repeatedly invading your space?” Clinton wrote , or do you say: “Back up you creep, get away from me, I know you love to intimidate women but you can’t intimidate me so back up.”
Republican strategists and elected officials have urged Trump and running mate JD Vance to stay focused on policy and not attack Harris based on her gender or race — but it is unclear if the former president will do so as he confronts Harris for the first time, given his predilection for personally attacking opponents. Trump has already questioned Harris’ racial identity as a woman of Black and South Asian descent.
The issues
Biden’s weak debate performance in June overshadowed the reality that viewers came away with little increased understanding of how either candidate would approach implementing key policies related to reproductive health, immigration, caregiving and the economy.
When CNN moderator Dana Bash asked Trump if he still took credit for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and return abortion regulation to the states, the former president had a one-word answer: “Correct.” Bash then moved on to medication abortion, asking: “As president, would you block abortion medication?” Trump said the Supreme Court had “just approved the abortion pill” — in reality the court rejected a challenge to its 2000 approval , saying the doctors suing did not have standing. “I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it,” Trump said. He did not address other possible ways anti-abortion activists seek to block it, including using the Comstock Act, an obscenity statute from 1873. He then repeated misinformation related to Democrats supporting abortions “after birth.”
Harris is seen as a more effective communicator on reproductive rights than Biden, and given her campaign’s focus on the issue, she would likely relish an opportunity to delve into her proposals to protect abortion access.
In the June debate, when Biden and Trump were asked about child care, Biden offered an on-topic response, while Trump twice took the chance to talk about other issues. When CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Trump what he would do to make child care more affordable, he said: “Just you understand, we have polling. We have other things that do — they rate him the worst because what he’s done is so bad. And they rate me yes, I’ll show you. I will show you. And they rate me one of the best. OK? And if I’m given another four years, I will be the best.”
Trump will likely try to spend as much time on two issues on which his advisers think he may have the upper hand on Harris: immigration and the economy. Harris, meanwhile, will likely try to focus on Trump’s legal problems as well as issues on which her team sees her as having an edge, like caregiving and abortion rights.
To check your voter registration status or to get more information about registering to vote, text 19thnews to 26797.
Local News
Comments / 0