Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are preparing to meet for the first time under circumstances neither may have predicted seven weeks ago.
But the newfound rivals, paired after President Joe Biden 's surprise departure from the 2024 election , are taking different approaches to their predebate preparation and spin as Harris hopes not to puncture her momentum before voters start to cast ballots this month.
While Trump, who has always downplayed the importance of preparation, appeared in a Manhattan courtroom last week, Harris was hunkered down in Pittsburgh, close to Philadelphia where the ABC -hosted debate will be broadcast from next Tuesday, participating in mock debates. In fact, the vice president, a meticulous preparer who once asked White House aides to pretend to be dinner party guests so she could practice small talk, started prep in the middle of last month.
At the same time, despite underscoring the vice president's prosecutorial experience as she mounts her case against Trump, the Harris campaign has repeated that she is the underdog in the race and debate. Campaign Chairwoman Jen O'Malley Dillon, for example, described the former president as a "formidable opponent," though Harris is thought to have won her 2020 debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence and expanded her national profile through that cycle's primary debates and, before that, her questioning of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings in 2018.
"They are trying to create an environment where Vice President Harris thinks she has nothing to lose and is less likely to choke in a big moment," Ed Lee, director of Emory University's Alben W. Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation, and Dialogue, told the Washington Examiner. "Additionally, while lowering the expectations on Harris, they are trying to raise them for the former president."
Meanwhile, Trump has sought to undermine Harris, calling her as "dumb as a rock" and "deficient" as he praises his own debating for putting pressure on Biden to step down as his party's nominee.
"If you listen to him, she is nothing but a half-wit sorority girl who doesn’t even know her race," Lee said. "He has set the bar absurdly low for her. Success for Harris will be determined by the amount of distance she can put between that caricature and her debate performance. I don’t think that will be all that difficult for her."
The Trump campaign defended its candidate, adamant Harris should defend her own record, particularly the policy positions she adopted during her 2020 bid.
“We are thrilled that Kamala Harris and her team of Biden campaign leftovers (who have now been layered by Obama advisers) have finally accepted the already agreed upon rules of the debate that they wrote in the first place," Trump spokesman Jason Miller told the Washington Examiner in a statement. "Americans want to hear both candidates present their competing visions to the voters, unburdened by what has been."
The problem for critics is that the "vision" Harris has proposed has not been thoroughly challenged and the electorate does not have a complete picture of how she compares to Biden on policy.
"The fact she hasn't done a lot of tough interviews, you know, it's just she's not as defined and there's less than 60 days to the election," Aaron Kall, University of Michigan director of debate, told the Washington Examiner. "What happens in that 90 minutes, especially if this is the only debate, could really matter, especially as early voting starts and we get close to the election, this is, like, the last chance, the major event that is going to get an audience of tens of millions and could change just the way in which the race is focused."
That is why Kall contended Harris does have something to lose from the debate: her momentum.
"She's got this one opportunity to put her in the best light, that she's got the lived experience and skill set to be president, and she also needs to make them comfortable that 'I can see this person being president, being on my television for the next four years, answering a 3 a.m. phone call, and navigating a very difficult emergency or foreign policy situation,'" he said.
Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin agreed Harris's biggest "to do" for the debate is "to do no harm," while Trump's is "to not look insane," dismissing the idea that the former president could press the vice president on policy since he is "not exactly a policy aficionado."
Of his advice to Harris, Hankin told the Washington Examiner, "I would say just don't fall into any ridiculous tropes about how quote, unquote 'women are' and be, like, scoldy or something like that."
"Don't make the soft males feel talked down to," he said. "For Trump, it's don't be an a**hole to women, and I would put more money on Harris being able to do that than Trump being able to not say something incredibly sexist or racist on the stage."
But Lee argued the racial and gender dynamic could create more complications for Harris based on stereotypes and unconscious biases.
"It is why Trump’s attack on her intellect is a such threat even with her being a successful prosecutor, U.S. senator, and vice president," he said. "A performance that leaves the audience thinking about Harris as a policy wonk is so much better than one where the audience sees her as a jovial, dancing sorority girl."
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Hankin, however, recommended that Harris be her "joyful" self to reach out to any undecided voters who decide to watch, in addition to needling Trump on abortion and reproductive healthcare , the recent altercation between his campaign and staff at Arlington National Cemetery , and his legal entanglements.
"Be serious enough, but, like, have fun," he said. "If 2024 is going to 2024, you know something's gonna happen."
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