Fight of the year: What you need to know about Trump-Harris debate
The US is preparing for a debate (photo: Getty Images)
On September 10, the US will hold a debate between presidential candidates.
RBC-Ukraine explains how it will go and how Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are preparing.
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The US presidential candidates will hold a debate on September 10. This event is always important in the US election. This year, they may determine the fate of the presidency.
The first debate of this year, held on June 27, led to the withdrawal of Joe Biden from the election. The incumbent showed himself to be extremely sluggish, and subsequently, under pressure from the Democratic Party establishment, he refused to run in favor of his vice president, Kamala Harris.
According to polls, the ratings of both candidates in key states have equaled or even surpassed Trump's. At the same time, the new Democratic candidate has been actively participating in rallies since her nomination but has not yet engaged in live debates. Harris has also given only one interview to the American press. So the debate will be a real challenge for her, and perhaps the last opportunity for Trump to turn the tide in his favor.
Debate rules
The debate will take place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The rules will be the same as those used during the debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in June this year.
Trump and Harris will stand behind the podiums for the entire 90-minute debate. Each candidate will be given a pen, a notebook, and a bottle of water. No props or pre-written notes will be allowed.
Members of election teams will not be able to interact with the candidates during the entire event, including advertising breaks.
There will be no questions from the audience. There will also be no opening remarks.
Instead, only moderators will ask questions to the candidates. The time for answering each question will also be limited to two minutes. Another two minutes will be for refutation and another for clarification or explanation.
The day before, Harris called on Trump to hold the debate with microphones on during the entire debate, but this idea was rejected. The microphones played a cruel joke on Trump during the 2020 presidential debate when the politician did not restrain himself and constantly interrupted Joe Biden. Such aggressiveness gave Trump's opponents additional reasons to criticize him.
How Donald Trump is preparing for debate
Representatives of Trump's team say that the main way for the former president to prepare for the debates is to meet with voters and answer questions from the press. At the same time, Trump's team is paying a lot of attention to the debates in the context of countering Kamala Harris.
In recent weeks, Trump's campaign team has realized that no action taken in the run-up to the debate is likely to affect Harris's ratings. And since they don't believe that the Republican's message will be delivered to the audience, Trump's advisors can only hope that their candidate will be able to inspire voters with his performance in contrast to Harris.
Trump's team has turned to former Democratic Party member from Hawaii, Tulsi Gabbard, who defeated Harris in a debate in 2019 during the party's internal primaries.
At the 2019 debate, Gabbard threw her opponent off balance by appealing to her previous work as a district attorney in San Francisco. Back then, according to Gabbard, Harris jailed more than 1,500 people for marijuana-related offenses and then laughed about it when asked if she had ever smoked marijuana.
Trump's advisers also praised the mute button, saying it deprives Harris of the opportunity to comment on the facts Trump is saying in real-time. Trump is regularly caught manipulating facts or even lying. Also, the mute microphones will deprive Harris of the opportunity to make jokes about Trump, a technique she used during the 2019 and 2020 debates.
How Kamala Harris preparing for debate
The Harris team recognizes that their opponent is a strong contender. Importantly, they have never met directly before.
Kamala Harris has been preparing for the debate in one way or another over the past few months. Her entourage notes that during the stops between rallies, the candidate read a large number of books and information materials. The final stage of preparation for the debate began on Thursday, September 5. When Harris paused her campaign travels and locked herself and her team up until the debate in Pennsylvania, the state where the debate will take place.
Harris's preparation for the debate also includes numerous rehearsals. They almost completely recreate the 90-minute real debate, in which the role of Trump is played by Philippe Reines, a longtime Hillary Clinton aide.
According to two people familiar with the process, at times the rehearsals deviate from the script when the candidate focuses too much on small details, effectively disrupting the debate. The Allbritton Journalism Institute, which has spoken to Harris' team, said the main goal of the training is to prepare her for confrontation and make her ready to fend off what they expect to be personal attacks from Trump.
“Temperament. Temperament. Temperament.” says one member of Harris's team, describing training designed to help her stay calm and look presidential.
Harris's advantage, her team believes, is that she is better versed in the economy, access to abortion, leadership in a democracy, and issues of gun violence.
No matter what rational techniques the candidates prepare in advance, spontaneous emotions will decide a lot. And they will be there because the teams of both candidates have a lot at stake.
Earlier, RBC-Ukraine told what Harris and Trump offer voters to solve the problems of illegal migration and the economy.
Sources: Fox News, CNN, Axios, the New York Times, and Allbritton Journalism Institute.
