Americans love a presidential debate. And this time they have another opportunity, possibly the last one, with the much-awaited faceoff between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on Tuesday night (September 10) — a moment that could be as pivotal in this year’s election race as US President Joe Biden dropping out of it in July.
Vice-President Kamala Harris, who is Biden’s replacement, has bolstered the Democratic Party’s campaign that was, quite frankly, rudderless and lacklustre at best only a few months ago. Former president Donald Trump, who seemed to be going strong for a possible second term, is not being perceived to be as menacing as before.
But, this presidential debate – hosted by ABC News for 90 minutes – could have a far-reaching impact on deciding where the voter’s pulse lies as the country goes to polls on November 5.
That Trump is a popular name, is more or less established. Harris, meanwhile, has been the vice president long enough to rack up support, but is she still as well-known to sway voters on the biggest stage in US politics?
After all, the tumultuous presidential campaign has dramatically changed since the last debate in June. Biden fumbled with a disastrous performance, and bowed out in rapid fashion. Trump survived an assassination attempt and both sides chose their running mates. The debate will, nevertheless, provide crucial details to Americans about the two presidential candidates.
Here’s all you need to know:
Where do Harris and Trump stand going into the debate?
The debate is taking place only eight weeks before the November 5 election, with Trump and Harris locked in a tight race that could still easily swing in either direction. Early voting will start in some states just days after the debate.
Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters that are sceptical about his return to the White House.
The encounter is particularly important for the vice president, with opinion polls showing that more than a quarter of likely voters feel they do not yet know enough about her and her policy agenda. In a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, 28 per cent of likely voters said they needed to know more about her. For Trump, this figure was 9 per cent.
A former prosecutor, she will get the chance to make her case against him in this debate. The background for this is that he is riddled with felony convictions and has openly backed his supporters convicted in the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.
The two presidential candidates will meet for the first time, following weeks of personal attacks on Harris by Trump and his allies that have included racist and sexist insults. His running mate JD Vance’s comments on the country being run by a “bunch of childless cat ladies” grabbed headlines for days, which possibly alluded to her not having biological children.
While presidential debates do not always move the needle, they can transform the dynamics of a race. Biden’s faltering performance against Trump in June was so damaging that he was forced to abandon his campaign.
In a contest that could again come down to tens of thousands of votes in a handful of states, even a small shift in public opinion could alter the outcome. The two candidates are effectively tied in the seven battleground states likely to decide the election, as per polling averages compiled by The New York Times.
“There is more for Kamala Harris to gain and more for her to lose,” Mitchell McKinney, a former adviser to the US Commission on Presidential Debates, was quoted by Reuters.
McKinney said viewers will be looking for where she stands on various issues. But just as important, they will be looking to see how she handles herself against Trump as, by contrast, he is already well defined, he said.
“You’re either for him or against him at this point,” he added.
What is Kamala Harris likely to speak about?
Ahead of the debate, Harris has unveiled a few centrist-leaning policies, abandoned some past positions and left much else to the imagination. She unveiled a list of policies on her website on the eve of the clash, with Republicans accusing her of “flip-flopping” on key issues.
She will deliver both the opening and closing arguments of the debate. After Biden dropped out in July, she surged – in the polls and on the fundraising front – in the following weeks. Reports said she raised $361 million in August alone, nearly three times Trump’s haul.
The 59-year-old, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president has been at the post for nearly four years and spent about the same amount of time before as California’s junior senator. She ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Here are five topics on Harris’s agenda:
- American middle class: Harris has stressed she wants to create an “opportunity economy” for the US middle class. One of her most concrete policies so far is a child tax credit of $6,000 for families of newborns. She has also promised tax cuts for 100 million Americans while raising taxes on the richest, and to bring down housing prices. This is one of the few policy areas where she differs with Biden.
- Environment: She still does not have a detailed environmental policy except on one key area: fracking. She has vowed not to ban the practice, which uses high-pressure water to extract oil and gas — despite previously saying she was opposed to it. According to the Axios news site, she also backtracked on her opposition to plastic straws.
- Border: Illegal migration over the US-Mexican border is one of the most sensitive issues in this campaign. In an interview to CNN, Harris said there will be “consequences” for people crossing illegally. She supported Biden’s bid to toughen migration policy and has backed investing in the border “wall” that Trump called for despite criticising it in the past.
- Abortion: Another key election issue, there is no doubt on Harris’s position on abortion. She has repeatedly criticised Trump for bragging that he enabled the US Supreme Court to overturn the federal right to terminate pregnancies. She has said if elected she will push to enshrine protections for abortion in US law.
- Gaza: Harris has been more vocal than Biden on the issue of civilians killed in the war in Gaza. But, during her CNN interview, she said she will not halt arms supply to Israel and pledged to help the US ally defend itself.
What is Trump’s plan?
This is the 78-year-old Trump’s record seventh presidential general election debate. While on the trail, so far, he has been his typical self: throwing self-contradicting pledges and positions, promoted and then abandoned the now-infamous ‘Project 2025’, and otherwise sought to tie Harris to Biden’s record, particularly on the border, while frequently issuing racist and sexist personal attacks.
He plans to hit Harris as too liberal having spotlighted her far-left positions during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He has had help from Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.
Here are five topics he may touch upon:
- Mass deportations: Trump has pledged to launch the biggest deportation operation of illegal migrants in US history on his first day in office. He is known for his unfinished US-Mexico border wall project and has said he will be happy to “use the military” as part of the effort, and open detention camps to process targets for expulsion. He has confirmed he also plans to reinstate his ban on entries from several Muslim-majority countries, as a means of “keeping terrorists the hell out of our country”.
- Climate change: He slammed the door on the 2015 Paris climate accords during his first term, and his campaign has said he intends to end US participation again if re-elected. He told supporters at a rally earlier in the summer that he would “stop Biden’s wasteful spending and rapidly terminate the green new scam” — a reference to the funding committed by his successor to mitigating climate change.
- Cryptocurrency: Trump has pledged to make the US the “Bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world”, and to put Tesla maker Elon Musk in charge of a wide-ranging audit of governmental waste. He also envisages tariffs of “more than 10 percent” on all imports. He insists that the revenue collected will finance a “middle class, upper class, lower class, business class big tax cut”.
- Abortion: He never misses an opportunity to point out that it is partly thanks to him — and his three conservative Supreme Court appointments — that abortion rights have been considerably weakened in the US. But he is more ambiguous about the future of access to reproductive healthcare. Insisting it should be an issue for the individual states, he has avoided the notion of a nationwide abortion ban.
- Ukraine: For months, Trump has been saying he could end the war in Ukraine within “24 hours”, without explaining how. Critics suggest his plan will involve pressuring Kyiv to cede territory illegally occupied by Russia in both 2014 and 2022.
When and where to watch the debate, what are the rules?
The debate is being hosted by ABC News and will be live on air at 9 pm ET (1 am GMT and 6.30 am IST on Wednesday, September 11). It will be broadcast on ABC News and other major networks such as CNN, CBS, Fox News, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, PBS and BBC. In India, it will be available to stream live on the YouTube channel of ABC News. Besides, OTT platforms like Hulu and Disney+ will also livestream it.
The 90-minute debate will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As agreed by both the campaigns, there will be no live audience and microphones will be muted when it is not a candidate’s turn to speak.
The spotlight will also shine on the host of the debate: ABC News, with moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. The network first secured the high-stakes presidential debate in May, but a lot has changed since.
Harris has become the Democratic nominee, shaking up not just the race for the White House but also the negotiation process ahead of the televised faceoff. This is the only scheduled debate between the two presidential candidates of the 2024 race that could serve as a make-or-break moment for either campaign.
According to CNN, presidential debates are major events for the network that broadcasts them. They are significant investments, but also attract huge ratings and are often some of the most watched events in a network’s history.
(With agency inputs)
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