Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump: 5 issues to observe for within the presidential debate

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will meet nose to nose for the primary time on Tuesday as they take the stage for the US presidential debate.

Harris has upended the race since she changed President Joe Biden on the high of the Democratic ticket in July, revitalising her social gathering’s marketing campaign.

However whereas the vice-president is now forward of Trump by 2.9 proportion factors nationally, in response to the Monetary Instances’ poll tracker, her lead has narrowed barely in latest days and the presidential race stays extraordinarily tight.

Listed here are 5 issues to observe for when the candidates meet at 9pm ET in Philadelphia.

Who will look extra presidential?

The foundations on Tuesday will observe an analogous format to the Biden-Trump debate, with the candidates’ microphones switched off whereas the opposite is talking and no reside studio viewers.

Harris and Trump will face questions from ABC anchors Linsey Davis and David Muir, with two minutes to reply and two minutes for rebuttal, with a further follow-up minute. No ready notes will likely be allowed.

The concentration is going to shine particularly brightly on Harris, since Trump is healthier identified to voters.

“I believe the stakes are excessive for each of them, however extra for Harris,” mentioned Hans Noel, a authorities professor at Georgetown College. “That is the primary time we get to see her discuss and defend herself straight, discuss insurance policies, reply to Trump’s line of assault, all the remainder of it.”

Noel mentioned he may even be watching to see if Trump deploys any new ways towards his opponent. The previous president has struggled to regulate to his new rival, counting on private assaults towards Harris, together with questioning her racial id and reposting a sexist social media put up.

Who will outline Harris?

Each candidates will likely be making an attempt to do a easy factor through the debate: to outline Harris for a voting public that is aware of a lot much less about her than about Trump.

The previous president remains to be honing efficient assault strains towards his opponent, however polls launched over the weekend present he could lastly be blunting her momentum. 

Trump has tried to color Harris as a radical communist and a coverage flip-flopper. He has additionally mocked her mannerisms, calling her “Laughing Kamala”.

The controversy “is a really massive second” for Trump that he must make the most effective use of, mentioned Republican strategist Kevin Madden. “He’s going to have 90 minutes to supply an actual targeted line of assault on Harris . . . and that’s going to be higher than any 30-second advert that runs 100 instances between now and election day.”

The occasion is much more essential for Harris. She launched herself to the general public ultimately month’s Democratic Nationwide Conference, however the debate will likely be a possibility to inform voters extra about her proposals.

After criticism that her marketing campaign is comparatively mild on coverage, she may even must persuade voters that her plans are substantive.

Will Harris the prosecutor go after Trump the felon?

Harris has made her expertise as a prosecutor a central a part of her political id, and has been extra keen than Biden to go after Trump on the marketing campaign path for his prison convictions. 

“I do know Donald Trump’s kind,” Harris mentioned in her DNC deal with. “I’ve been coping with individuals like him my total profession.” She has energised crowds by contrasting her time going after “predators” and “fraudsters” with the previous president’s court docket appearances and authorized woes.

Trump, recent from a authorized victory after the sentencing in his “hush cash” case was delayed till after the election, in flip has accused Harris of being a “radical” prosecutor and “weak-on-crime district legal professional”, and is prone to repeat the costs through the debate.

Whose financial imaginative and prescient will resonate?

The economic system stays voters’ high concern as excessive costs proceed to weigh on their funds. 

Harris and Trump will lay out their competing economic visions for find out how to carry down the nation’s excessive price of residing.

Trump desires to decrease taxes, past extending the cuts he handed in 2017, increase vitality manufacturing, slash authorities spending and enlist Elon Musk to pursue aggressive deregulation. He’s additionally planning to impose sweeping tariffs on imports in a revival of his “America first” financial agenda. 

Harris, alternatively, desires to boost taxes on rich earners and huge companies to widen the social security web and provides little one care tax credit and tax advantages to small enterprise homeowners. She additionally desires to crack down on worth gouging, though she has not supplied many particulars, elevating concern about worth controls amongst some economists.

Trump is predicted to maintain blaming the Biden administration for the excessive price of residing, whereas Harris will emphasise falling inflation and the hundreds of thousands of jobs created whereas she and Biden have been in workplace.

For many of this yr, voters have mentioned they belief Trump extra with the economic system, however final month an FT-Michigan Ross poll confirmed that this had modified, with extra of them trusting Harris on the problem.

Who will likely be stronger on the flashpoints of immigration and abortion?

Harris and Trump will likely be making an attempt to capitalise on their positions on two totemic points for US voters: abortion and immigration.

Trump has been on the defensive on abortion rights and is struggling to outline his place as he makes an attempt to stability the strongly held views of the spiritual anti-abortion voters who type a core of his base with out alienating reasonable and impartial voters who are likely to help reproductive rights.

Harris, who has campaigned strongly for reproductive rights, will attempt to hyperlink the previous president to the 2022 overturning of Roe vs Wade by the Supreme Courtroom, a transfer made potential by the appointment of three conservative justices throughout Trump’s presidency.

The ex-president, in the meantime, will search to hammer the Biden administration for an inflow of migrants throughout the US-Mexico border below its watch. He may even attempt to focus the blame on Harris, who was tasked by the president with addressing the basis causes of migration from Latin America.

Republican strategist Doug Heye mentioned “if [Trump] will be targeted” when Harris says she is going to do one thing on any subject, together with border safety, all he “has to say is, ‘you’ve been there for 3 and a half years — why haven’t you performed something but?’”