Kamala Harris is reportedly focusing on ways to rattle Donald Trump as she prepares for their Sept. 10 presidential debate.
Harris’ team views the optics of her face-off with the former president as crucial, according to sources close to the vice president, one of whom told NBC News her campaign wants to “remind people of what it was like during Donald Trump’s years.”
Of the issues she is likely to address, Harris is expected to drill the former president on his role in Republicans backing out of a bipartisan border bill in February. The Democratic presidential nominee’s other goals reportedly include articulating how she thinks her presidency would serve everyday Americans—and staying focused amidst what are sure to be personal attacks.
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Remaining unfazed, the source said, is critical because Harris is a “real person.”
Harris and Trump, who have never formally met, are set for a primetime face-off next Tuesday. It will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and hosted by ABC.
The vice president has hunkered down to prepare for the debate with a small group of advisers, according to The New York Times. She participated in at least two mock debates last month.
Her opponent is being played by Philippe Reines, who reportedly dons an oversized suit, shoes with a three-inch lift, and long tie to get into character. Reines also played a Trump stand-in for Hillary Clinton, for whom he worked as a senior adviser, during the 2016 election cycle.
Trump, on the other hand, “does not need traditional debate prep,” his national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
“President Trump has proven to be one of the best debaters in political history as evidenced by his knockout blow to Joe Biden…” she wrote in a statement to NBC. “He has a command of the issues, frequently sits down for interviews, and takes questions from hostile news media almost every day.”
Trump told reporters late last month that he wasn’t training for the debate at all.
“I’m not, really, I’m not. I’m not spending a lot of time on it,” he said in a clip aired by CNN. “I think my whole life I’ve been preparing for a debate.”
But it was reported last month that the former president had tapped former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to play Harris in at least one practice session at Mar-a-Lago. Sources told The New York Times that Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, was picked in part because of her performance in a 2019 primary debate, when she ripped into Harris for her record as a prosecutor.
Even if Gabbard holds the key to trouncing Harris in a debate, it remains to be seen whether Trump will attempt to overcome his penchant for behaving in often bizarre, unsettling, or disrespectful ways during debates.
Memorably, he stalked Clinton around the stage in 2016, hovering over her shoulder as she answered an audience question in a way that made her “skin crawl,” she later wrote. It was also during that debate that he coined the racially divisive phrase “bad hombres.”
His other Hall of Debate Infamy moments from that election include slamming moderator Megyn Kelly for not being “nice” enough to him (and implying the next day that she may have been menstruating); waving his hands around in an effort to prove they weren’t small; and hushing Jeb Bush as he tried to speak, then implying the booing audience was full of Bush family donors.
