Wildcard in Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris debate

Presidential debates can make or break a candidate — and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are gearing up for one of the biggest moments of the US election so far.

When Donald Trump and Kamala Harris walk on stage for this week’s debate at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, the election race will be virtually tied. What happens in the 90 minutes after that will go a long way to deciding who wins.

Presidential debates can make or break a candidate. In 2008, Barack Obama’s performance propelled him to the White House, while Joe Biden’s effort earlier this year sent him packing.

These are the risks and rewards in play when the former president and the current Vice President go head-to-head for the first time. They can’t carry notes or chat to staff in breaks – they can only rely on themselves to win over voters, with some early ballots already in the mail and just 56 days until Americans go to the polls.

Both will rest on their strengths: the Republican as the entertaining TV star, the Democrat as the hard-nosed prosecutor. But as Mr Trump quipped last week by quoting boxing champion Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

He knows that better than anyone. This week’s debate – which starts at 11am AEST on Wednesday – will be his seventh in a presidential election, more than any other candidate.

And unlike other candidates, Mr Trump has not bothered with formal rehearsals, saying last week that there was “not a lot to do”.

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Picture: AFP

“I’ve been prepared for this debate my whole life,” he said.

“You either know your subject or not, you either have good policy or not.”

About the only change he has made to his preparation since his contest with Mr Biden is bringing in Tulsi Gabbard, an ex-Democratic congresswoman who rattled Ms Harris during the party’s 2020 presidential primary debates, and has now endorsed the Republican.

Lost in the storm over Mr Biden’s disastrous performance, however, was the fact that his 78-year-old opponent struggled to offer clear answers to obvious policy questions. While Mr Trump’s advisers want him to hammer Ms Harris on inflation and illegal immigration, as he did against the President, he will need to be sharper on other issues.

For Ms Harris, the stakes are even higher, given many voters are still getting to know the Democratic nominee after she was suddenly thrust to the top of her party’s ticket.

Her preparation has centred on mock debates against Philippe Reines, who wears a red tie to pretend to be Mr Trump as he did for Hillary Clinton in 2016. The Democratic operative has said he knows Mr Trump’s debating style “better than anyone on the planet”, and that it is crucial for his opponents to “attack in the same kind of blunt language”.

Ms Harris had hoped to do so in direct exchanges with Mr Trump, a change from his debate against Mr Biden when their microphones were muted unless it was their turn to speak. This could allow her to recreate her viral retort to Mike Pence during their 2020 vice presidential debate, when she smiled and told him after multiple interruptions: “I’m speaking.”

While Mr Trump said he preferred the microphones were on, his team rejected the new rule, and Ms Harris’s aides argued she would be “fundamentally disadvantaged by this format”.

Their complaint was likely an exercise in managing expectations. Mr Trump has taken similar preventive action, venting that host broadcaster ABC News was “the most dishonest network, the meanest, the nastiest”. He also alluded to Ms Harris’s friendship with a network executive and even claimed his opponent was “going to get the questions in advance”.

Evidently, both candidates are feeling the pressure. And there is another wildcard: this will be the first time they have ever come face-to-face. With no other debates locked in, it may well be the only time they do before Americans decide who should be the next president.

Originally published as Wildcard in Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris debate