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The two top candidates for president have never been in the same room or spoken - a situation that is about to change when they square off for a debate.
Democrat and Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump have never been feet apart, according to the New York Times’s Katie Rogers. Harris has also never spoken to Trump or met him in person.
The only time they have been close was when Harris, then a Senator from California, was in the gallery for Trump’s State of the Union addresses.
While both have been major players in politics for years, the lack of encounters isn’t surprising. They are of opposite parties and never worked in the same branch at the same time. Harris was the vice presidential candidate in 2020 when much of the campaigning was sidelined amid the COVID pandemic. Trump also skipped the Biden and Harris inauguration in 2021.
Before being on the 2020 ticket, Harris was a senator and Attorney General of California.
Trump had no political experience before being elected in 2016 and then ran again in 2020. But, he was mainly based out of his homes in Florida or New York.
The two will come face-to-face in weeks, when on September 10, they are set to debate hosted by ABC.
“Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor [Tim] Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement.
Trump has called for three debates, with one proposed for September 4 on Fox News.
“I hope she agrees to them,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month. “I think they will be very revealing.”
Harris has already started her debate prep, according to the Times. She took a break from the campaign trail to huddle with advisers and has participated in at least one mock debate.
During the meetings, Harris has been quizzed about her messaging and strategy for the debate, according to the report.
The hope is that the vice president can plot out how to contrast herself with Trump and share her vision with Americans, many of whom still don’t know her as she was thrust to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Philippe Reins, who helped Hilary Clinton prepare for debates in 2016, is also assisting Harris. Reins plays Trump’s role in Harris’s prep and even dresses to look like her Republican rival.
