Six key moments that could offer insight into Harris's debate strategy against Trump
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will arrive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday for their first (and potentially only) presidential debate.
The event will mark the first time that Harris and Trump have ever met face to face, and it comes less than two months after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race following his own fateful debate performance in June.
The change at the top of the Democratic ticket appears to have unnerved Trump and his campaign advisers, who have struggled to land attacks against Harris. The debate will present Trump with his most significant opportunity yet to negatively define Harris in voters’ minds, as polls show a neck-and-neck race in key battleground states.
For Harris, the debate could allow her to deliver on her oft-repeated promise to voters: that she will prosecute the case against Trump. Her political history – both on the debate stage and in Senate hearings – suggest she is well-positioned to make that case. But Harris is not without her vulnerabilities either.
Here are five key moments from Harris’s career that could offer a preview of her debate strategy.
Republican officials are raising the alarm that Donald Trump’s campaign has invested far fewer resources for its voter turnout operation in battleground states than previous presidential election races, and attempts to bridge the gap with political action committees have come too late.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) once envisioned an extensive field operation for the 2024 election, including having about 90 staffers in the must-win state of Pennsylvania.
But the Trump campaign scrapped those plans when it took over the RNC in March, redirecting the focus on field operations to combating supposed voter fraud and pursuing a twin voter turnout strategy of relying on several political action committees and ardent Trump volunteers.
The result has been that the Trump campaign has put fewer resources into its ground game in battleground states, according to people familiar with the matter – and Republican officials have derisively said the Trump operation is more comparable in size to a midterm cycle than a presidential.
The former congresswoman Liz Cheney called Donald Trump an “unrecoverable catastrophe” on Sunday and urged fellow Republicans to vote for Kamala Harris in November’s election.
Cheney said in an interview on ABC News This Week, a show on the network that is hosting Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Harris:
We see it on a daily basis – somebody who was willing to use violence in order to attempt to seize power, to stay in power, someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe, frankly, in my view, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that he’s not re-elected.
Liz Cheney: “We now have a Republican Party that is embracing isolationism, that is embracing Putin, that we’ve seen…the Republican vice presidential nominee…willing to be interviewed by Tucker Carlson — who is platforming pro-Nazis…”pic.twitter.com/spLieyoqHF
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 9, 2024
Cheney also reaffirmed her endorsement of Harris and urged other prominent Republicans who have stated they plan on writing in a third option rather than vote for Trump to cast their ballots for the Democrat instead.
Asked whether she was still a Republican, Cheney claimed she was still a conservative. She said she hoped to “rebuild” the Republican party after the 5 November presidential election.
Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic election lawyer, responded to Donald Trump’s threat to imprison anyone “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this election by saying:
We won’t let Donald Trump intimidate us. We won’t let him suppress the vote. We won’t let him subvert the election. We won’t let him cheat. We will fight and we will WIN.
Donald Trump is desperate because he is going to lose this election. Let me be clear:
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) September 8, 2024
We won't let Donald Trump intimidate us.
We won't let him suppress the vote.
We won't let him subvert the election.
We won't let him cheat.
We will fight and we will WIN.⚖️🗳️💪 pic.twitter.com/xErsYG4mpw
Trump threatens to jail lawyers, election officials for ‘unscrupulous behavior’ if he wins
Donald Trump threatened in a Truth Social post over the weekend that he would jail those “involved in unscrupulous behavior” during this year’s election.
In an attempt to sow doubt about the integrity of November’s election, Trump wrote:
WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.
He indicated that lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials could all be targeted with prosecution.
Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.
Trump later posted the message to X.
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Donald Trump’s campaign is most concerned going into the debate against Kamala Harris with the former president’s mood, afraid that the mercurial Trump could engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in the 2020 presidential election, according to people familiar with the situation.
The campaign’s internal refrain is whether they get “happy Trump” or “angry Trump”, the people said, as they count down the days to perhaps the final presidential debate this cycle.
Tuesday night’s televised debate is widely seen as a crux moment in the rebooted 2024 campaign. Since Joe Biden dropped out of the race after a campaign-killing debate performance crystalized fears over his age and mental acuity, Harris has turned the race on its head.
But Harris’s upward trajectory appears to have crested and Trump’s advisers have been looking at the debate as their best chance to retake the momentum after weeks of being humped out of the news cycle. Their hope, the people said, is to get the Trump who was fast on his feet during the debate against Biden.
Read the full story here: Advisers worry whether ‘happy Trump’ or ‘angry Trump’ will show up to debate
The leaders of two major left-leaning women’s organizations said the issue of reproductive rights would offer the “starkest possible contrast” between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump at Tuesday night’s debate.
On a Monday call with reporters, Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund and Jessica Mackler, president of Emily’s List, argued that Harris was the party’s most powerful messenger on abortion and has the track record as a prosecutor, senator and vice-president to press the case on the debate stage.
The issue is likely to be raised in the debate on ABC News. They said viewers should expect Harris to challenge Trump on the “false notion” that he would not move to further restrict abortion and other reproductive rights. Mackler said:
He continues to lie to voters and distract from his record.
Trump appointed the three supreme court justices who were decisive in overturning Roe v Wade. Trump’s campaign said he would not sign a federal abortion ban but had previously entertained the idea of a 15-week ban.
Abortion is Harris’s strongest issue, but there are signs Trump’s waffling on his position has muddied the waters.
A national poll of likely voters by The New York Times and Siena College found that nearly half of independent voters say they did not think the former president would sign into law a national abortion ban.
Trump was “the one who got us into this mess”, Mackler said, adding that Harris was the only candidate who will “get us out of it”.
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Kamala Harris, in an interview with Rickey Smiley that aired this morning, also discussed her vision for small business growth.
Harris said that if elected, she would aim to reach 25m new small business applications by the end of her first term by reducing government bureaucracy and simplifying the process for obtaining occupational licenses across state lines.
She also pledged to introduce a “standard deduction” for small businesses and support investments in rural areas through an “expansion fund”.
If elected as the next President of the United States, @VP @KamalaHarris has several #economicproposals she hopes to enact. Listen to what she told me last week about her plans to help the #smallbusinesses and people in the #middleclass.#RickeySmiley #KamalaHarris #Interview… pic.twitter.com/DORwMo5Ahb
— Rickey Smiley (@RickeySmiley) September 9, 2024
Harris says Trump will 'speak a lot of untruths' during debate
Kamala Harris has warned that Donald Trump is “probably going to speak a lot of untruths” during their debate tomorrow night, and that her Republican opponent will likely revert to personal attacks, pointing to the “playbook” he used with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” Harris said in an interview with Rickey Smiley that aired this morning.
We should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth. And we should be prepared for the fact that he is probably going to speak a lot of untruths.
“I think he’s going to lie,” Harris added.
He has a playbook that he has used in the past, be it, you know, his attacks on President Obama or Hillary Clinton. So we should expect that some of that might come out.
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The report from the House foreign affairs committee released today castigating the Biden administration for the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal mentions Kamala Harris’s name 251 times.
By contrast, a 115-page interim report issued by the committee’s Republican chairman, Michael McCaul, on the committee’s investigation in 2022 name-checked Harris just twice.
Democrats seized on the contrast, accusing McCaul of inflating Harris’s part in the incident simply because she had replaced Biden as the party’s presidential nominee.
Democrats accused the Republicans of trying to exploit the withdrawal for election purposes while overlooking the fact that the party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, took the original decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan when he was president. Gregory Meeks, the Democrats’ ranking member on the committee wrote in a 59-page rebuttal to McCaul’s report:
Republicans now claim [Harris] was the architect of the US withdrawal though she is referenced only three times in 3,288 pages of the Committee’s interview transcripts.
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House clashes over Harris’s role in 2021 Afghanistan troop withdrawal
Partisan divisions over the chaotic 2021 pullout of western forces from Afghanistan have burst into the open ahead of Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia after a Republican-led congressional report attempted to implicate Kamala Harris in the episode.
A 250-page report from the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee castigated the Biden administration for failing to anticipate the Taliban’s rapid takeover and neglecting to prepare for the orderly departure of non-combatant personnel.
The report, written by the committee’s Republican chairman, Michael McCaul, zeroes in on the supposed role played by the vice-president, although no evidence has emerged that she was directly involved in the decisions leading to one of the most damaging foreign policy chapters of Joe Biden’s presidency. The report states:
Vice President Kamala Harris was the last person in the room when President Biden made the decision to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan; a fact she boasted about shortly after President Biden issued his go-to-zero order.
The report’s front page carries a picture of Harris prominently displayed below that of Biden, and above an image of Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, who played a more prominent role in the withdrawal.
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The statement of support for Kamala Harris by a group of retired top military officials comes a day before the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, will host a congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the 13 service members killed in the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have tried to blame Harris for the Afghanistan pullout, including in a report by House GOP lawmakers today.
The report claims that in the months before the Afghanistan withdrawal, Biden administration officials “watered down” warnings about crumbling security and failed to launch an emergency evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies until it was too late, according to NBC News.
The Texas representative Michael McCaul, chair of the House foreign affairs committee, said:
Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government. At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.
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The letter by National Security Leaders for America also sought to defend Kamala Harris against Donald Trump’s attacks over the Biden administration’s chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Trump “repeatedly fails to take responsibility for his own role in putting service members in harm’s way”, the retired US military officials wrote.
Without involving the Afghan government, he and his administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters and allowed them to return to the battlefield.
The Republican former president then left Joe Biden and Harris “with no plans to execute a withdrawal, and with little time to do so”, they said.
This chaotic approach severely hindered the Biden-Harris administration’s ability to execute the most orderly withdrawal possible and put our service members and our allies at risk.
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Ten former top military officials endorse Harris, call Trump 'a danger to our national security'
Ten retired top US military officials have announced their endorsement of Kamala Harris in a letter warning that Donald Trump is “a danger to our national security and democracy”.
The statement by the bipartisan group National Security Leaders for America, first obtained by Axios, is signed by retired Adm Steve Abbot, who served as deputy homeland security adviser to George W Bush, Gen Lloyd W Newton and Gen Larry R Ellis, who has never previously endorsed a political candidate.
Harris is “the best – and only – presidential candidate in this race who is fit to serve as our commander-in-chief”, the letter says, adding that the Democratic vice-president “has demonstrated her ability to take on the most difficult national security challenges in the Situation Room and on the international stage”.
Trump, meanwhile, “does not understand selfless service and sacrifice, and he should never be allowed to again serve as commander-in-chief of the greatest fighting force in the world”, the group writes.
The release of the letter coincides with the release of a new Harris campaign ad featuring former Trump officials warning of the threat a second Trump presidency could pose to the country.
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Trump says he will vote yes on Florida amendment to legalize marijuana
Donald Trump has confirmed he will vote in support of a ballot measure in Florida that would legalize recreational marijuana.
“I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday night.
As a Floridian, I will be voting YES on Amendment 3 this November.
He added that as president, he would support the passage of similar laws in other states “that work so well for their citizens”.
Trump, as a resident Floridian, will be able to cast a vote on the state’s amendment 3 in November, which would allow adults over 21 to legally buy and use marijuana without a medical card.
Trump’s support contrasts with Florida’s governor and fellow Republican, Ron DeSantis, who has been a vocal opponent of the ballot measure.
Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, has postponed a rally he was scheduled to speak at this evening in Reno, Nevada due to wildfires in the region, his campaign said.
The Davis Fire in northern Nevada has so far scorched more than 6,500 acres and triggered evacuations since starting on Saturday.
Nevada Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Audrey Williams, a soldier with the 2/238th Aviation unit, captured footage of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter executing a crucial water bucket drop to combat the #DavisFire Washoe Valley, Nevada. pic.twitter.com/4MD4UiZMlL
— Nevada Guard (@NVNationalGuard) September 9, 2024
Walz is still expected to visit Reno today for other political engagements, the campaign said.
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As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump prepare to meet on the debate stage in Philadelphia, the battle over abortion rights has vaulted to the center of the 2024 presidential election campaign, the first since the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade.
In the bitterly contested race for the White House, abortion remains a glaring vulnerability for the Republican nominee. Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic pollster, said:
You know it’s an important issue because Trump is trying to change his position.
As a candidate, Trump has held conflicting positions on abortion, alternately boasting that he appointed three of the nine supreme court justices whose votes were decisive in overturning Roe, while complaining that Republican extremism on the issue has cost his party at the ballot box.
He recently appeared to endorse a ballot measure to expand abortion rights in his adopted home state of Florida, only to announce one day later – after sparking backlash among prominent conservative groups – that he would vote against it. He has also previously hinted at support for a 15-week federal ban only to insist that the issue should be left to the states. His campaign has said Trump would not sign a national abortion ban as president.
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Harris releases ads targeting Trump on abortion
Over the weekend, the Harris campaign also released thee new TV ads targeting Donald Trump on abortion ahead of Tuesday’s debate that includes comments from the Republican nominee claiming credit for helping overturn Roe v Wade.
The 30-second ad has includes a clip of Trump saying in 2016 that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who seek abortions. It then has a clip of him earlier this year saying: “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v Wade terminated and I did it and I’m proud to have done it.”
Trump “wants to go further, with plans to restrict birth control, ban abortion nationwide, even monitor women’s pregnancies”, the narrator says.
The Harris-Walz campaign is launching a new ad campaign ahead of Tuesday’s debate on reproductive freedom.
— Lauren Hitt (@LaurenHitt) September 7, 2024
The three ads feature Trump’s own words saying he is “proud” to have overturned Roe, as well as two women who have been directly affected by Trump’s abortion bans. pic.twitter.com/390JrfXbLi
The ad will appear on broadcast and cable networks in seven swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin – and in Nebraska’s competitive second congressional district, according to the Harris campaign.
Another ad discusses the impact of the Alabama supreme court’s ruling that frozen embryos are “children” on a woman’s efforts to conceive.
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The Harris campaign said the new ad would run as part of their $370m digital and television buy.
A statement by Harris-Walz principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks reads:
This ad will remind Fox News viewers, perhaps even a certain defeated former president himself, about how Trump’s own national security team can’t stomach him anymore because of how he’d put the country at risk. To every American who understands the threat that Donald Trump poses, who cares about upholding the constitution, who believes in the rule of law, and who knows America is stronger when it leads, there’s a home for you in Vice-President Harris’s campaign.
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“In 2016, Donald Trump said he would choose only the best people to work in his White House.,” the Harris campaign’s new ad reads.
Now, those people have a warning for America: Trump is not fit to be president again.
The ad includes clips from the former Republican vice-president Mike Pence saying that he would not be endorsing Trump in 2024, and from the former defense secretary Mark Esper warning that another Trump presidency “places our service members at risk, places our nation’s security at risk”.
Pence, Esper and Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, who is also featured in the Harris campaign’s ad, have said they will not vote for Trump.
According to the Washington Post, just over of Trump’s former cabinet supports his comeback campaign.
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Harris goads Trump with ad of former officials warning of a second Trump term ahead of debate
Good morning US politics readers. The Harris campaign is set to air a new TV ad featuring former officials in Donald’s Trump administration warning about the threat he poses to the country, in what looks like an attempt to goad the former president ahead of tomorrow’s debate.
The minute-long spot, entitled “The Best People”, will run on Fox News as well as in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Philadelphia on Tuesday to coincide with the presidential debate between Trump and Kamala Harris. It will continue to play throughout the week, according to the Harris campaign.
The ad features Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pence, former defense secretary Mark Esper, former national security adviser John Bolton and retired Gen Mark Milley, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The ad reads:
Take it from the people who knew him best: Donald Trump is a danger to our troops and our democracy. We can’t let him lead our country again.
The ad came after endorsements by some high-profile Republicans for Harris last week, including the former vice-president Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney, a former representative of Wyoming, as well as Jim McCain, the son of the late senator and 2008 presidential nominee John McCain.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
Kamala Harris is in Pittsburgh preparing for her debate tomorrow. She is expected to travel to Philadelphia in the late afternoon.
Congress is back. The House rules committee is set to take up Speaker Mike Johnson’s six-month stopgap funding bill, which would extend government funding through 28 March.
Joe Biden will be in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon for 9/11 events this week. He will welcome the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, to the White House on Friday.
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