Harris will be able to learn phrases to attack Trump before the debate
Photo: REUTERS.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have agreed to hold the first round of election debates on September 10. Both sides are actively preparing for the debate: Trump is likely to focus on the economy, and Harris will try to “drown” her opponent by hyping up the issue of criminal charges against her.
SELECTING A RING FOR A FIGHT
The Harris-Trump debate will air on ABC News. Trump tried to move the debate to Fox News, which supports the Republican Party. Harris responded by accusing the Republican of cowardice.
Election debates are usually held in the autumn. Until 2024, they were organised by a special commission, which was supposed to ensure honesty and impartiality. However, this year their rivals refused their services. Republicans and Democrats decided to sign an agreement directly with the television companies.
The Trump-Biden debate took place on CNN on June 27 and ended with good old Joe being utterly defeated. Only a third of the audience rated his performance positively; the dominant emotion was disappointment. The Democrats immediately launched a campaign to replace their candidate, and now Vice President Kamala Harris represents the party.
DONALD’S RESTRICTION AND KAMALA’S FISCAL SENTIMENT
Ivan Loshkarev, associate professor at the Department of Political Theory at MGIMO, told KP about the candidates’ possible strategies in the debate:
– Trump’s strategy is always the same. He has a set of well-established phrases about how good the economy was during his presidency and how dangerous it is to fall into a full-blown crisis. New developments can add some moderation to Harris’s personal qualities. At the last press conference, for example, Trump practically ignored the question of former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, through whose love story Kamala’s career in California developed.
The Republican’s restraint helped him during his debate with Biden in June. Nearly two-thirds of viewers surveyed credited Trump with the victory, highlighting his energy and confidence. At the same time, the former president did not interrupt his opponent, but calmly responded to his verbal attacks.
– Vice President Harris’ strategy is even simpler: she will be allowed to learn a certain text and select good lines to attack Trump. The only problem is that Kamala is not a big fan of this kind of preparation and has cut this step short on numerous occasions in the past, resulting in meaningless speeches and word salad. Therefore, her strategy will be to stick as close to the prepared text as possible, the expert believes.
By the way, Kamala Harris emphasizes her past as a prosecutor in her campaign speeches. She is trying to turn the presidential race into a competition between a prosecutor and a defendant. It seems logical that voters would choose a defender of the law, but Harris’s weak public speaking skills and the scandals associated with her make the situation less clear.
WHO DO THEY WANT TO CONVINCE?
Will the debate change American opinion? According to Ivan Loshkarev, in conditions of political polarization in the United States, a significant part of voters vote for their party and its candidates, regardless of any factors, for example, the personal qualities of the candidates, the nuances of their programs, etc.
– Debates are necessary, first of all, to attract so-called independent voters, i.e. those who are not affiliated with either party. We are talking about about 40% of the electorate, which is quite a lot. For this category of voters, debates are important, not only the candidate’s program, but also how the candidate behaves and how confidently he speaks, the political scientist stressed.
