Trump-Harris Debate: What the Candidates Need to Win and Will It Make a Difference?

Millions of Americans are awaiting the debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Tuesday evening, in what could be a turning point in the 2024 race.

The Washington Examiner describes the debate as one of the "most important campaign events in decades."

The vice president and her rival, the former Republican president, will face off in a date eagerly awaited by tens of millions who have not yet had the chance to hear them face-to-face. The debate on ABC from Pennsylvania will be the first live encounter between Harris and Trump.

Any slip of the tongue or even a joke can tip the scales in favor of one candidate over the other, in the midst of one of the most competitive races in the modern history of American politics.

With two months to go before the election, a nationwide poll by The New York Times and Siena College showed the Republican and Democratic candidates running roughly neck-and-neck in the final weeks of campaigning.

The poll, published Sunday, found that Trump received 48 percent of the vote, one percentage point ahead of Harris, a narrow difference that falls within the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Analysts and experts expect that the two candidates will use all their weapons in this decisive confrontation.

The two candidates took different approaches to preparing for the debate.

Harris has been practicing for the debate at a downtown Pittsburgh hotel, where she can focus on improving her answers, which will take two minutes, according to debate rules, according to the Associated Press.

For his part, Trump "refused" to prepare for the debate, and preferred to focus on participating and activating events related to his election campaign, certain that he "would be ready for the debate."

US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are taking different approaches to preparing for next Tuesday's presidential debate, where their confrontation will reflect two different visions for the country.

Harris.. Opportunities and risks

The debate is an opportunity for Harris to win over voters who still don't know much about her policies, as the momentum generated by her candidacy to replace President Joe Biden begins to fade.

A New York Times poll found that 30 percent of voters said they felt they needed to "learn more" about Harris.

Trump is likely to try to limit his competition to controversial issues such as the economy and immigration, while launching more personal attacks against her on racial and gender grounds, continuing what he has been doing since the start of her campaign, according to Agence France-Presse.

Harris will need to define herself to the public as a change agent, and talk about her positions and what she stands for, especially after accusations that she has changed her positions on issues (such as health care, border security and oil drilling) to become more centrist, the Washington Post says.

Through this effort, Harris seeks to neutralize attacks by Trump and his allies who are trying to portray Harris as a “radical leftist.”

The Hill says that the immigration issue, in particular, will remain a weak point for Harris, and one of the worst issues for the Biden-Harris administration in opinion polls, which means that everything she says to the public on Tuesday on this matter will be subject to special scrutiny.

“She should explain her positions, how they differ from Biden’s, and why they differ from Harris’s more left-wing positions in 2020,” the Washington Examiner says.

Fox News suggests she might win the debate “not by provoking Trump, but by convincing voters that she understands how the economy works, why people are unhappy with open borders, and how she can stop rising crime and get American cities back on track.”

According to the Washington Post, Harris needs to use her style as a former prosecutor against Trump, without exchanging accusations with him.

Harris is seen as a tough debater, as she demonstrated when she questioned Supreme Court nominees when she was a senator.

“Harris’s ability to stick to her message even in the most sensitive moments and make her case to Trump is a skill she has undoubtedly acquired as a prosecutor, senator and vice president, and it will be key in Tuesday’s debate,” former Democratic candidate Julian Castro, who debated Harris in the 2020 primary, said in an opinion piece on MSNBC.

Harris “must avoid blunders, any misstep that could put an abrupt end to her momentum, like a slip of the tongue, a misstatement or a clash with Trump,” according to The Hill. Harris “doesn’t have to shine, just get through the debate without a major incident.”

Trump.. experienced but

This will be Harris' first presidential debate, though she participated in a 2020 vice presidential debate and multiple primary debates.

In contrast, this will be Trump's seventh presidential debate in a general election.

Trump needs to avoid talking about Harris' race, according to the Washington Post, and focus on the issues that have upset voters with the Biden-Harris administration.

“It’s fair to ask about a vice president’s record, but he should avoid talking about the relationships that helped her rise to power early on,” the Washington Examiner says, referring to Trump’s suggestions that she used her affair to rise in the Democratic Party.

Trump supporters “enjoy his inflammatory rhetoric and use of slogans, while critics don’t exactly like those traits,” says The Hill, and in such a close election, undecided voters “will want to know what Trump plans to do in his second term.”

Fox News says Trump needs to "attract voters who like his policies, but don't like his personality."

Trump, according to the Washington Post, needs to adopt a clear position on the abortion issue, and he realizes that his party's position is not in line with public opinion on this matter.

Trump's "centrist" position on abortion angers his socially conservative base, while alienating undecided voters because he appears to be volatile.

While he "stumbles" over what he says about abortion, Trump is finding it difficult to win over female voters, according to The Hill.

Two recent polls, conducted by ABC News and Reuters, showed him trailing Harris by 13 points among women, a much larger gap than his advantage among men.

On Tuesday, Trump will face off against Harris, who wants to become the first female president of the United States. That carries significant risks for the former president if he is rude to Harris on stage.

Trump has already made personal attacks on Harris, saying she adopted a black identity when entering the race, as well as his sexual innuendos.

Source: American Press