By EFE
08 Sep 2024, 17:17 PM EDT
The candidates for the November 5 presidential election, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, are preparing very differently for the crucial debate that will put them face to face on Tuesday in the studios of the ABC network in Philadelphia and which will probably be the only one of the electoral campaign.
Trump’s previous debate with Biden on June 27 will go down in history for having precipitated Biden’s withdrawal from the race, and expectations for Tuesday are not as high, but the closeness of the polls and the fact that it may be the only face-to-face debate make it relevant for its ability to influence the undecided.
At his final public rally on Saturday in Wisconsin, Trump barely mentioned the debate, except to say that you could “destroy her” and that even then the mainstream media will say he was humiliated, because of her perceived antipathy toward him.
True to form, Trump has spent several days disqualifying Kamala Harris, her inexperience, her changes of opinion and her few achievements in her past political life, which supposedly make her easy prey, and he has joked that he has been “locked up” for several days and preparing for this debate out of fear of his opponent.
Trump, on the other hand, boasts that he does not need any training: “I have already prepared my whole life for this debate (…) You have to know your subject, live with your subject, I live with my subject: I live with all these horrible problems that (the Democrats) have caused. We have had meetings, yes, we have talked, but there is not much that one can do. Either you know your subject or you don’t know it,” he said this week in an interview in New Hampshire.
Two contrasting styles
Trump appears to be right, according to what was revealed on Saturday by the New York Times: according to the newspaper, Kamala Harris has locked herself away for five days in a hotel in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, the same state as Philadelphia) and has reproduced a scenario similar to that of the debate, with a ‘double’ of Donald Trump who dresses and speaks like him.
Trump, by contrast, has a much more improvisational style, though his advisers have persuaded him to sit down at a table and learn how to respond to the toughest questions, especially those Harris might ask him about his legal troubles, a thankless role played by Florida Republican Matt Gaetz.
Politico.com also noted on Saturday that Trump’s entourage fears the candidate will not focus on politics (on Harris’s alleged shortcomings) but will soon descend into personal matters, which he could do as soon as he feels cornered, revealing a Trump who captivates his audience but who will hardly win support among those who are hesitant.
The microphones are muted
The rules of the debate have been carefully negotiated by the candidates’ teams, who have decided to maintain the conditions of the Biden/Trump debate: appearance without an audience, measured time to speak or reply, no contact with their teams even during breaks and no written notes brought in advance.
The most delicate issue has been that of muted microphones: here, Harris’ team has tried unsuccessfully to leave the microphones on, justifying it with the argument that they would be at a disadvantage by making direct exchanges impossible and thus shielding Trump from the most spontaneous retorts, as they wrote to ABC.
As for the choice of ABC as the network where the debate will be held, it has been the subject of constant criticism in recent days from Trump, who has disqualified its editorial line, going so far as to call it “the most disgusting” of the networks and implying that it is biased against him because of alleged friendships between Harris and a former ABC executive.
Trump has even claimed that ABC has not played fair and has provided Kamala Harris with questions in advance, something that has been categorically denied by the network.
But as the day draws near, it seems unlikely that Trump will back out. He also has a much broader stage presence than Harris. The only thing that could hurt him is his own personality and his tendency to break any script.
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