WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet in Philadelphia on Tuesday night for a highly anticipated and potentially momentous debate – just over two months after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance left his exit from the race.
The debate, moderated by ABC News, is scheduled for 9 p.m. Eastern Time and will be the first time Trump and Harris meet in person. after to Harris. Viewers can stream the debate live on ABC.com or on the platforms ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu. The debate will also be broadcast simultaneously on C-SPAN.
The event will be the only televised face-off between the candidates before Election Day in November, although early voting begins in swing state Pennsylvania on Sept. 16 and in four other states later this month.
“We will be ready”
Trump officials said Monday that the former president wanted to challenge Harris over her changing views over the years, including on fracking and immigration.
“We will be ready tomorrow, President Trump will be ready. The question is will Kamala Harris be ready, because she will have a lot of things to defend,” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign, said on a Republican National Committee conference call that also included Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic defector who supports Trump.
“You can’t prepare for President Trump. You just can’t,” Miller later added.
Trump will also try to include Harris in any decisions made under the Biden administration. Gaetz called her “co-president” and claimed in the call that Harris was “in charge of the entire government.”
Republicans are using this narrative to blame Harris for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which left 13 soldiers dead.
The GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee released a 353-page report On Monday, he blamed the Biden-Harris administration for the deadly outcome of the two-decade-long U.S. war in Afghanistan. Harris’ last name is mentioned 285 times in the report.
“Kamala Harris is not fit to be our president and commander in chief,” Gabbard said in the phone call.
Former US military leaders defended Harris’ suitability as head of state in a letter and accused Trump of a “chaotic approach” to negotiations with the Taliban before he left office.
“He repeatedly fails to take responsibility for his own role in endangering soldiers,” the former generals said. wrote on behalf of the veterans advocacy group National Security Leaders for America.
Trump drew his own attention in connection with the Afghanistan withdrawal when his campaign staff confronted an official at Arlington National Cemetery on August 26, the third anniversary of the deaths of the 13 soldiers. The incident was first reported from NPR.
Trump denied that his staff pushed the cemetery official aside to take photos in a restricted area, but the US Army confirmed the incident.
“Go to Bat 4 Harris”
The vice president spent the weekend preparing for the debate at a hotel in Pittsburgh before traveling through the swing state on Monday to attend the prime-time event the following evening.
The Harris campaign began the week by releasing a Advertisement Several former Trump administration officials were present on Monday, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who have spoken out against a second Trump presidency.
The Democratic National Committee a banner waved Monday over Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia before the Phillies’ home game against the Tampa Bay Rays. The banner read: “Don’t Strikeout W/Trump Go to Bat 4 Harris.”
After around 50 days of campaigning and only 56 days until the election, Harris published her political program one day before the debate. The four-pillar plan includes promises to cut taxes for the middle class and create affordable housing, protect reproductive freedoms and civil rights, secure the border and combat gun violence, as well as “stand up to dictators” and support veterans.
Harris also vowed to support an ethics code for the U.S. Supreme Court and “ensure that no former president enjoys immunity for crimes committed while in the White House” – a reference to the Supreme Court’s July decision Verdict The law granted former presidents immunity for key official acts and presumptive immunity for “outer perimeter” duties, but not for personal acts.
The Trump campaign team accused Harris’ program of “dishonesty” in a campaign email on Monday. “We know the consequences of her policies: chaos, devastation and destruction.”
In July, Trump and the Republican Party released a platform focused on 20 core promises, including that they would “close the border,” “conduct the largest deportation operation in American history,” and “end inflation.”
When asked by reporters on Saturday in Pittsburgh’s Strip District whether she would be willing to debate Trump, the former California prosecutor and U.S. senator replied, “Yes, I am. Yes.”
What is the most significant message you want to convey to Trump on the debate stage?
“There are a lot,” Harris said in response to the question.
“But look, it’s time to put the division behind us. It’s time to bring our country together to find a new way forward,” she said.
Trump’s legal problems before the debate
While Harris prepared for the debate, Trump spent the last few days focusing on his myriad legal problems and making lengthy appearances.
On Saturday, the former president held court for nearly two hours at a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, and repeated a exposed claim that Venezuelan gang members had occupied a residential building in Aurora, Colorado. He told the crowd that the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants from the state would be “a bloody story.”
He also downplayed his conviction in New York State as a “witch hunt,” as he had done several times before.
Trump, the only former president to become a convicted felon, learned Friday that a Manhattan judge delayed his conviction until after the elections in November. Trump was sentenced in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with the payment of hush money to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump also delivered a nearly hour-long speech at Trump Tower on Friday that was billed as a press conference but included no questions. The appearance followed oral arguments in his appeal of a verdict in a civil case in which he was found guilty of sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
On Thursday his lawyers pleaded not guilty on his behalf in federal court for a novel indictment accusing him of co-conspiracy to manipulate the 2020 presidential election results. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has set a pretrial schedule that includes deadlines both before and after the November election.
The vice presidential debate between Ohio Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is scheduled to be moderated by CBS News in New York City on October 1.
