WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet in Philadelphia Tuesday night for a highly anticipated and potentially vital debate — a little more than two months after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance precipitated his decision. Exit from the race.
The debate, hosted by ABC News, will take place at 9 p.m. ET. It will be the first time Trump and Harris have met in person. According to to Harris. Viewers can stream the debate live on ABC.com or on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu. The debate will also be simulcast on C-SPAN.
The event is the only scheduled televised exchange between the candidates before Election Day in November, though early voting begins in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania on September 16 and in four other states later that month.
“We will be ready”
Trump officials said Monday that the former president plans to challenge Harris’ views, which have changed over the years, including on fracking and immigration.
“We’ll be ready tomorrow, President Trump will be ready. The question is whether Kamala Harris will be ready, because she’ll have a lot to defend,” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a phone call organized by the Republican National Committee that also included Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic defector who has endorsed Trump.
“You can’t prepare for a Trump presidency. There’s just no way to do it,” Miller added later.
Trump will also seek to tie Harris to all decisions made in the Biden administration. Gaetz called her his “co-president” and alleged in a phone call that Harris is “in charge of the entire administration.”
Republicans are using this narrative to blame Harris for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which resulted in the deaths of 13 soldiers.
The Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee released a 353-page document report Monday blaming the Biden-Harris administration for the deadly end to the two-decade U.S. war in Afghanistan. Harris’ name is mentioned 285 times in the report.
“Kamala Harris is not fit to be our president and commander in chief,” Gabbard said in a telephone interview.
Retired US military leaders issued a letter defending Harris’ ability to run the country and blaming Trump for his “chaotic approach” to negotiations with the Taliban before leaving office.
‘He still refuses to take responsibility for his role in putting soldiers in danger,’ former generals say he wrote on behalf of the veterans advocacy group National Security Leaders for America.
Trump drew attention to his withdrawal from Afghanistan when his campaign staff confronted an Arlington National Cemetery official on Aug. 26, the third anniversary of the deaths of 13 soldiers. The incident was the first time reported by NPR.
Trump has denied that his staff pushed a cemetery official aside to take photos in a restricted area, but the U.S. military confirmed incident.
“Go to Bat 4 Harris”
The vice president prepared for the debate at a Pittsburgh hotel last weekend, then traveled to another state on Monday to attend a prime-time event the following night.
Harris’ campaign kicked off the week with a release announcement Monday will see a meeting of several former Trump administration officials, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, who have opposed a second Trump presidency.
The Democratic National Committee hung a banner Monday at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia ahead of the Phillies’ home game against the Tampa Bay Rays. The banner read: “Don’t Count Trump Out, Go to Bat 4 Harris.”
After about 50 days of campaigning and just 56 days before the election, Harris released her policy platform the day before the debate. The four-pronged plan includes promises to cut taxes for the middle class and build affordable housing, protect reproductive freedoms and civil rights, secure the border and address gun violence, and “stand up to dictators” and support veterans.
Harris also pledged support for the U.S. Supreme Court’s code of ethics and “ensuring that no former president will have immunity for crimes committed while serving in the White House,” referring to the Supreme Court’s July ruling ruling which granted former presidents immunity for vital official activities and presumptive immunity for “outside” duties, but not for personal activities.
The Trump campaign accused Harris’ platform of “dishonesty” in a campaign email Monday. “We know the results of her policies: chaos, devastation and destruction.”
Trump and the Republican Party released a platform in July centered on 20 core promises that included “sealing the border,” “conducting the largest deportation operation in American history” and “ending inflation.”
Asked by reporters Saturday in Pittsburgh’s Strip District shopping area if she was ready to debate Trump, the former California prosecutor and U.S. senator replied: “Yes, I am. Yes.”
What is the main message he wants to convey to Trump on the debate stage?
“There’s a lot of it,” Harris said in response to a question.
“But look, it’s time to close the chapter. Time to unite our country, to chart a new path forward,” she said.
Trump’s Legal Issues Ahead of Debate
While Harris has been busy preparing for the debate, Trump has been focusing on his myriad legal issues in recent days and has been staging lengthy appearances.
On Saturday, the former president spoke for nearly two hours at a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, and repeated overthrown law that Venezuelan gang members had taken over an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado. He told the crowd that removing Venezuelan immigrants from the state “will be a bloody story.”
He also downplayed the fact that he had been convicted in New York state, calling it a “witch hunt,” something he has done several times before.
Trump, the only former president to be a convicted felon, learned Friday that a Manhattan judge delayed His conviction did not occur until after the November election. Trump was convicted In May, she was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with paying hush money to a porn star ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump also spoke for nearly an hour Friday at Trump Tower during a news conference that was billed as a press conference but did not include any questions. The speech followed oral arguments in his appeal of a civil lawsuit in which he was found guilty of sexually harassing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll.
On Thursday, his lawyers he pleaded not guilty on his behalf in federal court to a renewed indictment for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan set a pretrial schedule that includes dates both before and after the November election.
The vice presidential debate between Ohio Senator J.D. Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is scheduled to be hosted by CBS News in New York on October 1.
