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CNN
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The world knows what kind of debater former President Donald Trump is: loose with facts, quick to insult and supremely self-confident.
But what about Vice President Kamala Harris?
Harris kept a largely low profile during the 2020 presidential campaign, ending her campaign in December 2019 before the first primary votes were cast, but she left her mark in one important way.
During a primary debate in June 2019, before she became Biden’s running mate or even before Biden got close to the White House, Harris delivered a scathing attack on him.
Issues of policing and race were key in the 2020 Democratic primary.
“I don’t believe you’re a racist,” Harris said, staring directly at Biden across the debate stage, sometimes looking ahead and sometimes looking down at the podium.
But she said she was hurt by Biden’s praise of people like the late Sens. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and John Stennis of Mississippi, who “built their reputations and careers on the segregation of this country.”
She changed the subject, pointing out that Biden, during his long career as a senator, worked with these men on legislation opposing federally mandated busing in local school districts.
“There was a little girl in California who was in the second class when their public schools were integrated, and she was bused to school every day,” Harris said, “and that little girl was me.”
It was a powerful moment, a testament to what Ms Harris can do on the debate stage: clearly rehearsed, effectively delivered, ruthless and delivered to the face of her opponent, who later endorsed her for vice presidential nomination.
Harris has undoubtedly been spending her time preparing for the debate, honing her material against this year’s rival. She and Trump are scheduled to debate face-to-face for the first time on Tuesday night in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, with ABC News broadcasting the event.
Related stories: CNN’s politics team has published detailed reporting comparing Harris’ preparation work at a sort of debate camp held in a Pittsburgh hotel with Trump’s more casual approach.
Democrats have sought to frame the race as one between Ms. Harris, a former prosecutor, and Mr. Trump, a convicted felon. On Tuesday, Ms. Harris will have a rare opportunity to air Democrats’ long-pent-up anger toward Mr. Trump face-to-face, but she will have to live up to her reputation as a tough prosecutor.
Unlike Biden, Harris doesn’t need to go back to the 1970s to find an attack vector: her New York convictions, her liability in sexual abuse and defamation lawsuits, her nationalistic policies, her baseless claims of election fraud (without evidence), and her outrageous pledges to jail election officials.
Harris has plenty to say about Trump, but he won’t interrupt her. Candidates’ microphones are muted when it’s not their turn to speak, so Trump can’t cut her off with insults, like he did when he told Hillary Clinton in a 2016 debate, “You’re a puppet!” and “You’re going to jail.”
It also means her memorable moment during the 2020 vice presidential debate, when she responded to Mike Pence’s interruption by saying, “Mr. Vice President, I’m going to speak,” will not happen.
Not all of Harris’ planned attacks have worked as well as her busing attack on Biden. In another debate in 2019, Harris targeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren over her plan to break up tech companies.
Harris tried to break this larger issue down into something more understandable by expressing disappointment that Warren didn’t ask Twitter (a completely different company in 2019!) to suspend Trump’s account. Twitter subsequently suspended Trump’s account after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but the company has since been bought by Elon Musk and renamed X, and Trump is now active on the platform again.
The point Harris was trying to make felt small, and Warren was able to make a much bigger point.
“I don’t just want Donald Trump off Twitter, I want him out of the White House,” Warren said.
The exchange may have been a warning to Harris not to get too hung up on the details: Trump doesn’t, and history shows he’s happy to invent facts to support his claims.
Here’s a third memorable exchange from Harris’ 2019 debate: Harris was criticized by former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for her record as a prosecutor, who was to the right of the Democratic Party in 2019. Gabbard argued that Harris was too tough on marijuana offenders, among other criticisms of Harris’ record as a prosecutor.
“I’m proud of the work,” Harris countered, arguing that she worked to improve California as attorney general and opposed the death penalty, and wasn’t “just a flashy speech or a seat in the legislature.”
The irony here is that Gabbard, a former Democrat, supports Trump, who has often said he would apply the death penalty for drug offenders.
Gabbard reportedly helped Trump prepare for the debates, and Trump will likely want to portray Harris as someone to the left of mainstream America – someone who changed her position for political convenience in 2019 and then changed it again to run for president.
The importance of this debate may ultimately depend on how a small number of undecided or fluid voters perceive Harris, as perceptions of Trump appear to be solidifying.
A New York Times/Siena College poll released Sunday put the race effectively tied within the margin of error. Few voters in the poll — fewer than 10% — felt they needed to know more about Trump. More than a quarter, 28%, said they needed to know more about Harris, which may suggest that Harris still has room to grow, or decline, given the opportunity to face Trump.