Journalist and author Dan Lazare sat down with radio Sputnik’s Political Misfits to preview the event, predicting that Harris will have the more difficult task in the debate.
“I think that Trump is gonna try to tie Harris to the Biden administration. Hold her responsible for all the things that have gone wrong - inflation, Afghanistan,” Lazare began, arguing that Harris will try to “make the case that she somehow simultaneously stands for continuity and change.”
“The question is whether… Trump can block that strategy or not,” he added.
As Vice President in US President Joe Biden’s administration, Harris holds responsibility for the administration’s actions, particularly since she seems unwilling to criticize her former running mate’s policies. “Therefore, she bears political responsibility,” explained Lazare. “Regardless of the details [of] who was involved in this program, that program, her specific role with the border, but broadly speaking, she bears responsibility.”
“Trump is going to try to hammer that home at every available opportunity and I assume that he will succeed to a degree,” Lazare continued, saying that Harris will likely “hit back on democracy and abortion, but we will see how that works.”
Ultimately, Lazare said that Harris has the harder task because “all the polls show that people are really hungry for change. They feel the status quo is totally dysfunctional.” Lazare noted that the argument that Harris is both the continuity candidate and the change candidate “doesn’t make any sense” to him but that “maybe it’ll make sense to enough viewers to squeak out a victory.”
While Harris’ past as a prosecutor has led some to instinctively believe she must be capable of handling a debate, that was not evident during her 2020 presidential campaign. During democratic primary debates, she became visibly flustered when challenged on her record.
“I think she is a really poor debater. She doesn’t seem to have a command of the facts and – more importantly, she doesn’t have a command of the issues. She tends to get flustered. She launches into lengthy word salads.”
The best strategy for Harris, one that she is sure to lean on heavily during the debates, is to focus on the abortion issue. A recent poll showed Trump leading Harris by just two points in Florida, sitting just inside the margin of error and a significant drop off from Trump’s 3.7-point win over Joe Biden in the sunshine state in 2020.
One reason for the drop may be a voter initiative ballot in the state that would loosen restrictions on abortion.
“The Republicans are on very dangerous territory on the abortion issue. It’s not a popular stance,” explained Lazare. “And the Republican culture war is not popular either. Most people don’t want to ban books in libraries. Most people think it’s really, really silly. But, nonetheless, this is a central issue as far as the Republicans are concerned and they can’t let it go. So, they could well end up paying a price.”
The US Presidential debate is scheduled to begin at 9 pm EST (1 am GMT).