Kamala Harris goes to ‘debate camp’: Insiders reveal where VP’s preparation is already going ‘sideways’ as she gets ready for primetime Trump showdown_l
Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling to Pennsylvania on Thursday for a week of preparation for her pivotal debate next Tuesday with former President Donald Trump.
Advisors are keenly aware that a bad or stumbling performance could have a significant impact on her presidential campaign.
Voters have yet to hear her defend the first three years of her vice presidency and chart a path forward away from President Joe Biden.
Harris and her advisors plan to focus intently on preparing for the ABC primetime showdown after a campaign event in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
During debate preparations she will be joined by Washington, DC lawyer Karen Dunn, policy aide Rohini Kosoglu, brother-in-law Tony West, campaign chief of staff Shelia Nix, campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond, and her longtime California political strategist Sean Clegg.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her team plan to hunker down for several days to prepare for her debate
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Sources close to the Harris team tell NOTUS that Harris is a little rusty on the debate stage as ‘strategy sessions have careened sideways’ when Harris ‘focused too narrowly on minute details, effectively trailing the sessions.’
Harris began preparing for the debate three weeks in advance, holding practice sessions at Howard University in Washington, DC, before plans were set for more intense preparation sessions.
Harris and her team plan to run through full-length mock debates to make sure she is prepared and has her talking points ready.
NOTUS also reports the team is working to make sure Harris remains ‘calm’ and ‘presidential’ on the debate stage, even if Trump comes out with vicious attacks.
US Vice President Kamala Harris greets an audience at the White House as she holds prepared notes
Candidates former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Kamala Harris on the second night of the second 2020 Democratic U.S. presidential debate in Detroit, Michigan, July 31, 2019.
Too much preparation, however, can be a danger. Biden participated in vigorous debate sessions for nine days prior to his first debate with Trump, but lacked energy and stamina to deliver an effective debate performance.
Harris has a mixed debate record, at times coming off perfectly poised and prepared, as she did when she attacked Biden during a Democratic 2020 primary debate about his remarks about segregationists.
But she has also stumbled, for example, when she was attacked by her primary opponent Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on her record as a prosecutor in California.
Harris and her team were mostly satisfied with her vice president debate performance with Mike Pence, even though it was largely overshadowed by the media buzz over a fly that landed on Pence’s head for three minutes.
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Vice President Kamala Harris from a Democratic primary debate in 2019
Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris prepares to depart at Pittsburgh International Airport
Trump, however, represents her greatest challenge — one that she has dreamed of for several years.
Former Harris communications director Jamal Simmons advised Harris’ team to get aggressive with the vice president during the debate preparation sessions.
‘[S]omebody’s gotta be the a**hole here,’ he said. ‘Somebody’s got to sit there and really pepper her and get her to get annoyed and aggravated because that’s probably what Trump’s gonna do. And what you want her to do is work out that aggravation in prep and not do it when she’s on stage.’
Despite her willingness to debate, Harris and her team are still trying to negotiate the rules of the debate with ABC News, according to a Harris campaign source speaking to NBC News.
Among the criteria up for discussion is whether the opponent’s microphone is muted when the other candidate is speaking.
Trump and his team anticipate that Harris is preparing to interrupt him to try and ‘fact check’ his statements.
The former president, however, is aware of Harris and her propensity to get lost into so-called ‘word salads’ while speaking publicly.
‘She has bad moments. The way she talks,’ Trump told broadcaster Tucker Carlson in a recent interview, imitating comments the vice president made about school buses. ‘It’s weird. The whole thing is weird.’
