The Trump campaign believes there is an easy way to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris in November: get her off-script in front of voters and reporters.
There have been rumblings since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race about whether or not former President Donald Trump would debate Harris, fueled by Trump’s comment he wasn’t “thrilled” about debating for ABC News and the campaign’s indication that a previously agreed-upon September debate with Biden is null and void. Harris has even quipped back at Trump, “What happened to ‘any time, any place?'”
What happened to “any time, any place”? https://t.co/HlR6UmlZxx
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 26, 2024
However, Trump has also said he does feel an obligation to debate Harris and will “absolutely” do so, and according to individuals familiar with the former president’s thinking, the current chatter about whether the debate will happen or not is more smoke than fire.
“This seems like the game before the game,” one source familiar with the campaign’s plans told the Daily Caller. A Trump ally also indicated that Trump is holding out to see if Harris will agree to debate on Fox News rather than ABC.
“”I mean, clearly they understand he’s going to have to debate her and is going to debate her more than once,” one Trump ally said. “Yeah, that’s not something she excels at, that’s for sure.”
A number of allies close to Trump and some officials on his campaign said a debate between Trump and Harris plays right into their hands due to their desire to get her off-script in front of large audiences. Her penchant for gaffes and awkward moments in interviews and live events will help drive voters away, they told the Caller. After all, that’s what ultimately killed Biden’s reelection bid.
“Every time Kamala Harris opens her mouth she’s off-script. Her record is the most dangerously liberal record in existence and no amount of scripting can change that,” Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign official, told the Caller. (RELATED: Trump Says He Will ‘Absolutely’ Debate Kamala Harris, Says He Would Do ‘More Than One’)
Trump campaign spokesperson Brian Hughes said the more Harris has to explain her record, the better it will be for Trump.
“Biden acted like a California liberal, Kamala actually is one. The more she’s forced to explain her dangerously liberal record, the more Americans will see she’s wrong on the border, wrong for fixing out of control inflation, and wrong on restoring our nation to a strong position in the world,” Hughes said.
Harris has run into problems during her time as vice president during unscripted interviews. In a 2021 interview with Lester Holt, Harris repeatedly dodged questions about visiting the southern border, resulting in a viral moment so damaging that it reportedly prompted her team to change their entire media strategy.
In a 2022 interview with Chuck Todd, Harris said that the U.S.-Mexico border is “secure” despite record numbers of illegal aliens crossing into the U.S. In another 2021 interview, Harris said she was the last one in the room when Biden made the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, saying she felt comfortable with the decision. Thirteen American servicemembers were killed during the withdrawal, and it marked a turning point in Biden’s approval rating that the president never recovered from.
“She has to perform on the stump. She’s now running for president. She’s the presumptive Democratic nominee. Can’t hide her in the closet, can’t hide her in the basement,” one Trump ally told the Caller. “She’s got to not make mistakes and not say crazy things. She has to make sense, first of all, which is often a problem for her.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the press following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Vice President’s ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on July 25, 2024. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
One Trump spokesperson did clarify that the campaign believes Harris’ record speaks for itself, whether she has a gaffe-filled debate appearance or not. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: New Trump Rally Video Scorches Kamala For Pushing Dangerous Minnesota Bail Fund)
“If Kamala Harris hits the campaign trail, it’s certain that America will get the chance to see how dangerously liberal she is, but do we need her to do that to win? No. She’s not even the nominee, but Harris-Biden’s record of failure speaks for itself,” they said.
Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Daily Caller editor Vince Coglianese on his radio show Friday that Harris is “just as frankly incompetent as Joe Biden was” and “she has a very hard time speaking fluid, serious sentences.”
“Her laugh is something that I think is distasteful to a lot of Americans. But not only that, her word salads, which we’ve seen again in numerous occasions, even in the most serious of times when she’s meeting with foreign leaders, she really made a fool of herself and a mockery of this country. And it is her record again that she is going to need to answer for,” Leavitt added.
Harris has been quick out of the gate since becoming the presumptive nominee, raising record-breaking sums of money and delivering teleprompter-driven stump speeches Biden was incapable of that have excited Democrats. But like with Biden, the real test will come when there’s no safety net, like on a debate night or during a tough interview in primetime.
