ABC News is set to host the debate Tuesday at 9 p.m.
Topline
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to debate Tuesday for the first time in what is widely considered the most important night of the 2024 campaign so far, as the two are in a neck-and-neck contest less than two months before Election Day—setting the stage for a litany of attacks by both candidates.Key Facts
Harris offered some hints about her approach to the debate in an interview with radio host Rickey Smiley released Monday, saying she expects “a lot of untruth” from Trump during the debate and she plans to “point out . . . he tends to fight for himself, not for the American people, and I think that’s going to come out during the debate.”
Harris plans to reiterate her economic policy proposals but is not expected to debut any new ones, an unnamed source , adding she will also talk about her middle-class upbringing and prior career as a prosecutor—alluding to the challenge she faces as the truncated campaign timeline has left many voters feeling uninformed about who Harris is.
The vice president is also expected to contrast her background with Trump’s, ABC says: She has repeatedly cast the race as prosecutor versus felon, an attack line Trump’s staffers told The they’re preparing for, and her campaign debuted a new ad Monday featuring former Vice President Mike Pence and other ex-Trump officials criticizing their former boss while the narrator calls Trump “a danger to our troops and our democracy.”
She’s also likely to attack him over his role in Roe v. Wade’s reversal and the fallout from the ruling, along with the controversial Project 2025 agenda widely considered by Democrats as an extreme proposal that would give the executive branch outsize power—both issues are featured on the newly debuted policy page on her website (Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, which was written partly by ex-Trump staffers).
Trump will attack Harris on the border and the economy, directly linking her to the Biden administration’s policies, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told The New York Times about his debate strategy, adding in a statement Trump will raise the frequent GOP allegation that she’s deliberately avoided media interviews since she entered the race.
Trump is also preparing to attack some of Harris’ stances as a state-level prosecutor, and will highlight Harris’ more left-leaning record during her 2020 presidential primary campaign, such as her backing of Medicare For All and her previous endorsement of a fracking ban, which she has since walked back, an unnamed Trump adviser told The .
