Former CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza said Friday that he thinks the upcoming presidential debate will mean more for Vice President Kamala Harris than it will for former President Donald Trump.
Trump and Harris are scheduled to appear in ABC News' only presidential debate on Tuesday. YouTube Channel While Trump's approval ratings are unlikely to change significantly after the debate, Harris said there may be “further movement.” (Related article: The Trump campaign's simple plan to destroy Kamala Harris: Take her off script)
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“She's never been on a stage this big before, and honestly, very few people have been able to do that, but I think it's something to look out for… This is [Trump’s] “Seventh… general election presidential debate. Seventh. That's more than anybody in history,” Cillizza said. “So I think that gives him some comfort. And she's never been to a presidential debate before. She's been to a vice presidential debate, but she's never been to a presidential debate.”
“So I think she'll probably be a little bit more nervous. I think she'll sway the outcome more…Trump has a very high floor and a very low ceiling in terms of voter support, basically hovering between 46% and 48%,” he continued. “He's not going to get to 52% or 51%. He's not going to get to 40%. So I don't know how his numbers will move. I think she'll potentially move more. But I don't think she'll fail.”
Newsmax political analyst Mark Halperin on Friday warned Republicans not to underestimate how VP Harris might perform in the debate, arguing that she's “performed pretty well” in previous debates.
“Some Republicans are hoping that she'll ruin the debate. That could happen, but given her history as a debater, I don't think that's going to happen,” he said.
Harris' campaign on Wednesday agreed to a request by the Trump campaign for the same microphone muting restrictions that CNN implemented during his June 27 debate with President Joe Biden. Trump challenged the vice president to two more debates during a Mar-a-Lago news conference in August, but the ABC debate is the only officially scheduled showdown.
Harris has frequently spoken from a script and has only given one sit-down interview since she launched her campaign on July 21. She was accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash that lasted just 30 minutes.
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