The Trump campaign believes there's an easy way to beat Vice President Kamala Harris in November: by coaxing her to say off-script things in front of voters and reporters.
Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, rumors have been circulating about whether former President Donald Trump would debate Harris, after Trump said on ABC News that he was “not excited” about the debate and after his campaign suggested that a September debate with Biden would be invalid. Ironically To Trump: “What happened to 'Anytime, Anywhere'?”
What happened to “Anytime, Anywhere”? https://t.co/HlR6UmlZxx
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 26, 2024
But Trump has said he feels obligated to debate Harris and would “absolutely” do so, and a person with knowledge of the former president's thinking said current rumors about whether the debate will take place are only adding fuel to the fire.
“This is like a pre-game,” a source familiar with the campaign planning told The Daily Caller. Trump allies also suggested that Trump is waiting to see whether Harris will agree to debate on Fox News instead of ABC.
“So they clearly understand that he's going to have to debate her, and debate her multiple times,” one Trump supporter said. “It's certainly not her forte.”
Many Trump allies and campaign officials said a Trump-Harris debate would play right into their hands, as they wanted Harris to speak off-script in front of a large audience. They told Caller that Harris' gaffes and awkward moments in interviews and live events would alienate voters, which ultimately hurt Biden's reelection.
“Every time Kamala Harris opens her mouth, she goes off script. Her record is the most dangerous liberal record in existence, and no amount of script writing is going to change that,” Trump campaign official Chris LaCivita told the Caller. (Related article: Trump says he will “absolutely” debate Kamala Harris, and that there will be “more than one” debate.)
Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes said the more Harris details her background, the better it will be for Trump.
“Biden has acted like a California liberal, and Kamala is, and the more she is forced to explain her dangerously liberal record, the more the American people will understand that she is wrong on the border, wrong on fixing out-of-control inflation and restoring our country to a strong position in the world,” Hughes said.
Harris has faced issues with unscripted interviews during her time as vice president. In a 2021 interview with Lester Holt, she repeatedly dodged questions about her visit to the southern border in a way that was reportedly so damaging it forced her team to change her entire media strategy.
In a 2022 interview with Chuck Todd, Harris said the U.S.-Mexico border is “secure” despite record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. In another 2021 interview, interviewMs Harris said she was the only one in the room when Mr Biden decided to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and was pleased with the decision. Thirteen US troops were killed during the withdrawal, marking a turning point in Mr Biden's approval ratings from which the president has never recovered.
“She has to perform on the campaign trail. She's running for president now. She's the Democratic candidate. She can't hide in a closet. She can't hide in a basement,” one Trump supporter told The Caller. “She has to make sure she doesn't make mistakes and say crazy things. First of all, she has to be coherent, and that's often a problem for her.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris holds a press conference after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC on July 25, 2024. (Photo by Robert Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
A Trump spokesman made it clear the campaign believes Harris' record speaks for itself, regardless of any gaffes she may have made during the debate. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: New Trump rally video slams Kamala for promoting Minnesota's dangerous bail fund)
“If Kamala Harris were to run, it would certainly give Americans a chance to see just how dangerously liberal she is, but would she need to do that to win? No. She's not even the nominee yet, but the Harris-Biden record of failure speaks for itself,” they said.
Carolyn Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign Said Daily Caller editor Vince Corianese said on a radio show Friday that Harris is “frankly as incompetent as Joe Biden” and that she has “a terrible ability to speak fluently and in serious sentences.”
“I think her laugh is offensive to a lot of Americans, but not only that, but the strings of words she used that were repeated over and over, even in the most serious situations where she was meeting with foreign leaders, were really just foolish and a mockery of this country. And it's her record that she'll have to explain again,” Leavitt added.
Ms. Harris has gotten off to a strong start as the presumptive nominee, raising record-breaking money and electrifying Democrats with speeches delivered from a teleprompter that Mr. Biden could not deliver, but as with Mr. Biden, the real test will come when there are no safeguards, like debate nights and tough prime-time interviews.
