Tomorrow night the first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will take place. It will be the second debate of the year, but you know how the first one went for Joe Biden.
The Harris campaign wanted fully open mics during the debate and it looks like they thought they were going to get their way, but now they're scrambling, according to Politico:
"Kamala Harris had planned to object, fact-check, and directly question Donald Trump while he was speaking during their debate next week.
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 8, 2024
But now, with rules just finalized to mute the candidates when their opponents speaks, Harris advisers are scrambling to rewrite their…
It looks like there's a lowering of expectations going on:
Harris team moves to soften potential debate impact 'before it even happens' and more top headlines https://t.co/iEtTuwM9t5
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 9, 2024
It looks like the Harris team is already blaming Joe Biden's people for any potential debate problems caused by Kamala's inability to talk over and interrupt Trump:
Instead, four Harris campaign officials argued that she will be “handcuffed” by the rules, which were negotiated by President Joe Biden’s team earlier this summer.
“Trump’s worst moments in the debates are when he gets upset and snaps,” said an aide to Harris in her 2020 presidential campaign, granted anonymity to speak freely. “And they have neutered that.”
Some Democrats privately dismiss the Harris campaign’s frustration as largely gamesmanship and expectation-setting around Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia. But others say the rule change and her limited experience in national general election debates and interviews since becoming her party’s nominee could affect Harris’ debate performance.
Harris is trying to distance herself from Biden but she's stuck with these debate rules just like the rest of us are stuck with Bidenflation.
They're already making excuses. https://t.co/cESIBR3PoN
— JWF (@JammieWF) September 9, 2024
Harris is burdened by what was it seems
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) September 8, 2024
It's almost as if the Harris campaign was desperate to find a way to keep Kamala from having to talk about anything of substance.
They prepped her thinking ABC would cave and change the rules instead of prepping her for the actual rules.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 9, 2024
Just genius stuff. Incredible. https://t.co/dz6Z4hN7Z1
The Biden-Harris campaign thought they were so smart to propose muted mics and no audience. Trump agrees to everything in May. Turns out that plays to Trump's advantage. And no Team Kamala is stuck talking about (gasp) policy. https://t.co/KssvMvjRmd
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) September 8, 2024
The last thing the Harris campaign wants is Kamala having to talk about policy instead of repeated opportunities to do her "Girl Boss" thing while selling a few "I'm speaking" t-shirts.
Now she actually has to answer questions. lol https://t.co/EHjmGrLvqA
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) September 8, 2024
Perish the thought!
She’ll have to show up and win on her own merit now. Yikes.
— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) September 9, 2024
Harris hadn’t planned to do anything. This is a lie to lower expectations so that all she has to do is perform okay to exceed them. https://t.co/hngpeXCtZY
— Aimee Terese (@aimeeterese) September 8, 2024
Yes, there's a whole lot of this going on:
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