ATLANTA (AP) — Kamala Harris has honed an aggressive but calibrated approach to debate from her first campaigns in California to her run as President Joe Biden’s running mate.
He tries to mix punchy lines with details that build towards a larger narrative. He might shake his head to express disapproval when his opponent speaks, relying on viewers to see his reaction on split screen. And he has a good tactic for turning conversations back on himself: he says he’s happy to answer a question when he’s gathering his thoughts to explain an evolving position or defend a past one.
Tuesday’s presidential debate will put the vice president’s skills to the test unlike anything he’s faced. Harris will face former President Donald Trump, who is participating in his seventh presidential debate since 2016, in an event that will be watched by tens of millions of viewers just like early voting as November’s elections begin across the country.
People who have run against Harris and prepared her rivals say she brings a host of advantages to the matchup, though they caution that Trump can be a challenging and unpredictable opponent, swinging between policy criticism, personal attacks and lies or conspiracy theories.
“He can face the moment,” said Marc Short, who led Republican Vice President Mike Pence’s debate preparations against Harris in the fall of 2020. “He’s shown that in different settings. I’m not underestimating that in any way.”
Democrat Julian Castro, who ran for president against Harris in the 2020 primary, said Harris combined “knowledge, common sense and the ability to explain things well” to stand out in a crowded primary.
“Some candidates are too caught up in trying to be contagious, trying to spread,” Castro said. “He has found a very good balance.”
Balances narrative and detail
A former Harris aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss his approach, said the vice president views events like a jury trial or questioning a judicial nominee on Capitol Hill when he was a U.S. senator. The former aide said the idea has always been to win the debate on merit, leaving the more casual or scattered viewers to get the most important points.
“He understands that debates are about the individual interactions themselves, but also about the larger strategy of providing insight into what your leadership and style looks like,” said Tim Hogan, who moderated Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s 2020 primary debate.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor of political communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said Harris makes deductive arguments but folds them into a larger narrative — the same way he would talk to a jury.
“He presents a thesis and then follows up with fact, fact, fact,” he said.
Jamieson pointed to a 2020 vice presidential debate in which Harris decried Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy, and his most memorable 2019 primary debate, when he skewered Biden for how he had talked about race and institutional racism. He weaved his record criticism of Biden into his own biography as a young, biracial student in the early era of school integration.
“That little girl was me,” Harris said in a widely circulated joke that peppered her story about court-ordered busing to help non-white students attend integrated schools.
“Most people who are good at deductive argument aren’t good at wrapping it up with an effective narrative,” Jamieson said. “He’s good at both.”
Unforgettable blows
Castro said Harris has a good sense of when to hit, a trait he traced to his audition experience. In 2019, when several Democratic candidates were debating each other, Harris sat down before getting the Moderators to recognize him.
“Hey guys, you know what? America doesn’t want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we put food on their table,” he said, taking control of the conversation and drawing applause.
When Harris faced off against Pence in 2020, it was mostly a civilized, businesslike conversation. But he got into digs where Pence was a streak breaker, just as Trump had been in his first conversation with Biden.
“Mr. Vice President, I will speak,” he said at one point, looking stern. In another, “If you don’t want to let me finish, we can talk.”
Finding traps in politics
The debates have sometimes put Harris on the defensive.
In the 2020 primary, Tulsi Gabbard, who has endorsed Trump this year, embarrassed Harris with how aggressively she prosecuted nonviolent drug offenders as district attorney.
That fall, Pence sometimes had Harris struggle to defend Biden’s positions. Now his job is not just to defend Biden’s record, but his own role in it and what policies he would pursue as president.
Short, one of Pence’s top aides, noted that Republicans and the media have raised questions about the more liberal positions Harris has taken in his 2020 primary campaign, particularly on fracking, universal health care, reparations for slavery and the treatment of immigrants who cross the U.S. border illegally. .
“We were surprised that he lost some opportunities (against Pence) when the conversation turned to politics,” Short said.
Timing, silence and non-verbal communication
One of Harris’ earliest debate victories came in 2010 when he ran for California attorney general. His opponent was asked about his plans to accept his public pension while being paid for his current public post.
“I earned it,” Republican Steve Cooley said of the so-called “double-dipping” practice.
Harris watched quietly, somewhat amused, as Cooley explained himself. When the Moderators recognized him, he said just seven words – “Please, Steve. You deserved it!” — in a serious voice, but with a look that expressed his sarcasm. The exchange ended up in his TV commercials in a few days.
“Kamala Harris is quite effective in non-verbal communication and knows when not to speak,” Jamieson said.
The professor said Harris often shakes his head and takes a second glance to express disapproval when his opponent speaks. Then he smiles before answering or attacking in a conversational tone.
“She refutes some of the claims that Trump is a ‘nasty woman,’ that she engages in grossly unfair behavior, because her nonverbal performance actually undermines that line of attack,” Jamieson said.
Facing a new challenge with Trump
For all of Harris’ debate experience, Tuesday remains a new and massive phase. Democrats, who usually tear into Trump instead, appeared on Sunday’s news shows to make clear that Harris has a big task ahead of him.
“It takes almost superhuman focus and discipline to deal with Donald Trump in a debate,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, another Harris 2020 opponent, told CNN. “It’s not an ordinary proposition, not because Donald Trump is a master at explaining policy ideas and how they make people better. It’s because he’s a master at taking any shape or format on television and turning it into a show that’s about him.”
Castro noted that Trump has a “nasty and cunning stage presence” that makes preparation difficult. And with ABC keeping the candidates’ microphones off when they’re not speaking, it might not be as easy for Harris to produce another viral moment that depends on whether viewers have seen or heard Trump at his weirdest.
“The best thing he can do,” Castro said, “is not to interfere with his tricks.”
