Accustomed to questioning witnesses in the Senate or intervening with defendants as attorney general, Kamala Harris will have to face a completely different environment during her first presidential debate with Donald Trump.
The arrival of the candidate particularly galvanized the Democratic troops who were beginning to lose hope following the very first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
“When we look at donations, there are a lot of people who gave to the Democratic campaign for the first time since Kamala Harris,” said Luc Laliberté, a specialist in American politics.
“She went looking for voters ready to make a financial commitment and then she reinvigorated the fight in her party. That was already huge, that’s what we wanted to make up for by replacing Joe Biden. Now, the hardest part remains to be done,” he nevertheless qualified in an interview with LCN on Tuesday.
Aside from the 2020 Democratic primary debate, it has been rare to see Kamala Harris in a debate situation. However, she has made several notable appearances during Senate testimony.
“We heard her repeatedly challenge the witnesses and we could see that she had a good command of the cases and was able to ask the embarrassing questions. We could see the preparation of the former attorney general who was used to intervening with defendants,” explained Mr. Laliberté.
However, conducting an interrogation before the Senate and debating the Republican candidate on television are two different things, he recalled.
The question of abortion at the heart of the debate?
For Mr. Laliberté, there is no doubt that the current vice-president will try to attack Donald Trump on the issue of abortion, on which he has not yet expressed a clear position.
This is a case that Republicans are “dragging” since the former president is responsible for the appointment of three Supreme Court justices who overturned the Roe v. Wade decision.
The “debate of a lifetime”
In 2016, the debate between former President Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton attracted nearly 84 million viewers who watched it live.
The one last June, between Joe Biden and the Republican, was only watched by a little over 50 million people, in particular because a majority of Americans did not want to see these candidates in the presidential race.
“Harris’ team may want to break the record of 84 million viewers, but they risk being higher than those of June 27,” analyzed Frédérick Gagnon, director of the Observatory on the United States at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.
“If we beat the 2016 record, it will perhaps be a sign that there is still a lot of curiosity and enthusiasm to vote for a candidacy like Harris’s and for Trump’s too,” he added.
Whatever happens, this will be the “debate of a lifetime” for Kamala Harris, who will face Donald Trump for the first time in her political life.
