Vice President Kamala Harris is preparing for her highly anticipated Sept. 10 debate with Donald Trump by focusing on ways to unnerve the Republican candidate, all with an eye toward social media, aides and advisers said.
Harris, the Democrat nominee, last appeared on a debate stage in 2020 against then-Vice President Mike Pence, a night heavy on policy discussions and punctuated by Harris' rebuke of Pence's interruptions, yet probably remembered by most American voters for the fly that photobombed the event.
This time, Harris plans to focus on what her team called Trump's failures on the U.S. border wall, infrastructure and the COVID-19 pandemic, while hoping to avoid getting pulled into personal attacks, they said.
For their part, Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, have attacked Harris and President Joe Biden for inflation, the high number of illegal immigrants crossing on the U.S. southern border and economic proposals they said will drive up government spending. More COVID deaths occurred during Biden's term than Trump's.
Trump's personal attacks on Harris have escalated as she has edged ahead of him in national opinion polls since Biden was pushed out of the presidential race on July 21 after a disastrous performance in a June debate against Trump.
Harris has delivered a handful of policy-focused speeches, but U.S. voters will be watching closely for more details.
"Independents in swing states still need and want to hear more detailed policy proposals from her," Republican strategist Rina Shah said. "She will also need to hit back at Trump ... with facts, figures, and data on what he got wrong during his administration."
How Harris interacts with Trump is another point of interest.
"She should let him talk over her. Not just let him but goad him into spouting insane conspiracy theories about the previous election," veteran Democrat strategist James Carville wrote in a New York Times editorial Wednesday.
Harris' team believes the debate will be watched by many as video clips on social media platforms such as TikTok and X and will be looking for ways to create moments that people want to share. That includes trying to push Trump into saying things he shouldn't say, two sources said, such as potentially inflammatory or offensive remarks.
Harris has been conducting mock debates for the prime-time faceoff with Philippe Reines, a longtime adviser to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He has played the role before.
For several days before the matchup, Harris will park herself on Pennsylvania's western border in Pittsburgh, doing a mix of campaign events there before flying to Philadelphia for her first encounter with the former president.
President Barack Obama, who has been informally advising Harris, followed a similar strategy in 2012 when he was running for reelection, basing himself in the swing state of Nevada for days of prep ahead of his first debate with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in Denver.
Harris' campaign has been seeking to get under Trump's skin since she became the Democrat standard-bearer, calling him "weird," a term Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, first wielded against the Republican.
Her campaign expects the debate to be important but not necessarily move the needle in terms of how it affects public perceptions of the former president.
Trump's June debate demeanor against Biden was more measured and disciplined than some of his previous performances.
One Biden adviser, speaking to Reuters, expressed concern that Harris was getting overprepared, just as Biden was stuffed with statistics and numbers he stumbled over at the debate lectern.
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