The ‘debate of the century’ is tonight between Kamala and Trump. The rules:
The debate, which begins at 9 p.m. ET, is being hosted by ABC News. There will be no live audience and no opening statements, according to rules the network released last week. The two candidates will have under two minutes to deliver closing statements.
Harris and Trump won’t be able to ask questions of each other. Only the moderators — ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis — are permitted to ask questions.
The debate will last 90 minutes and feature two commercial breaks. The candidates will have two minutes to answer questions, two minutes for rebuttals and an additional minute for follow-ups and clarifications. As CBS News previously reported, Harris’ campaign agreed to let the microphones remain muted when a candidate isn’t speaking.
Similar to the first debate, the format favors Trump. The inability of the candidates to interrupt each other and the muted mics means that Trump can take this to his advantage by going off topic in his usual digressions and monologues, and Kamala cannot interject unless the moderators choose to.
As before, Trump’s optimal strategy is to shoehorn immigration, the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and inflation into every question if possible. These are her major weaknesses, and there is not much she can do to rebut them. It is demonstrably true inflation has surged even if it’s not necessarily Biden’s fault. The post-Covid economic and stock market boom would have happened regardless of who had won in 2020, and both Biden and Trump supported huge stimulus programs and the continuation of those programs into 2021.
Same for migrant crossings:
It’s hard or unpalatable to the public for Kamala to make the case that the strong post-Covid economy has led to more crossings, even if it’s an important reason.
Kamala’s best strategy is to focus on Trump’s major weakness: reproductive rights, in which he’s trapped between a rock and a hard place, that being undecided voters/moderates and his pro-life base. Same for Jan 6th and Russia. If Trump prevaricates, as he has done in the past when confronted on these topics, she can call out his evasiveness, whereas Biden failed to do so. Viewers and the media will take note of this.
Unlike the first debate, I predict it will be close. Expectation are high for both candidates, adding to the suspense. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where she does as poorly as Biden, given that presumably she is much better prepared and is actually playing with a full deck of cards. The polls will not change much, and will remain close until election night.