Vice President Kamala Harris is hours away from once again making history on Tuesday night. Harris will meet former President Donald Trump on the debate stage in what may be the only Presidential debate before the election. And as she steps onto that stage, Harris will become the first woman of color in a national presidential debate.
Her appearance comes weeks after officially accepting the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. It also comes weeks after Trump and his team began ramping up racist and misogynistic attacks against her.
And those attacks may underscore the hurdles Harris must overcome to become the perceived winner of the debate.
Harris spent much of her career as a prosecutor, daily making her case to courtrooms in California. She then went on to become the attorney general and US Senator of the largest state in the country. All of this, of course, before becoming the first woman to ever serve as Vice President.
And yet on Monday night, an opinion piece published in The Washington Post questioned whether Harris and Trump were better debaters “than a fifth grader”.
Another article from the Financial Times said Harris “has to dazzle” in the debate.
“The Democratic candidate badly needs a breakthrough to restore momentum to her campaign,” columnist Gideon Rachman wrote.
Rachman went on to criticize Harris for having her running mate join her for a recent CNN interview. He claimed it suggested Harris had “a lack of confidence”.
“[It’s] as if the would-be president needed a chaperone to get through some rather gentle questioning.”
Harris preparing to take on Trump on debate stage
Harris, much like Clinton in 2016, must deliver near perfection in the debate in order to avoid severe scrutiny. Meanwhile, her convicted, twice-impeached male opponent will likely provide a litany of lies and little substance, but still not see his polls fluctuate.
Harris knows this – and has spent the last several days in Pittsburgh preparing for the debate. When asked by reporters over the weekend if she was prepared to take on Trump, Harris gave a thumbs up and simply said “ready”.
The Vice President is expected to push back on Trump’s false statements and underscore the danger of another Trump term, while laying out her own domestic agenda.
Tens of millions of Americans are expected to tune into the debate on ABC at 9pm ET on Tuesday night.