What to Watch for at the Harris-Trump Presidential Debate

Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump will battle each other next week in their first televised debate, a high-stakes clash that could give the winner an advantage in the final sprint to Election Day.
For Harris, the square-off in Philadelphia on Tuesday is an opportunity to lay out her priorities and show her mettle against a rival who has belittled her intelligence and subjected her to racist and sexist attacks, Reuters reported.
Trump will get a chance to try and blunt some of Harris' momentum in a race that has tightened considerably since she became the Democratic nominee in July. Most opinion polls show Harris to be slightly ahead nationally and in the majority of battleground states, but Trump remains well within striking distance to win the Nov. 5 election. Debates can be enormously consequential, and this could be their only one. President Joe Biden dropped out of the race after a faltering performance in June. In 2016, however, Hillary Clinton was considered to be the victor in all three of her debates against Trump, but he won the election.
Here's what to watch for in the pivotal televised event:
CHANGE CANDIDATES
In an election that features a former president facing the current vice president, both candidates are somewhat paradoxically portraying themselves as "change" candidates who will upset the status quo.
Harris is seeking to take credit for the achievements of the Biden administration without being weighed down by its missteps, while also suggesting her presidency would mark a fresh start for the country. Despite four years in the White House from 2017-2021, Trump has again styled himself as an insurgent pushing back against the institutions of Washington. But he also has played up his experience on the world stage as compared to Harris, pledging for instance that he could bring to an end the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza and protect the country from a nuclear-armed North Korea or Iran.
GETTING PERSONAL
Since Harris became the nominee, Trump has questioned the authenticity of her heritage and unleashed a stream of personal attacks in speeches and social media posts, defying aides and allies who have told him to focus more on her policies.
If he repeats those attacks on the debate stage, he could alienate undecided voters, particularly those who are skeptical that he has a presidential temperament. In his 2016 debates against Clinton, Trump frequently raged at her, interrupted the moderators, pointed fingers and called her names. He tried the same tactic with Biden in 2020, leading Biden to say "Will you shut up, man?" after Trump had interrupted him several times.
Harris has largely ignored Trump's personal attacks so far. Some viewers will be watching for how she handles Trump if he brings his bullying approach to the debate stage. To show the sharpest contrast with Trump, she will have to show she won’t be pulled into the pit with him.
OPPORTUNITIES
The debate is Harris' chance to establish her own political identity for millions of Americans who tune in to watch. Harris is not as well known as the Democratic presidential candidates who most recently preceded her, which could be a huge asset in an election where voters repeatedly said they were weary of a Biden-Trump rematch.
Harris, a former California attorney general, will have a platform to show her prosecutorial skills. She could try and hold Trump accountable for his conduct after the 2020 election, including allegations that he incited a mob of followers to attack the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a last-ditch bid to remain in power.
Her courtroom experience may also enable her to rebut Trump's falsehoods in real time in a more effective way than Biden was able to during their June debate.
For Trump, the debate affords him his best chance yet to assert that Harris isn't ready to run the country and that he's the better choice for the job.
Trump likely will attack Harris over the Biden administration’s border-security policies, which failed to stop a record number of migrants from crossing into the US before being tightened earlier this year, as well as high consumer prices that Trump argues has made it harder for middle-class families to make ends meet.
He could continue to try to pin her to the chaotic US exit from Afghanistan in 2021, raising questions about whether a candidate whose campaign has relied on "joy" and "vibes" is prepared to become commander-in-chief.
VULNERABILITIES
Democrats have been saying for months that Trump has authoritarian tendencies and is a danger to democracy. Harris could repeat that line of attack as well as pressing him on his opposition to abortion, one of his most vulnerable political issues.
She will likely highlight his role in placing justices on the US Supreme Court who helped to do away with constitutional protection for the procedure and warn that women's reproductive rights would be further curtailed under a second Trump presidency. Harris' aides and advisers said she plans to focus on what her team calls Trump's failures on the US border wall, infrastructure and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Harris also may slam Trump for his economic policies during his administration, arguing he showered corporations with tax cuts and opposed raising the minimum wage. She could try to link him to Project 2025, a governing blueprint laid out by the conservative Heritage Foundation that critics say would abuse executive power. Trump has tried to distance himself from the plans.
And she might bring up Trump's felony conviction in his porn-star hush money case earlier this year as well as the allegations of sexual assault he has faced.
Trump, meantime, might remind viewers of the liberal policies Harris embraced during the 2020 presidential campaign and has now disowned, including doing away with private health insurance and supporting the so-called “Green New Deal” – a massive clean-energy program.
Harris will need strong answers on those fronts if she is to win over independent and undecided voters. She has been content to sketch much of her vision for the presidency in broad strokes. Trump - and the moderators - may force her to be more granular.
Progressives also will be looking to see if Harris differs from Biden on key issues such as the conflict in Gaza and if she would be willing to put greater pressure on the Israeli government to reach a ceasefire agreement.

When a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect last week, Lebanese hotelier Abbas al-Tannoukhi leapt at the chance to bury a dead relative in their southern hometown of Khiyam, battered for weeks by intense clashes.

Tannoukhi's cousin had been killed in one of the final Israeli airstrikes on Beirut's suburbs before Wednesday's ceasefire, which stipulated an end to fighting so residents on both sides of the border could return home.

But with Israeli troops still deployed in southern Lebanon, Tannoukhi coordinated his movements with Lebanon's army. Last Friday, he and his relatives pulled into the family graveyard in Khiyam, six km (four miles) from the border, with an ambulance carrying his cousin's body.

"We just needed 30 minutes (to bury her)," Tannoukhi, 54, said. "But we were surprised when Israeli tanks encircled us - and that's when the gunfire started."

Tannoukhi fled with his relatives on foot through the brush, wounding his hand as he scrambled between rocks and olive groves to reach safety at a checkpoint operated by Lebanese troops.

Soon afterwards, they tried to reach the graveyard again but said they were fired on a second time. Shaky footage filmed by Tannoukhi features sprays of gunfire.

"We couldn't bury her. We had to leave her body there in the ambulance. But we will try again," he told Reuters.

The ordeal highlights the bitterness and confusion for residents of southern Lebanon who have been unable to return home because Israeli troops are still present on Lebanese territory.

Israel's military has issued orders to residents of 60 southern Lebanese towns not to return home, saying they are prohibited from accessing their hometowns until further notice.

The US-brokered ceasefire deal grants both Lebanon and Israel the right to self-defense, but does not include provisions on a buffer zone or restrictions for residents.

"Why did we go back? Because there's a ceasefire," Tannoukhi said. "It's a halt to hostilities. And it is a natural right for a son of the south to go to his house."

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

PEACE OF MIND

The ceasefire brought an end to over a year of hostilities between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which began firing rockets at Israeli military targets in 2023 in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza.

Israel went on the offensive in September, bombing swathes of Lebanon's south, east and the southern suburbs of Beirut. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes.

After the 60-day ceasefire came into effect last Wednesday, residents of Beirut's suburbs returned home to vast destruction, and some Lebanese from the south were able to return to homes further away from the border.

But both sides began accusing each other of breaking the deal, with Israel saying suspicious movements in villages along the south constituted violations and Lebanon's army pointing to Israeli tank fire and airstrikes as breaches.

Mustafa Ibrahim al-Sayyed, a father of 12, was hoping to return home to Beit Lif, about two km from the border.

But nearly a week into the ceasefire, he is still living at a displacement shelter near Tyre, a coastal city about 25 km from the border.

He tried to venture home alone last week, but as soon as he arrived, there was tank fire around the town and he received a warning on his phone that his town was in the Israeli military's "no-go" zone.

Sayyed is still stuck in displacement and wants to get home.

"I hope we go back to our town so we can get peace of mind," he said.

What to Watch for at the Harris-Trump Presidential Debate