Washington, Sep 5 2024-
US Vice President Kamala Harris has reached Pittsburg and will spend the next five days in Pennsylvania state to prepare for the much-anticipated debate with former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia on September 10.
Harris walked off the plane solo and was greeted on the tarmac by John Fetterman, one of the two Senators from Pennsylvania, and his wife Gisele Fetterman. The Vice President stood on her tiptoes to hug Senator Fetterman, who is taller, according to a pool report.
This will be Harris’ first presidential debate and sixth for Trump, who debated Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee in 2016 three times, and Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee and challenger in 2020, twice. Both Harris and Trump have done plenty more in their respective party primaries, although Trump sat out the 2024 primaries, claiming to be far ahead of the rest, which he was.
Harris has no publicly scheduled election event in Pennsylvania but news reports suggest that she could interact with the voters.
Pennsylvania is a must-win battleground state for both Harris and Trump. The Vice Ppresident would be aiming for a repeat of the 2020 verdict when the Democratic ticket headed by Biden, with Harris as running mate, had won the state by 80,000 votes; Trump won it by more than 44,000 votes in 2016.
The September 10 debate is being hosted by ABC News, and will last 90 minutes.
The two sides had been wrangling over debate rules till recently.
Harris wanted the microphones to remain on even when the candidate is not speaking, changing the rule proposed by Biden and agreed to by Trump that the microphones be muted when the candidate is not speaking.
Biden had insisted on it to prevent a repeat of the 2020 debates when Trump kept interrupting him, not allowing him to speak.
In the first 2024 debate that took place between Trump and Biden in June, the microphones were muted when the candidates were through with their allotted speaking time.
Trump insisted on retaining the rule for the September 10 debate and Harris gave in.
Other rules agreed upon by Biden and Trump will remain in place. There won’t be a live audience in the hall. There will be only the two candidates and moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.
Trump has attacked the network and expressed doubts about the fairness of the debate. In a Town Hall hosted by Fox News on Wednesday, he said Harris’ “best friend” is the head of the network and alleged, with no evidence, “they’re going to get the questions I’ve already heard…they’re going to get the questions in advance”.
He did not name her but he might have meant Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden, who is a long time friend of Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff.
Walden oversees a number of Disney operations, including ABC News. Trump said he was doing the debate on ABC only because “they wouldn’t do any other network”. (Agency)
