WAS SHINGTON – Vice Presidents Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris is expected to take to the stage of discussion on Wednesday night against an extraordinary background that has fueled the fact that presidential elections have become a regular and inconsistent affair for decades.
No vice president has discussed when the president is reported to be ill and possibly still in hospital. There has never been more of a discussion of two presidential candidates than when Americans think about how Americans can take everyone to the top job rather than cursory.
Presidential historian Michael Bashklos said the vice president’s controversial remarks are often overlooked and then forgotten a few days later. “But this year it could be different.”
The debate in Salt Lake City focused on President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in their inaugural talks last week and after the country showed chaos as the global epidemic and recession hit the economy.
Presidential allies, in particular, were looking to prepare Pence just 27 days before the election.
“He needs to perform very well, and he needs to find a way to win,” said one teammate.
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A poll by the National NBC News / Wall Street Journal released on Sunday showed that Biden’s lead over the president rose to 14 points after the debate, with voters saying from 2 to 1 that Biden did better than Trump.
In the weeks before Trump tested positive for coronavirus and was hospitalized, Pence and Harris spent hours preparing for their discussion – drilling holes in policy briefing books, reacting to expected attacks, and holding lengthy mock sessions.
The two spent the weekend preparing for Wednesday’s discussion, which was yet to take place face-to-face. Harris was in Salt Lake City on Friday, while Pence, who is in Washington, is expected to travel to Utah on Monday.
Instead of a 7-foot separation from the original, according to three people familiar with the plan, they will be planted next to 12 feet.
Aides to Pence and Harris said the president’s health did not significantly change his approach to the debate but that it had forced him to reconsider his tone.
For Harris, that means criticizing Trump for managing the epidemic in this way is itself sensitive to his fight with the virus.
And Pence now enters the debate over whether Trump’s repeated outbreaks of the epidemic – and the flurry of public health recommendations – while ill after Trump and a growing number of other Republicans have followed the White House lead.
Tone was already focusing on the Pence and Harris teams. How candidates were practiced to avoid seeing each side as potential pitfalls related to race and gender, both would naturally be part of the discussion.
Harris is the only woman or person of color on both tickets.
Pence’s preparations include the best practice of criticizing Harris in the best way possible without making false statements that he acts in a disrespectful or sexist manner. People familiar with the preparations said the importance of a respectful tone is emphasized. Or, as one colleague put it, Pence is being advised not to “attack a woman.”
There has also been an attempt to mix Pence’s discussion into the team. Most of the key players in his inner circle are white men. Trump aides have suggested they include others in the preparations, such as Pam Bondi, who has known Harris for six years, both serving as attorney general in Florida, Bondi in Florida and Harris in California.
Some of Trump’s advisers thought it would be more appropriate for Bondi to play Harris in a mock session than former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is involved and Sen. Tim Cain, D-Wa. People familiar with the discussions did not know if Bondi had joined the team, and she and Pence’s office did not respond.
Harris ’preparations have taken into account how to make a coercive case against Trump and Pence without fueling potential stereotypes surrounding gender and race. His colleagues have advised him to walk that line, although Harris is familiar with the dynamic, running for statewide position and has been a presidential candidate.
Democrat 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has advised Harris to be “firm and effective” for her rebuttal but to “do it in a way that intimidates or keeps voters away.”
Susan Page, USA Today and Washington Washington bureau chief – Harris’s colleagues said it could not do much harm – the discussion will be conducted by a woman.
Pence’s aides have tried to keep the details of his preparations secret, instructing outside allies not to discuss them with the media. Pence told Trump supporters Thursday that he “plans to take the fight on the Biden-Harris agenda.” The assumption is that Harris is involved in trying to define Biden as a pulling force to the left of the Democratic Party.
According to people familiar with the matter, Harris is preparing to focus on Trump and introduce Pence as an accomplice in his boss’s mistakes.
“This discussion is about Donald Trump. This discussion is not about Mike Pence,” said a person familiar with his preparations. “It’s complicated by Donald Trump’s failures.”
And, Harris’s ally said, he could make the case that even a member of the vice president’s own team agrees, while Pence’s former aide Olivia Troy spoke out against Trump handling the coronavirus.
Harris’ advisers expect a good discussion on Pence. They see him as an effective debater, saying he beat Kane in 2016. They also see Pence’s innate, equivalent behavior as a challenge to Harris, arguing that their delivery is difficult because they are wrong.
“We are preparing to discuss the liar, but lying with a smile,” said a person familiar with his preparations, adding that Harris would try to strike a balance between criticizing Trump’s record and outlining what the president would do.
Pence has held several discussion sessions, some of which stretch for hours. Harris’s preparations have largely been at his Washington offices fee. He uses an index card, and some of his teammates play pence in mock sessions, including former South Band, Indiana, Mayor Pete Battingig, according to someone familiar with the matter.
Both campaigns expect that after the Trump-Biden debate, more candidates could watch the vice president’s debate to try to find out what each candidate’s agenda really is. They also expect Wednesday’s discussion to be much less contradictory than the talks between Biden and Trump.
Pence and Harris are preparing to take the same post-debate approach as Trump and Biden, with plans to hit the campaign trail on Thursday. The Trump campaign announced that Pence would hold events in several states. Harris is campaigning in Arizona with Biden.
