NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP / Getty
Since learning that U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is officially his Democratic rival for vice president this fall, official Vice President Mike Pence has, almost jokingly, talked about how eager he is to meet her at the debate stage.
The only vice presidency debate is scheduled for Oct. 7 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Pence was in Arizona, aboard Air Force 2, when Biden made his announcement via Twitter, sending the TVs in flight tuned to Fox News in a breaking news announcement. About 30 minutes later, after a short motorcade ride and at his first public appearance after the news broke, Pence sent a “message” to the new addition to the Democratic ticket: “Congratulations. I’ll see you in Salt Lake City! ” he said from the stage of the Latter-day Saints for Trump campaign event.
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Pence has continued to mention the debate in appearances and events in the days since.
“I think she’s a seasoned debater, but I can not wait to come to Salt Lake City and be on stage with her,” he told Sean Hannity during an interview Wednesday night on Fox News.
Newsweek spoke with more than half a dozen political advisers and Trump campaign officials about the difficult Pence-Harris match-up and what they expect from the upcoming debate.
Biden’s campaign did not respond NewsweekHer request for comment, but in her first joint appearance with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Harris said she was ready to make her case.
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“As someone who has presented my fair share of arguments in court, the case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and closed,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
Harris, 55, and Pence, 61, are close polar opposites.
Pence, a former congressman who dropped his bid for a second term as governor of Indiana to be nominated as Trump’s vice president, has a reputation for being gentle, deeply loyal to Trump and firmly conservative. A son of the Midwest, he identifies as an evangelical Christian and Reagan Republican. He had several unsuccessful US House campaigns and became a conservative talk show host before joining Congress in 2001.
Harris is the California-born daughter of two immigrants – her mother from India and her father from Jamaica, and she grew up immersed in both the Christian and Hindu faiths and is now married to a Jewish man. She spent most of her career as a prosecutor and was the Attorney General of California before being elected to the U.S. Senate. Through the Democratic primary process, she showed all her willingness to challenge Biden – a quality he praised in her first joint appearance after the announcement.
“I asked Kamala to be the last voice in the room, to always tell me the truth that she will, pass on my assumptions if they do not agree, ask the hard questions, because that is the way we make the best decisions for the American people, “he said.
She is also seen as one of the Democratic standouts from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, with an approach by a prosecutor to ask him about meetings and discussions.
During a conversation with reporters this week, President US Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican who was briefly and falsely rumored to be a potential replacement for Pence on Trump’s side, predicted the kinds of messages the Trump campaign against Harris will use on the debate stage and beyond.
“What’s very important about this vice president’s selection is not only how radical and far left this ticket is, it’s also the fact that this is the new Democratic Party,” said Stefanik, a Trump surrogate. campaign. “This is not the Democratic Party of a decade ago or a generation ago. This is the party of Kamala Harris, of left-wing politicians out of touch with hard-working Americans in this country who will determine who wins this election. . “
Political spectators are waiting to see how the different styles of Pence and Harris come to mind when they arrive at the same stage.
“I think he should run into the debate, assuming she’s going to be as tough as she is in a courtroom,” said Brad Todd, a Republican political consultant who worked on the U.S. Sen.’s successful campaign. Josh Hawley v. The official Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri two years ago, told Newsweek. “He must be ready to strike aggression with aggression.”
For Harris, Todd said, the challenge is to focus on trying to appeal to voters.
“There are people who have a negative view of the president and Joe Biden,” he said. “Her job is to win people Joe Biden can’t win by himself.”
Two senior officials of the campaign told Newsweek that part of Pence’s repeated mention of the debate comes from the high visibility of the event and the preparations that are already underway.
Four years ago, former Wisconsin alderman Scott Walker Pence helped prepare for his lone debate against then-Democratic vice presidential nominee American senior Tim Kaine of Virginia. Pence was widely seen as the ‘winner’ of that debate.
“I think Sen. Harris will be a much more formidable opponent of debate than Sen. Kaine was,” Walker said. Newsweek. “Sen. Harris has been on the sidewalk, in the Senate, a lawyer – I just think she’s going to be very, very strong.”
More than one of the advisors Newsweek who described Pence as “Midwest Nice” – a quality Walker said he needed to keep.
“I think his best bet is who he is,” Walker said. “He is very stable and calm. He has strong convictions, but does not hit you over the head.”
Walker said that Kaine, normally seen as self-keeled and calm, assumes an unexpectedly aggressive posture when he faces Pence.
“Clearly they told him to be the attacking dog and it didn’t matter that he was comfortable with it,” Walker said.
Walker said that recently he and other Pence advisers have deeply studied Kaine’s tape from his rounds at morning shows and previous debates in his campaigns for governor and the U.S. Senate.
Harris has taken part in five Democratic debates in the past year. She has also appeared on several Sunday morning shows and there are manly images of her questioning during congressional hearings.
“It’s nice to have tape,” said Tucker Martin, a Virginia political adviser Newsweek. “The more tape you have, the better you can prepare.”
Martin notes that there are two times that the election of vice presidencies typically gets the most attention – the impetus when he or she is mentioned and then the debate.
“When it’s new, you put more emphasis on the VP choice,” he said. “The election is really not about them. It never is.”
Martin said it will be up to the Trump campaign to try to figure out how to define Harris, after sending mixed messages over the past week about whether she was too hard on crime or too liberal, and whether they alienated themselves from the left as from the moderates.
Todd said Harris’ election background in more liberal California politics and trying to appeal to Democratic primary voters presents a new challenge at a debate stage where they are trying to make an appeal on a broader basis.
“She has a lot of energy and is an exciting presenter when she’s at her game,” he said. “I think the question becomes can she adapt to a general election public.”
Walker said one of the things that was stressed four years ago is that the vice presidency debate is more nuanced because candidates constantly have to point back to the top of the map – touting their running mate or attacking of the presidential candidate of the other part.
“That’s really what it’s about,” he said. “It’s about how people come out for the sense of debate about the standard bearer of each party.”
