Kamala Harris’ camp ‘nervous’ about Trump ahead of the debate as campaign stalls: ‘I’m hearing quite a lot of concern’
Kamala Harris‘ team is getting ‘nervous’ ahead of her showdown with Donald Trump according to sources close to her campaign.
Insiders, including a campaign strategist, reportedly told BBC US Special Correspondent Katty Kay of their concerns in a series of frantic texts and phone calls.
‘I’m picking up quite a lot of nervousness by the way on the state of the race,’ Kay said during an episode of The Rest is Politics: US podcast.
‘I’m getting a lot of Democrats texting me, I had a long call yesterday with a strategist and I can fill you in a bit more. But I’m getting a lot of nervousness from some Democrats.’
Meanwhile, Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci added that he believes Harris’ campaign is stalling.
Kamala Harris ‘ team is getting ‘nervous’ ahead of her showdown with Donald Trump according to sources close to her campaign
A recent New York Times poll also placed Trump with a narrow lead two days ahead of their first presidential debate.
‘The issue for the Vice President’s campaign is where is the campaign? Yes she is going to rallies, yes she is speaking off prompter at rallies,’ Scaramucci said.
‘But there is another element to the campaign, there is a softer element and there is a confrontational element.’
He explained that while Harris was excelling on the ‘softer’ side such as meet-and-greets and interactions with the public, there is an appetite to see her in more heated scenarios.
‘The general public will say, “Can a race be won off a teleprompter?” And “Can a race be won in the United States with holding press appearances?” I don’t know if that is the case and it also creates a lot of murkiness around policies,’ he added.
The sentiment was echoed by Chris Cilizza, former politics reporter of left-leaning CNN, who said that Harris’ lack of presidential debate experience could have her spooked.
‘I do think she is going probably to be a little bit more nervous,’ he told Mediaite.
‘I think she has more riding on it. Trump has a very high floor in terms of voter support and a very low ceiling.
‘He basically moves between 46 and 48 percent of the vote. He doesn’t go to 52 or 51.
Commentators have pointed out that Trump has past presidential debate experience as an advantage over Harris
‘He doesn’t go to 40. So I don’t know how his numbers move. I think she has potentially more movement there. I don’t think she’ll fumble it, though.’
Harris has been holed up in a hotel in Pittsburgh preparing for the showdown in Philadelphia next week.
Insiders told the New York Times that she had enlisted the help of Trump stand-in, complete with trademark suit and tie, to practice her debate tactics with.
Trump meanwhile is said to be holding more ad-hoc ‘policy sessions’ to help him refresh his memory on his record while in office.
With just two months until Election Day, Harris and Trump enter the final stretch with a nonsignificant polling split.
But despite the tiny gap, the results show a shifting back towards the former president after Harris entered the race at the end of July.
Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said Harris needs to demonstrate her confrontational side more
Just two days until the presidential nominees’ first debate, a New York Times/Siena College poll puts Trump 1 percent ahead of the vice president – 48 percent to 47 percent – within the survey’s 3-point margin of error.
The latest was conducted September 3-6 and is largely unchanged from the same national survey of likely voters taken in late July after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed his No. 2.
Notably, the polling suggests that despite Harris’ ‘honeymoon phase,’ support for Trump’s bid for a second, nonconsecutive White House term remains strong.
