Former President Donald Trump plans to hold Vice President Kamala Harris accountable for President Joe Biden’s “nightmare” administration at Tuesday’s presidential debate, Trump advisers said Monday.
Trump senior adviser Jason Miller, joined by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, discussed Trump’s debate strategy on a call with reporters Monday afternoon.
Trump will focus on communicating his own “record of success” and highlighting how the Biden-Harris administration has “broken this country” when he takes the debate stage in Philadelphia, Miller said. Gaetz pointed out that the “stakes are higher” for Harris since she has not been taking questions from the media, instead remaining “wrapped in bubble wrap since securing the nomination.”
“It’s very clear that Kamala Harris is the one who’s been running the country the entire time,” Miller said. “You can’t talk about turning the page when you’re the one who created our current nightmare. You just can’t.”
As “Border Czar,” Miller said, Harris is responsible for the ongoing border crisis. He highlighted her deciding vote for two stimulus bills “which led to sky-high inflation,” and noted that she boasted about being the last person in the room before Biden carried out the “disastrous” Afghanistan withdrawal.
He also referenced the Biden-Harris administration’s response to the Maui wildfires, the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment, and more.
“Every single one of these disasters are on Kamala Harris.”
“I would expect there’ll be some surprises during the debate tomorrow,” he added.
US President Joe Biden, right, and former US President Donald Trump during the first presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. (Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Miller also suggested that Harris struggles to defend her own record and will likely struggle even more to defend the records of others.
“Harris owns everything from this administration, and I will tell you, that President Trump pays attention to everything.”
Gaetz stressed that Harris will do her best to separate herself from Biden and his record. The Florida congressman also pointed out that Harris is “not some new arrival in American politics,” before listing off her “dangerously liberal” record on crime, progressive prosecutors, the border, and more.
Gabbard similarly critiqued Harris’s record on foreign policy, calling Harris’s decisions “disastrous” and accusing her of embroiling the United States in “wars spanning three continents.”
“She’s shown how little she values the relationship with Israel through her actions,” Gabbard said, noting that Harris skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress and critiquing Harris for going “back and forth” on the question of enacting an arms embargo against Israel as the country seeks to defeat Hamas.
Gabbard referenced the attempted terrorist attack that American authorities uncovered days before the anniversary of 9/11.
“Kamala Harris refuses to use the term ‘radical Islamist terrorism,’ which begs the question, how can the American people actually trust her to defeat this threat that is still ever present ideologically and militarily if she doesn’t understand it and refuses to identify it?” Gabbard asked. “You can’t.”
Harris, meanwhile, has spent the last week in a Pittsburgh hotel preparing for the debate in “highly choreographed debate practice sessions” with an adviser who is not only acting like Trump, but dressed like him, according to The New York Times.
The Times reports that Harris will try to portray Trump as a rich, “stale old act” who is focused only on helping the wealthy. Rather than tell voters that Trump is evil, Harris will reportedly try to win over undecided voters who are concerned about the economy and want to hear from both Trump and Harris on how the candidates will improve Americans’ lives.
