The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
Whatever else Kamala Harris has done to prep for tonight’s debate with Donald Trump, she’s already shown that she knows how to handle his provocations: Swat them away like the small, familiar gnats they mostly are.
“Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” was all Harris had to say when CNN’s Dana Bash asked her on Aug. 29 about Trump’s asininity that Harris had chosen to “turn Black,” and it was all his diss deserved. Trump’s whole schtick, including the race-baiting, has gotten tiresome, even for some voters who twice supported him.
And that’s how Harris should react: She’s tired of his tripe; aren’t we? All the better for her, the incumbent vice president, to pull off the trick of seeming like a fresh change agent next to America’s crazy uncle, its bar stool bigot.
One thing’s for certain: The tableau of the two nominees on stage will be a far cry from the fogeys face-off between Trump and President Joe Biden in June. Trump was terrible in that encounter but Biden was worse, addled and looking older than his 81 years.
Trump didn’t beat Biden, for all his shameless hawking of remnants of the “knockout suit” he wore that night. Biden beat Biden. Now Harris needs to bring her prosecutorial best to Philadelphia, let the few undecided voters get more familiar with her, show some policy chops and not take his bait. Let Trump beat Trump.
Merely ignoring his performative bullying has limits, however. Harris can score points with a well-executed clapback or three, putting Trump on his heels or provoking him into a tirade. Among the what-ifs of past presidential debates was Hillary Clinton’s failure to challenge Trump as he stalked her during their town hall-style showdown in 2016.
For the second time in three presidential bids, Trump, the misogynist in chief, confronts a woman as his rival, and now a woman of color to boot. Any other male candidate would have to take care not to be offensive or patronizing. But not Trump. In-your-face affronts are his M.O., and his voters love it. That and aggrievement. He has whined for weeks that he’s not facing Biden again, muttering nonsense about how Democrats staged a coup. Now he confronts this smart, vibrant woman he’s never even met. I smell fear.
In the weeks after Biden dropped out of the race, Trump fulminated and threatened to skip debating the president’s replacement. Harris taunted him at her rallies, with that laugh that so gets under his thin skin: “As the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face.”
A little taunting is good. Tonight, she could school Trump on how to pronounce her name. If he trots out his new nickname for her, “Comrade Kamala,” she could come back with a bemused put-down of the dated Cold Warrior rhetoric, and note the irony of Vladimir Putin’s pal calling her “comrade.”
Trump will surely repeat his stump-speech attacks on Harris for flip-flopping on liberal positions, such as her 2019 opposition to fracking, which is important in battleground Pennsylvania. After a quick counter — say, about how her current stances represent appropriate compromise now that she’s been in the government for nearly four years — how about slamming Trump for his still pinballing positions on abortion?
The policy-phobic Trump is sure to serve up unresponsive word salads to questions on substantive issues, like his two-minute gibberish at the New York Economic Club to a query about how to make child care affordable. It’s worth watching the whole thing to see him inanely conflate the nation’s tariff revenues (using false claims) with families’ child care costs.
Trump’s falsehoods about his record are so familiar that Harris should be well-prepared with concise fact-checks, as Biden wasn’t, especially on issues such as the economy and immigration, where he has an edge.
Puncture his pompousness. Get out the fly swatter for the gnats. Cue the laugh. But most of all, show the persuadable voters what a serious presidential candidate looks and sounds like.
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