She is either an unproven quantity who “can’t talk”, or a well-prepared candidate ready to “destroy” her rival on stage. Voters are weighing in before the first US presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
A massive television audience is expected to tune in Tuesday to watch Democrat Harris, the current US vice-president, go toe to toe with Republican former president Trump over what both are calling the most important election of modern times.
AFP has spoken to several American voters on the campaign trail, and — no surprise here — people by and large believe the flagbearer of their party will prevail in the face-to-face showdown.
They are looking forward to discussions on policy and values, but will also be closely watching their style, composure, and presidential bearing.
“I think Trump definitely has the advantage,” Flo Eberhart, a 73-year-old retiree from Pennsylvania’s Cambria County, said at the ex-president’s recent rally in her state.
Harris “doesn’t know anything, basically, about what’s going on. She can’t talk.”
The vice-president and former California attorney-general and US senator is actually a seasoned debater.
And while she has not participated in such a showdown in four years, she earned praise for her sharp attacks when she ran for president in the 2020 cycle, including against her now-boss Joe Biden.
As for Trump, “he’s going to be absolutely fine,” Eberhart said. “There’s not one topic that Trump doesn’t know something about.”
Jamila Scales, a young Harris supporter from Nashua, New Hampshire who was on hand for the Democrat’s rally in nearby North Hampton on Wednesday, said Harris was more than capable of holding her own against Trump.
“She’s going to do well, she is going to efficiently destroy him,” Scales smiled.
“I can’t wait. I really cannot,” she said of the debate. “I believe it’s going to be an excellent day in America.”
Trump is known for his bluster and aggression on the debate stage. But Trump supporter Jimmy Taggart, a retired jack of all trades from Pennsylvania, suggested a different tack in dealing with Harris.
“All he has to do is keep quiet and she’ll hang herself, because she has nothing to go on,” Taggart said. “She did nothing for three and a half years” as vice president.
Remaining passive is not Trump’s style. He is relentlessly combative in debates, and was a looming presence behind Hillary Clinton in 2016, prowling the stage as the former secretary of state answered questions.
But Kate Thompson, a woman at the New Hampshire rally, warned against trying to intimidate Harris, a former prosecutor who has famously said: “I know Donald Trump’s type.”
“I think that Kamala Harris will show up prepared, ready to articulate her values and her positions,” Thompson said. “And I don’t think she’ll let him push her around.”
Kirk McKendree, a 54-year-old former state trooper from Altoona, Pennsylvania, said he wanted Trump to be disciplined and allow debate viewers to ponder the question: Were they better off four years ago, “before Biden took office?”
“He can address that we were in a much better place,” McKendree said.
And while Harris may be a generation younger than Biden, and more energetic than the current president, “I don’t look at her as a threat,” he added.