OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former CNN host and contributor Chris Cillizza predicted that Vice President Kamala Harris will likely be “nervous” ahead of her debate on Tuesday with former President Donald Trump, the latter of whom has much more experience debating in recent years.
On his YouTube channel, Cillizza live-streamed and fielded questions from his followers. He suggested that while Harris might be feeling anxious, Republicans would be unwise to underestimate her, even though she hasn’t engaged in media forums as extensively as Trump.
One viewer asked: “How do you think Kamala will fare in the debate? My guess is we’ll be here next week talking about Kamala fumbling the debate.”
“I don’t know is the answer,” Cillizza began. “Look, she’s not been on this big a stage before, which, honestly, very few people have. Though I think it’s important to note – Donald Trump has been in, this will be his seventh general election presidential debate. Seventh. That’s more than anyone in history.
“So, I think there is a level of kind of comfort there for him. And she’s never been in a presidential debate before. She’s been in a vice-presidential debate, but never a presidential debate,” the former CNN personality continued during the Friday livestream.
“So, I do think she is going probably to be a little bit more nervous. I think she has more riding on it. I don’t – look – Trump has a very high ceiling in terms of voter support – excuse me, a very high floor in terms of voter support and a very low ceiling,” he continued. “He basically moves between 46 and 48 percent of the vote. He doesn’t go to 52 or 51. 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.”
WATCH:
Reports say Harris has been sequestered in Pittsburgh for several days prepping for the debate. Trump said last week he wasn’t doing much prep, though previous reports said he brought on former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to help him prepare to face off against the VP.
The debate is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. EDT on ABC.
Gabbard is advising former President Donald Trump to focus on Harris’s character, a previous report noted.
“It’s about her character,” Gabbard said during an interview with the Washington Examiner. “That was really what I exposed in that debate in 2019 when we were both candidates running for president, was her hypocrisy and how she would say one thing and do another.
“She would hold people, the people, to one standard and hold herself to a different standard. I challenged her on the record that she claimed to be proud of, and she had nothing to say to defend that record. Not much has changed between then and now,” Gabbard continued.
Gabbard’s advice contrasts with that of other Trump supporters, who are urging the former president to focus on criticizing Harris’s policies rather than her character. However, speaking at the Moms for Liberty National Summit in Washington, the Army Reserve officer argued that Trump could effectively address both aspects.
“If I can be helpful to him in any way, it really is just sharing the experience that I’ve had with her on the debate stage and how she will try to hide, deflect away from, distract away from the truth, the truth about who she is and her record, and the fact that the policies, at least so far that she has talked about just a little bit, stand diametrically opposed to her record,” she said.
“She is a fake person who cannot be trusted and who cares only about herself and her political ambition and not about the American people,” Gabbard continued.
During the interview, Gabbard offered few specifics about her role in Trump’s debate preparation for his September 10th matchup with Harris on ABC. Trump himself told reporters this week that he is “not spending a lot of time on it.”
“I think my whole life, I’ve been preparing for a debate,” Trump said. “Basically, you have to be real. You can’t cram 30 years of knowledge in your head in one week. There’s a little debate prep, but I’ve always done it more or less the same way.”
