OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman stated that Tuesday’s ABC News Presidential debate in Philadelphia will be “close,” acknowledging that both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are capable of competing in a discussion.
During an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Fetterman was asked what Harris needed to do in the debate to win over important Pennsylvania voters in the battleground state.
“I also want to just say that it’s going to be a straight-up debate. She’s going to do great, of course, but Donald Trump will be good, too,” Fetterman said.
“I mean, we can all remember he wrecked all of the Republicans. He’s a good debater. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe this debate’s going to be definitive because it’s going to come down to this choice, and it’s going to be close,” Fetterman continued.
Fetterman said Pennsylvania “is always going to be close” in terms of votes during the presidential election, and thinks that the focus of voters will be on “order” versus “chaos.”
“I think a majority of Pennsylvanians are going to decide, ‘Hey, I want four years of order and fairness and unity and a different way forward.’ And I don’t think they want the kinds of dark days and chaos that Donald Trump provided for our nation,” the senator said.
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Sen. Fetterman: “I think you match up Trump and Harris, which I think that’s really what this is really about, and I do believe he’s going to win Pennsylvania.”
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 7, 2024
Sen. John Fetterman makes prediction for Trump and Harris debate: ‘It’s going to be close’ https://t.co/oSlJmpTKhf
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) September 8, 2024
Panelists on Fox News’s “The Big Weekend Show” discussed the established rules of the upcoming ABC News presidential debate between Trump and Harris.
“Tour de force aren’t going to be what you hear from the headlines, because the campaign’s already downplaying her performance before it even happens,” Fox News national correspondent Griff Jenkins said.
“[The Trump campaign] offered her three debates, which is really out of respect for the American people and the voters [for candidates] to earn their vote on Election Day,” Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich said.
“We’ve always had three debates, right? One is this format that we’re going to see on Tuesday night, one is a town hall debate, and then one focuses on foreign policy,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha said. “[Harris] was offered a Fox News debate, and she would not take that debate because Bret Baier [and] Martha MacCallum are going to ask germane, relevant, tough questions. She wants no part of that whatsoever.”
The Trump-Harris debate on Tuesday will model the one that took place in June between Trump and President Joe Biden, with one candidate’s microphone being live while they respond to questions and the other’s being muted until it is their turn to speak.
Additionally, according to ABC News, Trump and Harris will each have two minutes to respond to questions. There will then be a rebuttal period of two minutes, and there will be “an additional minute for a follow-up, clarification, or response.”
No contender will be permitted to enter the stage with pre-written notes, and each competitor’s closing remarks will be limited to 120 seconds.
Neither side will be allowed to make an opening statement.
“These are the rules that the Biden-Harris campaign agreed to. And if I’m Donald Trump, I’d nail this over and over again – if you’re going to fix all the problems in this country that your administration created, why haven’t you done it already,” Concha continued. “[They] own this, [Trump is] not the incumbent, [Harris] is the incumbent – that’s what Donald Trump should hammer.”
“It is patently absurd to let [Harris] get to this point in the process, with no real interviews, with no real questions, no follow-up questions, and I anticipate that they will be very pleased with her performance, no matter what the performance is. And that’s a huge advantage that Democrats have over Republicans in this propaganda environment,” Fox News’ Mollie Hemingway said.
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