President Joe Biden said that Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris seemed “calm, cool and collected” ahead of the presidential debate with former President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
In a White House pool report from New York Post reporter Steven Nelson, Biden said: “I’ve spoken to the vice president. She seems calm, cool and collected. I think she’s going to do great. And I’m not going to tell you what advice I gave her.”
The highly anticipated debate in Philadelphia arrives after the campaigns wrangled while determining if the September 10 debate would even occur, and over the rules for each nominee. Trump and Harris issued statements on social media, achieving accord on the debate, with Trump noting on August 27, “I have reached an agreement with the Radical Left Democrats for a Debate with Comrade Kamala Harris. It will be Broadcast Live on ABC FAKE NEWS, by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business.”
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President Joe Biden, right, and Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, left, embrace on stage after his farewell speech in Chicago on August 19. Biden on Tuesday said Harris seemed “calm, cool and collected” ahead of the presidential debate with former President Donald Trump.
Getty Images/AFP
The Harris campaign said in a letter obtained by the Associated Press (AP), while mentioning Trump’s previous comments on potentially rejecting the debate: “We understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format,” highlighting the ABC News rule mandating a muted microphone for the non-speaking candidate, according to AP. “We accepted the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones,” the Harris campaign added.
Polls released this week show the race for the Oval Office could not get any closer, as national surveys unveiled a deadlock between the candidates. In a Pew Research Center poll released on Monday, Harris and Trump both have 49 percent support among registered voters. The margin of error for the poll is 1.3 percent. A New York Times and Siena College poll released on Sunday also showed a neck-and-neck race, with Trump edging Harris 48 percent to 47 percent among likely voters.
FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker still shows Harris ahead nationally, 47.2 points to Trump’s 44.4 points, with the pollster’s forecast showing she is projected to win 277 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 261. That is down from August 28, when the forecast showed Harris capturing 291 votes to Trump’s 247.
RealClearPolitics’ forecast shows that while Harris is leading among polling averages, Trump is winning the Electoral College when toss-up states are removed, with the vice president at 257 votes to Trump’s 281.
Both pollsters show that Harris is predicted to win in three swing states—Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada—while Trump is predicted to win in Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia.
The only swing state where the two pollsters differ is Pennsylvania, where tonight’s debate will be held, with Trump predicted to win the state by RealClearPolitics. The latest FiveThirtyEight forecast shows the two candidates deadlocked.
Harris is the strong favorite to win the first presidential debate, according to a leading bookmaker.
Star Sports is offering odds of 1/3 (75 percent) on Harris winning the debate, against 2/1 (33.3 percent) for Trump. The bookmaker defines winning as “whichever candidate has the higher percentage on Ipsos/538’s first opinion poll relating to ‘who performed better.'”
“Tonight’s debate is crucial for Kamala Harris, given her lower level of recognition compared to Donald Trump,” Star Sports political betting analyst William Kedjanyi told Newsweek.
“With 28 percent of voters indicating they need to know more about her, according to a recent New York Times survey, and limited major media appearances since becoming vice president, this is a key opportunity for her to define her platform and appeal to undecided voters.
“Tonight’s debate should give a fascinating insight into how the final weeks of the U.S. presidential race could play out, ahead of November’s election.”
He added: “We make Harris the 1/3 favorite to emerge the victor in the televised debate, and rank higher than Trump in the IPSOS opinion poll that will follow their encounter in Philadelphia.
Update: 09/10/24, 6:15 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with more information.
