Campaign Scrambles - Major Rewrite Underway

Tonight is a massive opportunity for both Vice President Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump. What must each candidate do to win the presidential debate? Reportedly, the debate format is already causing issues for the Harris-Walz campaign since they were planning on unmuted microphones, forcing the team to “rewrite” its debate approach.
The controversy over the microphones dates back to President Biden’s required rules for his debate against Trump in June. Those rules required that the microphones be shut off when a candidate’s time was up. Biden took so long to formulate thoughts that his campaign likely thought this rule would be beneficial – of course, the debate backfired and effectively ended Biden’s reelection campaign.
And if you remember the 2020 presidential debates, you could often hear President Trump grumbling in the background and cutting President Biden off. So it is no wonder Harris wanted the mics to be on – she also wanted the opportunity to fact-check Trump while he was speaking.
So the Biden-Trump rule of muted microphones will remain in place. No live audience will be present either. No opening statements will take place, and President Trump will provide the final closing statement.
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is no stranger to debates. She famously wrecked VP Harris’ bid to secure the Democrat nomination in 2020. She joined our broadcast to preview Harris’ debate:
"What we’ll see in this debate is Kamala Harris, who has spent the last week locked up in her hotel room in Pittsburgh, taking acting classes, having acting coaches, having a room that’s set up like a TV set, with lights and a stage with a stand-in actor playing Donald Trump. She is training for the performance of her lifetime. Contrast that with Donald Trump . . . [who] you’ll see . . . tonight on the debate stage in the same way that you see him at a rally or in any one of the 34-plus interviews that he’s done to Kamala’s one interview. He will speak his mind."
Tulsi asserted that Kamala’s toughest task tonight will be to separate herself from the Biden Administration, which she’s helped lead for the last 3.5 years. This will be the most important performance of her life up to this point.
When Kamala has had time to rehearse, she can project a strong image, which comes from her experience as a prosecutor. She delivered a strong shot against President Biden in 2020 on the Democrat debate stage, claiming that Biden was a racist because of his opposition to school desegregation. But I guess all was forgiven after Biden chose Harris as his VP.
So how can President Trump be successful tonight? Here are some key pointers for the GOP nominee.
First, he needs to showcase how much Harris has flip-flopped regarding her record. Trump needs to go issue-by-issue on all the ways she’s supposedly moved to the middle on the border wall, fracking, etc. For example, if Kamala is running ads featuring support for Trump’s border wall, then Trump needs to point that out. Why did she call the wall a “vanity project” a few years ago?
And don’t forget that Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) just opined that Kamala’s recent shift in positions is “pragmatic” so she can win the election. If I were Trump, I’d hammer home this point. Can American voters expect Kamala to rule as a moderate – or a radical as her record suggests?
Another major talking point should be the economy. In July, we got a new jobs report showing that jobs for native-born U.S. workers fell by 1.3 million. On the other hand, jobs for immigrant workers (including illegal migrants) rose by 635,000.
And Trump needs to push back on any attempts by Kamala if she claims inflation has been down under the Biden-Harris Administration. She was the deciding vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which led to the skyrocketing inflation rate of the past 3.5 years.
Above all, President Trump must not come across as he did against President Biden in the first debate in 2020. He can needle Harris without coming across as a jerk or petty. He must remain presidential while on stage with VP Harris.
Tonight could very well be the only time we ever see Harris and Trump together on a stage prior to Election Day. This is their chance to alter the direction of the polls for their campaigns.
Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of the Harris-Walz campaign being forced to revise its strategy for tonight’s presidential debate.