Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly seemed to prefer attacking former President Donald Trump over “substance” during the Sept. 10 ABC News presidential debate.
NBC News Reported He spoke late Thursday about Harris' plan to galvanize President Trump.
A source told NBC News that while Harris' team is preparing to discuss a variety of topics, they are very focused on how they will present themselves in the debate, which is why they are focusing on how to provoke Trump in an effort to upset him, the source said.
In that sense, sources said the emphasis will be less on content and more on showing Harris as a woman who is unafraid and undaunted and will stand up to Trump and hold him accountable.
According to the outlet, Harris will likely try to attack President Trump over the so-called “bipartisan” pro-immigration border bill that failed to pass the Senate. The bill was introduced by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Harris and other Democrats have falsely claimed that it was blocked by President Trump's opposition.
Harris made the remarks in her first interview with CNN's Dana Bash on Thursday, more than a month after becoming the Democratic nominee, as reported by Breitbart News in a fact-check.
“Joe Biden and I, and our administration, have worked in a bipartisan manner with members of the United States Congress on immigration, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress,” Harris told Bash, before claiming that Trump then killed the bill by directing Republican lawmakers to oppose it.
Breitbart News noted that in fact the bill “met with bipartisan opposition from nearly every Republican in the House and Senate, and many House and Senate Democrats who objected to the bill's lack of amnesty for illegal immigrants.”
Provisions in the bill that would increase legal levels of immigration and allow tens of thousands of illegal border crossings each week drew opposition from President Trump, but Republican lawmakers began to push back as details of the bill began to leak.
While Harris is expected to rile up Trump, sources told NBC News that her campaign is also developing a strategy to distance the vice president from the policies of both her and President Joe Biden's administration, which could include criticizing the former vice presidential nominee.
“They're trying to figure out how to put distance between her and his decisions,” the source said. “A way to say, 'I'm the vice president and I'm working under the orders and directions of the president.' She wants to figure out how to answer those questions strategically without creating problems for Biden. … But some on the team couldn't care less about creating problems for Biden.”
Trump and Harris Discussion National at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania September 10 9pm ET.
