WASHINGTON — It was almost time for the presidential debateBut Kamala Harris’ staff thought she needed to know one more thing. So less than an hour before the vice president left her Philadelphia hotel, two communications staffers called her for one of the strangest briefings of her political career.
They told her that Donald Trump had posted on social media about a false and racist rumor that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets. The former president could mention it during the debate, they said.
The warning, described by two people familiar with the conversation, turned out to be justified.
While answering a question about immigration policy, Trump said that migrants in Springfield “eat the dogs” and “they eat the cats.” Harris laughed, shook her head and stared at her Republican opponent in surprise. “Talk about extreme,” she said, then continued.
It was easily the most bizarre moment of debate from last weekwhich led to an explosion of memes and parody videos online. Now Harris is trying to use her performance as a source of continued momentum, hoping to revive the energy she generated when she replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
It’s unclear whether the debate will affect the outcome of the Nov. 5 election. In a flash poll of viewers CNN conducted afterward, Trump’s views were unchanged, and Harris saw only a small increase in positive ratings. But her team is making the most of it, turning key points into television ads and flooding the Internet with snippets. There’s no comparable effort on Trump’s part, despite his repeated insistence that he was the winner.
There will almost certainly be no new debate; Trump has said he won’t do anyThat means the debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia could be the only chance voters will see the candidates side by side.
This story is based on interviews with five people close to Harris, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations and reveal new details about how she prepared for and handled the debate. It was the first time she had met Trump in person.
Harris spent five days in a downtown Pittsburgh hotel preparing for his campaign after a hectic few weeks.
Her team recreated the set where she would debate Trump on the evening of September 10. It was a much more professional setup than Harris had used eight years earlier when she was running for Senate in California, when campaign staff cardboard boxes glued together to serve as temporary desks.
Two communications staffers – one man and one woman – replaced ABC News’ debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.
Philippe Reines, a longtime adviser to Hillary Clinton, reprised his role as Trump, which he played when the former secretary of state ran for president. Reines wore a dark suit, long red tie and orange bronzer to embody Trump.
The microphones pose a challenge.
When Biden entered the race, his team agreed that the debate microphones should be muted when it wasn’t a candidate’s turn to speak. But Harris’ staff wanted the microphones on at all times so she could step in and give Trump more opportunities to make an outburst.
But their campaign could not reach an agreement on changing the rules, and the original plan remained in place.
Harris decided to take full advantage of the split-screen format, with each candidate on camera at all times. Biden had botched the visual test when he debated Trump in June, often looking aimless with his mouth slightly open. Harris gave her expressiveness — laughing, raising her eyebrows, bringing her hand to her chin with a questioning look.
At one point during the preparations, aides suggested practicing mannerisms for Harris to use. The vice president waved them off, saying she could do just fine without such rehearsals.
Harris rarely left the hotel during the preparations. On September 7, she went on a field trip to Penzeys Spices, where she bought some spice mixes. A woman in the store cried when Harris hugged her. On September 8, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, went to a military air base and took a walk for about half an hour. For security reasons, the only place they could stretch their legs was on the asphalt.
When asked if she was ready for the debate, Harris gave reporters a thumbs up and said, “ready.”
She ended up leaving Pittsburgh on September 9 instead of the day of the debate, which caused an additional mock debate to be canceled and she arrived in Philadelphia earlier than expected.
As the clock ticked down to the start of the debate, dozens of staffers at campaign headquarters in Delaware packed into assigned seats in front of four television screens. Some were nervous, still reeling from watching Biden implode in his own debate with Trump.
But Harris’ opening move, walking up to Trump to shake his hand as they took the stage, helped ease the nerves.
Throughout the debate, Harris mocked and taunted Trump, throwing him off balance with jabs about the size of his campaign rallies. She pounced on questions about abortion and promised the country a new generation of leaders, while Trump grew increasingly agitated and missed opportunities to make his case against her.
During the final commercial break, Trump left the stage with a sigh. Harris stayed at her lectern, scribbling on her notepad, rereading her words and taking a sip of water.
In her closing statement, she told viewers: “I think you’ve heard two very different visions for our country tonight — one that’s focused on the future and the other that’s focused on the past.”
Trump concluded his speech by calling Harris “the worst vice president in the history of our country.”
There was no live audience in the room to respond to the candidates and it was not always clear whether certain sentences or expressions hit the mark.
When Harris left the stage, she had a question for her staff: How did I do it?