Inside Kamala Harris’ plan to win the presidential debate with Donald Trump

The late, great Democratic Party debate coach Christine Jahnke had one piece of advice for female candidates looking to break through during a debate: Interrupt a man.

That may not be an option for Kamala Harris on Tuesday, during the biggest test of her career.

After much negotiation, Harris agreed to a debate plan that allowed the microphones to be muted when the other candidate was speaking.

And her campaign fears this will put her at a disadvantage during her all-or-nothing debate with Donald Trump on her all-or-nothing primetime show on ABC.

One of their goals for the debate is to create a viral moment similar to what Harris experienced when she questioned Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing and during her vice presidential debate with Mike Pence, when she famously called him out by saying, “I speak.”

Those moments played out over and over again on social media, putting her in a good light. Her advisers expect that many Americans will see the debate through these kinds of social media moments.

However, Trump will be on mute while Harris answers questions, preventing him from interrupting and her from snapping back.

Her communications director, Brian Fallon, wrote to ABC News, in accepting the debate rules, that the muted microphones “will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President. We suspect that is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muting the microphones.”

However, some consider Harris’ move risky.

“There can be BAD moments, social media clips that can go either way,” Todd Graham, known as America’s Debate Coach and professor of debate at Southern Illinois University, told DailyMail.com.

“If Harris loses her temper (in a negative way – there are acceptable and acceptable ways to show disgust during debates), then she will have the viral moment and not the moment she wanted.”

Temperament is one of the things Harris is working on as she prepares for Tuesday’s competition.

Trump has already begun his attacks and lowering expectations for himself.

On Wednesday, he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity about Harris, “They’re already getting the questions.”

He did not name his sources, and ABC News, which is hosting the debate, has said neither side will see the questions in advance.

But it shows that he wants to unsettle Harris.

Trump also brought on board Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii Rep. who ran as a Democrat in a crowded field that included Harris. Gabbard’s debate performance in that year’s primaries shocked Harris.

During Harris’ practice debates, her advisers will pressure her to practice remaining calm so as not to irritate Trump.

Her team needs to “prepare her for Donald Trump who is about to attack her and throw her off balance,” Democratic strategist Donna Brazile told CNN.

Harris, in turn, is looking for ways to unnerve Trump and perhaps get that moment on social media after all.

She is expected to go on the offensive on policy issues and attack Trump when he tells untruths.

However, Trump can be an unpredictable force and Harris can’t prepare for everything, although she will try.

Harris and his team are locked down in Pittsburgh, where they have been intensively preparing for the September 10 debate in Philadelphia for five days.

The debate marks the first time she and Trump have met.

The two have been in the same room before: Harris, as a senator, attended Trump’s State of Union addresses in the House chamber when he was president, but the two have never been formally introduced.

The pressure is on. Joe Biden’s performance in the first presidential debate resulted in his exit from the race. While no one expects the same outcome for Harris, she will have to show she can take on the former president.

“Harris’s sharpest contrast with Biden will be simple but fleeting; all that’s needed is for him to show up,” Carlos Lozada wrote in the New York Times on Thursday.

“Assuming the vice president speaks with modest eloquence and clarity, calls out Trump’s distortions and doesn’t declare victory on Medicare, she will have cleared the lowest bar Biden set in the June debate against Trump and instantly come across as more presidential than the current president.”

Trump has repeatedly tried to tie Harris to Biden’s presidency and is expected to try to do so again during debate night.

But the Democratic candidate exudes confidence.

“So far so good,” Harris told reporters on Wednesday when asked how her preparations were going.

She is studying hard, but some warn against over-preparing, which many say Biden did before his disastrous performance against Trump.

Harris likes to use note cards in her preparations and she enjoys reading books with policy briefs.

And she’s also had mock debates.

The role of Trump is played by Philippe Reines, an adviser to Hillary Clinton who played Trump during her debate preparation.

He even wears Trump’s signature red tie during practice sessions to help the candidate focus.

When Reines prepared Clinton for a head-to-head confrontation with Trump during the 2016 debates, he didn’t just fire off one-liners, he helped her prepare how to avoid a hug from her Republican rival.

Footage from their prep session shows that as their practice session began, Reines walked up to Clinton, both arms outstretched in pre-hug mode. Clinton walked up to him and high-fived one of his hands, quickly moving past him to avoid his embrace.

From that point on, Reines attacked Clinton as Trump would, preparing her for the inevitable blows from the Republican candidate.

Harris is also being helped in her debate preparations by a small team of advisers, led by Rohini Kosoglu, a top policy adviser, and Karen Dunn, a veteran Democratic debate specialist who also helped Clinton prepare for Trump.

Others include Harris’ White House chief of staff, Lorraine Voles; her campaign chief of staff, Sheila Nix; and Sean Clegg, a veteran strategist.

And Harris has another advantage: She is close to Clinton and Biden, the only two other people in the Democratic Party who have debated Trump.

She speaks to them regularly and they have probably already discussed this topic.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre declined to provide details about conversations between Harris and Biden.

“They talk regularly, they talk very regularly. You saw them yesterday and they definitely stay in touch. I just don’t have anything more to say,” she said Thursday aboard Air Force One.

“He’s looking forward to seeing her on Tuesday.”

Harris, a former prosecutor, is an avid questioner, and that could be one way she can challenge Trump — by questioning him about his policies as president, his handling of the coronavirus, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and his false claims that he won the 2020 race.

Her campaign has repeatedly tried to get him. Her running mate Tim Walz described Trump as “weird,” a claim the former president pushed back against, saying it was his rivals who were “weird.”

She is a veteran debater on the national stage. She ran for president in 2020 and debated Pence in the vice presidential debate that year.

But when you’re at the top, expectations are different.

Above all, Harris must be ready to fight.

“Democrats are pretty tired of their candidate being the polite candidate who gets run over by Trump,” Todd Graham told DailyMail.com.

“They want to watch this debate and be proud of Harris in a way they couldn’t be proud of Clinton or Biden,” he said. “Democrats need a fighter who will fight back and shake off eight years of defending what they see as a ‘timid’ candidate.”