The first presidential debate of 2024 upended the race for the White House, effectively terminated the reelection aspirations of President Joe Biden and perhaps forever altered the direction of the country.
With so much potentially at risk at next month’s debate — which will be the first time former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris encounter each other at close range — the planning for the high-stakes showdown has already begun. ABC, the network hosting the debate, announced Friday it will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Harris held her first formal debate training session earlier this week at Howard University, the historically Black college in Washington, DC, she attended nearly four decades ago. A team of Democratic advisers joined her there earlier this week, including Philippe Reines, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, who is reprising his role playing Trump at the request of the Harris campaign, several people familiar with the planning told CNN.
Karen Dunn, another longtime Clinton adviser who helped Harris prepare for her vice presidential debate in 2020, is also taking part in the preparation efforts, people familiar with the planning said. Former Harris aides Rohini Kosoglu and Sean Clegg are also involved with the effort, according to a person familiar with the prep.
Trump, meanwhile, has enlisted one of the vice president’s ex-rivals to help with the preparations: Tulsi Gabbard, the former representative from Hawaii who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020 in a crowded field that also included Harris. He has been engaging in less formal policy sessions with close aides, advisers and allies in between campaign appearances and rounds of golf.
Trump’s interest in Gabbard as he prepares to face Harris next month stems in part from the notable exchanges the former congresswoman had with the vice president during their 2020 race. Seen mostly as a gadfly and an oddity during her Democratic primary run in 2019, Gabbard’s attack on Harris’ record as a prosecutor may have been her largest direct impact on the race.
Though Harris’ team was prepared for the attacks, they admitted that they were shocked by just how much Gabbard was able to rattle Harris, and later said that it helped lock Harris into a tailspin her campaign never recovered from.
