Harris, Trump sharpen attacks ahead of first 2024 debate

Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris prepared to meet for the first time early today in their only scheduled debate of the US presidential campaign, a key moment in a close-fought contest.
The nationally televised debate beginning at 9pm ET (0100 GMT today) takes place just eight weeks before the November 5 election, and days before early voting will start in some states.
Former president Trump, 78, said he would contrast the left-wing policies Harris proposed in her failed 2020 presidential bid with the more centrist positions she has staked out now.
“You don’t know what to expect. She’s changed all of her policies over the years,” he told NBC News in a phone interview.
Harris, 59, indicated she will draw attention to Trump’s habit of lying.
“Donald Trump has a real problem with the truth,” she wrote in a social media post yesterday.
Her campaign released an ad featuring former president Barack Obama ridiculing Trump’s false claims about crowd sizes at his events.
Harris will also talk about her plans to lower Americans’ daily expenses, campaign advisers said.
The encounter is particularly important for Harris, with opinion polls showing that more than a quarter of likely voters feel they do not yet know enough about her.
The debate offers Harris, a former prosecutor, a chance to make her case against Trump, whose felony convictions, outspoken backing for supporters convicted in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and frequent falsehoods offer plenty of fertile ground.
It will be the first time the two candidates have met and follows weeks of personal attacks on Harris by Trump and his allies that have included racist and sexist insults.
Trump’s advisers and fellow Republicans have urged him to focus on the high levels of inflation and immigration that have taken place during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, though both have dropped dramatically this year.
“He’s ready to talk about why your life was better when he was in office,” Lara Trump, the candidate’s daughter-in-law, said on CNN.
Presidential debates do not necessarily change voters’ minds, but they can transform the dynamics of a race. Biden’s performance against Trump in June was so damaging that it eventually led him to abandon his campaign.
The two candidates are effectively tied in the seven battleground states likely to decide the election, according to polling averages compiled by the New York Times.
The 90-minute debate, hosted by ABC News, will take place at the National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia.
As agreed by the campaigns, there will be no live audience and microphones will be muted when it is not a candidate’s turn to speak.
“This debate may go down in the history books. Break out the popcorn,” said Andrew Koneschusky, a former press secretary for Senate leader Chuck Schumer.
The vice-presidential candidates – Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance – are to hold a debate on October 1.