Face the Facts: What to expect with first presidential debate between Trump and Harris

We’re just days away from the first presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Will this make any difference to voters with how polarized our nation is right now?

Quinnipiac University Political Science Professor Scott McLean talks about what viewers should, and shouldn’t, expect from the candidates and the moderators.

We also discuss whether the debate will be enough to sway undecided voters.

Mike Hydeck: So there's a lot to unpack here. You and I were talking just before we sat down, there's going to be no live audience. When the candidate is speaking, the other candidate's mic is going to be off. What do you make of that? This is different than debates in the past.

Scott McLean: I think the no audience disadvantages Trump, and the no microphone disadvantages Harris. I think it's an even wash. I think the real question is, what will the moderators do? Last time we had Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, not really fact-checking, not challenging things that the candidate said; will that happen this time? Probably not. And I think that can be to Trump's advantage. I think the other thing is, there's so many things that could happen in this debate. It's bound to generate a huge audience. Kamala Harris is still a mystery to a lot of people. Her positions are not fully fleshed out and formed. That's going to be a major consideration here.

Mike Hydeck: As we know, candidates intentionally stay vague, because they don't want to be pinned down on anything during the election. And that's going to kind of come back into play here in this debate, too. So this race is polling so closely. We're down to battleground states. We're down to maybe some independents who haven't decided, or other people who are waffling back and forth on who they're going to choose. It's about convincing these undecided voters. How do you tip the scales, if you're one of these candidates, to say, 'look, I'm your person?'

Scott McLean: Right, I mean, you're absolutely right. We've known for a long time that presidential debates are not real debates, but I don't think it's ever been more true than this year. Everyone has pretty much made up their mind. There's not going to be a lot of debating to change people's minds. What's going to be happening here is debating and talking to get people motivated to vote. Right now, Harris has got a bit of an advantage in enthusiasm over Trump. It didn't used to be that way. It was flipped around when we had the last debate. Biden needed to generate that excitement, and what we actually ended up with is a train wreck. No train wrecks, I think, this time, but I think all of, everything that is said is going to be to get some tiny sliver of voters more motivated to vote for whoever they've already decided.

Mike Hydeck: So motivated is connected to emotion. You have to invoke emotion. Sometimes candidates use a strategy of going negative. We've seen former President Trump with name calling. We've seen now even the Democrats are doing the name calling routine. Do you expect this to go negative early? Do you think it will focus on issues and then turn negative? Will negative even be a part of it?

Scott McLean: I think the moderators will ask the first question. They will be the one to go negative first. They will put one of the two of them on the spot right from the beginning, and it will give them an opportunity to throw it back at the other candidate. I really think a lot of people are talking, and it's in the news, Trump's court problems, court cases, verdicts and so on. I think Harris wants to talk about those things, but one thing we know is that the more we talk about Trump's court problems, the better he does in the polls.

Mike Hydeck: His profile goes up. Right.

Scott McLean: Yeah. So she has to tread carefully. She has to show that she is tough and is a prosecutor and all those things. But she can't go too far, or else, it actually helps Trump. So I think we'll see a lot of things said. Count on Harris to talk about abortion rights. That's her strongest suit. She's got strength with women. She's going to try to point out that Trump has not been consistent on that. Watch Trump and see how successful he is at saying that Harris is kind of a chameleon and has sort of made up her positions. And he's even implied that she's made up her race. So this is going to be something that will be jousted about all evening long.

Mike Hydeck: It's likely going to have a pretty big audience, too. Alright, so we've got about two minutes. Let's try to get into issues just a little bit. So undecided voters say they like Kamala Harris's stance on reproductive rights, but they agree with Trump on the economy. How does she win that voter? How does Trump win that voter? When you have to try to convince them of, your weakness isn't a weakness.

Scott McLean: I think the economy is the toughest one, because there's plenty of facts and statistics that say our economy is doing great, but it's still a matter of how people feel about the economy.

Mike Hydeck: If bread's too expensive, or eggs are too expensive, or gas is too expensive, that affects you right away.

Scott McLean: Yeah. And so I don't know what Harris can do about that, other than just recite the facts again. But I don't think that really matters. As for the abortion rights, I think it's just pointing out, you know, making this claim that Harris has been making, has been fairly successful. This is about freedom. It's not about morality, or whether a fetus is a person or not. It's really about government telling people what they have to do. And for Trump, it's about just being clear on is abortion a states rights issue, or does he support a lot of Republicans who call for a national ban on abortion?

Mike Hydeck: So I got about a minute left. It's clear in a debate, when Trump and Biden debated, there was no real winner. There was just a significant loser. Joe Biden lost that instantaneously. Trump, unlike him, stepped out of the way and let it happen. Is there going to be a clear winner or we're just not doing too much damage to our own campaign on these candidates' behalf?

Scott McLean: I think no matter what Trump does, I don't think that will change his support or his strategy or any of those things. I think the real question is Harris. Can she come across as warm and human and normal and all those things that she wants to portray in terms of her image, but also show that she has depth and clarity and consistency on all of her policy positions, and try to sound like she's supporting the Biden administration, which she's a part of, and yet have her own independent mind and her own independent agenda, should she become the president.