Kamala Harris’ team is getting ‘nervous’ ahead of her showdown with Donald Trump, according to sources close to her campaign.
Insiders, including a campaign strategist, reportedly told BBC US special correspondent Katty Kay of their concerns in a series of frantic text messages and phone calls.
“I’m sensing a lot of nervousness about the state of the race,” Kay said during an episode of The Rest is Politics: US podcast.
“I’m getting a lot of text messages from Democrats. I had a long call with a strategist yesterday and I can give you more information. But some Democrats are making me very nervous.”
Meanwhile, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci added that he believes Harris’ campaign is stalling.
Kamala Harris’ team is ‘nervous’ ahead of her showdown with Donald Trump, according to sources close to her campaign
A recent New York Times poll also put Trump with a narrow lead two days before their first presidential debate.
“The issue with the vice president’s campaign is where the campaign is. Yes, she goes to rallies, yes, she talks to the prompter at rallies,” Scaramucci said.
“But there is another element to the campaign, there is a softer element and there is an element of confrontation.”
She explained that while Harris excels at the “softer” side, such as meet-and-greet and interactions with the public, there is a desire to see her in more heated scenarios.
“The general public will say, ‘Can you win a race with a teleprompter?’ and ‘Can you win a race in America with press appearances?’ I don’t know if that’s the case and it also creates a lot of murkiness around policies,” he added.
The same sentiment was echoed by Chris Cilizza, a former political reporter for left-leaning CNN, who said Harris’ lack of experience in presidential debates might have scared her off.
“I think she’ll probably be a little bit more nervous,” she said. Mediaite.
“I think she has more at stake. Trump has a very high floor in terms of voter support and a very low ceiling.
‘Basically, it’s between 46 and 48 percent of the vote. It doesn’t reach 52 or 51.
Commentators have pointed to Trump’s prior experience in presidential debates as an advantage over Harris.
“He’s not quite 40, so I don’t know how his numbers are going. I think he has potential to move up there, but I don’t think he’ll lose it.”
Harris has been holed up in a Pittsburgh hotel preparing for the showdown in Philadelphia next week.
Experts told the The New York Times who had enlisted the help of a Trump surrogate, in his trademark suit and tie, to practice his debate tactics.
Meanwhile, Trump is said to be holding more ad hoc “political sessions” to help refresh his memory about his record while in office.
With just two months to go until Election Day, Harris and Trump are entering the final stretch with a non-significant gap in the polls.
But despite the small gap, the results show a shift toward the former president after Harris entered the race in late July.
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Harris needs to show more of her confrontational side.
With just two days until the presidential candidates’ first debate, a New York Times/Siena College poll puts Trump 1 percent ahead of the vice president (48 percent to 47 percent), within the poll’s 3-point margin of error.
The latest poll was conducted Sept. 3-6 and is virtually unchanged from the same national survey of likely voters conducted in late July after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed his No. 2 candidate.
In particular, the poll suggests that despite Harris’s “honeymoon phase,” support for Trump’s bid for a second non-consecutive term in the White House remains strong.
