Vice President Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump 2024

It is very difficult to get agreement on domestic policy reforms in the US - you need to have stars aligned with a majority in both the House and the Senate - and even then in can be difficult to get major reforms though (for example the Biden Administration was unable to get global tax reforms it spearheaded through a Congress the Dems controlled). This is not helped by the polarisation of politics there and very few in the middle willing to cross the aisle. However, a US President has a strong foreign policy role - a bad President can do enormous damage and create international instability.

For this reason alone, Harris should be a welcome choice for many - the transatlantic partnership, commitment to multilateralism including the Paris agreement, commitment to NATO, commitment to a two state solution, appointment of a strong Secretary of State and some continuity from the Biden administration can go a long way. The ability of Trump to driver international instability is why more and more business money is flowing into the Harris campaign even if on paper they would lean towards GOP policies.

On domestic policies, some of her economic proposals including increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% and the introduction of a wealth tax will never be agreed but are needed to keep some of the left leaning Dems interested. The big economic elephant in the room is that some provisions of TCJA are due to lapse with increased tax rates in 2026 - this was Trump’s only significant domestic achievement.

Yes. Why not? She will likely have a strong G7 with her which Trump would not have. And if there is some continuity with the likes of Sullivan and Blinken (as well as the career civil servants below them) then she will be well guided.

If he does it will leave Harris with the perfect opportunity that nobody really has had before to fact check everything he said at fox and explain why her ideas are sensible and based in reality.

why?

I'd be inclined to keep Blinken.

A lot of swing voters will be interested in that debate. If Trump backs out, it will be a PR nightmare for him and the Harris campaign will crucify him for being too afraid to debate.

No doubt the Harris team will line up, trigger points for the debate, since he can't help himself.

Keeping up the tradition of killing the Kennedy name in politics

No one seeing a "Hannity interviews Trump" promo is going to think "Must tune into to that, Trump might have something new/interesting to say".

I dunno, depends on the promo…

I picture it now…

Dramatic music

A stadium is in the dark, the lights comes on to reveal a boxing ring.

Commentator, "In the Red corner, from Mar a Lago, Florida, Via New York, New York, weighing in at 215 pounds, is Mr MAGA himself, the 45th President of The United States of America and main contender for the 2024 US Presidency, Mr. Donald J. TRUUUUUUUUUMP"

Trump appears, in his suit, with a pair of red boxing gloves on, and gets into the ring, shadowboxing.

Commentator, "And in the Blue corner… (silence) And in the Blue corner?… (Silence) I'm sorry folks, erm, the blue contender has refused to engage with her opponent in the red corner. This round goes to Mr. Donald J Trump, 45th President of The United State of America". The referee (Sean Hannity) lifts Trumps arm up in victory.

Trump to turns to Hannity, "She's not coming? Ok. OK. Let's take these off"

Voiceover, "Join us on Sept 10th for a one to one interview in the ring with Sean Hannity and Donald Trump…

But this time, the gloves are off."

Man, even I might tune in for that.

Both sides disagreeing over the ABC debate rules.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/26/politics/trump-harris-september-debate/index.html

Surprisingly enough, it's Harris who is arguing that microphones should be live the whole time, rather than mics muted when the other is answering. Seems like Harris' side is banking on Trump not being able to stop himself from interrupting, making Harris look more Presidential and likely giving her the chance to point out how he can't control himself.

Trump's side arguing that the rules should be the same as the previous debate with Biden.

I can see the points being made by Harris' team, but also not sure if this is the hill they should want to die on.

His people are pleading with him to do a lot of things but he isn't listening to them.

Regarding fox.

If harris does attend but fox allow him to just rant and ramble like a rally it doesn't look good to any independents.

If fox do actually run a proper debate and harris performs well, the rants about them being part of the msm fake news cabal start again, which again doesn't look good to any independents.

If harris doesn't attend and they just let him ramble and rant like a rally, it doesn't look good to any independents.

Either of the above and you have the motivated ignorant etc who support him saying how well he did and how bad/scared harris is.

Big Jim Ross has to be commentating

Pence isn't Trump though. Pence was likely reciting prayers in his head half the time because a woman was talking to him without having gotten permission from her local priest.

When Trump debated Hillary, he muttered a few jabs while she was answering some questions which got a lot of attention and went fairly viral (even though the basis of them were nonsense). He knows how to get the soundbite.

That said, Kamala also isn't Hillary, and I'd say she'd be more capable of bouncing something back at Trump and not allowing him to dominate the conversation even if he did interrupt. It's a fairly key skill you'd have to have as a prosecutor & attorney, to both bait the witness into slipping up and then hammering them for it, while still getting your point across to the jury.