As Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump prepare to square off in Philadelphia for their first presidential debate together following President Joe Biden's exit from the race, former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) laid out in The New York Times what he thinks Harris has to accomplish in the debate to prevail.
Christie previously ran in the primary against Trump but ultimately dropped out.
"I don’t have much of an opinion of Ms. Harris yet, because I don’t know her well. If she’s an unknown quantity to me, you can bet she’s also one to the countless everyday Americans she needs to win over," wrote Christie.
By contrast, he said, Trump doesn't have that chance to define himself.
"The country already knows him and has, in the main, formed opinions of him. Because Ms. Harris is a relatively undefined political candidate, she has both the advantage and the bigger challenge," wrote Christie.
The big thing for Harris to remember, said Christie, is that Republicans like himself who have turned on Trump "want to be for something, not just against someone." And Harris has to give them that.
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The other thing Harris has to understand, Christie said, is that her goal "cannot be merely besting Mr. Trump or out-insulting him" — something Christie himself knows from experience, having debated Trump six times across two presidential election cycles.
"If she spends most of her time tussling with him, she will end up like so many who have come before, stuck in the mud against the best political insulter in my lifetime. The problem with focusing only on him is that you ultimately sacrifice your message as you amplify his," wrote Christie.
And above all, Christie said, Americans want reason to feel optimistic, after years of bitter partisanship and fighting.
"There is an opening at the debate to offer an alternative — to offer voters hope," he wrote. "Ms. Harris has a better opportunity to do this than Mr. Trump. She needs only to have the courage to do it; to break away from the political culture of petty bickering and name calling that her opponent personifies.The voters who are sitting on the sidelines right now are waiting for their vote to be earned. Will one of the candidates do that? This is Ms. Harris’s chance to make a true break from the tribalism of the Trump years and give the American people what they deserve, not what they’ve come to dread and expect."
