Experts say Harris shouldn't engage with Trump if he attacks her race, gender in debate


September 9, 2024

Spectrum News 1

Harris is hunkered down in Pittsburgh to prepare for the debate ahead. Some are warning her not to engage with Trump if he attacks her race and gender, which they expect him to do.

“I think he is going to throw a lot of very ugly things at her,” said Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a political action committee made up of moderate conservatives and former Republican Party members who oppose the former president. “I think he's going to say some terrible things. And I think my counsel would be, when he does that, do not go into the rabbit hole he puts out there for you.

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Imani Cheers, a professor of digital storytelling at The George Washington University, said it makes sense that Harris is allowing others to talk about her gender and the groundbreaking nature of her campaign, rather than focusing in on it herself. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton often leaned into the focus on her gender and the groundbreaking nature of her candidacy in her 2016 race against Trump, which Cheers said may have been one of many missteps in that campaign.

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