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Inside Kamala Harris' new strategy for the vice presidential debate

04 October 2020
 Dan Ackermann

President Trump’s hospitalization has changed the game plan for Sen. Kamala Harris for Wednesday's debate.

Between the lines: Harris was preparing to tie Vice President Pence to Trump — then shred Trump on the pandemic, health care, the Supreme Court, civil rights and more. She had planned a handful of anti-Trump zingers. Now, her approach will be less personal, although she won't shy away from the pandemic — or arguing that Pence owns Trump's record.

Team Harris knows Pence is more measured in his delivery than Trump.

  • Pete Buttigieg, a fellow Hoosier and the former mayor of South Bend, is summoning his inner Pence in Harris' debate prep.

As long as Trump is ill, look for an added sensitivity from the Democratic nominees — not because they think Trump would do the same for them, but because of the message they want to send Americans.

  • Sources familiar with the campaign's approach say Biden's speech in Michigan on Friday — which didn't directly attack Trump — will be a guide for Harris.

The intrigue: Harris’ team looked at research on how women are judged more on "likability" and held to a higher standard to prove they're qualified.

  • Harris advisers say their research shows that in public speaking, women are judged overwhelmingly more on physical appearance than on what they say.

The other side: Pence has held at least two 90-minute mock sessions with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi standing in for Harris.

  • With their similar prosecutorial backgrounds (Harris is also a former state attorney general), Bondi has been trying to channel Harris' slashing debate style.
  • Bondi, a member of Trump’s impeachment legal defense and denizen of cable TV, is dishing out many of the attacks she's received for the last year.

Pence chief of staff Marc Short is running the debate-prep process, ensuring Pence gets advice from all corners, including old friends in Congress and from his time as governor of Indiana.

  • "Pence is a preparation guy," a campaign official told Alayna.
  • The campaign sent "mounds of materials" to Pence's team weeks ago.

The vice president's team and Bondi did not respond to a request for comment.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.