It will be the first time Kamala Harris and Donald Trump meet in person — and millions of Americans will get a ringside seat.
The Democratic vice president and Republican former president will face off in Philadelphia on Tuesday in their first — and possibly only — televised debate before what promises to be a nail-bitingly close 2024 election.
The high-stakes ABC debate will be a chance for US voters to finally see the two go head-to-head, after a month of shadow-boxing since President Joe Biden threw in the towel as candidate.
The gloves will be off in what is a critical test for both.
Harris, 59, has turbocharged and unified the Democratic party, and will now face an opponent who has called her “crazy” and subjected her to racist and sexist taunts.
America’s first female, Black and South Asian vice president has overhauled Trump’s lead in the polls but insists she remains the “underdog” in a tight race.
Knowing what’s at stake, she is spending five days holed up in the nearby city of Pittsburgh preparing for the debate.
The 78-year-old Trump is meanwhile expected to opt for an aggressive approach, after Harris’s entry into the race upended his White House bid and turned him into the oldest candidate in US history.
“These are two very different candidates that have previously never met in person,” Erin Christie, of the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information, told AFP.
