“Hey, guys, you know what?” Sen. Kamala Harris interjected as her opponents in the first 2020 Democratic primary debate squabbled with one another, “America doesn’t want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we’re going to put food on their table!” The crowd in Miami’s Arsht Center erupted in applause, and even the targets of her zinger had to acknowledge her handiwork. Joe Biden, standing a few feet away with a half-smile on his face, turned to Harris and immediately applauded her, like Novak Djokovic clapping hand-to-racket in recognition of an opponent’s brilliant passing shot.
I wasn’t on the debate stage with Harris that night — the large size of the Democratic field necessitated two split-roster primary debates — but her command of the moment impressed me, too. “She really gets it,” I remember telling a friend as we watched the broadcast. “She’s not getting caught up in what’s happening onstage. She’s keeping her eye on what the voters at home really care about.”
Watching Harris from a couple of podiums down the stage that night, what struck me was how undaunted she was.
Harris’ poise, her no-nonsense style and her grasp of what voters wanted to know continued to impress me when we shared the stage at more than a dozen candidate forums and three debates in 2019. I saw those qualities in person a few weeks later when Rep. Tulsi Gabbard attacked Harris’ prosecutorial record at the second primary debate in Detroit. Listing off a litany of Harris’ supposed failures on the issue of criminal justice reform, Gabbard gathered steam. “And the people who suffered under your reign as prosecutor — you owe them an apology!”
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Watching Harris from a couple of podiums down the stage that night, what struck me was how undaunted she was. “I am proud of those decisions,” she declared, defending her record with a passion and a confidence that stopped Gabbard’s momentum cold. Kamala got the better of that one, I thought as I looked on.
Harris’ abilities shone through again in an exchange during her vice presidential debate with Mike Pence in the fall of 2020. “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking,” she pushed back firmly as Pence interrupted her. “That is absolutely not true,” she then retorted calmly as Pence began misrepresenting Biden’s record. And finally, “If you don’t mind letting me finish, we can have a conversation, OK?” she said before returning to making the case for Biden.
Harris’ ability to stay on message in even the testiest moments and to make the case against Trump and for herself is a skill she undoubtedly sharpened as a local prosecutor, state attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president — and they will be key in Tuesday night’s debate. Trump regularly lies, hurls insults and stirs chaos in debates to keep himself at the center of attention, smear his opponents and distract voters from his utter lack of policy knowledge.








