The White House confirmed Monday that President Joe Biden is looking forward to watching the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on September 10. “Yes the President is going to watch the debate. he is looking forward to watch the debate. I am not going to preview or confirm any conversations between the President and the Vice president as you know they speak often. The President is incredibly of the Vice President,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when specifically asked to comment on this.Biden will be watching the debate in New York, she added.
Just ahead of the debate, the New York Times and Sienna College national poll revealed that Trump is one percentage point 48%-47% over Harris. This was the first signal of a slow down in Harris campaign since she became the candidate replacing Joe Biden — after his dismal debate on CNN.
The NYT poll made the debate more high-stake as the Trump campaign is expecting to widen the gap claiming that Kamala Harris will be bad in debate. Trump was forceful in the debate against Biden but Harris campaign are pinning their hopes on the debate to regain their support.
The poll showed that voters feel they need to learn more about Harris but on Donald Trump, their opinions are largely set. In the survey, 28% of likely voters said they needed more information about the Democratic nominee, while only 9% said the same about Trump.
After the NYT poll figures, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’s re-election campaign chair, said in an email to supporters on Sunday: “As vice-president Harris has said since day one, we are the underdogs in this race. We have a lot of work to do to make sure we win this November, and that will require us to continue aggressively raising money.”