Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker declared Monday that nobody should “underestimate” former President Donald Trump’s ability to beat Vice President Kamala Harris in their upcoming high-stakes debate.
“He has won a couple of debates that he did,” Pritzker said of Trump during an appearance on CNN. “Certainly, people would say that he won the debate against President Biden a couple of months ago,” the Harris surrogate added.
Pritzker, 59, argued that Trump, 78, bested former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in at least one of their three 2016 presidential debates and that despite Harris being a “tremendous person with great capability” she should be cautious on stage with the former president.
“We saw that he won the debate against Hillary Clinton when he ran the first time,” the governor said. “He’s not to be underestimated.”
“We shouldn’t be thinking that somehow Kamala Harris has a greater ability to win a debate than Donald Trump,” Pritzker continued. “They’re going to come in as significant rivals with very, very different points of view.”
Pritzker explained that one of Harris’ keys to victory in the showdown will be conveying her message without “getting flummoxed” by Trump.
Harris and Trump and scheduled to square off for the first time on Sept. 10, in a debate hosted by ABC News.
Veteran pollster Frank Luntz argued on CNN Monday that the debate will be “everything” for voters.
“When the voters see side-by-side the two candidates and they listen to what they say, not just in the answers, it’s the body language. Is there contempt? Does someone fold their arms? Do they look at the individual when they’re speaking? Do they seem presidential in their approach?” Luntz explained.
The pollster and political strategist suggested that voters will be interested to see if Trump can “keep quiet” and “listen to a response” and if Harris can “seem open minded” and “willing to take in information.”
