Last time there was a 2024 presidential debate on the way, The View cohosts shared what they thought Joe Biden needed to do to defeat Donald Trump. And while none of that exactly panned out the way they thought it would — as much of their advice didn’t exactly get heeded — they’re laying out their hopes for Kamala Harris‘ performance this time, ahead of tonight’s debate, as well.
On Tuesday’s (September 10) live episode, cohosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin shared their thoughts on what the vice president would need to say and do in order to win the debate against the former president.
“I think Kamala has a really tough job ahead of her,” Hostin said, citing apathetic voters and those she heard from who said they believed Trump was the one who physically gave them their stimulus money. “They think that economically, they were doing better under him. So I think that she needs to outline her vision for this country, which is a joyful one, which is one that moves forward… It’s a plus for her that she’s a former prosecutor and he’s a felon. I like that matchup, but I think she can’t fall into the attack mode, because then she falls into the tropes of the angry Black woman, right? So she has to be careful there.”
Hostin continued, “I think she also needs to explain her evolution on a number of topics… That’s a strength to evolve. But I think she needs to do that. And I think these are going to be difficult things for her to do, because she has a menace on the other side, someone who doesn’t normally behave, and so she doesn’t know what to expect, like a toddler.”
Then, Farah Griffin weighed in to cite polling that a large number of voters want to get to know Harris more and added, “I think the person who will emerge the victor in this debate is the person who leaves Americans thinking, ‘I understand your hardships and I have a plan to solve them.’ So she needs to approach this like a job interview. You don’t talk about why the other guy isn’t good for you. Talk about why you’re the best person for the job. Doesn’t mean she can’t fact-check him. Doesn’t mean she can’t call him out on his record, but people need to know what she’s for.” Farah Griffin also called it a “strategic error” that she hasn’t talked about key policy changes ahead of the debate, since she’ll be doing so for the first time in front of millions.
“That said Donald Trump, I tend to think, melts down after about 15 minutes,” she continued. “He can start strong, but he tends to diminish. It’s a 90 minute debate.”
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Haines, too, outlined how she thinks Harris can rise above Trump’s tactics, saying, “The main thing is she needs to not react to his attacks first and foremost, which she’s been doing so well, because otherwise it puts her on a whole night of being on the defensive instead of the offensive. So don’t take the bait and keep moving.”
Haines added that she hopes Harris will be selective about which “lies” she digs into with Trump, saying, “She has to know in advance which are going to be the most crucial ones to clarify. Or she’s using her time that could define herself by defining a person we all already know.”
Behar had a much more acerbic take on the matter, saying, “Well, first off, I think she should refer to him as ‘the defendant.’ Every time she speaks to counter what he says, ‘Well, what the defendant just said is a lie.’” She also took a dig at suggestions that Trump is a better leader on issues of economy, saying, “Let us not forget these points: he has six companies of his that went into bankruptcy; he doesn’t pay his workers or his vendors; the Trump Organization has 17 felonies; [Alan] Weisselberg, his accountant, is in jail; and last but not least, and the most fabulous point, he bankrupted a casino.”
Goldberg closed out with, “None of us know what we would do when you’re under fire. Now we’ll find out…. You don’t know how you’re going to be. That’s why I said when Joe went in the last time, he didn’t go in to have a bad night. That wasn’t the plan. But this is what happens. So we all have to say, ‘Okay, our expectations are the expectations we hope for, but they can’t be real expectations because we don’t know what we’re walking into.’”
We’ll find out how things shake out soon enough, as the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump takes place tonight on ABC News, starting at 9/8c.
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