Tulsi Gabbard and a seasoned Trump impersonator: How Trump and Harris are preparing for their first head-to-head debate

CNN —

The first presidential debate of 2024 upended the race for the White House, effectively terminated the reelection aspirations of President Joe Biden and perhaps forever altered the direction of the country.

With so much potentially at risk at next month’s debate – which will be the first time former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris encounter each other at close range – the planning for the high-stakes showdown has already begun.

Harris held her first formal debate training session earlier this week at Howard University, the historically Black college in Washington, DC, she attended nearly four decades ago, and she is working closely with a seasoned Trump stand-in. Trump, meanwhile, has enlisted one of the vice president’s ex-rivals to help with the preparations: Tulsi Gabbard, the former representative from Hawaii who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020 in a crowded field that also included Harris.

Former President Donald Trump, left, and Vice President Kamala Harris.

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After much back and forth, Trump and Harris agreed last week to the September 10 debate previously arranged by the campaigns of Trump and Biden. ABC, the host network, announced Friday it will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The political landscape in the United States and the fortunes of the country’s two major parties have drastically shifted in the weeks since the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden on June 27. The president’s lackluster performance that night shattered the confidence of his party and its donors, who in turn put immense pressure on Biden to drop out of the