What to really expect in tonight’s debate: Joe Biden vs Kamala Harris and more

| 8:00 pm EDT July 31, 2019
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Most (not all) pundits agree that Elizabeth Warren won last night’s Democratic debate, as she outshone Bernie Sanders and didn’t let any of the also-ran candidates put a dent in her. But that was just the warm-up act, at least in terms of expectations and potential fireworks, as former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris prepare to face off tonight. Here’s what to expect.

Kamala Harris made a big splash in the first round of debates when she went directly at Joe Biden. She was rewarded with a significant boost in popularity. But it still only bumped her up to fourth place in the average of current polls. Biden’s lead dropped significantly, but he’s still in first place by a decent sized margin. The biggest question heading into tonight is what each of the two of them will do, without knowing in advance how the other is planning to handle things.

For instance, Biden seemed uncharacteristically unprepared last time around, as if he somehow wasn’t expecting to get asked about his recent scandal surrounding segregationists. When Biden was caught off guard, he came out swinging angrily, and it didn’t play well for most viewers. Look for Biden to have a far more coherent and affable explanation of his record on race relations tonight. But will be looking to make amends with Harris, or will he angrily push back against her again?

For that matter, Kamala Harris definitely benefited by going hard after Biden last time – but the gains she made in the polls were perhaps not as large as she’d been hoping. Will she take that as a sign to go even harder after Biden tonight, or will she decide to pull back this time? Much of this may come down to which of the two of them gets asked the question about it first.

Tonight’s wildcard may be Cory Booker. He was critical of Joe Biden before the first debate, but then didn’t get to directly face him in the debate. This time he’ll get that chance, and we’ll see what he does with it. Booker has long been popular in Democratic politics, but he’s polling very poorly in the Democratic presidential primary. He may try to shoot for the moon tonight in the hope of getting back into the game.