After 75 days of political upheaval, a changed race prepares for another debate
"The facts of the 2024 campaign so far probably wouldn’t be greenlit as fiction," one political operative said of a summer that saw Joe Biden drop out and Donald Trump survive a shooting.
People who went on summer vacation the day of the last presidential debate might not believe their eyes when they watch the next one.
Tuesday’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is the culmination of 75 days of utter and unprecedented campaign chaos — and the beginning of a 55-day race to Election Day through equally uncharted waters.
“It’s like running a 5K after riding the Tilt-A-Whirl: The world is spinning and you have to quickly figure out which end is up,” said Democratic strategist Jared Leopold.
In the 2½ months since Trump and President Joe Biden faced off in late June, some foundational aspects of the race have flipped upside down, as one of the candidates was replaced and the other was nearly assassinated.
Follow live updates on the 2024 electionThe parties made new national figures out of a pair of vice presidential running mates: Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Trump’s criminal trials, expected to dominate the homestretch of the campaign, are out of the picture, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling during the week of July 4.
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