Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris are all set to participate in the highly-anticipated first Presidential debate next week. Ahead of the September 10 face-off, Ms Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, spoke about their debates as a married couple in a new interview with ‘Pod Save America’. The US Vice President and her husband were both accomplished lawyers before entering politics, Mr Emhoff shared in the interview. So, when ‘Pod Save America’ cohost Tommy Vietor asked the second gentleman about the upcoming presidential debate between Ms Harris and former US President Donald Trump, Mr Emhoff revealed that he has never won a debate against his wife. 

“I assume no one has debated with her more often than you have,” Mr Vietor said. “What should we expect? What should we look for?” he asked, as per Business Insider.

“I haven’t won one,” Mr Emhoff said of debating Ms Harris. He then went on to call Ms Harris a “great debater” and “first-class trial lawyer”. 

“It’s not like we’re in a debate, but I realize if we’re talking about something, any really good lawyer will lay little traps for you along the way, and as I’m going through this discussion about some husband-wife thing, I say ‘Oh, that’s what you’re doing!'” he said, adding, “I was a pretty good trial lawyer too.”

Notably, before entering politics, Ms Harris served as district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California. Mr Emhoff, on the other hand, was a partner at DLA Piper in Los Angeles specialising in intellectual property and entertainment and media law. The couple celebrated their 10-year anniversary in August. 

“Kamala Harris was exactly the right person for me at an important time in my life. At this moment in this nation’s history she is exactly the right president,” the 59-year-old said last month at the Democratic National Convention. 

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Kamala Harris will face-off Donald Trump on September 10, Tuesday in a debate hosted by ABC News. The campaigns have traded barbs while negotiating the host network and rules of the debate, such as whether their microphones will stay unmuted. 

Regarding this, Mr Emhoff said, “It’s Donald Trump, so who the hell knows what you’re going to get, but I know from her she’s going to be talking about us, she’s going to be talking about the American people.” 

ABC News is hosting the second presidential debate on Tuesday, September 10, at 9 pm ET. It will be the first time Ms Harris and Mr Trump debate each other. The debate will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Kamala Harris, the first Indian-American and first African-American woman Vice-President of the U.S., could be the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. File
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race on July 21, clearing the way for his deputy Kamala Harris to be the Democratic candidate of choice. Although it wasn’t immediately clear if other senior Democrats would challenge Ms. Harris for the party’s nomination, Mr. Biden endorsed her to be the party’s presidential candidate.

Also Read : Joe Biden withdraws from U.S. presidential race LIVE updates

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” he wrote in a post on X.

The India connection

In 2020, Ms. Harris became the first Indian-American and first African-American woman Vice-President of the U.S., and will be looking to repeat the feat as the President too, if Democrats approve her as the party candidate to run the 2024 presidential race.

Ms. Harris is the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan Harris who comes from a family of achievers from Tamil Nadu.

Ms. Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist in California, raised Kamala and her sister Maya as a single mother.

VP Harris’ maternal uncle Gopalan Balachandran, a former consultant at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), is an academic based in Delhi. Her grandfather P.V. Gopalan worked on the rehabilitation of refugees from East Pakistan in India. Later in his life, he became an advisor to the Zambian President and lived in Lusaka, while his wife Rajam built a reputation for her social work.

According to Mr. Balachandran, Ms. Harris remains connected to her roots in India, both through her upbringing and visits to Chennai.

Ms. Harris also visited Chennai along with her sister Maya Harris after her mother died, to immerse his ashes in the sea according to Hindu traditions.

In 2020, Ms. Harris spoke about her mother’s love of good idli while addressing a virtual campaign event to commemorate India’s Independence Day. “Because she wanted us to understand where she had come from and where we had ancestry. And of course, she always wanted to instil in us, a love of good idli,” Ms. Harris joked. She also walks in Chennai with her grandfather and how he would tell her about the ‘heroes’ of the Indian freedom struggle and that it was “on us to pick up where they left off”.

In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, Ms. Harris also cooked masala dosas alongside Indian-origin actor Mindy Kaling.

Her victory alongside Mr. Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election was celebrated in her ancestral village of Thulasendrapuram in Tiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu where villagers burst crackers, distributed sweets, and drew colourful ‘kolams’ in front of their homes.

Special pujas were performed at the Sri Dharma Sastha Temple by the villagers to celebrate Ms. Harris’ victory, thanking the deity for answering their prayers.