Why Rachel Maddow Is ‘Worried’ About the Trump-Harris Debate

Rachel Maddow told the hosts of The View that she is “worried” about what is going to happen during Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump—especially after what happened last time.

When the host of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show appeared on Tuesday, she explained how much one debate can change a race, with Biden and Trump’s last matchup as the most glaring example. “It shows you the power of a debate,” Maddow said of her surprise at Biden stepping down to make way for Harris’ nomination.

“We’ve never had a debate as consequential in American history as that last debate,” she continued. “In five minutes in that last debate, his presidency became a one-term presidency, the Democrats changed their candidate, it was a month before the conventions and it’s an all-new general election—which makes me feel humble and worried about what’s gonna happen tonight.” Maddow added, “Anything could happen. I’m braced for anything from zero to a million.”

In a previous appearance on the show, Maddow declared that Biden’s position as the Democratic nominee was a “fixed variable,” but admitted Tuesday that she had to eat some “humble pie” as he stepped down and Harris became the party’s nominee. Now, she said, it remains to be seen whether Harris’ ascent will mean that the country will keep its current “system of government.”

“We can disagree on most things in politics but agree that we need to stand up for keeping elections,” she said, referencing Trump and the January 6 riot. “[And] keeping the system by which if you’re voted out, you have to leave and you don’t get to mount a riot to try to stay.”

“The pro-democracy coalition is much bigger than any one party,” she said, and “in this election, that’s the Harris coalition.” That said, Harris still has a battle ahead for Tuesday night’s debate. “We know a little about what Trump is like in a presidential debate, in this time of his life, because we saw him with Joe Biden,” Maddow continued, describing Trump as “incoherent” even as Biden’s performance captured most of the country’s attention.

“With Kamala Harris, she’s a very good debater, but she hasn’t debated anybody in four years,” Maddow said, adding that Trump “gets graded on a curve.”

“When you say all of these things that are completely off the chart in terms of radicalism and bizarreness, then every new bizarre thing needs to hit this really high bar in order to count as news,” so Harris won’t be able to skate if he goes off the rails, Maddow explained.

Sunny Hostin said Harris “has a very tough job ahead of her,” during the debate since she “can’t fall into the attack mode because then she falls into the trope of the angry Black woman.” Alyssa Farah Griffin added that Harris has “more to lose but more to gain” from the matchup, while Sara Haines advised the VP not to “take the bait [from Trump] and keep moving.”

And Whoopi Goldberg said she hoped Harris “doesn’t deal with him” directly: “He’s a distraction. She knows it, and we know it.”