former president Donald Trump has been working hard behind the scenes to prepare for this presidential debate according to sources close to him he spent more time preparing for his debates this year against first Joe Biden and now Kamala Harris than he ever did in 2020 or 2016 but his team has been downplaying the preparations they're under strict instructions to call them not debate prep but policy time in these sessions his AIDS sit at a long table Trump sits at a chair opposite them and they bat questions back and forth refreshing him on his policy record on the other hand vice president Kamala Harris has been doing highly choreographed debate prep sessions they've got replica TV lighting a proper stage and she's even got an advisor who was one of Hillary Clinton's advisers who is in full method acting mode very much inhabiting the role of Donald Trump while their preparations could not be more different both camps have something in common they want to use this crucial moment to Define Kamala Harris for the millions of Swing voters who haven't made up their minds about this election one thing that Trump's advisers and allies are worried about is that he won't be able to help himself from showing his deep contempt for Kamala Harris and seeming to level personal attacks against her in ways that he did against Hillary Clinton in his 2016 debates such an trust fund by making sure that we have sufficient resources Trump advisers are acutely aware of the risk that he could appear overly aggressive as he did in his first debate against Joe Biden in 2020 aot of suprem cour Justice radical left will you sh it was such a disastrous debate that his polling began declining noticeably after it they want Trump to present a more restrained version of himself and to level only policy focused attacks against Harris among the people helping Donald Trump behind the scenes is the former congresswoman from Hawaii Tulsi gabbard she had a memorable moment in a 2019 debate against Kamala Harris now Senator Harris says she's proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she'll be a prosecutor president but I'm deeply concerned about this record another person who's played a really important role in his debate prep sessions is the Florida Republican Congressman Matt gates gates has been playing a sort of attack dog role in these sessions bringing up the prosecutions and his criminal convictions Trump's advisers want him to focus on issues like the High Cost of Living immigration chaos around the world and Public Safety and they want to force kamla Harris to own her connection and partnership with the unpopular President Joe Biden and the most unpopular aspects of his record in private Trump over the last several weeks has toyed repeatedly with the idea of dropping out of the ABC debate But ultimately he concluded that the downsides of quitting the debate especially the appearance of weakness outweighed his concerns about doing it