Kamala Harris

Debates, dead silence and a chance meeting with Trump: Our Friend in Washington

Siobhan Kennedy looks into the camera, the front of a grey building out of focus behind her

We always knew that American presidential debates could make or break a candidate. It’s the primetime moment to shine or – in Joe Biden’s case – spectacularly evaporate. Poor Joe. To this day the thought of his incoherent mumbling still makes me wince with embarrassment.

I was there in the journalists’ watch room that night in Atlanta, and I can tell you that on multiple occasions the air fell silent. Reporters stared at each other in stunned disbelief while others blocked their ears.