Tuesday night’s presidential debate isn’t just the first matchup between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s their first time meeting in person.
“I was a little bit surprised, people might be surprised to hear that you have never interacted with him, met him face-to-face,” CNN’s Dana Bash said to Harris during their August interview.
Trump and Harris served in the federal government at the same time, but some logistical quirks and unusual decisions kept them from interacting directly in recent years.
Harris was elected to represent California in the U.S. Senate in 2016, during her second term as the state’s attorney general. Trump donated twice to reelect Harris as California attorney general, in 2011 and 2013, though she did not keep the money.
Trump won the presidential election the same year Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate, and both were sworn in to their respective positions in early 2017.
Harris was a member of the Senate during Trump’s first impeachment, in 2019, and voted to impeach him on both counts (he was ultimately acquitted along party lines).
Presidential candidate Trump and vice presidential candidate Harris didn’t meet in person during the 2020 election (granted, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced much of the world online).
Harris did debate Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, in October 2020. Remember the fly?
Trump and Harris might have crossed paths at President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, two weeks after the Capitol riot that Trump is accused of stoking. But Trump decided not to attend, becoming the first former president to skip his successor’s inauguration since Andrew Johnson in 1869.
