The Democrats have been urged not to "protect" presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, as the party prepare to unveil her as the official rival to Donald Trump.
Former Democratic candidate, Jason Palmer, told GB News that Harris is to face a "nail-biting" campaign trail in the build-up to the leadership debate in September, where she will battle Trump for the first time in person.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Harris will be presented as the official candidate, with President Joe Biden set to deliver an emotional speech in tribute to his Vice President.
Discussing the election campaign, Palmer warned that the US election will be "tough" and "close to call", highlighting the importance of next month's debate.
Kamala Harris is set to be unveiled as the official Democratic candidate at the party's public convention
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Sharing his support for Harris, Palmer told GB News: "When I look back to 2019, Kamala Harris was the first candidate that I donated to.
"The main reason I entered the race was because I thought Biden should pass the torch to a younger generation of leaders, and that's exactly what he's done."
When quizzed on how well he believes Harris will fare in the debate against Trump, Palmer admitted: "It's actually going to be tough, in both the debates and the actual election.
"Polls keep coming out every day and it has Kamala up by two or three percentage points. Sometimes Trump is up by one or two percentage points. It's a nail-biter, it's a very close election."
Donald Trump will face Kamala Harris in the leadership debate on September 10
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Noting the significance of the debate on the election, given Biden's performance against his Republican rival, Palmer stressed that the leadership debate will be the "deciding factor".
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When asked by host Christopher Hope for his stance on Harris's running mate, Tim Walz, Palmer claimed he is "quite a compelling character" for the Democrats.
Palmer said: "Tim Waltz wasn't someone that I knew very well when she announced him, I was more of a Josh Shapiro kind of guy. But now that I've gotten to know him, I've seen him speak, he's actually quite a compelling character.
"It's like having the coach on the team and that gets people excited. They care a lot about sports and care a lot about winning."
Turning the discussion to what Harris needs to do to keep her election campaign prominent in the lead-up to the debate, Palmer urged the Democrats not to "protect" her from media appearances as they did with President Biden.
Jason Palmer urged the Democrats not to 'protect Kamala' ahead of her key debate with Trump
GB News
Palmer explained: "I've been encouraging that she should be out there doing those interviews every single day, especially prior to the debate. This is one of the reasons why Biden did so poorly in that debate - they were protecting him.
"They were not letting him be out there, they were not letting him work on his weaknesses. We need to make sure Kamala gets out there."
Palmer added: "This is something that she needs to do much more of in advance of the debate - this is kind of a honeymoon period.
"That's why I do think this is going to be a close election all the way up to the finish line."