WASHINGTON — After weeks of goading, the stage is set in Philadelphia next week for the debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

It’s a familiar place for Trump now. He debated Hilary Clinton three times in 2016, President Joe Biden twice in 2020, and Biden again earlier this year.

“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows, either,” Trump said of Biden during the June debate.

Debate expert Alan Schroeder said the experience can help.

“The pressure of a general election debate that’s going to be watched by 50 or 60 million people, maybe more possibly, that’s very different from a primary or a local or state debate where you have a few million. The pressure, intensity, everything is exaggerated,” Schroeder, a journalism professor emeritus at Northeastern University, said.

The intensity is ratcheted up thanks to an election season that saw President Biden drop out and Harris take his place during an unprecedented political month.

It could be the only time Harris and Trump go one-on-one in person while making their case to voters. Their ads give a preview of their likely talking points.

“Sometimes revenge can be justified, I will say that,” Harris’ ad read. “He’ll take control, we’ll pay the price.”

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal,” Trump’s ad read.

Schroeder said the race to draw contrast with your opponent gets even tougher and has higher stakes when the campaign is shorter like it has been this year.

“If people feel like this is the only time they’ll see the two candidates on stage together, I think you’ll have many more eyeballs than normally we would expectI think there’s always a danger in just a single debate between two candidates because if one of them has an off night, you don’t get a chance to recover from that,” Schroeder said.

The debate features the same rules as the one from June with both candidates standing, no note cards, and muted mics when a candidate isn’t answering a question.

The vice presidential candidates, JD Vance and Tim Walz are also set to debate. That one is scheduled for Oct. 1.