Transcripts For CNN Debate Night in America 20240912

Professional dancers ok stay connected during your move with the best in home wifi. Easily transfer your services in the xfinity app. Bring on the good stuff. Today. Enter 5 and get 50 instantly. Prize picks. Run your game live from the national Constitution Center in philadelphia, pennsylvania here again David Muir and linsey davis. Welcome back. Tonight the time has come for Closing Statements and Vice President harris, we begin with you so i think youve heard tonight two very different visions for our country one that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past and an attempt to take us backward. But were not going back. And i do believe that the american people know we all have so much more in common than what separates us and we can chart a new way forward and a vision of that includes having a plan understanding the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes, the ambition of the american people. Which is why i intend to create an opportunity economy, investing in small businesses in new families, in what we can do around protecting seniors, what we can do that is about giving hardworking folks a break and bringing down the cost of living. I believe in what we can do together that is about sustaining americas standing in the world and ensuring that we have the respect that we so rightly deserve including respecting our military and ensuring we have the most lethal Fighting Force in the world. I will be a president that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do. Ill tell you, i started my career as a prosecutor. I was a da, i was an attorney general, a united States Senator and now a Vice President. Ive only had one client, the people. And ill tell you, as a prosecutor, i never asked a victim or a witness. Are you a republican or a democrat . The only thing i ever ask them. Are you okay and thats the kind of president we need right now. Someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first. I intend to be a president for all americans and focus on what we can do over the next ten and 20 years to build back up our country by investing right now in you, the american people. Vice president harris, thank you. President trump so she just started by saying shes going to do this shes going to do that. Shes going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasnt she done it . Shes been there for 3. 5 years. Theyve had 3. 5 years to fix the border. Theyve had 3. 5 years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasnt she done it . She should leave right now, go down to that beautiful white house, go to the capitol get everyone together and do the things you want to do. But you havent done it and you wont do it because you believe in things that the american people dont believe in. You believe in things like, were not going to frack. Were not going to take fossil fuel. Were not going to do things that are going to make this country strong. Whether you like it or not. Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants. Were not ready for it. We Cant Sacrifice our country for the sake of bad vision but i just ask one simple question why didnt she do it were a failing nation were a nation thats in serious decline. Were being laughed at all over the world, all over the world. Theyre laughing. I know the leaders very well. Theyre coming to see me. They call me. Were laughed at all over the world. They dont understand what happened to us as a nation. Were not a leader we dont have any idea whats going on. We have wars going on in the middle east. We have wars going on with Russia And Ukraine were going to end up in a third world war, and it will be a war like no other because of nuclear weapons, the power of weaponry i rebuilt our entire military she gave a lot of it away to the taliban. She gave it to afghanistan. What these people have done to our country and maybe toughest of all is allowing millions of people to come into our country. Many of them are criminals, and theyre destroying our country. The worst president the worst Vice President in the history of our country President Trump. Thank you. And that is our abc News President ial debate from here in philadelphia at the national Constitution Center. Im linsey davis. And im David Muir. Thank you for watching here in the u. S. And all over the world. And from All Of Us here at Abc News good night an historic night with a current Vice President. The first ever woman and first ever person of color to be Vice President. Debating a former president of the united states before the debate, Trump Supporters expressed hope that the former president would stay focused on issues such as inflation and immigration and that did appear to be a struggle for Donald Trump. Perhaps too often, most notably when he invoked what authorities in Springfield Or Ohio are saying is just false. A debunked meme that haitian migrants are stealing and eating pets he said that on the Debate Stage tonight, if illegal immigration is the most important issue to you as a voter, he did talk about it aggressively. But Vice President Harris Supporters have got to be pleased with her performance this evening, which was focused on an a telling voters that she cares about them and she has a plan for them. And over and over baiting Donald Trump into talking about Crowd Sizes and court cases and Nancy Pelosi and Russiagate And Grievance and he took the bait almost every time, if not every time he cited fox hosts as Fact Checkers. He invoked hungarian Strongman Viktor Orban as a character witness. It was like a Fortune Post come to life he really took her bait, almost every time. If youre a fisherman as i struggle to be, you would be lucky to have your bait taken so often instead of focusing on Trump Filling in the blanks for those voters unfamiliar with her he focused on stuff as if he was the incumbent im not sure harris necessarily did enough to fill in the blanks that undecided voters might have about specifics about her plans, but theres no question democrats have to feel good tonight about the trade of biden. For harris, who showed herself to be a strong candidate, she delivered a strong message. And yes, she prosecuted the case against trump she started the debate. She began the debate approaching Donald Trump, shaking his hand at the podium, kind of forcing him to shake her hand introducing herself and from that moment on dana, she took the Fight Right to him. You know, im just looking up. This is the quote that i think really sums up what Kamala Harris, her whole message was tonight. Youre not running against Joe Biden, youre running against me. It was obviously a planned line, but it deftly explains how she kind of triangulated and she separated herself. Obviously from Donald Trump. And where she needed to from Joe Biden. And what was so fascinating is that she didnt do it on defense. She did it on offense really, in every turn there are real weaknesses in the Biden Harris Administration from the economy to immigration to afghanistan. Just take afghanistan for an example. Instead of talking about the disastrous chaotic withdrawal, she turned it to the fact that he invited the Taliban To Camp David and talked about started talking about abdul. Exactly and then you mentioned that she was baiting him. She baited him and he took the bait every single time, as you said she was also using the language that he usually uses. She she kind of stole it from him Disgrace Week things like that, that really get to him. The other thing that i just want to add is that she began to turn to who she is by saying, im not Joe Biden im Donald Trump, im from a new generation, a different generation of of of leaders and she clearly wanted people to understand what shes made of for people who were really wanting to know all of her 17 Point Policy plans, they might be disappointed. But for people who want to know who she is and what shes made of, they got it tonight. Now the voters are going to have to decide and its going to take them a while to digest it. And we dont want to suggest that we have any idea how this is going to play. But those are the observations for how she handled that and the way that he did not handle it well i think its pretty simple. I mean, she had a plan. She executed on that plan. The plan was to quite simply bait Donald Trump to force him to battle on her turf at every turn. I mean she talked about china. He starts defending his love for for xi jinping. She talks about, um, you know, she she talks about his Sexual Assault cases. He starts defending himself on that turf she wanted to do that. But i also think i did see her trying to kind of really lay the groundwork on the policy issues that the campaign thinks will matter particularly in the state of pennsylvania. Right the commonwealth, excuse me, of pennsylvania, um she the very first answer that she gave was about her economic policy, where she talked about the 50,000 that they want to they want to put out there for Small Business Owners that they would get an a tax refund. I thought that was incredibly important because they clearly know that there were a lot of things that they put out on economic policy. Not all of them were received well. That one was received well and i and i also thought you know, there were other moments where she talked a lot about her family. She talked about her upbringing. She talked about how she was raised. I mean, the plan was to not just introduce herself, but to introduce herself specifically to Pennsylvania Voters so that they understood on economic policy, on fracking, where she stood and she executed that plan. Whereas trump i dont know what the plan was that he had. Jake, i didnt think i was ever going to witness a debate as devastating as The One that you and dana moderated back in, in june, where Joe Biden basically tanked his Reelection Campaign i think tonight was just as devastating. I think that Kamala Harris pitched a shutout uh, on almost every subject i can think of, she shut trump down on abortion she shut trump down on January 6th, and democracy she shut him down on national security and turned to the former president and said the Military Leaders who served with you think that youre a disgrace and then, as dana mentioned very powerfully at The End, made the point that she is the candidate of change and we need to turn the page from a decade of Division And Polarization on substance. I think she she pitched a shutout, and i think she did on style as well. I mean, my the image of the debate to me is shes theyre happy smiling, expressive, shaking her head. Uh and dismay at things. Trump was saying. And trump looked angry, scowling. She was looking directly at the audience. He was looking at the moderators and arguing with them and something else. And he was. He he. Donald trump looked old tonight and and you know some somebody said uh, on my show on saturday, she wins just by showing up. I didnt know that that was going to be true. I think it was she was the candidate was reacting to just from the moment the two of them were on the stage. Everything that she said, well, what you saw really was under control. Vice president Kamala Harris, prosecuting this debate with surgical precision. She was aware as she must have been as a prosecutor, that the second you were inside of a courtroom, the jury is looking at everything youre doing muted microphones doesnt matter her verbal, nonverbal cues, her body language, her incredulous expressions. At one point putting her hand under her chin to demonstrate that she was completely baffled by his line of defense, losing a battle of expert witnesses. Youre talking about talking about national security advisers, talking about nobel laureates, talking about the whole litany of people who do not buy what hes selling also very well trained and seasoned and knowing how to grapple with Somebody Who is going to possibly be bombastic petulant, defensive and have a derailed effort, she focused on all of those things. I saw Somebody Who, when she came out allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Kamala Harris. On behalf of Kamala Harris. She came out with that in mind. I think she executed now Donald Trump tried to derail her a number of times, but notice im saying the words Donald Trump in the way she did. It wasnt President Trump. She was referring to him. And similarly, as you would in a courtroom the defendant, the defendant under his title, reminding you of what . How did she Phrase It . What . He left us with . It was a really dynamite performance. So anderson i mean, his lack of parrying, his lack of making Kamala Harris and the bidenharris record, the focus. I mean, if you watch this debate and you didnt know that she was the incumbent Vice President , you saw a debate where Donald Trump was really on defense, and he and his record were the subject of the debate, not the incumbent leader. Kamala harris. Did tonight. What no governor, senator politician, Business Person who has run against him in primaries for in 2016 and certainly anything he faced in 2020 has figured out what No One else figured out how to do. Certainly Marco Rubio didnt figure it out by going after little hands. He debased himself, as many have. I want to show just some key moments where she needled Donald Trump on the most sort of obvious, basic things that we all know he has said. We all know her weak points to devastating effect lets just take a look lets talk about what Donald Trump left us. Donald trump left us the worst unemployment since the great depression. Donald trump left us the worst public Health Epidemic in a century Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War what the Wharton School has said is Donald Trumps plan would actually explode. The deficit. Im going to actually do something really unusual, and im going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trumps rallies, because its a really interesting thing to watch you will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like hannibal lecter. He will talk about windmills, Cause Cancer and what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And i will tell you, The One thing you will not hear him talk about is you. If you want to really know The Inside Track On who the former president is, if he didnt make it clear already, just ask people who have worked with him John King it was the moment she talked about his Crowd Size, of all things, and people. He was Crowd Size. It was people being bored and leaving his rallies early. I dont think he ever recovered from that. He was he started shouting and he never stopped. She triggered him there. I think she was uneven at the top. Not a bad answer first answer in the economy, but not a great answer. She got her footing during the abortion conversation, where she felt more comfortable, and then she triggered him with the people leave your rallies and he lost it. And he was angry. From that moment on, his voice went up. He started angering. He told a lot of lies. Daniel dale is going to be up all night. We should start a Go Fund me for his espresso machine. He went. He did and so what did she do . She triggered him on covid, January 6th and democracy, abortion chaos, lies and his anger. What are those . Those are the issues that turn the american suburbs away from Donald Trump, and why he lost the 2020 election. Those are the voters who were waiting to see if she could stand there and be a plausible president next to him. She cleared that bar. That doesnt mean she won their votes but she cleared that bar with eight weeks left in the election. She stood next to a former president , and she more than held her own. And on many of the issues, she schooled him, she simply schooled him because she triggered him into his lies and into his anger which does not sell well with the the middle of the electorate that will decide things eight weeks from tonight you know, ive been involved in a lot of these. I helped prepare a candidate for these debates six of them, and ive been watching him since i was a little boy. I have scarcely seen one like this uh, and the degree to which she dominated this and, you know part of it was a Butt Kicking and part of it was kind of someone doing themselves in. I said earlier jokingly, that you know, when they said hes a Muhammad Ali in the debates that, you know, their fear has to be that he knocks himself out. He kind of helped. But she set him up, as john said. But these things are more than about issues. These things are tests. These campaigns, these debates. Theyre oral exams for the hardest job on the planet. And people judge you in these moments and they judge whether you have the mettle to stand up to that pressure to to, to, to, to, to be coherent, to deliver a case uh, and she certainly did that tonight. Then she whooped him. She just whooped him. Uh, and i think that theres been a desire, you know, in good fiction, theres like Wish Fulfillment like, you know, you watch a movie because you want something to happen, like some great romance people have wanted to see somebody put this bully in his place, and people have watched contender after contender fail to put him in his place. She got up there and she put him in his place. She baited him and then she spanked him she baited him and then she spanked him. And and not only did she pass the commander in chief test, he failed it he failed it. Do you want this guy dealing with a dictator when he can literally just be . I mean, you could see the punches coming he couldnt get out of the way. I mean if you can. So unhinge somebody by saying people leave your rally. Any World Leader can manipulate you into anything so. So i think that she passed the test. He failed it. But i think also she was speaking for the people. She really was speaking for the people. I think the right wing may not see it, but she kept coming back to a Middle Class background. He kept talking about himself and himself. He went down every Rabbit Hole imaginable Kamala Harris did something great for every parent in america. She put the bully in his place. Yeah, im not i cant add more to what you guys have said using political terms such as butt whooping. Um, but she i mean, harris hacked Donald Trump tonight, and we talked earlier. I mentioned, you know, being unconventional, which he has been all these years. Doesnt mean hes unpredictable. And it turned out she could formula that was to first talk about an attack line. He might have said to her, take a topic she was weak on and follow it up with a trigger for him, and then watch him spin himself in circles trying to defend it and at the start of this conversation, at the start of the night we talked about whos going to look like an incumbent versus whos going to look like a challenger. And she i think she made herself look like the challenger to a person. And really kind of ran through his record. I mean, you know, you know him well. I mean even on the immigration question, she quickly turned it and totally emasculated him and got him discombobulated. She dismantled him and made it On The Issues. He should be the strongest on Border Security the economy. He ended up relitigating his rallies and talking about his Crowd Sizes. I mean, she put the bait out there and he took it. And im hearing from republicans because im trying to think from the perspective of, okay, if youre a Trump Viewer at home, what are you thinking sitting republican lawmakers who objectively think she won the debate . But also that the mask is starting to slip with Donald Trump, that this is the man who projects himself as strong as in command. And in fact, he simply is not. With just a minor, challenging asking for more substantive questions, asking him to lay out a Health Care plan, basic things he just cant do it. Certainly not the way he could have in previous Years Whit Johnson to the Health Care point, i think the moderators did a very good job, and the idea that, you know, you were president for four years now, its been 3. 5 years of Joe Biden. You ran for president a couple of years before you were president and Donald Trump said the best he could do about the affordable Care Act or obamacare has some concept and some ideas that issue was perilous for the democrats in the first two years, when it was being implemented, because the Change Hadnt been fulfilled yet. And change is scary when it comes to something so personal, like your Health Care. Its one of the most popular issues in the country right now. It has been a huge boon for democrats and again, im going back to if youre a trump voter, im getting incoming from some of the trump voters. Ive met in my travels, and theyre defending him but the republican strategists, theyre not surprised because they know Donald Trump. They know he takes the bait, but theyre really disappointed that he didnt have answers on substantive Policy Questions to your point about immigration, that on what should be his issue, he took the bait and was talking about Conspiracy Theories and other things. And on a Policy Proposals that matter to the people who will settle the election. He had nothing to say. You know, i think she showed up as herself. She is a prosecutor. She can prosecute the case. She is not afraid to hold people accountable. That is how she started her career. And she did just that. And she laid some breadcrumbs in her Opening Statement talking about, youre going to hear a lot of lies, and every time she tripped him up a little bit, she didnt then try and respond to him she just said, see what i told you. I told you what you were going to get. Im keeping them honest. Um, she also helped turn the page when she said, youre not running against Joe Biden. That was a subtle reminder for americans for the last two years. They said they didnt want that rematch. And the last time they watched the debate, it was a rematch. And she was like, guess what folks, im here. Heres an alternative. Heres a path to the future. And the final thing ill say is that im texting with some folks who are doing dial testing, Focus Groups during this debate undecided voters in georgia first, the Gender Gap is massive. Its about a 2030 point Gender Gap on her responses. But trumps one of trumps worst answers was his response to covid and that was really when he started to spiral and unravel. And he couldnt get back on track. I mean say what you want, friends but she nailed it tonight okay, now, now from the now from the other side, the other america, the other america, right. The Red America. So john i agree that she passed the test. Does she look president ial . Did she do a good job up there . She did pass that test, but she was very light. You know, youre complaining about trump saying you dont have details on on your plan. No details provided on anything here. But for her she was she was very good at kind of rattling off her two minute answers. But then never really answered the questions. I think Red America will look at this and say, i mean, i see it in the tweets. I never thought id say this, but cnn did such a great job on the debate and being fair where abc was not fair. This was this was a two, two, three on one times versus trump they were demanding trump be very specific on answers. But Kamala Harris, when asked about about her, her values changing and having to articulate the differences of why she was she, you know, she was for reparations, not for reparations, she said they listed a very long list, and she said, ill get to each of those. And then she didnt get to any of them. I would be curious to see the time. Who had more time, because my sense was that Donald Trump was given more time. I dont know, but im just saying, anderson. But my point my point is not time. My point is there was not a demand. David muir didnt say well, madam Vice President , are you going to answer that question . Or he did do that with trump. He there was more aggressive follow up on the Trump Questioning than there was on. Isnt that sort of the responsibility of the candidate . But but david when its when its when its supposedly this is supposedly a neutral territory. Right. And when the moderators have their thumb on the scale, republican voters are going to watch this and say, i think i want to say something on those. I think it was two very specific questions like yes or no is there anything you regret about, you know, January 6th . No answer. No. Well, then how about this . How about this when she when she was pressed and i thought this was particularly disgusting for me when she was pressed on afghanistan, she didnt say, yeah, i regret that. 13 young men and women died there. And i regret that i did not in the 3. 5 years as Vice President , meet with their families. She didnt answer. I mean that she didnt say that and nobody followed up on that. And that is that is disgusting to me. Look i agree with david that youre going to hear some carping from republicans about, you know, this wasnt a debate. It was a trial. And there were three prosecutors definitely going to hear that. But it is a little hard to complain about the refs when youre not making your own jump shots. Exactly. Yeah, exactly and and the first 15 minutes of this debate, he won the questions were on the economy. He had it right. He had it right on inflation, even on the tariff question, i think he had it right. And then inexplicably, on immigration, thats where she derailed him. And from that point forward, she basically dictated the flow. Now, in the Closing Statements when he said, youve been there for 3. 5 years, why havent you done it . That really should have permeated. Thats his best argument it really should have permeated everything. She she peppered all of her answers with, i have a plan, i have a plan. He should have retorted every time youve been there, that seems like the only thing they worked out in advance like that. He had sort of in his mind, okay, this is something were going to say but look, she, she she did not put a lot of meat on the bones. I agree, she passed the competency test. She did tell some of her own lies and she and she left some some things out there. But overall she dictated the flow. I want to go to Kaitlan Collins in the Debate Spin Room with Pennsylvania Governor josh shapiro. Caitlin yeah. Thanks, anderson. Im here. And it is timely given we are talking with the Pennsylvania Governor, josh shapiro, about how Taylor Swift just came out and endorsed Kamala Harris. I know that you were claiming Taylor Swift is one of alqaim Taylor Swift, the Berks County native. But youre were here in philadelphia watching this debate. You were just watching it. What were your main takeaways of how Vice President harris did coming into this . Because there were big questions about how she would fare on that Debate Stage. You know, caitlin, i think we spoke a few weeks ago and i expressed to you that i was a little bit worried the american people had a little bit of Brain Fog about Donald Trump. They didnt remember the chaos when he was in office. I think Kamala Harris wiped out that Brain Fog and reminded people of the chaos of Donald Trump, reminded them that he ripped away peoples fundamental freedoms, particularly the freedom for millions of women across this country to just make decisions over their own bodies. She reminded them that here in pennsylvania he wants to take away Health Care from 1. 2 million of my Fellow Pennsylvanians she reminded him that he really has no plan on the economy and she reminded him just how it reminded people, just how nonsensical he is, how divisive he is, how his rhetoric seeks to create others in our society and divide people instead of lifting everybody up. And i thought she made clear she wants to be a president for all americans, laid out her vision, laid out her plans, and i thought she had a great night. A lot of it seemed designed to to try to get under trumps skin. I mean, she was talking about his Crowd Sizes. She was talking about his former officials who are now criticizing him she brought up January 6th. And all of these moments, and he did seem to take the bait. Even trump advisers were saying that to me. Was that the strategy going into this debate for your party . Well, look only Kamala Harris knows what her strategy was on this. But i will tell you he took the bait because hes completely selfcentered. He only cares about himself. And so instead of just ignoring a comment about Crowd Size and instead focusing on the needs of the crowd, the needs of the people that he was talking to, he could only focus on himself. He is someone who is so selfabsorbed that he cant possibly do a good job for the american people. Shes still been underwater. In latest polling in your home state. I mean, shes been doing better in michigan and wisconsin than she has in pennsylvania, but still struggling a bit and what we saw from polls that voters wanted to know more about her, they still had questions about her. Obviously, Donald Trump is a pretty wellknown Quality Quantity she obviously made the case against Donald Trump tonight. But do you think she laid out enough of her own plans in detail for example, on on how to end the war thats happening in gaza . She talked about working around the clock, but but no specifics on that. Look, i thought she laid out comprehensive plans both on domestic and international policy and every visit, every Rally Everything she does going forward, shell continue to flesh that out. I thought she had a really good night, and i thought she laid out what she needed to for the american people. Understand this is one piece of the larger effort to win, not just here in pennsylvania but in other states as well. And i thought she had a good night. As for pennsylvania, look understand, its always close here. 2016. It was 44,000 votes that divided the two candidates. 2020 was 80,000 votes. About a percentage of 2024 or less. I dont know, but were no stranger to close elections. The good news is Kamala Harris understands that to pick up that last yard or two here in pennsylvania is tough. But you got to show up. This is still a retail state. And so shes showing up to places like Beaver County this week. Shell be in wilkesbarre. Shes going to places that quite frankly, often get ignored by national candidates, by showing up, shes not only able to lay out her plans, but she shows a level of respect to the good people of Pennsylvania Governor josh shapiro. I want to hand it over to jake, who also has a question for you, your Fellow Pennsylvanian who knows Taylor Swift well first of all first of all, thats right, Taylor Swift actually originally from right near the reading phillies. Right im not. But governor jake. Jake, first of all, the phillies beat Tampa Bay hes not hearing. Okay, go ask him this. Should the Harris Campaign Focus should should the Harris Campaign Focus more on the independent voters in erie or the republican women in the Collar Counties around philly . If if they had to choose he asked. I believe if the Harris Campaign should focus more on independent women in erie or on moderate Women Voters and the other surrounding counties, was that it jake now on, on on independent voters in the Erie Area or republican women in the Collar County or republican women and sure. Look jake, ill tell you everywhere in pennsylvania matters, particularly if this election is going to come down to just tens of thousands of votes. I think you understand that david urban on your panel, certainly understands that there are a whole lot of people in the philadelphia suburbs if you look at the suburbs as sort of its own entity, its more than two times the size of the city of philadelphia. So theres a lot of voters there, a lot of people to talk to. And i know that the Vice President is going to be spending a lot of time in the philadelphia suburbs. I also know that going to erie is important as well. Take that from me. A governor whos been there many many times. I think our soon to be Vice President , tim walz, was in erie just last week. Thats critical as well. But you got to show up. You got to let folks ask you questions. You got to let your tires get kicked, and you got to show the good people of pennsylvania you care about their neighborhoods. And i know Kamala Harris is going to do that. All right. Governor josh shapiro, thank you for that. Jake, back to you thank you so much. You know, one of the things thats so interesting about tonight, as opposed to the interview you did with Vice President harris, was that a week ago . I dont even know what it was. Ten days ago. Anyway, you asked her about the racial comments when Donald Trump said that she never identified as black before. I mean, its nonsense. Its a lie. Whatever. Right she wouldnt even talk about it, right . Tonight she ran through the litany of Donald Trumps racist history from being sued by Nixons Housing Department or Department Of Labor for not renting to black tenants to the Central Park five to birtherism et cetera. Et cetera. I mean, and again, he took the bait every single time. Hes literally there defending the indefensible in terms of his calling for the Death Penalty for the Central Park five. But my point is, she actually discussed it i dont think that she was waiting for a bigger audience, you know, 100 Million people watching tonight or whatever i think that she that trump continues to make inroads with black men and she felt like she probably had to staunch some of the bleeding on on that issue. I think both can be true um, i, i thought her response to to my question was, you know, same old stuff. Next question. She was ready to say something pithy and kind of the back of the hand, like the blow off and and move on. But in the back of my mind, i wondered if she was holding her, uh, her best stuff for for this to be with him on the Debate Stage. So but i think that could be also true, that shes making inroads with black men. What do you think . I thought she said it because hes making his his response was he didnt care, right . He didnt care about the race. Or she can be whatever it is she wants to be, which essentially was not only condescending and patronizing, but also demonstrably inaccurate based on the statements that she actually laid out as to his concern for Race And Gender and beyond. And i think that she was waiting to address that particular moment in a way not to choose her audience, but to respond to what he had to say. And i think the idea of her talking about her race and her gender which are both quite obvious to the american voter, the american people i think in many ways that is an attempt for him to try to bait her, to suggest that that is trump over her qualifications, her skills, her value adds as a contributing member of the administration, as a senator, as An Ag and beyond. And i think shes cognizant of the way in which america also views women of color in positions of power. And i think that she was waiting for the opportunity to address a specific claim, as opposed to what do you think about Race And Racism . It also felt to me like there were some really key parts of it that she laid down there for trump to pick up, and then he just went and picked them up like he defended to your point, he defended his false accusations against the Central Park five. He literally did not have to do that but he decided to do it. He also then went down a Rabbit Hole on charlottesville. I mean, its useful to the Harris Campaign to have trump revisit all of the most unpopular parts of his history and his personality and his attitude and his lack of remorse that is a useful thing, more so than her defending her own race and racial identity, which honestly, she she barely did. I mean, she did it very briefly, and then she just created a scenario in which trump just went down a Rabbit Hole that was was set for him. That was honestly the whole debate in a nutshell. I was going to say it happened over and over again on the issue of 2020 and relitigating that i talked to a top aide this weekend who said he wants to do it. He knows he shouldnt. Hes been told that being forward looking is is a much better strategy for success which i took to mean hell probably do it. You know, despite our best advice. And you know what he did do it. Can we talk about Taylor Swift . Yeah, lets talk about this for people. Has it been mentioned on our air . I think yes, with governor shapiro. Okay. So taylor, give it a more fulsome report. Taylor swift on instagram endorsed the harris walz ticket. She says shes doing it because harris, quote, fights for the rights and causes i believe. Need a warrior to champion them. I think she is steady handed gifted leader, and i believe we can accomplish so much more in this country for led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of Running Mate tim walz, whos been standing up for lgbtq plus rights ivf, and a womans right to her own body for decades. She goes on to say, ive done my research. Ive made my choice. Your research is all yours to do. Interestingly, she signs it with love and hope. Taylor swift, childless Cat Lady, an allusion to senator j. D. Vance, Donald Trumps Running Mate, insulting democrats as childless cat ladies. And she was holding a cat in that photo. The name of the cat i have been reliably informed is olivia benson. Olivia well, one of her cats was olivia benson. I cannot confirm that the cat she was holding in that picture was. Is it is is olivia benson. But i guarantee you, i guarantee you we will we will hear from many, many swifties out there but lets just talk about what this means um, what does it mean . What is the significance of a Celebrity Endorsement . Its not just a Celebrity Endorsement. One of the biggest celebrities in the world, the biggest celebrity in the world. But its not just that shes a celebrity. She has people who are. I mean, like swift ologists. I mean, there are people who are young people, Young Women who might not already be engaged in in politics, who read and listen to every single thing that she says and love her. And if she makes a difference, even on the margins in a race like this, that is a huge difference. This was the this was The Endorsement that the Harris Campaign, they were hoping for more than anything else. No one will ever say no to a Taylor Swift endorsement. I 100 agree with that. I think its significant to all it is always significant to have the most powerful force in Pop Culture on your side. The one contrarian view i will say is that in this moment the thing the Harris Campaign needs perhaps the most is to figure out how to reach men theyve got to figure it out here in pennsylvania. Theyve got to figure out how to reach black men and im not sure Taylor Swift helps them with that. Its a totally different Ball Game that Taylor Swift is in, but theyve got to figure that part out. Travis kelce on the other hand travis, maybe if Travis Kelce comes around wed be having a different conversation. But i think that its just important to remember that, especially in this Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania that is that that is just its a give and take here where you gain some and you lose some. And she really needs to start gaining. I dont want to rush us off the Taylor Swift ology discussion, and we but i do want to. There is another piece of news, which is that the Harris Campaign put out a release and has challenged Donald Trump to another debate that had been somewhat in doubt. And they say, were ready for another debate. Lets have it. My guess is, after the Vice President ial debate in october, but theyre ready for round two. So cbs is doing the Vice President ial debate, and i think nbc is supposed to do the the next president ial debate, but it hasnt locked down confirmed. But that has put an offer on the expectation. Well, can i just correct something before we move on . Oh im sorry from from Taylor Swift. Oh, boy. The Cats Name is benjamin button. Okay, okay. Well, can i just say one thing, though, that i saw when i talked about taylor Swifts Endorsement that she is very clearly showing people that reproductive rights is on the ballot very much so. She talked about in that actual statement about her research about tim walz, the governor and his work with that particular area. And so for those who think that roe v. Wade is an invisible ink on the 2024 ballot, it very much is in a Sharpie Pen and thats why Kamala Harriss dissection of her references to what a voter would want was so important in the reproductive rights conversation. Lets get a fact check now of the debate. Cnn senior reporter Daniel Dale was listening closely to both candidates. Daniel, what stood out to you . Jake, what stood out was that this was a staggeringly dishonest Debate Performance from former President Trump. Just lie after lie on subject after subject by my preliminary count, Jake Trump made at least 33 false claims, 33. By contrast, by again a preliminary count, Vice President harris made at least one false claim, though she added at least a few misleading claims and a few more that lack key context. I think a lot of americans say, well, all politicians lie. No major president ial candidate before Donald Trump has ever lied with this kind of frequency, a remarkably large chunk of what he said tonight was just not true. And this wasnt like little exaggeration, Political Spin a lot of his false claims were untethered to reality on abortion, saying every democrat wanted roe v. Wade overturned though actually more than 80 of democrats supported roe on crime, saying its through the roof, though its actually sharply down since early 2023, its now lower than it was since trump left office on Health Care, saying hes The One who saved obamacare, the law he actually repeatedly tried to overturn on Kamala Harris herself, saying that a Howard University grad, black law Students Association President had claimed that she wasnt black at one point. Frankly, i dont have enough time here to run through each specific trump false claim. I urge people to go to our Cnn Website or our app to read our teams detailed fact checks on this, and a whole bunch more. For now, though, lets dive into one false claim. Trump made an egregious claim about migrants supposedly supposedly eating peoples pets in springfield. Theyre eating the dogs. The people that came in there eating the cats, theyre eating, theyre eating the pets of the people that live there this is not only false, i think its fair to call this odious this for people who have not been online in the last couple of days. This claim about migrants, haitian migrants in springfield, ohio, eating peoples pets originated with a Facebook Post that attributed the claim to a neighbors friends daughter. So you know, a third hand broken Telephone Kind of thing. The city of springfield and the springfield police say there are no credible reports of this happening, and even j. D. Vance, the Vice President ial candidate who himself had promoted these claims acknowledged this morning that the quote, rumors might turn out false, although he still encouraged people to spread these cat memes. Now, ill note that trump himself added dogs to the equation. They had not even been part of these viral nonsense rumors before. Now lets look at one false claim that Vice President harris did make about the economic situation that the Bidenharris Administration was left by trump lets talk about what Donald Trump left us. Donald trump left us the worst unemployment since the great depression. And what we have done is clean up Donald Trumps mess so the Bidenharris Administration was not actually left the worst unemployment since the great depression. They were left at 6. 4 Unemployment Rate in january 2021. That was certainly elevated by recent standards pretty high, but it was significantly down from the 14. 8 level it reached early in the pandemic so it was already improving at the time the Bidenharris Administration took office, and that 6. 4 level was the highest since the great recession. So in the last 20 years, not going back decades, further anderson. Daniel, thanks very much. A lot, a lot to go through. We appreciate it. One other thing on the Taylor Swift endorsement, its interesting in her statement another thing she mentioned, she said recently, i was made aware that i of me falsely endorsing Donald Trumps president ial run, was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around a. I. And the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that i need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election. As a voter. Interesting that shes citing Donald Trump or somebody in the campaign, or i dont know where that site was, but a trump related site. Another another selfown. I mean, they were really dumb to bait her because, you know, she was standing on the sidelines. We were hoping she might come out but, you know, they keep doing dumb stuff on this campaign. This stuff around eating animals and cats is everybody off. They just they just pulled Taylor Swift into the into the fight this is a very, very disastrous night for Donald Trump. Can i give a quick shout out to j. D. Vance, who introduced into the bloodstream this childless Cat Lady that now The One of the most powerful celebrities on the planet, is using to endorse against trump and vance. He also was the, you know, potential future Vice President who tweeted out this lie about immigrants eating pets, which was now echoed on a Debate Stage tonight. This guy has been a disaster from the outset. Im biased. I worked for Mike Pence, but he brought people into the fold. This person runs people out of the fold and he is steering Donald Trump to his absolute worst instincts, which Kamala Harris was able to exploit every single time. Can you say he was guilty of a felony hey, i just want to know. Dave, dan, dan not yet. Not me, not yet ex. Sorry. So, so Daniel Dan was doing some Fact Checking. I just want to fact check a little bit here. Its not necessarily 100 across the line, but when Kamala Harris said that there arent, you know, Men And Women Serving In War Zones in this administration, lets not forget tonight is an every night there are young men and women from america serving in Harms Way. They may not be an active War Zones but there are men and women serving in Harms Way all around this globe, protecting All Of Us here at this table. So lets all keep them in our Prayers Tonight and remember that they may not be in War Zones but theyre still in Harms Way. And their parents and Loved Ones are very concerned about it. And lets not diminish it anyway. You know, i think the debate i mean, there were so many moments, it took a very strong pivot in a direction towards sorry, Kamala Harris is speaking. Lets listen in it kind of was but we have 56 days to go. And guys were still the underdogs in this race. Its tight. We have got to win pennsylvania yeah, and we are going to win pennsylvania and it is because of you. It is because of you who have signed up, who have volunteered. You are organizing. Youre helping us to email and text and knock on doors and talk to your neighbors and your friends. And heres the thing about the spirit of our campaign. It is people driven back here now with the team. Stay with us for more reaction to the debate. Were going to hear from our Focus Group of Pennsylvania Voters. Well also get the first results from our exclusive Instant Poll of debate viewers across the country. Plus, Donald Trumps running Mate Senator j. D. Vance will join us live back in a moment to Debate Night in america is brought to you by simplisafe. Home security. There is no safe like simplisafe at simplisafe, we build advanced Security Sensors and cameras for your whole home. Powered by 24 over seven professional monitoring and fast protect technology exclusively from simplisafe. For faster police response. Theres no safe like simplisafe. Take control of your health by boosting your force field. 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Of soda is now, and its called poppy unbiased reviews unrivaled research, and unreal savings. Elevate your everyday cnn underscored. See all our reviews and recommendations at Underscore Com were back with our breaking News Coverage of the Harris Trump President ial debate, awaiting reaction from our Focus Group of Pennsylvania Voters and from our Instant Poll of Debate Watchers nationwide. But right now, lets go inside the Spin Room, where we find Caitlin Collins. And i think Donald Trump himself is in the Spin Room. Caitlin, im not sure if you can hear me, but Donald Trump is in the Spin Room. That is generally not considered a sign of a candidate thinking he had a good night or she had a good night. When they go to the Spin Room to clean up what they just did and try to create new headlines or maybe Jerk Store some answers yeah, jake, of course, you know, this was after the cnn debate. There was a Rumor Trump may come into the Spin Room. He did not ultimately come in he is across the room from us now talking to reporters right now about the debate. Its a little bit hard to hear him, but we have sitting with us his Running Mate, senator j. D. Vance of ohio, who has also been watching that debate. Jake was just talking about what it means when a candidate comes into the Spin Room after a debate is that a sign of a good debate or a bad debate . In your view look, i think with President Trump, its not a sign of either frankly, i do think that he had a great debate. We could sort of hear the the Background Noise here but look, i think with President Trump, he had to be sort of talked out of coming to the Spin Room after the first debate because he really wanted to. And my guess is that he really wanted to come. Then he really wanted to come now, this time it worked out. And look he loves to talk to reporters because he loves to talk to the american people. And i think its been a consistent theme of his campaign is going anywhere, going into hostile or friendly media, talking to people, answering questions and trying to make his case. Hes going to keep on doing that. Whatever the format did tonight go how you wanted it to go in terms of harris clearly trying to get under his skin, talking about Crowd Sizes, talking about former officials like John Kelly and Mark Esper and others. I mean i heard from some trump advisers who said he took the the debate too much. Do you believe that . No. Look, i think what we saw from Kamala Harris was a lot of platitudes. It was a lot of plans that had no real substance behind them and no real precision behind them. And what is most interesting, and its really the sort of microcosm of this entire race, is Kamala Harris has a record. Donald trump has a record. Donald trump is proud of his record and is running to it. Kamala harris is Running Away from her record and pretending that somehow her term as president is going to be radically different from her term as Vice President but she cant actually articulate why and in fact, to the extent that she articulates it at all, its by Running Away from positions that she clearly held just a few years ago or even a few weeks ago. So why didnt trump push her more on that . Because that is what we hear from you every day on the Campaign Trail is talking about her reversals he did not really talk about why havent you done what youre saying youll do until his Closing Statement . Do you think he should have done that sooner . Well, i think he did. I mean, he did it in the Closing Statement. He also really hammered her on her inconsistencies. Right. This is a person who said she wanted to ban fracking. Now she says she doesnt. She wanted to defund the police. Now she said she doesnt. She wanted a secure border i thought he really did, actually, on three issues in particular, i think he was very focused on hammering Kamala Harris inconsistencies with her record, what she says now versus what she said even a few weeks ago. In some cases, it was on the border. Its on fracking and its on defund the police. That was clearly what hes most focused on. I think its not surprising because those are three of the issues that the american people care the most about. I mean, look, this is a person who was to the far left of her own party and now is trying to pretend that shes effectively Donald Trump. My favorite line of the night is when he said shes going to don a Maga Cap and pretend that she agrees with me on everything. I think the american people are too smart to be fooled by Kamala Chameleon acting to be somebody that shes clearly not. She kind of smirked when he said that he was going to send her one on abortion, though trump was asked if he would veto a national Abortion Ban. You have said that he would. He said that the two of you have not talked about that, that you werent talking for him. Have the two of you not talked about that . So we havent talked about it. Veto. But its clear that Donald Trump doesnt believe in a national Abortion Ban. He said that his policy is to let the states decide majority of Abortion Policy in this country. And so i think that really its a difference of semantics. He thinks its absurd to even talk about vetoing a piece of legislation that has no chance of being brought. I think its a totally reasonable point but again, the main substantive issue is Donald Trump believes that abortion should be a State Policy and Kamala Harris fundamentally thinks that abortion should be funded by taxpayers right up to the moment of birth. And i it was interesting that the abc Fact Checkers of the moderators, who, frankly were just helping Kamala Harris in the debate that they said that no state supports abortion up to the moment of birth. Her own Running Mate has supported legislation that would remove the requirement that doctors provide Life Saving Care to babies who survive botched abortions so i think his point is democrats are the real radicals on this issue and whatever cover the moderators provided, the truth is the truth and their record is pretty out there on this question specifically, trump could have said yes he would veto a national Abortion Ban. Why did he not take the opportunity to do so . When you know how important abortion is to so many voters . Well, because i think he believes its an absurd hypothetical, which, of course, it is. No national Abortion Ban is coming before the united States Senate or the united States Congress if it did, it would maybe get 10 of of those bodies to vote for it. Before that, he would veto it. Why didnt you say that before . You didnt i said hypothetical . Well, caitlin, what i said explicitly is that Donald Trump doesnt believe in a national Abortion Ban. He doesnt and the question of how far he would go is, to me like a semantic thing that doesnt actually make sense. Its an absurd proposition. Its never going to happen. And i think what President Trump is saying is i dont like to deal in these absurd hypotheticals. Its not going to happen. And hes been clear that he doesnt support it well, i think there are maybe some Women Voters who would like for him, would have liked for him to answer that question. The other thing that he brought up, which i was kind of surprised by, i guess i would say, is he brought up this misleading, false claim that you yourself have talked about in recent days about haitian immigrants in springfield ohio, abducting peoples pets and eating them, which officials there have said is not true. You yourself acknowledged it may be false on twitter. You still told people to to keep spreading it but trump just amplified it to tens of millions of people who were watching. Why push something thats not true . Well, first of all, City Officials have not said its not true theyve said they dont have all the evidence. They heard no evidence. Weve heard from a number of constituents on the ground. Caitlin, who both firsthand and secondhand reports saying this stuff is happening. So they very clearly meaning the people on the ground dealing with this think that it is happening. And i think that its important for journalists to actually get on the ground and uncover this stuff for themselves. When you have a lot of people saying, my pets are being abducted or geese at the City Pond are being abducted and slaughtered right in front of us, this is crazy stuff. And again, whether those exact rumors turn out to be mostly true somewhat true. Whatever the case may be. Caitlin, this town has been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in Health Care costs are up, Housing Costs are up. Communicable diseases like Hiv And Tb have skyrocketed in this small ohio town this is what Kamala Harriss Border Policies have done. And i think its interesting caitlin, that the media didnt care about the carnage wrought by these policies until we turned it into a meme about cats and that speaks to the Medias Failure to care about whats going on in these communities. If we have to meme about it to get the media to care, were going to keep on doing it because the media could should care about whats going on. I saw you say that. I think the media does care about it. I just read a very lengthy report in the New York Times on it. Pbs newshour did a did a whole story. But but can i ask you us talking about it and bringing it up . Nobody cared about this until we raised this issue. You talked about senator. You talked about that your office has gotten a lot of reports. I mean, if someone calls your office and says they saw bigfoot, that doesnt mean they saw bigfoot. I mean, you have a sense of responsibility as a Running Mate, and he certainly does as as the candidate to not promote false information. Right . Caitlin . Its a totally fair point, but nobodys calling my office and saying that they saw bigfoot. What theyre calling and saying is were seeing migrants kidnap our dogs and cats and City Officials arent doing anything about it. Now again, i have a responsibility as a united States Senator. I think the media has a responsibility as an institution that cares about truth, to actually take people seriously when they say their lives have been ruined by this Migrant Crisis and again, if every single thing that the media says about this story is false, the verifiable facts are that this community has had their lives destroyed by 20,000 migrants coming in and uprooting life again, officials said no credible evidence of the claim, but senator j. D. Vance, thank you for joining us with your debate reaction. Jake, back to you thanks. So much. Interesting comment. Im looking at a New York Times story from eight days ago about the Immigration Crisis in springfield and the problems created there, saying we have to make up nonsense that isnt true, so that the media covers things that the media is already covering is an Odd Defense but i digress. Chris well, Charles Krauthammer the late, Great Conservative columnist, talking about people like Jd Vance in this particular case, when theyre trying to defend the indefensible, said whatever theyre paying them, its not enough and the fact is that he sat there and tried to contort himself into saying that one trump had a great debate he didnt. And two, to defend something that has been almost totally discredited. And you know, and also, i have to take personal offense at the idea that that he says that the Media Hasnt cared about Immigrant Crime there have been all kinds of stories and all kinds of coverage of Immigrant Crime. And every state is a border state. It was a big issue in the republican convention. We covered those speeches. It was very affecting to make up stories. Now about pets and to sit there on national television and defend it as krauthammer would say, whatever theyre paying him its not enough. Can we just cut through to what it is . Its not about the media not reporting on immigration this is something that is racist this is a racist meme. The reason why we are covering the Memes Isnt because were covering the underlying allegation about immigration. What we are covering are are republican allegations lying lying, but lying also suggesting that people of color are eating your pets thats Thats Racism coming up, americans weigh in on who they think won the debate which is much more important than what we think were going to get reaction from Pennsylvania Voters who say they are undecided. They might be leaning one way or another, but they havent made up their mind for sure. Were also standing by for the first results from our Instant Poll of Debate Watchers nationwide. We got a lot more ahead. Stick with us sunday on the whole story. How does a Bernie Bro become a protrump, proputin social Media Superstar . Maga communism . You know, people watching cnn are going to say, youre crazy. The whole story with Anderson Cooper sunday at eight on cnn fire. There are some things that work better together, like your workplace benefits and retirement savings, presentation looks great. Thanks voya provides tools that help you make the right Investment And Benefit choices so you can reach todays financial goals. That one, and look forward to a more confident future that is one dynamic Duo Voya well planned, well invested, well protected flight deck. We are go for launch. Is that The One . So much space that open kitchen . Is that a walk in closet oh the tiles. Oh wait, we got a problem. Problem . How can you sell your house when were stuck on a Space Station for months oh bad timing. That was The One. No no no no. Open door dont open the door Open Door gives you the flexibility to sell and buy on your timeline. Really yeah. We have liftoff. Nice houston, we have a playroom Kamala Harris cast the tie Breaking Vote that created americas inflation. The Vice President votes in the affirmative and the bill is passed economists said harriss Vote Led directly to the higher prices we pay 22 more for groceries 50 more for Gas Mortgage costs, nearly double. Thanks a lot, Kamala Trump had our economy humming. Hell do it again. Im donald j. Trump and i approve this message theres news and theres good news like thousands of patients receiving free life changing surgeries from volunteer doctors and nurses on hospital ships, all made possible by donations we love good news i wish my Tv Provider let me choose what i pay for. Sling let you do that hey, where are you going i wish my Tv Provider let me choose what i pay for and let me pause my subscription when i want. Sling lets you do that to sling. I wish my Tv Provider let me choose what i pay for and let me pause my subscription when i want and have hundreds of free channels. Sling let you do that too. Mr. Fish. Choose and customize your or bring your own team together with custom gear. Get started today at customink. Com. Have i got news for you premieres saturday at nine on cnn we now have a total running time for each president ial candidate after tonights heated Harris Trump Debate wrapped up a little while ago. Former President Trump speaking just under 43 minutes. Vice president harris speaking just over 37. 5 minutes. Plus, we just got the first results from our Instant Poll of Debate Watchers. Stand by for that. Were getting. Well be right back or no actually, well keep going. Were getting the first reaction to the debate from our Focus Group, from voters in the Battleground State of pennsylvania. Phil mattingly is with them in erie, pennsylvania so tell us who youre with and what theyre saying about the debate yeah anderson, we talk about how critical pennsylvania is for each Candidates Pathway to 270 electoral votes. Were here in Erie County. Erie pennsylvania. Were sitting currently at mercyhurst university. Been wonderful hosts for us. The reason why were here, 400 miles away from the debate, is Erie County is the Swingiest County in the most important Swing State of this campaign. Theres no question about it. When obama in 2012, when trump in 2016 went, biden in 2020, the last two cycles, just about 1500 votes each separated the two candidates. So we wanted to ask voters who have not made a firm decision yet who they want to vote for what they actually saw in this debate. Now, these are voters that have in the past supported republicans and democrats. They have in the past shown support for former President Trump or for Joe Biden. But coming into this night, they told us that they had not made up their minds yet in this election. So just to step back a little bit, show our Focus Group, two people, erie residents, again, most important, state most important county in that state. We asked for Show Of Hands before the debate, who hadnt made up their mind yet but thought this debate may determine where they would go with their vote to start with this debate. Who do you think won by a Show Of Hands former President Trump to ill give it four. But tentative two over there. What about Vice President harris more hands for those of you who thought this debate could be determinative, how many of you have made up your minds based on what you saw tonight on stage in philadelphia raise your hands. All right. I want to ask you why what did you see that brought you to a conclusion . I think its important to remember that we are voting for the leader of our country and not who we like. The most, or who we want in our wedding party, but who is actually going to make our country better. And were in an incredibly unique situation where weve had both of the candidates in office before, and weve gotten to see what they would do and when facts come to facts, my life was better when trump was in office. The economy was higher, inflation was lower things were better overall. And now with kamalas administration, things havent been so fantastic. And shes saying she can fix the problems that her administration has caused. But i just dont know if i can afford to take that risk. Were you leaning towards the former president coming into tonight probably. And did you vote for him in 2016 or 2020 . I did so decision made there. What did you think as to who i would vote for in this election . I strongly Felt Kamala was more optimistic, more respectful. I thought she had plans that she tried to describe in the Minutes Worth of time that she had i mean, they really were limited with their time. So um, i dont know. I just felt more strongly for her as opposed to her opponent. I want to talk about some of the moments in the debate because as we told you guys before the debate, each of these individuals had a dial and if they turned the dial to the right, then they felt positive about what they were hearing in that moment. If they turned it to the left, they felt less so. They felt negative about what they were hearing. We could track that throughout the debate. Were going to show you a couple of moments where you saw the biggest movement towards positive direction for both of those candidates. You will see the lines at the bottom of the screen, and you will see that movement as the sound we play you plays out. Were going to start with this because theyre radical. The democrats are radical in that and her Vice President ial pick, which i think was a horrible pick, by the way, for our country because he is really out of it but her Vice President ial pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth. Its execution no longer abortion because the baby is born is okay and thats not okay with me. Hence the vote trump. Abortion bans that make no exception even for Rape And Incest, which understand what that means. A survivor of a crime of violation to their body does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral and one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree. The government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body that sound, obviously, that moment was a critical moment, not just for the debate on one of the critical issues of this campaign, on the issue of reproductive rights and abortion, but it was also one that garnered significant reaction from our Focus Group, which i want to ask about right now. For those of you who responded positively to Vice President harriss answer, Tell Me Why i. Yeah, please i responded positively to her answer because, um i do struggle with the Abortion Issue and i dont know that she and i agree but i dont know that um, like she said that that government should be in charge of peoples decisions. And i um, think that there the when she was talking about situations of Rape And Incest i think that those happen more than we think that they do. And i just i dont know, i just felt um, her impassioned response and that she would carry it out. And that resonated with you in the moment. Yes it did. Who else had a positive response . Go ahead please. I felt like it was her most genuine and passionate that i saw her pretty much throughout it um i didnt necessarily agree with what she was saying, but my favorable reactions were because it was nice to see the Passion And Believability that she stands behind and then have something to gauge more of what she says. On since she hasnt spoken a lot solidly about a lot of issues. And i think whats been interesting, again, following how you guys were tracking the debate, which is a fascinating experience and i should note, nobody in this room has been listening to the postgame coverage. Nobody in this room has been listening to the analysis. Weve actually all been talking amongst ourselves. Its been a really great conversation. Um, there was another critical moment, and this was Donald Trumps best moment. Based on your guys responses. And it was when he was discussing afghanistan. Listen we were getting out. We would have been out faster than them, but we wouldnt have lost the soldiers. We wouldnt have left many americans behind, and we wouldnt have left. We wouldnt have left 85 Billion worth of brand new, beautiful Military Equipment behind. And just to finish, they blew it. The agreement said, you have to do this, this, this this, this. And they didnt do it they didnt do it. The agreement was was terminated by us because they didnt do what they were supposed to do so that was the former president talking about the afghanistan withdrawal, where 13 u. S. Service members were killed in that chaotic process. Youre a veteran yes, sir. Uh, there are obviously personal feelings here as well. That answer and its been an issue that hes talked about constantly on the campaign. What stood out to you for it . When i first heard that we were abandoning or we were withdrawing from afghanistan and the way it was happening, i had my kennedy moment. It was very similar to when we decided to invade iraq back under president bush. And when i saw that we were leaving, that amount of high Tech Equipment in the hands of our enemy, and later that that day or later that week, i saw on the news where them celebrating with our guns in their hands. I realized what a travesty that was a in the loss of money in that that we abandoned when we left. Plus the very bullets that we left there that they were shooting at us, at us as we flew away into planes. We have a lot more to get to with this group. Were going to get to them in a moment. Were going to keep talking here. But in the meantime, anderson, i want to toss it back to you. All right, phil, thanks so much. Were about to get a read from americans nationwide on which candidate won tonight. The first results of our exclusive Instant Poll of Debate Watchers thats coming. Plus, Caitlin Collins just caught up with Donald Trump. Our special coverage continues after a break this election season, cnn has you covered. No matter the question from more about the candidates to rules in your state to casting your ballot, the Cnn Voter Handbook has your answers visit cnn. Com vote for yours maya knows how Quality Care can bring out a smile, but its been a few dog years since she was able to enjoy a smile of her own. 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But Kamala Harris is focused on you building up the Middle Class will be a defining goal of my Presidency Shell make groceries more affordable by cracking down on price gouging, and Shell Cut Housing costs by taking on corporate speculators Middle Class families build america. We need a leader who has their back im Kamala Harris and i approve this message stay ahead of your childs moderate to severe eczema, and they can show off clear skin and less itch with dupixent. The Number One prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists that helps heal your Childs Skin from within. Serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as Eye Pain or vision changes including blurred vision, Joint Aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Dont change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. Ask your Childs Eczema Specialist about dupixent. At mint mobile, we like to do the opposite of what big wireless does. They charge you a lot. We charge you a little. They put their names on arenas. We put ours on my lower back. So naturally when they announced theyd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you. And if this were one of their ads, theyd end it here with a happy customer so well end with an an i came to bayview hunters point, where there was only one pediatrician to serve more than 10,000 children. Daniel lurie said, im going to help. We opened a clinic for our most vulnerable children. I have worked shoulder to shoulder with him as we have brought solutions where people thought the problem was unsolvable. Daniel doesnt take excuses. He holds himself accountable. And i know that he can do it for the city of san francisco. Craig here pays too much for verizon wireless. So he sublet half his real estate office. [ bird squawks loudly ] to a pet shop. Megs moving company uses tmobile. So she scaled down her fleet to save money. 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And id invite you to know that Donald Trump actually has no plan for you, because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you. Thats just a soundbite. They gave her that to say look, i went to the Wharton School of finance and many of those professors the top professors, think my plan is a brilliant plan. Its a great plan as the debate continued, Vice President harris repeatedly appeared to get under former President Trumps skin as she tried to knock him off message. Even mocking something quite close to trumps heart. His campaign rallies and the size of them im going to actually do something really unusual, and im going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trumps rallies, because its a really interesting thing to watch. You will see, during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like hannibal lecter. He will talk about windmills Cause Cancer, and what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And i will tell you, The One thing you will not hear him talk about is you. You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams and your needs and your desires, she said. People start leaving. People dont go to her rallies. Theres no reason to go. And the people that do go, shes bussing him in and paying them to be there and then showing them in a different light so she Cant Talk about that. People dont leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. Thats because people want to take their country back the night capped by some breaking news, welcomed by the harris walz campaign. Taylor swift formally endorsing Harris And Walz for president and Vice President. The first results of our Instant Poll of Debate Watchers have just come in and David Chalian is going to join us now to break it all down. David, tell us more yeah, jake, and as you noted this is a poll of Debate Watchers. This is not a poll that represents the overall population although in partizan breakdown it is pretty close to what the overall registered Voter Population looks like in the country. But it is a poll of those people that watched the debate so just keep that in mind as we get to these results. Our first results here in our exclusive flash poll. Who won the debate . The overall number here overwhelmingly. Kamala harris did. Im going to look at my email here 63 . You see there on your screen say Kamala Harris won the debate only 37 say Donald Trump won the debate. And that is quite different than the expectations going into this. Among this group of Debate Watchers in this poll, we asked folks going into the debate who do you expect to win the debate . Well, it was 50, 50, 50 expected. Harris, 50 expected trump to win the debate. That was before the debate. And we just showed you where it ended up afterwards 63 to 37 . And take a look at this, jake. This is a complete reversal from what we saw in june. Compare these numbers to biden in in june. You see that it was 67 to 33 , two thirds thinking trump won only a third Thinking Biden won a complete reversal in just a few months. As this race has completely changed. So too has the assessment of Debate Watchers about the democrat and republican Debate Performances. This 2024 president ial election. Jake all right. David chalian and while no doubt this debate will not be quite as consequential as the last one, it does seem as though Dana Bash that the at least according to the Instant Polls of Debate Watchers, people think that Kamala Harris resoundingly won and defied expectations based on what people thought beforehand and afterwards as as david was saying, we have to be careful with Instant Polls and what is really going to matter is how this sinks in. And ripples through the pool. Very small but important pool of undecided voters but i think the only thing that you need to know about how Donald Trump realizes that this went was to see his behavior and performance, the fact that he came into the Spin Room and he was not very happy. And citing a bunch of numbers of polls that he said he won no clue where those numbers came from, and he was asked about it in the Spin Room and didnt give an answer. But i also think, you know harris, there were some risks here for her tonight. And she had a lot of work to do. And and im thinking about earlier when we were talking and i was struck recently in the last couple of weeks just watching trump in his normal Campaign World on the stump in interviews. And he is progressively slowing down hes progressively not able to really even make his own normal kind of cases that he would make about all sorts of issues. And that was on display tonight. I mean she she was really helped by trump just not really being able to kind of take it to her. On virtually anything and in a way, her biggest weakness might have been that when you give her something that shes not prepared for, she may or may not be able to address it. But trump never did that. He only gave her things that it would be very obvious that he would say on the Debate Stage. And i think thats one of the main reasons that she was able to just kind of quite impressively actually take a lot of preparation and just spit it right out on that Debate Stage, almost exactly. Probably the way her advisers wanted her to. And trump just wasnt nimble enough to even respond to that. He he you know, dove into his little pit of grievance and and hes aging and it shows. Its showing on the Debate Stage. Its showing on the Campaign Trail. One of the things that that president ial debates have done over the years is that at times when people have had doubts about a candidate, usually the challenger in this race, you could argue theyre both incumbents or both challengers and it has erased the stature gap. In 1960, nixon was the the Vice President , the criticism of John Kennedy was that he was too young, too callow, too inexperienced. After that first debate that went away because people thought at the very least that that kennedy showed that he stood up and was the nixons equal and perhaps his superior 1980 jimmy carter. A lot of concern. It was Ronald Reagan too big a risk. And after that debate, people were reassured they didnt. They didnt like carter particularly, and they were reassured. We can take this jump into reagan in the New York Times poll over the weekend, three times as many people said they needed to know more about Kamala Harris than said that about Donald Trump. And i got to think for a lot of that, 28 of americans that they were reassured by what they saw tonight. So i think that it it it gives permission to support her for people that had doubts. Well, theres two things i noticed. One was the word that senator j. D. Vance used the word platitudes when he talked to Kaitlan Collins about how he describes the ability of Vice President harris to articulate her platforms its what is demanded of the incumbent versus what was actually provided by a former incumbent she is expected to talk in very granular detail. Trump had many many bald assertions, and yet he believes that he was successful in that endeavor nonetheless. The other issue is, is important idea of managing expectations. She has described herself from the very get go since shes actually taken the top of the ticket as the underdog, in part because democrats do not want a performance like this to have people believing theres no reason to lean in. They can lean out everythings in the bag. They know there is still the uphill battle of trying to overcome a number of factors. So i think in many there are still many days to go, many miles to travel. Lets go now to Kaitlan Collins and caitlin. You just caught up with former President Trump, not generally seen as a Baller Move for a debater to then go to the Spin Room afterwards what did he have to say yeah jake, he was in here. He was speaking to reporters. We grabbed him just for for a quick pull aside to get his reaction to how he personally thought the debate went. The first question i asked him was something that i have been hearing from people inside trumps orbit about him taking the bait, when harris was clearly trying to get under his skin, a strategy we knew she was going to employ on the Debate Stage. Heres what Donald Trump told me about that. Some of your advisers are worried that excuse me, that you took the bait from Kamala Harris tonight. What would you say the Debate Tonight this was my best debate. We had a 92 rating in one poll. We had an 86 rating and another, we had 77 . In another, we had we won every one of the polls that came out tonight. And there were quite a few of them. You were asked if you would veto a national Abortion Ban, and you did not say yes or no. What is your answer to that . All you have to do is check it. It was a perfect answer on abortion and ive done a great job on that and i brought our country together. Thank you. Yes or no . Will you debate harris again . That was former president Donald Trump earlier as he was exiting the Spin Room. Joining me now, south carolina senator tim scott, a surrogate of the former president. You heard Donald Trump there talking about the debate. Would you say that Donald Trump won this debate . He had a very strong performance no doubt. I thought the two moderators were absolutely biased and two things that you walk away with Number One, we know who Donald Trump is four years of Donald Trump. We had very low unemployment. We saw 7 Million jobs created, two thirds going to minorities and to women. We saw Hbcu Funding hit a Record Level and made the funding permanent. We frankly saw research on Sickle Cell Anemia accelerated but we didnt see in this debate was who is Kamala Harris . Weve seen her change her position time and time again, and tonight we have no clarity on her position. Shes now for fracking. When she was against it, she now wants a border wall. When she was against it, the Border Czar herself certainly did not go to the border for three plus years. Shes had three years to tell the american people who she is. And we still dont know who she is. Where does she stand on the Number One issue . The american people care about the economy inflation, the cost of living. We dont know. Well and does it bother you that Donald Trump wont say where he stands on a really important issue, which is abortion . And actually, hes been very clear on the issue of abortion, yes or no tonight. Well, heres what he said. It is a states issue the american people are solving that problem. State by state, by state exactly where the echo chambers around the country wanted the issue, but we did not hear was Kamala Harris answer the question does she support abortions in the third trimester . The seventh, eighth and ninth month . She refused to answer that question. We have one candidate who is absolutely crystal clear that the voters in the states will make the decision. Roe v wade is gone, and one candidate who would not say, i refuse to have late term abortions, well, she didnt say where she believed the restriction should be. She said she wanted to go back to the roe v. Wade, which would allow for abortions up until the day of birth. And he did not say which, of course, you know, is rare and doesnt really happen, but he would not say about vetoing a ban. But the poll the debate overall and how it went. Cnn conducted an Instant Poll 63 of people said they thought harris won, 37 said that they thought trump won. Going into this, i know it was a conversation about focusing on policy versus the personal. He got into the conversation again about Harriss Race and saying that he read that actually, the moderators brought that up. He handled that effectively. Listen, im a black man. I think its insulting to have a conversation about who who i am or who who he is or who she is. That has been solved by the parents who birthed her so from my perspective, what we should do is what the american people want us to do talk about them and their issue their future, their challenges that they face today and the hopes that they have for their kids tomorrow. As we focus on those issues, the american voters will have clarity on which candidate they want, leading us for four years. Do you think Donald Trump did enough of focusing On The Issues and not the personal tonight . Listen, i think he did a really good job of focusing on the primary issues that the american people care about starting with two. Number one, the Economy And Number two, the border without any question, weve seen the greatest, the largest invasion of illegal immigrants crossing our southern border in my lifetime and in the history of the country, from what i understand, we also know that 70,000 americans have died of fentanyl because of ports of entry and our southern border. And number three, when you have hundreds of thousands of people coming from countries that are adversarial adversarial to america, we should assume we have sleeper cells in our country. Those are the issues the american people are talking about, plus the economy. And youre obviously a senator on capitol hill. You were there when Donald Trump was in office the last time, and he wanted to repeal and replace the affordable Care Act. He was asked again about that tonight. If he has a plan now to replace the affordable Care Act. He said, i have the concepts of a plan. Do you know what that looks like what weve heard and what we know for certain with great certainty is that competition across state lines actually reduces the price allowing for small businesses to gather together and have association plans. Weve seen that already work throughout the country. That reduces your rates by about 30 . So what we already understand is that the framework thats been developing for a number of years that we havent had a chance to implement would reduce the cost of Health Insurance and create greater access. What we know about obamacare is its incredibly expensive even with federal subsidies. So we still have a number of americans, a high percentage of americans who are still on obamacare unaffordable because it is. And weve seen those subsidies be expanded. Senator tim scott, thank you very much for joining us. Yes, maam. Thank you. Jake obviously, a very busy evening here in the Spin Room tonight next, were going to get more reaction from our Focus Group of voters from here in pennsylvania. Were digging into the moments that stood out to them from tonights debate. Plus additional results from our Instant Poll. Much more ahead. Stay with us for Debate Night in america is brought to you by simplisafe. Home security. Theres no safe like simplisafe only from simplisafe 24 over seven live Guard Protection this exclusive technology allows simplisafe agents to help stop crime in real time stop police are on their way for instant Intruder Deterrence and faster police response. Theres no safe like simplisafe. Our right to reproductive Health Care is being stolen from us. I cant believe this is the world we live in where were losing the freedom to control our own bodies. We need your support now more than ever. Go online, call or scan this code with your 19 monthly gift, and well send you this care no matter what T Shirt it is your right to have safe Health Care thats it. Go online call or scan right now at u. S. Bank, we think the best relationships should feel easy laughing should feel easy. Getting more serious should feel easy and you know what else should feel easy setting up direct deposit to your new account obviously easy setup of direct deposit. Long Term Happiness for all. Thats the power of us i wont let my moderate to severe Plaque Psoriasis symptoms define me emerge as you with tremfya. Most people saw 90 clearer skin at four months and the majority stayed clearer at five years. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Tremfya may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, or if you had a Vaccine Or Plan to emerge as you emerge triumphant ask your doctor about tremfya i have two options for you. 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Yeah, but what are the cons . We could run out of news before then that would never happen. Have i got news for you premieres saturday at nine on Cnn And Stream next day on max. Unbiased reviews unrivaled research and unreal savings. Elevate your every day cnn underscored. See all our reviews and recommendations at Underscore Com the Harris Trump President ial debate in philadelphia is now history, and americans are digesting what they heard and whether its going to impact how they vote. I want to get some more results from our postdebate Instant Polls our political director, David Chalian, is back with us. David, what else are you learning yeah, anderson, this is a poll of Debate Watchers, not of the country overall or the electorate, obviously, but its not that partizan in a partizan way different than what we see broadly among registered voters. This is really interesting. Among the candidates favorable and unfavorable ratings. Take a look here at what we found before the debate. Harriss favorable rating was at 39 after the debate among these Debate Watchers, her Favorability Rating went up six points to 45 . Donald trump actually ticked down two points among these Debate Watchers from 41 favorable to 39 favorable. Thats about roughly the same. Thats not a 2 tick down there is not huge, but i do want to note Kamala Harriss uptick driven a lot by independent voters. She was 17, more unfavorable than favorable among these Debate Watchers, going into the debate and independent Debate Watchers, they were plus nine for her favorability coming out of the debate. So a big Movement Change on her favorability with independents. Take a look at when we asked Debate Watchers about the confidence in the candidates to lead the country the ability to lead the country and the confidence that Debate Watchers have in that. This is really interesting because even though she was the clear winner in the debate among Debate Watchers, take a look 32 say a lot of confidence in her, in her ability to lead the country. And 36 say that about him shes a little bit better among those who say some confidence in the ability to lead the country. If you add the allotment of some together, theyre both at 54 , and so theyre quite even on this score, which i think is pretty interesting. And then who had a better plan for solving the Countrys Problems . Harris won on this score among these Debate Watchers as well. 42 say Kamala Harris had a better plan for solving the Countrys Problem thats compared to 33 who said trump and look, anderson, 22 . 1 in 5 of Debate Watchers says neither of these two had a good plan for solving the Countrys Problem. That not necessarily double haters here, obviously, but that seems to be a Target Audience for both of these candidates to talk to. And explain their plans to over the next eight weeks. Interesting. David chalian, thanks so much. John king. What do you make of those numbers . Well, Number One, it tells you we entered the debate in a very close, competitive race, and well leave the debate in a very close competitive race. However, however advantage harris on a couple of very significant points. David chalian noting that where she jumped up was among independent voters. We knew coming into this debate that the largest audience of people, the largest percentage of people who said they were open to changing their mind were people who selfidentify as independents or as moderates. So the middle of the american electorate, the people who live in the suburbs, the people who maybe voted for trump in 2016 and biden in 2020. Arent you know, incredibly partizan. Theyre looking for solutions. Theyre looking for pragmatism. So the fact that her movement was among independents who had the better debate about solving the Countrys Problems, she came into the debate at a deficit with trump on the economy. Its a different question that question was solving the Countrys Problems, but it shows she made progress with people. Are you a president . Right. That was her biggest Challenge Nobody knows the Vice President , whether its Mike Pence or whether its Dan Quayle or whether its al gore. You know, youre trying to rise from Vice Versa whether its Joe Biden, youre trying to rise from president to Vice President. You have to prove im ready for the first job. It is clear it is clear that she cleared that Bar Tonight now, that does not mean that shes not still in a very competitive race. But if her Progress Tonight was among independents, now the question is, can you carry that momentum forward we count votes eight weeks from tonight still close still competitive. But in an election that we all expect is going to be decided on the Margins Tonight anyway, the question is, can she hold it . She moved the margins that matter. You know that one, that one graph of capability to lead the country the fact that theyre basically dead, even i mean, think about where we were seven weeks ago. Would you have predicted that seven weeks later that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump would be polling evenly . Donald trump, a former president you know, and whatever you think about him, there is a presumption that goes with the fact that you were president , that you know the job. And so on, you know, so i do think that she filled that she checked that box tonight. She looked like a president on that stage. Theres not a lot of elasticity in this electorate. So i wouldnt expect huge movements here. But this isnt going to be a race thats won that way. Its going to be won incrementally. She took an incremental step forward. So im a little bit surprised by that. By those numbers because this is as good as its going to get for Kamala Harris, presumably. I mean this was this was, you know, Donald Trumps presumably worst nightmare that you could have if youre a Trump Supporter you watch this tonight. You say he didnt talk about any of those Kitchen Table issues like like alyssa was talking about, right . He was grievances. It was rearview mirror. Not not windshield. It was all the bad stuff and yet hes still tied right . Were still right there. Were still neck and neck. And its going to come down again to the people in Erie County. Northampton county, macomb county michigan. The question is are 50,000 people swayed in michigan wisconsin, pennsylvania, where they swayed tonight . Are they going to be swayed the next eight weeks . Because thats where thats where they are thats those 50 to 75,000. And did those eat away as john points out, are those independents were those swayed enough to come over and stay there for the next eight weeks . Maybe. Maybe not. But his iceberg is melting, ill tell you that. Like she did well by herself. Youre right its going to be clawing for it. Its going to be clawing for it but you know, he did a lot of stuff that was we havent even gotten to. Thats just horrible. He wouldnt say that he wanted ukraine to win. Do you think about that . Its a very easy thing to say that you want a democracy that weve rallied the world behind that. Frankly, people in pennsylvania munitions being made. There are going to help gas thats being fracked. There is going to help. He wouldnt even stick up for the ukrainians in pennsylvania when pennsylvanians are helping us win there. This he did terrible he could have more clearly, absolutely stated. Look, im not i would not sign an Abortion Bill if it came across my desk. He got into the nitty gritty about not 60 votes in the senate on abortion. Lets actually play what what both of the candidates said on the Topic One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. I have talked with women around our country. You want to talk about this is what people wanted pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an Emergency Room because the Health Care providers are afraid they might go to jail, and shes bleeding out in a car in the parking lot. She didnt want that. Her husband didnt want that. A 12 or 13 year old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term they dont want that what i did is something for 52 years theyve been trying to get roe v. Wade into the states and through the genius and and Heart And Strength of six supreme court justices we were able to do that. Now i believe in the exceptions for Rape Incest and life of the mother. I believe strongly in it. Ronald reagan did also 85 of republicans do exceptions. Very important but we were able to get it. And now states are voting on it. Its the vote of the people. Now. Its not tied up in the federal government. I did a great service in doing it. It took courage to do it. And the supreme court had great courage in doing it. And i give tremendous credit to those six justices. You know, i thought that was probably one of her best responses in the debate and what Donald Trump did that we didnt play. There is in that response. He threw people under the bus he threw his Vice President ial candidate, j. D. Vance, saying, we didnt talk about whether or not he would veto a national Abortion Ban. He threw kansas and ohio under the bus. He said those were liberal votes. Um last i checked, ohio, my home state, and kansas are pretty red. But the american public are not actually where Donald Trump and the republican party want to go on abortion. But what i think she also did was in this debate on abortion, on many issues, was you know, im the coalitions person. She talked to different parts of her coalition. We know women are going to be critical. This is the first president ial since the fall of roe we actually dont know if its going to carry over. I think it will still be a top of the Ticket Issue but so Donald Trump talks about sorority. She went to a sorority party. Let me tell you as a as a person who is a part of a black sorority that was offensive to black people who know the history, its not a party. Its a its a public service organization. So she didnt go there and talk about it, but she talked about, you know, the Central Park five when he baited her there she talked about Dick Cheney. I know we probably all were like watching Dick Cheney and and Liz Cheney endorse because we follow this every single day. But some people probably didnt know he endorsed. That speaks to those republicans in erie, pennsylvania, that you still talk to. And then the independentshowing again. Yet he cant be a mature adult and not scream when he gets upset about Crowd Size i just want to go back to Kaitlan Collins. Shes with democratic senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut Kayla yeah. Anderson, thank you so much. We have Senator Murphy here. We were obviously talking about the debate and how everyone thought it went. Obviously, it is clear Vice President harris was able to get under Donald Trumps skin. She clearly was trying to do so by talking about his his Crowd Sizes and whatnot. But the Polling Weve seen shows that a lot of undecided voters want to know more about her and her policies. Do you think she did enough to stake out ground on that for Voters Tonight . I do, and i think she did that in two ways. First, she did talk about these specific policies whether its her plan to invest in building more housing whether its her work to try to increase tax credits for families with children, she obviously endorses and supports the bipartisan border bill, which would do a lot to fix the problems at the southern border. But i also think theres probably a lot of voters that just hadnt seen Kamala Harris in a setting where she could look commanding, where she could appear as a president , and thats what she looked like tonight. She was president ial. She was commanding. She was in charge of that stage so i think voters do want to hear more from her on policy specifics and i thought she did a good job of articulating how shes going to invest in the Middle Class, grow the economy from the middle out. But i just thought she looked like a president. And Donald Trump kind of looked like a puddle by The End of that debate. There was only one president on that stage, and it was Kamala Harris and that probably answers some of the most important questions that voters have who dont know her that well. There was a moment where Donald Trump was talking about his Assassination Attempt on his life. I want everyone to just listen to that moment. Obviously, there was over almost two hours of debate. I just want everyone to listen to what Donald Trump had to say. This is The One that weaponized, not me she weaponized. I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me. They talk about democracy. Im a threat to democracy. Theyre the threat to democracy with a fake russia russia, Russia Investigation that went nowhere that moment there in the middle where he said, i probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that people in your party have said about him. Whats your response to that . I think its a deeply reckless, irresponsible thing to say that answer was in the context of a litany of crimes that he had committed, crimes that he believes he didnt commit, that hes being pursued for because of political political agenda of the president. Um, the reality is, is that its been Donald Trump from the very beginning of his presidency that has celebrated and instigated violence in this country, leading to the disastrous assault on the capitol. So i think the issue of violence and who instigates violence will likely be a big issue in this campaign. But it has been Donald Trump consistently who has celebrated violence, who has endorsed violence and who continues, even in this debate, to apologize for those that attacked the capitol, resulting in the Death And Injury of dozens of Law Enforcement officers. Senator Chris Murphy, thank you for joining us in the Spin Room, where everyone comes to to hype their candidates. Uh it is obviously getting a little bit quieter in here anderson. Now. All right, caitlin, thanks. Were going to take a quick break coming up. Were going to hear more from our Focus Group of voters in pennsylvania, including what they thought of that moment. The former President Accused Migrants of eating pets. Well be back in a moment this election, stay with cnn with more reporters on the ground and the best political team in the business, follow the candidates, follow the voters follow the facts follow cnn leo. Hes there. When we wake up hes there when we leave. Hes there whenever we come back home from school hes just there always mash it up. Do your face ever since we introduced him to the farmers dog, his quality of life has been forever changed. He prefers real human grade food. Its like real food. It is hes a happy dog now. Hes a happy, happy dog hes a happy, happy, happy dog. Thursday Night Football on prime its on brendan. 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According to our exclusive Instant Poll of Debate Watchers, most viewers believe that it was a win for Vice President harris. Now lets hear again from voters in erie pennsylvania, tucked in the northwestern corner of this beautiful commonwealth. Cnns Phil Mattingly is with our Focus Group in erie. Phil yeah its a bellwether county, jake, that every Election Watcher will be paying attention to on election night. Its why we wanted to talk to the people behind us who came into this night undecided, maybe leaning one way or the other, but not officially knowing where they were going to vote their reactions to the debate itself tracked with what we saw from the Instant Poll. Nine out of the 13 said they thought the Vice President won the debate. Weve been actually tracking their reaction from inside the debate. We had dials that were showing whether they thought positive or negative. Were going to show you a piece of sound right now from a particular moment that drew a very specific reaction. Now, where you see red lines thats a republican reaction where you see blue lines. Thats from a democratic reaction. A purple line is independent. Youll see them on the bottom of your screen and its a moment that a lot of people are talking about. Watch in springfield. Theyre eating the dogs. The people that came in, theyre eating the cats theyre eating, theyre eating the pets of the people that live there and this is whats happening in our country. And its a shame as far as rallies are concerned, as far as the reason they go is they like what i say and the reason why we picked that sound out to ask our group about is one, it definitely elicited a significant reaction as you can see in the lines below, as you were watching that. But also i received a number of questions from family members and friends asking what this was actually all about which was also a response that you had when you were watching it. Correct correct. I had not heard anything about it before, so i thought it was just another one of these kind of crazy things that he comes up with that kind of turned me off. I would say when we were talking about it beforehand, you mentioned that it also kind of had undertones of something. Yeah. What really bothers me about it is what i, the Underneath Message i get from that as a pastor, i hear kind of the dismissing the other, keeping the other away giving bad impressions about other people. And i just, i dont i dont buy that. You know, jake, whats been interesting talking to this group is again a number of them decided after watching the debate where they wanted to go, some to the former president , some to the Vice President , but also theres still a number of them that are undecided and i want to go to another pastor on that ray, you mentioned when we were talking, you have not made up your mind yet what are you going to be looking for in the next 50 plus days . Looking for more clarity and their decision making and their policies . They have both have some negative and positive response but i need more and so on. My part. The only thing i can do is just pray and ask god to give me which one that he would like to be in office. And thats what i will go with yes. Yeah, you as well. Yes. Yes. Well i have to. Amen and clarity was one of the things that, you know, we had mentioned that we wanted, that we were looking for x, things like that to help us decide from those of you that are here with the time we have left, who believes that those types of answers will be coming . Do you need to see a second debate . What . What would you like to . Weve talked to you had some really great points about the lack of Education Policy in this debate itself. What do you think needs to happen to get answers . I think we need to hear more interviews. I think debates just dont cut it theres not enough time for people to really get into the specifics of what they can and cant do, and theres no time to be Fact Checking at the same time. I mean, you got our our dials, um, our reactions to things, but we dont actually know whats true. And whats not without having the time to actually fact check things. I think, you know, getting to see interviews and having Journalists Fact check them on the spot or, you know, be able to follow up with questions where we can actually understand whats going on like, thats thats what i need. Thats what i need to know. I i just want to know where they actually stand on things and not just hear pretty sound clips and won a second debate. I do want a second debate, but what i would be interested in seeing in a debate is if you could focus on 1 or 2 questions, dont put in a ton of questions. Have 1 or 2 and just have them stick to those so they can actually lay out what they would do, because theres just not enough time with the, you know ten questions that are asked and i think we also and i havent asked them this, but have a firm commitment that they will all be coming back to stay very late into the night. If we have a second debate. So right. Yeah, were good on that no, this was great very substantive, consequential conversations going on. One that im sure will continue for the days and months ahead. Back to you guys thanks so much, phil. Really appreciate it. And let me resume with my panel here, because abby phillip, these voters a lot of these voters are calling for exactly what you discerned. Some of the democratic politicians in interviews were saying, which is Kamala Harris needs to talk more about the plans that she has for people and you know, however well she did tonight. Yeah. I mean, listen carefully to people who support Vice President harris, who are her allies. Just tonight after, before or after the debate, theyre all kind of saying the same thing. She needs to be out there more. She needs to to resolve those lingering questions that some voters have that voters in that Focus Group had and this idea that the campaign had that ive talked to a lot of their advisers about that she doesnt really need you know, whatever the mainstream media, this isnt about the mainstream media, right . This is about how do you best reach people who are searching for answers and that last woman that we heard from in the Focus Group, i think thats an important perspective that gets lost when theres a lot of spin about were just going to go straight to the voters a lot of regular people understand that theres a role that is played when a candidate sits in front of Somebody Who asks them questions and follows up to make sure that they have a clear understanding of whats going on and that hasnt happened. She sat down with dana, but more needs to be done. And i think youre starting to hear a lot of democrats starting to say, okay, nows the time four weeks or eight weeks left and the polls are showing very clearly that voters want to know more about her. And theres an opportunity there. Jake, i think that the cnn Instant Poll speaks exactly to this point. Overwhelmingly people thought that she beat trump but when it became the question of what who do you favor more . Or how that stranger, who do you think could run the country much more muted . And i think that, uh, they do need she opened the door tonight, but i think she needs to come through that door. She needs to explain herself more interestingly enough, she seems to realize that because she has already her camp has said that they want another debate. Interestingly enough trump was on fox with hannity. Hannity said she wants a debate to you. And he said, why do i want another debate . He said, the only reason she wants it is because she lost tonight. Its like a boxer who lost and wants a rematch anyway, coming up. Thanks, chris. More from our Instant Poll of Debate Watchers nationwide. Did what they heard from the Candidates Tonight change their minds about who to vote for in november . Back in a moment. Stay with us the tv moments that took culture over the edge. People were watching and then our world changed. It had an explosive reverberation. 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Bank, when we say were in it with you we mean it not just for the good stuff. The grand openings and the celebrations, but for all the hard work it took to get there. We are in for all of it. Its tough for sure, but less tough when you have the right people by your side. Like kayla from Kansas City and thousands of other bankers around the country. Because together were proving Theres Nothing as powerful as the power of us Kamala Harris was given one important job as Vice President , Monitor And Control our southern border. How did she do . Did she take the job seriously . Did she do all she could to protect american citizens from an invasion . Did she do anything at all you havent been to the border. I and i havent been to europe and, i mean, i dont i dont understand the point that youre making heres her grim scorecard. Murders rapes, attacks on children. A 12 year old girl in texas a mother of five in maryland, a Nursing Student in georgia. All savagely murdered by those Biden And Harris led into our country unlawfully. We have a secure border. Kamala harris was and is a complete failure at her job now shes asking us for a promotion. Who in their right mind would give it to her . Restoration pac is responsible for the content of this advertising this whale is unaware its being exploited for financial advertising. Look at this silly little sailboat. These men of means, with their Silver Spoons eating up the financial favors of the 1 . What would become of them when they discover robinhood gold allows others to earn their very liberal rates on idle cash and unlimited Deposit Bonuses they would descend into Chaos Merciless chaos. Im Katie Bolling in washington and this is cnn tonights heated Harris Trump President ial debate is setting the stage for the final eight weeks until election day. Early reaction from voters suggesting Vice President harris may get a shot of momentum. Weve got another round of results from our Instant Poll of Debate Watchers. David chalian, has the numbers. David yeah. Anderson, one of the questions we asked these Debate Watchers is that classic question of who do you think cares about people like you, if you will . And take a look at these results from our Instant Poll. Who better understands problems facing people like you . Before the debate, 39 said that about harris, 43 trump. And look at how that flips for harris after the debate, 43 of the Debate Watchers say that she understands problems facing people like them 40 say that about trump. Now, this is margin of Error Stuff. But you can see directionally that she made up some ground in that category that is not true when it comes to the economy and this shows even though she won the debate overwhelmingly in the minds of the voters. Look at the economy here who would you who would better handle the economy . Is what we ask going into the debate before the debate. 37 said harris, 53 . Trump. After the debate. Again, margin of Error Stuff here. But numerically, she lost a little ground. 35 said so after the debate that she would better handle the economy. 55 said trump. And we know that is one of his strongest suits across the polling in this election. And he seemed to hang on to that piece in this Debate Tonight. According to our poll of Debate Watchers. And finally, did the debate change your mind . Did the debate alter your president ial preference . Take a look at those bottom numbers. 88 of Harris Supporters said nope, nothing here changed my mind. Only 78 of Trump Supporters said that. You see there, 17 of Trump Supporters said they would reconsider their choice. 6 said of Trump Supporters that their mind is changed. Now, we dont know how thats changed necessarily. Its not necessarily to her but i just think it shows that bottom number, that 78 , 10 less than what harris had of his supporters say it has no effect. But that means, you know, 23 there or so, 22 believe that this did cause them to reconsider or change their mind. Of Trump Supporters thats a higher number than it is for harris. Anderson. Thanks, alyssa. Do you think this does this Change Anything moving forward now . Well, listen Kamala Harris on, i counted four occasions, used the phrase theres more that unites us than divides us. She made direct appeals to independents, to moderates she cited the Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney endorsements and was clearly trying to reach people who are disillusioned by Donald Trump. Theyre a little tired of the chaos they may have thought they were better off four years ago, but they dont like the general Tone And Tenor he at no point made that sort of ask to voters if i want your vote. Heres why you should consider being with me so i do think that theres some movement that you could see if she continues with that message going forward, and her campaign has done something smart by already coming out and saying theyre game for another debate. A it means they know they won but they also know that its going to put him on his heels. Hes going to look on the defensive. If he doesnt end up agreeing to do one. I mean the thing that wasnt reflected in that in that that one slide was where voters who had no preference are going to go. And i think thats the real focus. There is a sliver of voters its small but decisive potentially, who havent chosen a candidate yet and have questions. The question is did she help answer those Questions Tonight . If there was one shortcoming in what i thought was a was a commanding performance, probably her folks would have liked to hammer the economy even harder. And i will say this back in 2012, when Barack Obama was running against Mitt Romney on the day that he won, Mitt Romney won the category of who would who would best manage the economy, but obama won. Who would fight for people like you in the economy. And i think thats what shes going for with her message. You can hear that in how she delivered those kind of messages directly to camera. She was speaking in the second person. He was often speaking in the third. Donald trump would do this. Donald trump would do that. And i think ill be watching over the next couple of weeks. Does she do more interviews . With whom . What kind of formats . How do they manage the social media of tonight and even for trump, how the surrogates are going to spend their time over the next couple of days . Are they still going to be mitigating something that is perceived to be a mess, or are they going to are we going to see more people acting more aggressively on his behalf . Scott, i think if you want to hang your hat on something for trump its the economic numbers. I said i thought he won the first 15 minutes. It was largely about the economy and so theres still a built in belief by most voters that its been mismanaged by Biden And Harris. And so if youre trump and youre trying to take something positive out of this, its that that built in vibe of they just didnt do a good job on it. You have to understand that and not get away from it. Number two, obviously millions of people watch this. A lot of people didnt watch it and a lot of those people who didnt watch it and may see nothing about it, are some of the people that Donald Trumps campaign needs to turn out the disengaged, because theyre not going to be persuaded by this . Thats still a big part of the trump strategy, and i dont think theyll be moved i think thats all the time we have. Cnns coverage of the Harris Trump President ial debate continues after this break well be right back Have I Got News For You is coming to cnn this fall. Pros and cons list pro hosted by Roy Wood Jr. Pro with Amber Ruffin Pro with michael ian black. Oh con people might confuse you with abby phillip. Pro people might confuse me for abby phillip. Are you not Abby Phillips . Pro. You know, im not. I was told this was going to be with Abby Phillips. I love her, its abby phillip. Theres no s. Okay. Have i got news for you premieres saturday at nine on cnn. And stream next day on max at simplisafe. Your safety is the only thing that matters we design smarter ways to detect motion for fast emergency response. We create Hd Cameras so you can see whats happening in your home from anywhere, all powered by fast protect technology exclusively from simplisafe. 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