Steven thank you, anna and jake i am steve shepard, Senior Campaigns editor of politico, joined by Elena Schneider we have, as they said, two republican pollsters joining us today. John mclaughlin, part of the Trump Campaign polling team, and neil newhouse, republican strategies. Neil was the pollster for the previous republican president ial nominee, mitt romney in 2012. Elena but before we get started, a reminder that you can follow along with this conversation following the hashtag rncwithpolitico. And also ask us questions politico. So thank you john and neil for being with us this morning. Mr. Newhouse thanks, elena. Mr. Mclaughlin pleasure to be here. Steve for both of you, i want to start with the question i get most of all when people ask me, whether it is in a speaking gig or in general conversation, about the polls, and that is to what extent the polls have underestimated President Trump over the past five years. Most of the folks who have looked at the idea of a trump hidden voter effect have not found anything significant. But i know both of you believe there is underestimation going on. John, how significant is that, and what drives that . Mr. Mclaughlin i think it is very significant and it is two things. In your reporting, you have been ahead of the curve in terms of the changes that technology has made. It is harder to get voters, period. And you have focused on the education levels, workingclass levels. So, the idea of these polls being structured to keep up with technology and where people are and being able to get a hold of them, that is one challenge. Then there is the challenge of donald trump. Because he is a unique figure in history. Where he beat the odds last time. Four years ago it was a very close race, but the strategy was built on winning new voters. He brought out 9 million new voters compared to 2012, and those voters made the difference. A lot of people forget this, but race, 78,000 close votes in three states out of 139 million, and there were still 80 Million People eligible to vote. So a lot of the polls back then did not capture that difference. It was assumed turnout for Hillary Clinton would be the same as barack obama, and she was not barack obama. So now you have a whole different race where trump is the incumbent. And the media has gotten more hostile, and this is hurting the they do not because like donald trump and that comes across. If you say you are polling on behalf of the media, which most are, trumpme you voters will not tell you. Harder than usual. Will still be based on past turnouts, whether the last midterm election, which was historic, or whether it was the president ial election which was historic. Now you are in this really historic challenge of a pandemic, depression levels of unemployment that we are coming down from. You have had unrest in the cities, and now you have two hurricanes hitting during the Republican National convention. Neil, are the polls underestimating publicans, do you underestimating republicans, do you think . Mr. Newhouse let me go back. John raises good points. We found in focus groups in 2016, we would ask people who they are voting for, and what was interesting is, not until one voter was brave enough to say they are voting for donald trump, did other voters around the focus group table also admit, confess that they were trump supporters. Part of it is because of the polarization of politics today. Republicans really dont like democrats. Democrats dont like republicans. And there is a real shyness, an unwillingness to tell people who you are voting for because they dont want to get into an argument. We did postelection work in california and michigan after the 2016 election and found more than 30 of trump voters said, during the campaign, they were unwilling to tell others they were supporting donald trump. They turned out to be, and if you look at the crosstabs, more likely to be women, higher educated, and living in the bluest counties. Which, that is really interesting. Second point is during primaries in 2016, the Interactive Voice Response data where people have to just press a button who you are voting for, trump scored about three points higher on those types of polls than he did with a live interviewer poll. That speaks volumes. Finally, in recent polling in iowa and north carolina, about 35 of voters in each state say that they know someone who is a trump supporter who wont tell anyone but their closest supporters. So i think there is a shy trump voter out there. Is it 9 . No. Is it a couple points . Yeah, it probably is. Elena you both make some interesting points on that. Lets stick to a national metric. Job approval rating. I know job approval in august is not necessarily an indicator for how things will end up in november, but i would like to wrap this question in Historical Context and look at the last six president ial campaigns where the incumbent president was seeking reelection and compare that to where donald trump is today. So as you can see, trump is points aheado 10 of where h. W. Bush and carter were doing at this point in august and they both lost. Trump is also lagging points behind where other successful incumbents were at this point. John, the lowest watermark on that list is obama from 2012, who was at 26 job approval. Why is 42 , where trump stands today based on our morning poll, enough for trump to win in november . Mr. Mclaughlin i think a lot of your poll, like you tend, if im correct, that paul is done all online . No phone interviews, right . So, with that, again, you have a certain type of voter. But a lot of the media polls for job approval are really differently done and undervalue republicans. To me, it is like, abc, nbc, they have come out like 26 republicans, and the last exit polls for the 2018 bad year when republicans lost the house, was 33 republican, and the one in 2016 was 33 republican. Now what is relevant about this is, the president , modeled after the 2016 turnout, yesterday they had him at 51 job approval. And what is really important about that is the last two president s to be reelected is really polarized right now. The two parties since 9 11, really polarized. W. On the day he was reelected, he had 51 job approval and he got 51 of the vote. In 2012, obama after hurricane sandy, he had a renaissance and with a 51 job approval and he got reelected with 51 . So the key thing here is the president , i do not think he is that low. I think he is operating in a range of the mid to high 40s, and some of these polls have him touching on 51 . And that is really about getting reelected. Because their models eight years ago, they had barack obama, when he got reelected at this point in time at 48 . So i think the president is doing better than the Morning Consult poll states, and i think that has to do something with their methodologies. But four years ago, there was no thereproval then, but were similar polls between clinton and the president , and the president knew we were in a close race and he worked hard enough through the weekend and election day that that we won that in a very close election. So right now, i am thinking the president is hovering close to 50 job approval. Certainly last nights convention absently helps to get our message out. A lot of the polling underreport republicans. Steve i wanted to talk to you about that, because in june, you authored a Campaign Memo via the president s twitter feed, which reaches tens of millions of people. I want to quote from it. The latest polls must be intentional. It is clear that abc, nbc, cnn, who have democratic operatives pollingistently under republicans, and therefore recording bias polls. You describe this as an intentional strategy. I would like to point out that neils firm is the republican for of the Bipartisan Team that internal poll. Your argument is that this is intentional in order to suppress republican votes. I can say on behalf of politico, that is not our intention. But describe to our viewers how you think that works. Mr. Mclaughlin well, by the way, if neil was taking care of we would be doing much better. A lot of these are adults. 240 million eligible adults can vote in the president ial election . It is not likely voters, it is registered voters. [indiscernible] because of the historic challenges of this election. 150 million. It is still a likely voter model. Poll in june was only 26 republican. And you have really smart people working on these polls for the networks. And i cant believe that they dont think the likely voter model is not as they are not shooting for it. They are doing this much broader audience that is, you know, clearly, clearly discounts our voters and undervalues them. So, i am sure neil agrees with me, the republicans will be over 30 of the turnout. If it is not, then the campaign has really messed up. Mr. Newhouse we are wasting our time talking about national polls. Thell seriousness, in Romney Campaign we did a lot of different polling. I did not do one Single National survey during the entire campaign. Not one. And that was 1. 5 years of work. Our universe, our country was states of the 10, 11, 12 that were the target states. If you look at polling this year and what is going on, it was highlighted in 2016 the lack of good quality state polling. That is still a problem. You look at some of these target states, hardly any polls have been conducted in the past month. That is ridiculous. It is easier for large media to do national polling. Very few do statewide polling. At thosenk Look National numbers, the president ial approval rating. 42 is probably not enough to get the president reelected nationally. But it is not a national election. It is an Electoral College. You have to look at the individual target states. If the president is at 46 nationally, he has a hell of a good chance getting reelected. Because in the target states, his numbers will be significantly better. Elena we all wish we could have more statebased polling. We certainly share that sentiment. Lets go to a question that thatsses some evidence addresses not just polls, but votes. 2016, trump won suburban areas points by about four according to exit polls, but things have changed among white, educated voters who have moved pretty strongly against trump, and part of that evidence comes elections, which i covered extensively, where democrats were able to flip the house through the strength of winning in suburban areas from charleston to Oklahoma City to orange county, california. They were able to flip those districts. I have also spoken to a number of republican strategist who have identified suburban women, particularly collegeeducated suburban women as a weak spot for trump and for republicans generally. So, can you talk a little bit about what, in the next 70 days, the Trump Campaign can do to turn this around, to bring in those voters again that they were able to win in 2016 . Mr. Mclaughlin i think you saw last night, the first night of the convention, it was really a great contrast with the democrat convention. Because i did not see any biden bounce. Offact, there were not a lot battleground state polls put out after the democratic convention, but last night was a great night for the republicans. The president really showed that there is a diverse Republican Party, and that certainly suburban voters, particularly independent voters have a reason to vote republican and vote for President Trump and not for the democrat ticket. And there is a second term agenda that the campaign put out that is really popular. Talked about creating jobs, covering preexisting conditions, talks about school choice, etc. But it gives a really thorough policy goal analysis that the vast majority of those issues are very popular, which is in sharp contrast with the democrats. They played more of a character contrast with the president and really were light on issues last week at their convention. So if you want to know what the Trump Campaigns strategy is, look at the second term agenda and look at the appeal of those issues to suburban voters, particularly suburban independent men in suburban independent women, because i think it is something the voters will really say say, defunding the police . That is a really bad idea. It is going to result in higher crime. Guess what . Im going to have to vote for the republicans. And they may not be thrilled with the president s style to get things done, because he is a businessman and that is how he gets things done, but they do like the results. And the results are very important for them. Elena, let me interject here for one second. Elena please. Mr. Newhouse what is undeniable is there has been some erosion for trump in suburban areas. But what is really interesting i got back a poll yesterday from a republican who did not think he was in trouble in a rural area of a key state. And the numbers came back that trump was doing better now than he was against hillary in october of 2016. And nobody is polling these congressional districts and these rural areas because they are safe republican. What that says to me is it looks like we are getting higher turnout that could offset some suburban areas where we are seeing erosion. Elena thank you for that. Lets close with a really quick lightning round. I know there are a lot more questions we wanted to get to, but we appreciate your time. Last couple of questions for you. Try to keep these brief, maybe a couple of words. We are going to be using these amazing race ratings for the senate race as our guide here. First neil, then john. What is a senate race not popping in public polling . The democrats feel confident that they can flip that will basically surprise people come november . Mr. Newhouse i heard you asked that question last week, and that is an easy one from his point of view. I think the one i am watching here most closely is maine. Off susan collins, and she is running a hell of a campaign. Elena john . Mr. Mclaughlin i would agree with neil on senator collins. That she is doing quite well, and i think President Trump is going to surprise people in maine as well. But i have a feeling that what i am seeing is, as President Trump rises, so will the Republican Senate candidates. And that is obvious. Elena last question for you, its january, 2021. Who controls the senate, and by what margin . Mr. Newhouse republicans are going to control it by the skin of their teeth. And mike pence is the deciding vote. Elena john . Mr. Mclaughlin i think we might be a seat or two better than that. [laughter] but we will see. The next 70 days will tell. The president ial race is just taking shape now at the Republican Convention ends and people are seeing the important policy contrast. And now you are seeing the republicans rise with the president. Mr. Newhouse yeah, we have several political lifetimes to go through between now and november. So, stay tuned, buckle your seatbelts, guys. Elena thats certainly true. Thank you john and neil for talking with us about trumps path back to the white house for a second term. It was really great having you both. Mr mclaughlin thank you for the opportunity. Steve thanks, guys. And before we sign off, i just want to thank our team here, elena and the politico live team for these conversations that weve had. Neil mentioned we spoke with the biden pollster last week, and obviously getting the republican perspective this week. Well be closely watching the polls over the final 70 days, especially once we get out of the Republican Convention at the end of this week. Elena so now lets turn it over to senior politics editor charlie mahtesian, and National Political reporter laura battonlopez for another edition of the new swing states map. Charley good morning. I am charley mahtesian, senior politics editor at politico. The electoral map has changed quite a bit thanks to the architecture of President Trumps 2016 victory, and we are here to talk about one of the key states today. I am joined by my colleague, National Political reporter, laura battonlopez, to explore the new swing states map that will shape the 2020 president ial outcome. Throughout the two political conventions, we will take a look at a total of six states that are at the heart of the electoral map that donal trump has reshaped. Laura today, we are focusing on arizona. Part of my coverage at politico is the president ial race as well as demographics. And i have covered the changing demographics in arizona and what that means for the president ial race as well as down ballot races. Before we dive into arizona, political video producer mary newman is providing us some background into the dynamics at play in the state. If arizona were a color, it would be red. It is home to the red rock state park. Its reds famous for clay. Cardinals fans are draped in red. But the biggest reason is the voting patterns. The state has voted for the republican candidate in 70 of general elections since its founding in 1912. We came within one percentage point of carrying arizona. I hope you will help us do just a little better on thursday. This 1996 bill clinton rally was the last election when the deeply republican state voted for the democrats. In 2016, trump won the state, by four percentage points. But things seem to be shifting making it a democratic target. First, let us talk demographics. Part of the reason people think arizona could turn blue is the growing power of the latino vote. Something mccain was aware of all the way back in 1996. The hispanic vote turned out strongly in favor of president clinton. That is something the republicans are going to have to look at carefully in the future in this state. Bringing it back to 2016, an exit poll analysis estimated that Hillary Clinton won more 80 of the latino vote in arizona, and the share of eligible latinos went up to 42 in 2016. Latinos have been historically written off by campaign strategists, but democrats increasingly believe they could provide crucial voting margins for joe biden in november, especially for a state like arizona. In midjuly the Biden Campaign try to win over more latino voters. One of those strategies was to spend 1 million in spanishlanguage outreach. Arizona is dominated by Maricopa County, which includes phoenix, and in the last several elections they have accounted for 60 of the votes cast in arizona. Meaning the candidate who wins maricopa usually wins the whole state. The democratic senator made inroads in the historically red county. On top of the emerging purple and blue in Maricopa County there is the devastating impact of covid throughout the state. Trump started advocating for them to open in may. Reopening. Open things up. Our country wants to open. And the republican governor in arizona followed suit, quickly reopening the state while taking a lax approach. The social distancing and mask wearing. Governor ducey even took it as far as signing an executive order banning local governments from issuing mask mandates, a after he later retracted the state saw a spike in confirmed cases. In june, the daily numbers ofinf confirmed cases grew from 187 aday to almost 5000. The pandemic has hit one of the s state the states Fastest Growing voting blocks the hardest latinos. Latino residents are more than twice as likely to become infected as nonlatino residents. 73 of latinos living in arizona hold trump directly responsible for allowing the pandemic to spiral out of control and almost 50 answered yes when asked if the pandemic led to anyone in their household losing a job, receiving a pay cut, or having trouble just paying bills. It is hard to overstate the gravity of the situation. 11 votes,es arizonas that republicans can usually rely on, his reelection could be doomed. Arizona has produced two republican president ial nominees over the last halfcentury including barry goldwater. The legislature and governorship are controlled by republicans. For the first time, organizations include arizona in their battleground state polling. What is going on . Laura arizona is a changing state. The latino population has grown over the last few years and they have increasingly become more politically active. Activists and organizers on the ground see the battle between latinos and gop governors, as well as the former sheriff who was known for legally defining a defying a judges order to stop racially profiling latinos during patrols, those battles woke up younger generations and made them more politically active. Democrats and republicans alike have told me, in the state, trump has accelerated these dynamics and due to his presidency a moderate democrat, which biden has fashioned himself as, could be more viable in a red state like arizona. Charlie the debate surrounding arizonas response to the Coronavirus Crisis has been among the most politicized with President Trump praising republican governor duceys handling of the pandemic and joe ripping the governors response. How has the pandemic shipping shaping the election environment . Laura arizona has been one of the hardest hit states and latinos and native americans in that state have been disproportionately hospitalized and killed by the virus. Recent polling shows latinos are increasingly disapproving of trumps handling of the pandemic and they are also fearful of exposure to it. It follows that that could push more latinos toward biden, away from trump, particularly younger ones who have not always been in joe bidens corner. We know during the primary joe biden did not do as well with younger generations, particularly Younger Voters of color, but trumps handling of the virus could push more his way. We have also seen that Coronavirus Impact on older generations across races has weakened trumps numbers with white voters. That could also play a role. Charlie joe biden was leading donald trump by a 21 margin among arizona latinos according to a july poll. From everything i can tell he still has a ways to go to consolidate the latino vote. Laura that is right. Biden needs to recreate the path that democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema created when she won her senate seat. She received 70 of the latino vote and 45 of the white vote. According to exit polls. She did not run what you would call a progressive campaign. Immigration when she promoted border security. What we are seeing in more recent polls, but similar to the one you cited, is that biden is 63 among latinos from a latino decision firm. Which is associated with biden. Biden definitely has a ways to go to win more of the latino vote, particularly Younger Voters. In a state like that he could potentially lead with his immigrant background. That is what latino pollsters have told me that they think you should do. They also think bidens improvement among latino outreach is having an impact in a state like arizona. His campaign has improved that outreach which they did not have much of during the primary. In the last month he released spanishlanguage apps in states ads in states like arizona and they had the speaker have region specific accents. So in arizona, the speaker had a Mexican Accent because the of the latino population in arizona is of mexican descent. Charlie of course white , suburbanites are also critical in arizona. They seem to be up for grabs this year. What issues are driving their votes . Laura like most voters a lot of it is going to be health care, the economy, coronavirus. A lot of strategists say that a big reason republicans lost the suburbs in 2018, which led to democrats winning the house, is trumps divisiveness. Theyre talking about his racist tweets about caravans approaching the border, the Administration Family separation policy, all of that contributed to big losses in suburban areas. Republicans also lost women by some 19 points to the democrats. If trump continues that kind of strategy, one that is very nixon like, stoking fear among white suburbanites, against black and brown people, it could potentially hurt him in a state like arizona. But his bet is that it would rally his base around him. Charlie in terms of electoral votes arizona is not as big of a prize as the rust belt trio that we hear so much about. Wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. So why are parties focused on arizona . Laura for all the reasons we outlined, arizona is a more exciting state. Because it really is a tossup. There have been consistent polls that showing biden is leading trump. Also technically, arizona also has more Electoral College votes than wisconsin. Taken together, the three rust belt states would represent more, but i have heard among bidens campaign that arizona might be a better try then wisconsin. For the reasons weve outlined. Particularly because of changing demographics. Charlie i dont know, it sounds a lot like the Hillary Clinton argument in 2016. But we have a limited amount of time so let us to a lightning lets do a lightning round. First one, if there is one thing the Trump Campaign must do to win arizona, what would that be . Laura i would say trump needs to not shrink his base which is what we see occurring with the Republican Party over the last 4 years. That would require him to reverse course. He needs to over perform with white voters and if he can, shrink bidens gains with latinos. Because the 2018 senate race shows winning the majority of white voters is not going to cut it because the republican candidate did win and still lost statewide. Lets flip it and let me ask you the same question. What about the Biden Campaign . What does it have to do to capture arizona . Laura i would say biden has to carry phoenixs Maricopa County which is the most populated populist county in donald trump carried in 2016 by three percentage points. I think biden also needs a better performance than Hillary Clinton among independent voters who cast four out of 10 votes in 2016 to exit polls. Laura i agree with you there. I know it sounds a lot like Hillary Clintons strategy, but again, that was before democrats won statewide. In the senate race in arizona. Charlie that is a good point. Laura thank you all for joining us for the swing states map. Focusing on arizona. Charlie we have two more states to go. Join us tomorrow as we take a look at florida. Thanks for watching and take care. We continue talking about Trumps Campaign manager to the show. Thank you for joining us. Bill thanks for having me. Lets level set and set the stage for our conversation. We are going to talk about polls, although that is not the favorite topic of any campaign, especially yours, but the average is joe biden leading by 7. 6 point. The president has suggested he is not a fan. Tell us where you have this race today, the 25th of august, 70 days before election. First of all, thank you for having me. You were one of you are one of my early emails every day. You do great work. Thank you. I am not going to bore you with talking about 2016, i am not going to tell you of the 226 National Public polls between july and election day only 13 had trump ahead, of the 120 taken in pennsylvania and wisconsin only 1 had trump first. The same people who were polling in 2016 are still polling 2020. We look at internal numbers, the same guy you had on, the same people who pulled for us in 2016 who had it right are polling for us again. The fact of the matter is the president changed the map in 2016. You want optionality . You want optionality . The president holds true. I messed all the time, how are you going to run the table in the midwest . He only has to win one of three. He won with 306. Not to we have some cushion, but 70. I also talk about optionality and near misses. He lost by 1700 in new hampshire. Barely lost by a point and a half in minnesota. Two points in nevada, three points in maine. We were talking about maine in the previous segment. Mitt romney lost by 15. We see option analogy when we look at the map. We see multiple pathways and that is what you want. Do you and the president do you or the president , or a combination of both, see yourselves as the underdogs . Whether we are or not is for you guys to decide. I know we every day at the Campaign Headquarters treat this Campaign Like we are. We fight like heck to scratch and claw and have the blue color mentality that i talk a lot about and headquarters. You guys will be the pendants, you guys thats what you guys do. Were just going to run our Campaign Like we are the underdogs. There are 70 days between now and election day. Talk about one concrete thing you think the Campaign Needs to do between now and november 3 to ensure victory for President Trump. We need to keep talking about joe bidens radical policies. You did not hear a lot last week at the Democratic National convention about democrats policies. You heard about fear tactics and the bad things about america. You did not hear about their policies and that is not because they do not have policies, it is because they are bad. Their policies test poorly. Open borders, the green deal, redirecting police funding, those are poor and that is why you heard little about the policies. The more we talk about democrat policies being pushed by joe biden and the radical fringe the better we are. The better our standing improves. When you talk about one thing we aim to do, will do, continue to do is exactly that. How was the campaign changed since you have taken over . How have we changed . I am new to the role, not new to the team. I am familiar with the operation, the president , the campaign. This is the part of the campaign that is really focused on the stretch run. The ground game, early voting starts in a few weeks, absentee ballots dropped in north carolina. The focus on the calendar, the focus on the early states, really the discipline to the calendar is what we take seriously. You actually live in a state, new jersey, that sent out ballots by mail. There has been controversy around that and with the president has said. Do you want people to use mailin voting to vote this november . I think in the states in which mailin voting has already occurred it is fine by me. I think they have shown that it works. It has been proven over years. I think our concern is when 80 days, 90 days out from election day you have governors changing the rules. That is a scary proposition. My concern is democratic governors are making promises to the voters that you cannot guarantee. This is not a Postal Service issue. This is a local county clerk issue. They simply do not have the bandwidth to be accepting millions upon millions of ballots. That was 80 or 90 days to prepare. Eight or nine years . Sure. 80 or 90 days as a responsible. We talked about this with the democrats, a big challenge is getting people engaged on both sides regardless of your party. In a Virtual Convention we heard a lot last night about promises made, promises kept. The president urged people to think about their lives before the pandemic. Critics highlighted a playbook this morning and said you are trying to rewrite history, the campaign is try to rewrite history, gloss over covid, gloss over the state of the country which is in a significant amount of distress. How do you respond and how does the campaign tackle criticism like that . The president built the worlds greatest economy once and he is going to do it again. He has a track record of being a builder in his private life and doing it as president. The fact of the matter is he responded to covid aggressively and early, shutting down travel from china. We see the results to this day. Im talking about the wall street journal and that covid cases are at a two month low. We are making progress. You saw the president at the press briefing sunday talked talking about the vaccine, rolled out the second term agenda and at the top of the list was finding a vaccine by the end of the year. A commitment by the president that what he built before will be built again. The president suggested his response to covid19 is an asset. How much did you think he should be campaigning on that . He is not campaigning covid. He is campaigning on being a leader, on being strong, providing steady leadership. Covid is not something you campaign on. It is something that shows your character, shows your strength, and shows your resolve is a leader. I think the president has shown that. When he has talked about on the campaign trail it was to display those traits. A lot of people heard last night was tim scotts speech. The convention leaned in pretty hard on racial issues. Let us listen for a second at what tim scott had to say. [video clip] our family went from cotton to congress in one lifetime. That is why i believe the next American Century can be better than the last. I think we got cut off a little bit. I think it was interesting he said the next century would be better than the last. Talk about the president s relationship with black people and people of color. He has been criticized for stoking tensions. Why lean in so hard on this issue . I was the base of President Trumps election in 2016. I am a white guy who owns a pickup truck, i like college football, i drink beer. This time around, last night, tonight, and the remaining days of the convention you will see the expanded base of support for the president. You saw last night with tim scott the president has grown this party, the president has grown his coalition over the years, and he is proud to highlight these Great American stories. You heard a lot of anger and despair and darkness last week. You are hearing a different tone this week. We have Great Stories to tell that we are telling through these Great American stories whether it is tim scott or brenda jones last night. Youre going to hear more stories that are inspiring and beautiful and really reflective of how the president has grown his infamous base. We want to shift to being more forwardlooking. We are quickly running out of time. Can you talk about debate prep, who is involved . Give us behindthescenes of the playbook version of where your head is at on debate. Sure. I firmly believe it is great training for what is to come. Still plenty of time left between now and september 29th. We hold out hope the commission would make the right choice. 16 states are going to be voting before the first debate. That is problematic. We have a 1960 debate calendar in 2020. That being said, the president trains every day by being president. We have had sessions to make sure he is paying attention to september 29, but we will get through the convention and move onto the big prep. I want to follow up really quickly. There are three debates scheduled by the commissioner. Wheres the campaigns head at today when it comes to the president participating in all three debates . I am really not sure why this is such a conversation. We made clearly very early on that we would be at all three debates. We wanted more debates actually. You can count on him being at all three. We hope for more, four or five, name the place and we are going to be there. We are happy to do more. [laughter] we have a couple of more questions and then we will let you go. How much can we expect the president on the campaign trail in person . A lot. You can do one of two things. You can hide out and count the days underground or you can be aggressive like the president. The president ended last week during the Democrats Convention week in stronger standing which is amazing. He did that because he was aggressively taking his case on the road. He traveled more in one week than joe biden has traveled since march. You will see him doing more events. He was able to hopscotch around the country at a bunch of events in minnesota and wisconsin. Smaller events is what you can expect. We are being more nimble as a campaign every day. You are seeing him veer off in minnesota and drop into minneapolis. You saw him pick up pizza pies in old forge last week. You also see our circuit our circuit operation. The week joe biden wasnt in wisconsin, the sunday before, we had the womens drop in. The president was there the next day. Eric trump on tuesday. The Vice President on wednesday. We are aggressive. Thats the campaign we run. That is the campaign you will keep seeing us run. A little disappointing he didnt stop at my favorite pizza place in scranton. General election starts after the convention. You talked a lot about the weaknesses you see in democrats. Their policies, wanting to hit them on that from now until election day. Can you talk about what is the strength or perception you have that you think you will have to counter against democrats . Everyday aboutd fight through the leftwing bias we see on tv after the convention ended last night. The programming. We were fighting through extreme bias that we see in the media everyday. Of course, he you guys are great. A lot of your peers are not and it takes a lot of effort to fight through. Thats why we spent a lot of time on the road talking to voters. You asked earlier about the universal vote by mail laws trying to be hurried through. Ballot harvesting. These are things that are scary to people who want and expect to deserve to have their votes counted. Certainly point to those two things to answer your question. Before we wrap up before we wrap up, your predecessor was disappointed that fox news cut out the Convention Last night. How do you react to that . Fox news cutting out . There was walltowall coverage on various networks, plenty covered plenty of coverage to be found. Im sure fox will be taking coverage tonight. As our Program KeepsGetting Better and stronger with every night. Thank you tuning into plugin. Appreciate your time. Some very busy time. You are back tomorrow morning at 9 00 a. M. With white house chief of staff mark meadows followed by a separate interview with nrs executive director Kevin Mclaughlin to talk about the down valid education. We have another addition with a focus on florida and a reporter roundtable digging into the Reelection Campaign and other issues driving the 2020 campaign cycle. Thank you for joining us. Take care and have a great day. Announcer cspans live coverage of the Republican NationalConvention Continues tonight at 8 30 eastern with first lady melania trump, secretary of state mike pompeo, and kentucky senator rand paul. Watch live on cspan, live streaming, and ondemand cspan. Org rnc. Or listen with the cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Book tv on cspan two has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Eastern,at 8 00 p. M. Binge watch programs with the late author christopher hitchens. His books includes no one left the line to, and the trial of henry kissinger. Yellnday on afterwards, University Professor edward ball on his book life of a plasma. Which looks at White Supremacy through the lens of his greatgreatgrandfather, a member of the ku klux klan in postcivil war