Jen, where does this race stand now? Post-debate. Well, any way you slice it, Harris went out
and did exactly what she wanted to do. The national polls show
nice little pop, probably around 4 or 5. Percentage point lead. What would worry me
if I were on her campaign is that Michigan's had a couple of polls
in the last couple of days. Trump by one tie her by one. The swing states still look pretty close,
and you very rarely can find a poll that has one candidate or the other
outside of the margin of error. The wall's pick seem to be popular. Everybody raved
about the Democratic convention. She did great. All this stuff is going right for her,
but you're not seeing it generate a significant lead in the swing states. And so I think they'll be sweating
all the way to election night. Nia, there are some debates that shift
the momentum of a campaign like the first Kennedy
Nixon debate in 1960 and some that don't like all three Clinton
Trump debates back in 2016. Where do you think
this race stands right now? Post-debate? Yeah. Listen,
I think it's a dead heat. You know, it's
going to come down to these six states. She's got to figure out
what the easiest path to victory is. She has a more path than Joe Biden did,
but it's still incredibly tight. It's a fifth. What?
Wait. Explain that to me. If. If. According to the CNN instant poll, she won 63% to 37, and all the other polls
were roughly the same. Why hasn't it moved the needle? I don't think debates typically move
the needle. Right.
You mentioned the Kennedy Nixon debate. That obviously did. The debate we saw between Biden and Trump
obviously upended this entire race. But this is the way it usually works
with debates. They sort of lock
in what's already in place and what was already in
place was a very close race. And they're going to try over these next. What do we have, seven weeks? You know, eight weeks or so, seven weeks
ago, in places like, for instance, Kamala Harris is in
some of these rural places in Georgia and Pennsylvania to see
if she can eat into some of the margins among Trump voters in those states. Lulu, if this race is still up for grabs,
what do Trump and Harris each need to do in the next seven
plus weeks till Election Day? Well, I think we need to see less of Trump
because the more people see of Trump, the less they seem to like him,
the more incendiary things he says, and the more people are focused on his biggest
liability now, which is his age. what has happened is the GOP
and the Democrats have kind of flipped. before they had the Democrats
had the problem with their candidate at the top of the ticket
being unable to prosecute the case. And now it's the GOP that has a problem with their candidate
being unable to prosecute the case. So he should go to the basement
like Biden. And I think we need to be seeing
a little bit less of him. if if indeed they really. Because because don't forget
when people sort of had the hazy happy memory of of Trump
and not the chaotic, Trump, the, the Trump that says things that have no basis
in reality, talking about dogs, that people eating dogs rather,
people seem to like it. And what about Harris? So what Harris needs to do,
I think, is, is, is people need to see her more and not
and in unscripted ways. She needs to be doing
more press conferences. She needs to just have
a more casual interaction with a wider variety of people.
Does Oprah count? And then, I mean, Oprah,
they're trying to create events. That's what they're going to be doing now. That's their big tactic,
having Oprah trying to see if they're big, splashy, you know, friends with Beyonce
and others, they're going to look that up on that, because CNN is reporting
that the Harris campaign is more focused on creating what they call moments
than rolling out detailed policy. She has, as mentioned, an online
conversation with Oprah next week, and they dream of a campaign concert
with Taylor Swift. Ryan, first of all, do
you think that's what Harris needs to do? More moments, less policy? And what about Trump? I do think that Harris is being
incredibly disciplined and careful. She is following a script. her ad campaigns and what have you. These are doing exactly what Democratic
political experts are advising her to do. Biden was a loose cannon. Trump is very much a loose cannon,
but she has been sticking to the script. Do you think that you script
because I a lot of people, I hear her say, I want to know more specifics
of what she's going to do for the economy, what she's going to do on immigration. Well, the problem is that her agenda
is to the left of most of the electorate. And I think getting more specific about
that could represent a risk. It would be smart of her to try to make a more explicit
and clear break with the Biden presidency, but she's very conspicuously
not done that in a variety of ways. Trump, in contrast,
you know, look, during the debate, Kamala Harris spent 70% of her time
attacking Trump. Trump spent less than 30%
of his time attacking Harris. Harris is acting like an underdog. Trump is not acting like an underdog. And what Trump needs to do is zero
in, not on 200 messages,
not on every last thing someone says. And then counterpunching. He needs to focus on his script
and attack the incumbent administration and remind people
that he is not the incumbent who is responsible for a very foul
mood of the American public right now. She's in office. And then there is the question
of another debate. And at least this week, Trump
was making it clear he is not interested. When a prizefighter loses a fight. You've seen a lot of fights, right? The first words out of that fighter's
mouth is, I want a rematch. I want a rematch.
And that's what she said. Nia, is Trump smart to say no more debate? Yes, absolutely. Because he was terrible. I mean, she emasculated him. she had him on the ropes for 90 minutes. I mean, some of it was attack. Some of it was just triggering him, with, with, you know, saying
that his crowd sizes, weren't so big and that people were leaving
in the middle of of the rallies. And so, no,
I think he is smart to stay away from this because he doesn't want
a really good moment for Harris in the closing weeks of this campaign
in the way that she's had this week with this really,
really stellar debate performance. Do you agree that Trump should stay away
from another debate and part, you know, to paraphrase Ghostbusters, if you have the opportunity to speak
before it's 60 million television viewers, probably another 7 million on streaming,
you say yes. You take every opportunity
you have to get your message out. You try preparing. Next time you try having 2
or 3 bullet points you want to put for each one of them,
he can't prepare. He is incapable at the moment
because of his age, to actually prosecute the case. And so I think it's a terrible idea
for him to, to do around the basement campaign, particularly with your neck
and neck, isn't going to do any good. I know,
I guess the idea is if people are going to forget the traits
about Trump that they don't like between now
and Election Day, the only way to go out there is to go out. Make the argument, okay. No, no, I wasn't making. But let me just let me ask you this. What do you think of the chances? You know, he's saying,
no, no more debates. Okay. What do you think at the debate
he changes his mind and sometime in October ends up sharing a stage. We all know every Trump decision
is written on an A sketch. And at any given moment,
it can be shaken very vigorously and you can end up with a different one. So if you know, my guess
is if the advisers look at him say, look, you did not do yourself
any good, you can go out there. If you bothered to remember 3
or 4 points on every topic, you can actually move the ball in the
right direction. Then you should do it. I think. I think he walks around believing Hillary is going to win by a landslide,
and he doesn't have to do anything else. Hillary Clinton dominated her first debate
with Donald Trump in 2016. This was a pretty solid,
strong performance by Kamala Harris. It was not better than Hillary
Clinton performance in that first debate. And then Donald Trump fared
better in the second and third debates. I think that Trump
should give it another shot.