welcome to American Focus I'm Cole mcney as we head deeper into election season early voting and starting this week There's a presidential debate coming up next week and it's still a close race to discuss all this and more as the center Square's executive editor and Franklin news foundation's Chief content officer Dan MCB uh Dan we have mentioned over and over again this has been a unique election cycle to say the least early voting begins this week though we are officially in voting season that's correct uh Cole while the election is still 60 days election day is still 60 days um out um two states uh the the mailin uh absentee ballot process starts today that would be the the one of the key swing States of uh North Carolina the other state is Delaware mail in ballots are uh absentee ballots are being mailed out to voters in those two states today um so the Voting is is is underway um we do have and over the coming week next two weeks a number of other states are going to start voting at least the absentee ballot process the mail and voting um ballot process so it's been it's been a long summer heading into this campaign as you mentioned up front it's been an unusual campaign uh uh uh season already former president Donald Trump the Republican nominee for president survived an attempt on his life um uh uh in uh in Pennsylvania at the a campaign event there where a bullet grazed his ear uh by a sniper on a rooftop nearby and then um uh shortly after that uh President Biden was pushed out of the race President Biden who was running for a second term was to be reelected after his disastrous debate with former president Trump in June um he was pushed aside by key Democrats and and donors vice president Kamala Harris became the heir app parent she is now the Democratic um nominee all kinds of crazy developments uh this election cycle and then you've got the first debate um coming up between um president Trump former president Trump excuse me and vice president Kam Harris Tuesday in Philadelphia that will be interesting yeah and and Dan you just mentioned um you know President Biden stepping out of the race certainly a prim primary driver of that was the fact that a lot of his allies were saying you can't win anymore you can't beat president Trump the polling is showing that President Trump is gaining lead over you in all the important Battleground states with kamla Harris now being the Democratic nominee this became a much closer race yeah much closer in fact uh uh uh polling averages from the across the country have of comma Harris with a slight the slightest of leads over president Trump nationally and in the key swing States let's face it there are essentially seven states who are going to decide um this election the swing states of Pennsylvania Wisconsin uh Michigan Georgia North Carolina Arizona and Nevada and those uh pulling in those states are very close with Trump holding a slight lead in some of them uh vice president Harris holding a slight lead in uh some of the others who know this race could go either way and Tuesday's debate uh could play a key factor now some people argue that no one pays attention to the debates it's not going to change anybody's mind but if if someone had if if either or have such a disastrous debate performance as president uh Biden did back in June that could sway some voters because there's still a significant number of undecided uh voters in this race why don't we talk about the debate uh here uh for a minute um um Cole it will as I said it will be Tuesday in uh in Philadelphia um the debate rules are very similar to the uh debate that uh President Biden held with former president um Trump back in June the mics will be muted when they're not speaking so there will be no talking over each other I'm going to admit um I thought that was a disadvantage for Trump the first time around but I actually enjoyed it and thought it was better without those without the two candidates you know trying to talk over each other interrupting each other I think you can debate whether there was a lot of substance on policy Etc in that um first debate but I thought it was from from a viewer standpoint it was much better than some of the debates we saw in 2020 back in 2016 in the primaries where they're just talking all over over each other so that's that's one um that there will be no audience just as there was no audience uh in that I say no live audience there will be no one uh else in the studio except uh ABC who is hosting the bait the candidates themselves and and and and some of their support staff but there will be no one um in the gallery listening to it I thought heading into that first debate um between Trump and Biden that that was another disadvantage um um for Trump he sort of feeds off of uh his audiences Etc but you know now this was more um Biden's shortcomings than than Trump's um accomplishments but we saw how that debate went so I I think it'll be a fair debate depending on the moderators now uh you know ABC um is accused of skewing left we'll see um CNN hosted that first debate um between uh uh President Biden and former president Trump they were fair I thought they were mostly fair so let's hope that the ABC moderators are fair too this might be the only chance um uh uh voters across the country have a chance to see um uh Trump and Harris square off one to one there are no second scheduled debates we hope that there there will be one that they'll agree to terms to a second one but as of now this is the only scheduled debate and interestingly enough Dan I think kind of going into this matchup the strategies of each candidate have been interesting uh former president Trump has done a lot of uh podcasts has done a lot of uh I would actually say probably targeting of young men uh uh in terms of the content he's been on uh he's been on comedian Theo Von's podcast he's been on I think one of the Paul Brothers podcasts so that has clearly been the strategy is not as much going for the establishment media but going more for the uh you know that kind of amateur I'm not going to call amateur that might be the the wrong word to use but that New Media the podcast The Independent Media Persona on the flip side Harris has largely stayed out of the media in general be that with podcasters or you know mainstream media did One two interviews uh you mentioned the lack of impact of this debate but in reality this might be one of the very few times that Americans get to see Harris in a non-scripted circumstance yes I'm very much looking forward to this aate debate and I hope undecided uh voters are too and I hope they they tune in it'll be an hour and a half long hopefully they dig into their policy issues uh because you know vice president Harris has flip-flopped on uh a few key issues um she was against the border wall of course under as um as President Joe Biden's borders are uh she was put in charge of B border security and the Biden haris Administration you know it's been a wide open border practically under them more than 12 million um illegal entries into the country uh since January 2021 when the this Administration took office she now says she supports a partially building the border wall she says she supports more border security it'll be interesting to see how um former president Trump hits her on that and how vice president Harris sticks up to that new found stance things like um uh uh energy and electric vehicle mandates she previously was for it she was previously against fracking um which is a key issue in the key state or uh swing state of Pennsylvania um where fracking provides thousands and thousands of jobs she now says she will not ban um for in so I'm sure that topic will come up during the debate it'll be interesting to see you know how what what they say about those types of issues and then beyond that we have a vice presidential debate coming up October 1st and then there is another Cloud that Still Remains there even if it's not the new cycle which is President Trump is going to have a sentencing date at some point for the hush money case out of New York Dan last word uh what do you expect from now until election day is more chaos or is this going to be kind of a more normal election cycle as you see it uh I expect the unexpected this has been the most unpr predictable um election season that I can remember as you like to say I'm a seasoned veteran been uh in the uh in the media industry for more than 30 years I've seen nothing like it so I'm not even going to begin to make a prediction about what's going to happen this time well I think that's probably the fair bet uh Dan thanks for joining me today and all the listeners you can keep up with all the election stories at the centers square.com