Breaking Down the 2024 VP Debate: Strategy, Performance, and What's Next

[Music] well that debate was something else and join me now to break it all down is Steve Kaplan Adent professor and digital media expert at USC anenberg and we should say when we talk about you you're an expert on youth voters demographics you run campaigns you understand strategy which makes last night really interesting for someone like you doesn't it absolutely you know I've been in that room and I've helped candidates prepare for a debate and it's clear to me in watching that that you know the the Harris team spent some real time with the strategy they thought about what they wanted to do they had a plan they executed it and that really uh showed up in the product that we saw and there was a lot of conversation about the kinds of prep that these two candidates would or would not do former president Trump having quote unquote policy meetings with tulsey gabard and Matt Gates K Harris huling away and really focusing on things and as you say tactics and strategy part of it was throwing former president Trump off guard and that started as we talked about with that handshake you and I can handshake right now it ain't no thing but when former uh when VP Harris walks over to former president Trump there hasn't been a handshake at a debate it's a moment no certainly and a lot of talk about how they had never met before and she purposefully said I'm KLA Harris nice to meet you which was a very much a strategy and a plan strategy and I'm sure they thought about that and it caught him off guard and you know there were times that she was able to take him off his game and that was something that he's not used to a lot of it too as we've talked about with these debates there's policy but there's also Al performance and personality there's this split screen it's a TV show and last time with former with Vice with President Biden uh we saw him mouth a gape yeah and it was uncomfortable for people to see BP Harris was very different there was some of this smiling with the hand right there was a lot of smiling and laughing Trump on the other side of split screen not looking both had to have been plans yeah I mean look with in the Trump side we we can talk about that for a minute he was certainly I'd say stone-faced and angry would be terms that I would use and I've heard that and some of the debate uh conversation you know these things live on just beyond the debate and I think that's something we should think about as well in the case of the President Biden's performance that look became locked in stone it wasn't just that night it really was at the end of the day it was really part of his undoing so we'll see if the memes if the sort of conversation in the social World continues because there were quite a few moments that were memeable there were a few moments that were meable we actually have a little bit of sound that we could play where there's a conversation that was very online that became part of the debate uh when it was a conversation about immigration and some Haitian immigrants in Springfield uh I believe control can tell me if we have it but let's take a listen to it if we do we're about to pull it up just now um and I give tremendous credit to those six justices there is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born Madam vice president I want to get your response to president Trump and we should just point out here as clarification and you know this you and your allies 60 cases in front of many judges many of them and said there standing I just want to clarify here you bring up Springfield Ohio and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there uh he told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed injured or abused by individuals within the Immigrant Community I se people onel so right there at the end was a conversation what I was saying about these dogs are supposedly being harmed by immigrants but overall that was a fact check moment and let's talk about that because you can talk about okay was mostly fact Che of former president Trump not VP Harris you can say maybe he was or was not saying more things that needed fact check but the spin around the fact checks is really the story sure I mean I think we saw coming into this debate that the Trump campaign wanted to sort of set the tone that the debater that the debate moderators would be against him and coming out of the debate that's what you're hearing a lot from the GOP that that fact check as well as some of the interruptions and some of the other tactics that the moderators used were an attempt to sort of uh pile on in the campaign that the challenge here is that you've got a candidate who plainly uh is telling truths and there is no way to fact check in real time and I leave it to the journalism department at my school I'm a media guy but um I think that's the job of a journalist to keep um keep the facts straight which is interesting because in the previous debate CNN the moderators were Bill danab bash and Jake Tapper as facilitators in this one ABC said well they're facilitators but there's going to be a little bit of factchecking so we saw a little bit of that this time it's slightly different role yeah we did and I think um in as a viewer it it hopefully it was helpful to the viewers but as a political matter I think it definitely plays into some of the rhetoric used by the Trump campaign that they're against us that they're not giving us a fair shot and um as far as it goes I think the Harris campaign is happy to have that fact checked she seemed to be doing a pretty good job on her own of of checking those facts as that's a big part of a lot of people have made that point as a participant in debate you are the one to do some of the factchecking me Republicans have said there was all this connection between Trump and project 2025 that was not fact checked by the moderators Democrats say well we fact checked about eating dogs and and and abortions po birth abortions uh let's talk a little bit about um the way people really watch this and what they might really get out of it um there was a snap pull from CNN saying something 60 plus perent of of Voters who were 50-50 before the debate came out saying VP Harris won but then there are headlines saying a lot of undecided voters didn't get what they needed to really make up their minds how do you think they're going to see it you know look this is still a campaign about these handful of battleground States and the small number of decided voters or independent or swing voters that will decide this race at the end of the day so the flash Poes are super important they tell us that the general population felt a certain way but at the end of the day this is about Michigan Pennsylvania Arizona Nevada and the rest so will it turn the tide for them if not the debate and some of the other things that have happened I'm not sure what will but we've got 60 more days and who knows what can happen 60 more days who knows what can to happen who knows if there'll be another debate though VP Harris saying I will gladly do another debate former president Trump today saying on Fox uh I don't know if I need it who needs it more do you think it'll happen you know it's funny I will say that when I heard immediately after the debate that the haris campaign challenged him uh that not always the strategy when you when you get a win you sometimes take that win you put it in your pocket you keep going but clearly they feel they have an advantage um and how the Trump campaign responds I have a feeling they're he will likely take her up on the offer at the end of the day that's my prediction here with you that's a big prediction we're going to roll it back and talk to you if there is another one have you come in and talk about a lot of people say VB Harris is saying I got to keep on keeping the pedal to the medal I got to stay the aggressor if I don't say I want to debate then I look weak yeah uh and it's all about messaging which you know well thank you thank you so much for coming in as always great to talk to USC man who's run strategy for campaigns an ad professor at UC anenberg a guy who knows media well