SPECIAL REPORT: 2024 Presidential Debate Recap with Anthony Scaramucci and Katty Kay

[Music] we have a special post debate podcast uh and I couldn't have two better guests two of the smartest people in any room two friends of mine uh caty K who is of course a BBC US Special correspondent MSNBC contributor New York Times bestselling author and a co-host of the restus politics with my good friend the mooch Anthony scaramucci who also has a podcast the open book podcast on my favorite place Gemini 13 Network which is what we're doing here welcome guys thanks for doing this I I know mooch you had a long night last night you had a you got an invitation from commo to be in the spin room first of all hold up hold up the mooch sign is that right I've I've already shown the mo look at okay look you know now caddy called it a lollipop but you're from Queens you wouldn't call this a lollipop let me just show it okay ready here we go yeah so here for those on radio this is probably one of the longest names in American political history and there it is and I was I wanted my name to be you got a very long sign it's very long I mean you s about right exactly okay all the all the anglicans were very jealous of my sign comparatively okay yeah Donnie you know what a child is and how happy is to have that it's going to be like we're never let me start with you just just first thoughts I mean there's so much to talk about look I thought she she prepped and it turns out that if you want to go on a debate stage for the most important job in the world it's a pretty good idea to do your prep um and she came across as well prepared well-versed on the issues um she didn't give perfect answers to everything but she was coherent she came across as somebody who totally deserved to be up on that stage um she gave that aura of presidential which is always a little bit of a a barrier for women given that there hasn't been one yet but she she came across she needed to be it's unfair that a woman has to do that but she was spectacular in that she was presidential she was a commander-in-chief and yet she was not as a woman can sometimes be threatening in this powerful position to people I thought I thought she just straddled it perfectly listen if this was a job interview who would you give the job to on the basis of that performance oh wouldn't be a question now mooch you were in the spin room first of all give me your Topline thoughts and take me inside that what was going on there well I mean I mean they were so well organized and obviously I was on the Trump team in 2016 uh we were just like a shotgun approach no Organization no talking points U they brought uh 30 people into that spin room including U Governor Cooper uh Gavin Newsome was with us last night uh uh Senator Duckworth there's a whole host of uh cross-section of House of Representatives senators and governors in the room uh and they came out every couple of minutes with new lines new things to think about as the debate was going on uh and then uh during the commercial breaks they came out and they said okay here's what's going well here's what she's saying that we like dial testal Donnie you know the you know when they the dial test thing they they they were saying to us okay she said this dial testing point of view is really going working and not working so the so the number one thing and I was saying CAD this morning the number one thing that dial tested was we have more in common than what separates us and so when when when she was responding to you just turn black okay she was responding to that in a very holistic and very healing way and the dial went way to the moon on that and and that was her messaging last night so so the thing I would say to you is they were incredibly well organized they said something that catd and I were working on earlier is that this is a margin of era election so I just want you to think about that there's no Cockiness there's uh people in the trench they want to build a very broad Coalition Donnie you know this from politics she's decided I'm going for the biggest tent okay I said this to caddy Bernie Sanders Anthony scaramucci and Dick chenny walk into a bar okay I mean just think about the joke okay I just I just want to frame it for you because because that's what's going on she's building a tent where I I I can't and I forgive me I can't remember the woman from from uh California I'm not I'm not a Democrat so forgive me the senator from California the new Senator she was in the room with us she came over to me because she was at her friend's house in Hampton she said your house was down the block and uh and she listens to k k on she probably turns it off when I'm talking okay but she probably turns it down when I'm talking but she says you know I was at in the Hampton and I was thinking about coming over your house knocking on the door and crashing your Lambo doing it for catty K okay and I looked at her I said how do you know where you know it senator from California but but she said something about camela Harris that your listeners need to know she said that in all of the time that she has known her she is the most prepared person in the room a case politics strategy she's the most prepared person and she said this to me at like 8:00 at night before the debate started now I said to Donnie caddy what I said to you earlier I knew he was in trouble at 6:57 p.m. last night and why because he was phoned it in Donnie you know this s SOB better than I do okay he was Landing the plane sending out cat memes at 6:57 p.m. had to be on the air at 9: and he was letting you know I'm Macho Macho Man and I'm going to best her and I can just phone it in and I will just say this to you he prepared for her the way he talks about her he says denigrating things about her intelligence he prepared for somebody that wasn't KLA Harris last night and he got bested he showed it CAD we talked about this this morning and it's a visual medium and many people talk about you you could turn off the volume and it spoke volumes you you saw one side well I'll let you finish because it told all and her reactions were were brilliant brilliant yeah I mean I I did what Joe said this morning when we were on Morning Joe and Joe gabbar said that he always turns off the volume I make sure I do that too in debates you just turn it off for a minute or two because a lot of people remember watching this while they're making dinner while they're getting their kids together they're putting their kids to bed they're not even necessarily listening but they're seeing something on the screen and last night couldn't have been a study in more contrast so there is Donald Trump and I kept texting my friends my daughters were texting me during the debate saying yeah he's getting really cross and he his face is just getting like meaner and meaner and his and his mouth is getting grumpier and grumpier and he just looks like he's got a cloud over his head and the whole way through she manages not to get pulled down there so you've got the split screen he's looking cross and she is smiling she's got the white shirt on she looks great she looks Anthony and I was talking about this how in the CNN interview the other and she was hunched over yeah she was just tired it was tired it was not she looked rested she smiled she focused on the audience she did look over at him he didn't look over at her once so just as a study and contrast his the main takeaway for me was I mean yes she was great and she I know um she has PR prepped those side that was that was that was one of the most important things that the the the range of reactions to be dismissiveness laughing no yeah yeah but not too much it was dismissive but not like overdone not condescending she there was none of the basket of deplorable stuff in her manner so she did that but and he I don't he I guess he he knew he had that shot coming up maybe he wanted to look cross maybe he just was cross and he can't control himself because he's an open book but my main takeaway visually was that how cross he looked he the whole way through he just obviously in every debate there's usually a sound bite or not every debate but a lot of clearly they're eating the dogs and cats in in Springfield caty you can you believe it this is a debate for the president of the United States of America and a significant amount of time was spent on a total fantasy that there are people because you saw it on TV that was his explanation when they called that was one of the three times that Mur and and they they called him on which I I love that the spin and Anthony take me back to the spin room is that the refs the refs weren't fair because they literally three times just called them out outrage just lies and that's that's their spin well well well okay so remember his Advocates his surrogates many of which who hate him right Lindsey Graham hates him he just pretends that he likes him um Tim Scott pick all these guys they hate him uh they were reasonably honest they were reasonably honest saying that he needed to be better prepared somebody asked Graham should should anybody be fired well it wasn't really the people's fault that were trying to prepare him meaning he just was phoning it in like the election lie Trump knows he' lost the election but he's going to lie and say that he didn't lose the election and Trump knew he'd lost the debate but he's lying to say that he won the debate but we know he lost the election because he walked into the SP otherwise he wouldn't he wouldn't be there if he thought he won he be first place right 100% that's 100% as soon as he walked into the spin room three or four people looked at me and said all right at least he knows he lost the election then he went over to Shan aded to say well you know I may or may not debate her again because she lost you know but I mean come on he got he got annih he got he got destroyed last night he got annihilate he got destroyed cadd I thought she was particularly effective no surprise when abortion came up and uh she she she elevated everything every time there was a to topic she took it to a grander place and she did it there also yeah she we were talking with Jim MSA um who obviously who was um Obama's campaign person in 2012 2008 about this this morning and he was saying Jim said in 30 years time students will go back and they will look study that one answer for a master class in how to give a debate answer because she starts off with a policy she makes it personal she tells it eloquently she looks at him pinning the policy pinning those she talks about the women who are bleeding out in emergency rooms about the young girl who is a victim of incest who is forced to carry the pregnancy to ter because of Donald Trump's policies and she turns and looks at him and it was a very often I think in debates that they're told a lot to look into the audience because you're speaking to the television audience that's watching at home you're not actually speaking to the person on the stage and I think that's generally right but when she turned and looked at him just the visual thing of her looking side by side at him pinned those stories on him he owned those stories at that point just with the visual look of it and I think it for me she had a lot of good answers she had a couple of missed opportunities I felt as well it wasn't perfect in terms of policy she needs to get a stronger answer on the economy she needs to get a stronger answer on um affordability in particular for people she needs a she got away with giving a thin answer on Afghanistan and the withdrawal and whether she owned any of that but that answer on abortion was a Pitch Perfect answer I thought she also as as a Jew obviously I was paying very close attention to this I thought her Israel answer was very strong and I thought he came up so empty his answer on what you would do would be she hates Israel and there's not going to be no more Israel and that was I he just he has no answers when it comes to Israel he hasn't prepped he I mean he hasn't prepped the policies that's the problem and it showed mooch your thoughts on that well one of the things that uh because I you know obviously I still talk to people in his campaign you know he did a good job in the beginning Donnie in the following respect Susie and Chris LV Susie wild say stay away from the October 7th Invasion and you may or may not remember this but during the primaries through the whole situation he he kept relatively quiet about it and he doesn't Focus but at least he stayed out of The Fray he didn't get himself involved in the mix and get get and feathered one way or the other but now he doesn't have a solution and now you know he also has to answer for the movement of the embassy so what we know from the intelligence Community is that lots of funding went to Hamas lots of funding went to other Terror groups right after the embassy moved I mean was literally like a 4 to one increase in funding and so uh a lot of secular Jews said don't move the embassy keep the thing status quo uh and so we have to remember about things you know Trump says well I didn't cause any wars well remember the war doesn't start the day that the bullet is fired the war starts when one adversary sees weakness in another adversary or feels strength and so so it's a it's a it's a problem for him he he doesn't have an answer for it she could destroy him on it and by the way uh she's delicate sometimes with she got Arab community in Michigan but she's got two aircraft carriers Biden and Harris have two aircraft carriers off the coast stopping pirating stopping traffic you know Joe Joe Dunford I think guys both know Joe okay Joe Joe told me he goes mooch why are those aircraft carriers out there I said sir I have no idea he said they got these little small boats these Iranian militias are going boat-to-boat like in a relay race to deliver arms into the area and to deliver uh you know medical supplies and other things that Hamas needs we've got seals out there off those aircraft carriers interdicting those transfers we've slowed we've increased the arms to Israel and we've slowed down the armed shipments into Hamas in a way that's been devastating to Hamas and and she has all that she has all of those facts CAD this historically people debates don't tend to stick there's been maybe three obviously the last Biden debate we know what happened there uh the Kennedy Nixon debate and the and the the Reagan you know there you go again I think this is one of these debates that that sticks I think what's interesting Pluff was talking this morning about the dials again also and that the undecideds kind of went through the roof in her favors I do think this debate will stick yeah I mean there can be moments in debates you know looking at a watch making it look like you don't want to be there um I do think that actually When Donald Trump invaded Hillary Clinton's kind of space and she didn't respond that was a problem for her it made her look like she couldn't quite handle the bully the reason this sticks is because not many the polls are suggesting that people still don't know who Camila Harris is so this is one of the few times they've seen her up in a stage in this format it's the it's the most exposure that some American voters will ever have had to Kamala Harris that 90 minutes of that debate and that makes it in and of itself important and the way she handled herself uh by appearing presidential by appearing like she belonged there she deserved a shot at being president I think that makes a big difference but if she listen let's pay the counterargument right let's say she I don't think she would I think that would have been a dis she had could end of her campign there was a referendum on her last night to your point obviously and and that's you never want that frankly but she stepped up and look I don't know I don't know how much impact this is going to have on the election finally and we don't know how the election is going to turn out we don't know what other events are going to happen between now and November the 5th but you do know that if that had been a bad debate for her given that she has so she's had so little exposure to the American people that would have been a big hurdle for her to overcome couple things and I'll ask you guys if you agree with this or not but these are a couple things that I think is going to happen more money coming into the campaign uh you you you debate like that your your donor solicitors go out and say Hey you saw her we need more dough so she's going to raise a lot more money than him on a relative basis as she already is number two we we're leaving one of the big things that happened last night off the table Taylor Swift's coming in 27 minutes after the debate okay and she's letting you know where she stands and she's going to bring some swifties in there that's going to increase voter participation with the youth which favors her and then the third thing which I think is also important I was to say that on the Run he was on defense you you you know the guy he's on the Run Donnie and let me let me tell you something I I pointed this out the caddy this morning he's grabbing her hand at the 911 memorial and she he's shaking it in the way the bully shakes the hand of somebody I didn't see Des I didn't see yeah yeah yeah yeah so so all of our luminaries our political luminaries were at 911 this morning including the president President Biden Mayor Bloomberg was there uh interesting I thought he was going to be there I heard he was going to be there interesting right right okay okay I didn't see him maybe he was I didn't see him in the photo shot but it was Schumer gilbran uh it was uh vice president Harris President Biden Mayor Bloomberg yeah Donald Trump JD Vance Trump leaned over to talk to her and he shook her hand in that very obsequious way and you know what I'm talking about with him because he could blast you on Twitter and then he could see you face to face and he gets a little nervous yeah okay because he he's a small guy okay he's a small guy and she did something to him last night was right out of the Playbook okay this is literally like she read Putin's intelligence report about Trump okay he said here is the launch code on Donald Trump look him in the face and say the leaders around the world laughing at you I met with all the leaders around the world they're laughing at you right up like a bottle rocket and you Crow and you Crow and people are leaving you people leaving you rally she she she knew she knew the points and and I mean and I said this all the other morning on Morning Joe and she did it not because I said it but that she needed what I call these pivot conrest statements that before she talks each time find that nerve to say that you're old news that you're a liar here you go her version of here you go again and she did that and she knew and you could see his face every time she did it and to your point mooch he does not play defense well he doesn't play well from behind and I'm really curious to see his stump speeches going forward because he's going to you can Fe you you know him and you know he's going to try and re relitigate the the eating of the pets he's going to try and relitigate the crowd size she's in his head you can feel it oh he's going to double down he's going to double down on the pets he's going to double down you know that he's going to double down on the pets he's I mean he's already said this morning on Fox ABC should have its license revoked and the two moderator and his recommendation for the new moderators should be Jesse and and and and Hannity and yes and Hannity and and Ingram yeah but the fact the fact that he is going to I mean imagine that we're in a place where the moderators of a presidential debate risk one of the candidates saying they should be criminally charged for the fact that they had the audacity to I thought they did a great job I thought they both I I I thought they were strong I thought they did a really good job they I thought David M did a really good job particularly with the fact they both did a really good job Lindsay did a really good job it was it was a well-run debate they got through a ton of I mean I actually think I know that the Trump we talked about this earlier Anthony the um campaign wanted the M mics to be um unmuted and I get the argument for that because then he can go full 2020 psycho and that show of a debate with Biden where he can't stop himself interrupting but I thought there was something watching him where he has to be sit there silent for two minutes while she's speaking that makes him even more Furious the fact that he's got his mic muted and that you have the camera on him and you can almost watch him in real time getting Crosser and Crosser and Crosser and I actually I mean listen just from a point of view of substance for the American public yay that you know they actually get to hear somebody speak for two minutes without them having interrupted but I think from the Harris's campaign point of view it's not a bad idea that his his it makes him so cross he where oh go ahead go ahead no just you know just on to this think about what they did they went to Trump people they said would you be interested in talking to our debate prep people they went to people from other parts of the realm you know you know President Obama's people they bring in Pluff Pluff yeah you the realm meaning you know the Democratic realm they brought inff they brought in all the different people and she she did something that uh I'm still laughing about okay she went to people's houses her team did okay Sunday I in my casual clothing uh not a t-shirt catty K but like actually like some swaave casual clothing um she she she did uh interviews she had came to my house uh 45 minutes and they shot three television commercials or three internet commercials and they're they're dropping bombs on them all over the internet from people that used to work for him that say he's an unmitigated disaster so they're incredibly well organized I guess my question back to the two of you guys how is it this close Donnie you're the advertising guy how is it this close you see a full-on imbecile against somebody that's incredibly competent so what's going on in America that leads you to believe this close and I know people the three of us are Elites and blah blah but we're really not that elitists I live out here on Long Island I got all my you know my cousins are still slicing baloney meat and they're they're putting in autog glass I don't really feel like I'm that elitist but people people like my cousins were with them after last night two of my cousins called me said all right I finally see what you're saying we can't have this nut back in the White House CAD I'd love you to answer that so I had a really interesting conversation yesterday with a woman who is the pollster for kid starma the labor leader who's just won a resounding victory in the elections in the UK and she's working on a whole campaign to get the center left revived in democ in democracies and she's come over here to advise the Harris campaign on how they can get back the blue wall and she's run a ton of focus groups and um she said the number one reason from her from her polling and her focus groups that the polls are as close as they are in the US given all of Donald Trump's baggage is prices she said they were Focus grouping people who were going to grocery stores and she was literally acting this out and they're going to grocery stores and they're putting in their baskets some milk and some orange juice some sugar and they're adding it up on their phone and as they get to the checkout there's some stuff they have to put back they can't afford it and she says that for the people she was Focus grouping in Michigan Pennsylvania and Wisconsin it is whatever their race whatever their gender it's the overriding issue it's it's the middle class feels and she said it was was exactly the same in Britain and it's the same I imagine in other countries where you see populists doing well the middle class feels so squeezed it's not the deal they thought they were going to have it's not the deal their parents had and and they and she has to and that's why I say it wasn't a perfect debate because I think she still needs a stronger clear line on and I know she kept referring she's got to reassure people obviousl is way down but it's still inflated so what's the answer it's a I think the thing is it's affordability not inflation it's a distinction right yes you can tell people inflation is down till you're blew in the face but prices are still I know the the inflation number came out this morning I didn't see it what what what was what was it do we know I didn't see but I I you know the market sold off a little but I I I didn't see interesting Trump is quote unquote Pro crypto uh the crypto Market sold off you know the poly markets tightened on the election and the and the crypto Market sold off sort of the broader Market but but here here here's something I would say and it this does test well and I and I and I and I say it all the time and I want you to think about this we situationally have issues in the economy we have a cyclical economy we personalize it onto the politicians you had $6 trillion dollar inducted into the US economy during covid monetary policy down to zero lots of liquidity there three and a half trillion dollars given to people in cash payments to keep them in their homes during covid uh that same thing happened contemporaneously with a supply chain disruption so tremendous amount of money in the system less Goods of course prices are going to go up and prices have gone up globally but they're up less here in the United States we have a tendency to blame our politicians for this had Donald Trump won the 2020 election it would be Donald Trump's of course inflation and so what we have to explain to people it's hard to explain a macroeconomic explanation I understand that but she has to try and it's hard to say listen inflation she has to try she has to say listen I get it this is what we inherited the inflation came with us into our term it took us three years to tame it the FED is about to cut rates stay the course with me we had three or four major pieces of legislation that are helping working-class families we're onshoring microprocessors now we're building microprocessor foundaries in the US we're onshoring manufacturing now we're reshoring it we've got uh Bridges roads and tunnels in repair which are going to lower the costs of goods and services in transit around the United States through the inflation reduction act stay with me okay Donald Trump is airing your Grievances and he represents you in an angry way but he's provided no policy solution here are the policy Solutions we provided at the Biden Administration when I asked this woman this pollster for St who who was over here for a few weeks helping Harris what were the policy positions that Harris has proposed that FOC that test well with her focus groups with these what she calls hero voters in the Battleground States the number one policy they like is probably the policy that you guys are not going to like and that many economists don't like and she says that's price ging gouging that when kamla Harris says she's going to take action to stop price gouging by supermarkets which is something that a lot of even Democratic POC uh econom have said you know is it actually doable is it really a thing that's happening anyway does that crush the market does it Crush you know entrepreneurism that's the thing that actually they want to hear more of it resonates hey before I let you guys go and it's such a privilege to talk to you guys I I could do this for hours each one of you I'd love to hear much I'll start with you prognosticate the next 60 days how you how you feel this campaign's going to twist and turn both both coming off of where we are now and this thing keeps resetting itself you know she we saw a little little pull back after her that exciting you know initial launch and then kind of softened a little bit we'll see what happens after this debate take me through what you would think the next two months look like okay so I'm gonna I'm going to say this as a corporate guy for a second I want you guys to hear me for a second I've got the Biden campaign has been told that Joe Biden is out of the race I've got the Harris staffers have been told we are now going into election mode Harris for president you now have to merge those two entities and there's going to be some friction and some battles last night United everybody last night was like I took the Canadian Battalion the UK Battalion and the American Battalion we went to war together and we defeated the enemy and we're now back in the tent okay so last night has all of these soft things that are happening for that campaign right now they're high-fiving each other you know the Biden guys are high-fiving the Harris guys we're in the tent together now we've had this great bonding moment it was an unbelievable morale boost for them so now three things in my mind are going to happen they're Consolidated they're way more organized their morale has been boosted and they're looking at the seven or eight states so they're in play and they're goingon to flood Personnel Donnie caddy they're GNA flood the personel they ground yeah and and and let me tell you something that one of the Harris people said to me last night I didn't think of it this way before but I'll share it with you yeah we got to get the independence yep you're right about that we do have to do that but you know what we really have to do bring out base yeah I said what do you mean well I got to bring out the base because our base is bigger than his base well always if they bring out the base they win I mean if I can Electrify the base in those seven states and last night helps with that electrification we're going to win and and I it's just an interesting way of thinking about it because a very senior CEO Fortune 500 company texted me how do you think she did with the independence okay it's like 10:30 last night I texted him back I I think they're more concerned about the basee and I wrote to him what I just shared with you he ah I didn't think about it that way but that's where these guys are right now they're right here in the bullseye right they're right here with the with the kill shot caddy yeah look I think you know Donald Trump came out of last night's debate looking like he'd eaten a cat I mean he realizes this is bad right he's gonna hot foot it to Springfield Ohio and find some more but they the campaign has the ability to to come back to some extent from this they will I don't underestimate their ability to focus to do what they need to do to try and turn this thing around they're not going to let this slide they're not going to let this think we're going to go from this very low point after this debate into November the 5th without making a comeback so I expect to see a fight back from the campaign whatever that looks like um and I think from the Harris campaign it I do think this is a base election so it's going to be about turnout which plays to her Advantage because they've got the infrastructure and they've got the money but she needs to be out there every single she needs to do more of what she did last night she needs to be more present for American people more interviews just get her prepped just you know make her a political athlete in a short amount of time but get her out there Kad K Anthony scaramucci you must listen podcast co-host the rest is politics guys thank you very very special post debate special you guys are the best no love you man you you know you know you're the man thanks dony everybody thanks for watching if you like it hit that subscribe subscribe button and we love having you here watching on brand and just don't miss any future episodes so don't forget to hit that subscribe button we'll see you next time