Well, i think this is so rich coming from someone who has been prosecuted. The prosecutor turned vice president faces down the criminal expresident. 's next big court appearance is in november at his own criminal sentencing. Tonight, the man who played donald trump in the harris debate prep joins me live. Yes or no, you still do not have a plan? i have concepts of a plan. And senator cory booker on his fearless forecast of the harris performance. Donald trump was fired by 81 million people, so let's be clear about that. Plus, sarah longwell with new swing vote reaction to the debate. I think she was the clear winner. He did a poor job of taking her bait and allowing himself to get upset. And what happens next. Let's turn the page on this. Let's not go back. Let's chart a course for the future. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, i am chris hayes. The first presidential debate of the year between donald trump and president joe biden was the most consequential in american presidential history. It was june 27 and biden's performance brought about a reckoning within the democratic party, resulting in president biden's monumental and deeply selfless decision to step aside, suspend his reelection campaign. Last night, 11 weeks later, more than 67 million people watched trump's base biden's replacement at the top of the democratic ticket. Vice president kamala harris. The steaks were even higher. Going into last night's debate, kamala harris carried an unbelievably difficult burden. There is the fact she is the first black woman at the top of a major party ticket, trying to become the first woman ever elected president of the united states and even if everything else about this race was normal, that itself would be an extremely difficult road to navigate. But of course, nothing about this election has been normal. Since the first debate, kamala harris had to navigate an absolute political minefield. For three weeks while her party was in abject turmoil, the vice president had to avoid being seen as grasping or ambitious as she remained a loyal soldier to the president, joe biden. When the president decided to suspend his campaign, she had to launch her own presidential campaign in one day. She then had just a matter of weeks and even days to consolidate support, unify democrats and plan and lead a convention. She managed all of it with tremendous success. And so just 52 days into her campaign for president, kamala harris entered last night's debate with an immense task before her. The vice president needed to navigate a bunch of contradictory imperatives. She had to shore up her democratic coalition while also reaching out to the all important swing voters in swing states. She had to handle the lies and mania and weirdness of her unpredictable opponent, while also getting her own message across to viewers and in the face of high expectations and even higher pressure, kamala harris executed all of that flawlessly. On one of the most important issues in this election, abortion, kamala harris eviscerated the former president's position and spoke directly to the experiences of american women. Nowhere in america is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion. That is not happening. It is insulting to the women of america and understand what has been happening under donald trump's abortion bands. Couples who pray and dream of having a family are being denied ivf treatments. What is happening in our country? working people, working women who are working one or two jobs, who can barely afford childcare as it is, have to travel to another state to get on a plane, sitting next to strangers, to go and get the health care she needs. Barely can afford to do it and what you are putting her through is unconscionable. Harris also used her opponent psychological weaknesses to her advantage. At multiple points in seemingly almost every answer, she deliberately baited trump with words she knew he would not be able to resist. I'm actually going to do something really unusual and i'm going to invite you to attend one of donald trump's rallies, because it is a really interesting thing to watch. You will see that he talks about fictional characters like hannibal lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer and what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. First of all let me respond to the rallies. She said people start leaving. People don't go to her rallies, there's no reason to go and people that do go she is blessing them in and ping them to be there and showing them in a different light. So she can't talk about that. People don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies. The most incredible rallies in the history of politics. Showing them in a different light? the vice president finished the job with what can only be described as a punch to the gut, painting donald trump as a loser and a disgrace. Donald trump was fired by 81 million people, so let's be clear about that and clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that, but we cannot afford to have a president of the united states who attempts, as he did in the past, to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election and i am going to tell you that i have traveled the world as vice president of the united states and world leaders are laughing at donald trump. I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you and they say you are a disgrace and when you then talk in this way in a presidential debate and deny what over and over again are court cases you have lost, because you did, in fact, lose that election, it leads one to believe that perhaps we do not have, in the candidate to my right, the temperament or the ability to not be confused about fact. That is deeply troubling and the american people deserve better. Kamala harris accomplished everything she needed to last night. She needed to accomplish a lot. Knocked it out of the park. The vice president is known for being a politician who really prepares and it was clear she took her debate prep seriously. A former deputy assistant secretary of state and spokesman for hillary clinton and played the role of donald trump in clinton's debate prep in 2016. There he is and what appears to be a flip phone video in costume, roleplaying a scenario where trump tried to hug clinton and chased her around the room. He reprised the role of trump and kamala harris's preparations. He joins me now. It is good to have you. First what did you think of that debate? i could watch it all night. I mean, she put on a clinic. There is no part of it you can watch that says that is bad. It was a remarkable performance. I know the former president is saying the same thing, but as usual one of them is lying and one of them is not. Take me through the prep. First of all what was your approached approach to playing trumpet and what were the signature things you are doing and how was that gamed out and prepared for? first, my role in it is the kind of sexy part of it, but i really just had to focus on the left side of the screen, which is him. There is a team that helps the vice president that was headed up by karen dunn and it was amazing and it was a frictionless team that i have worked with other teams and it was great. The vice president has great people around her. Not just the two of them, but they ran it. From my perspective you just want the candidate to get used to what they are going to see and hear and experience and it was an added oddity that they never met and what is great as i had never met her. The first day i met her i said madam vice president it is nice to meet you and 20 minutes later i was telling her how she was ruining america. What was your approach? one of the most important things to prepare for if you are debating trump. Like the go to moves, the things that might rattle someone who hasn't been in the same room? will i would take a step back. A debate in its ideal form is a job interview. You have two people who are going for the same position you want to put their experience and their best foot forward. They want to be professional. They want to think about curveballs that may come their way and we have all been in that situation. The situation we haven't been in is when the other candidate for the job is six feet to your left and they have a chainsaw and the only way they can win is by blood being blood being you up. What she did last night that was so amazing was she was not just pointing out things that might get under his skin. She was making her case directly to the camera to the american people. She was talking about her plans and what was also incredibly amazing what she did something that no one else has really been able to do in the last year, which is remind people that this guy actually served and has a record and that record is really bad. And you know you have talked about this. This amnesia issue is a problem. Where he starts out saying, you know, you completely screwed the border. It has to be hold on, bowel, you were there for four years. You were in charge of the border and promised us a wall and it is not they are. That has not happened enough and it is important to lay out that case. Third, for my own in terms of asking about prep, first of all we all get makeup before we are on tv and the makeup artist said you already had makeup on and i said no. She said you've got it on your four head. I can't get it off. It is so caked on. The guy uses like plaster of paris. But the thing i noticed over eight years and by the way i feel like 50 years when you say a flip phone. It was not black and white, chris. It is that he is really decompensating. His language has always been choppy and he has always digressed. There is something else going on. I think we watch and it is like he always speaks like that. He does not. If i lose track of my thoughts i stop for a second. When he loses track of his thoughts, he goes to another thought quickly, so it doesn't sound like anything. It sounds like jumping around. That is not what he is doing. Also he will go off on covid for 10 minutes and not say tony fauci. Four years ago he would go on for five minutes about fauci. So there is something, you know, i am the camp that has always noticed that, but narrowly in terms of watching everything he has said and done over the last few months and reading every word. There is something not right. We will play a little selection and one of these is the notorious, they are eating the dogs, they are eating the cats, which is both a disgusting and racist slander to a group of people and also completely invented. But he started on the rallies. We play that clip and he got from people go to my rallies to that and he cannot follow a train of thought. He interrupts himself. Here is a smattering of what that looked like. She is a marxist. Everyone knows she is a marxist. Her father is a marxist professor in economics and he taught her well. In springfield they are eating the dogs, the people that came in, they are eating the cats. They are eating, they are eating the pets of the people that live there. She was big on defund the police. In minnesota she went out. When a minute, i am talking now. If you don't mind, please. Does that sound familiar? he was proud of that last one. He referred to it as cute and gave a little kudos to himself afterwards that he was calling back to that moment. In terms of set pieces like debating, how much of that was planned? it seemed to me that there were certain things that you know he won't leave alone. John mccain. Charlottesville, very fine people. The outcome of the election. His rallies. That were intentionally in her answers to get him to narcissistically obsess over them. I think, look, you know, she has seen him over the years. This was his seventh general election. He debated i think 11 times in the primaries. Notably zero times in 2020, the 2024 primaries and yet he calls everyone out for being scared. I think she was almost acting like she was watching it. You know, kind of watching it on tv and saying old on, dude, what about this? that is what she was doing, calling out facts. What is particularly telling when you show these clips of his digressions or whatever you want to call them is that they make no sense. He is not a rubik's cube. He is not hard to figure out. He is jenga, you push one thing and he falls apart. But if you say your crowd sizes are low and people leave, why wouldn't you say that's not true, that is mean. I'm proud, they are the biggest things. What he actually starts doing is a different level of insanity. It is a subset. What he is saying has never been truthful. It has never been real. It has never been normal, but it is decompensating and i think the thing about the frog, you know, in water. Boil them slowly, you don't know what's happening. We all have been into it, so we don't realize how serious it is. Look, joe biden, i love joe biden. When joe biden was 78 and ran for president, no one thought, i'm concerned with how he looks. Donald trump is 78. If he wins we could be back in this conversation in two years. How are we supposed to know that he was going off the rails? did you do off the rails as him? you do everything. You have a good tennis player who wants to get better. I have friends who obsess with tennis. They get a tennis pro. You want to test your backhand, set the ball machine to test your backhand. If you want to use the ball machine as a target for your serve, great. It is simulation. Any kind of prep whether it is congressional prep, deposition prep or any kind of interview, you want people to have thought things through. It's not like you are sitting around and saying this is a good line, memorize it. There been great stories that people would love about the biggest moments in debate history. The candidates thinking about them when they are not in prep. Lloyd bentsen, i knew john kennedy. He actually snapped at his team when they said dan quayle might say that he knew jack kennedy. He apparently said if you're going to waste my time, he walked out of the room. George bush when al gore crowded him, he had this smirk on his face and he said that the smirk on his face is because his team had crowded him in the hotel room and said what are you doing? they said gore has sometimes done that. He said i don't care who has done that, get out of my face. Then when the moment comes you are like, holy cow, i've heard this. Philippe reines, thank you for your time tonight. Thank you, chris. Still ahead, did the debate move the needle? swing voters weigh in with their thoughts. First, the extraordinary performance of kamala harris last night and how she was underestimated. Senator cory booker joins me on that, next. Can your pad do that? see what foam can do for you. 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Switch to reliable comcast business internet with security and get started for $49. 99 a month. Plus ask how to get up to a $500 prepaid card. Call today! after president joe biden's disastrous debate performance, there was this worry about whether vice president kamala harris would make a strong presidential candidate. Those fears have proven to be unfounded. Harris completely owned the debate last night, which people who know her said she would do even before she stepped foot on stage. I think she is going to find very deft ways of coming forward and reminding people of the chaos. Of the crassness. Of the person that he is and do it in a way that does not take her into the mud, where donald trump loves to go, but in a way that is straight with the american people and lets them come to the conclusions that to me are very obvious. I will admit as senator cory booker was saying all this last night on this very network, i was sitting at the table and thinking i'm not sure you want to pump the fist before the debate happens, but clearly he knew what he was talking about. Senator cory booker is a democrat from new jersey and a longtime friend and ally of vice president kamala harris. They sat on the judiciary committee together and he joins me now. Senator, there is a weird thing that happens in the runup to debates with expectations games where people start to be like my opponent is the best debater and i am a humble slob. It is put on, but both you and gavin newsom last night were like she is so good. She will kill him. I was thinking, boy, already a lot of pressure on her, but you were right. What did you think? it was simply awesome. I sat next to her for years and highstakes judiciary hearings and watched how she rose to every single moment. Supreme court justice, cabinet secretary. You pitch to kamala, she will knock it out of the park when it really counts and we know the stakes were high for her going into it, but she is a gamer and she really brought it last night and brought it as a said two nights ago in a deft way. She found ways to bait him and expose him before everybody. No matter who you are, democrat or republican, when you are talking about eating cats and dogs, you know you let your opponent show his truth. You know the thing you said about a highstakes situation and she knocked it out of the park. What is concerning to me as i have interviewed the vice president a number of times. I don't know her well, but she has always been formidable and impressive. But as a character testament, the amount of pressure that has been on her as a person and as a politician and at each point of that pressure she has had to respond to, navigate it. I just think it speaks remarkably well to her ability to be president, honestly. Given that the job is a very pressure packed a job with really high stakes and you really have got to deliver in the moments that matter most. She really is a clutch player and i think it does speak to her presidential capacity. Look, you talk to kamala harris and this is what i love about her throughout this campaign, that she is not making this about her. Donald trump, it was all about him, his fragile ego. He could not resist trying to defend a tax on the ego. For kamala it is about everyone else and this is what i think i want people to really know about her right now, that she feels the urgency of the challenges before the american people. She feels the pain of the people facing stripping away of reproductive rights. She feels an economy which many people think don't work for them anymore in america. These are issues that drive her. She is about serving this country and knows that this is a moment not to be donald trump, but really where we need leaders in the plural to rise, so that we as a nation can come together and move forward and i am really honored really to watch a friend rise to this moment and keep the spotlight where it needs to be on the american people. We should note that she is going to do the first postdebate event in wilkes barre, pennsylvania. A key county and a key swing state. As we learned last night, 800,000 polish americans in the state of pennsylvania. She was talking about donald trump sucking up to putin and what it might mean for the nation. What did you think of the foreignpolicy back and forth between them because she is the vice president of the united states, but it is hard to beat the experience, for voters who are not in the weeds of someone who has already been president. Again i think what she did last night was really important because republicans and democrats, talking about ronald reagan republicans who stood up to russia, to the kremlin, know how urgent the situation in ukraine is and know that it is really about democracy in europe. Democracy at large and the rule of law globally. She exposed donald trump for being on the extremes of the republican party. Someone who would capitulate to putin. Who would surrender against totalitarian aims of putin who thinks might makes right. So that was very powerful and it is a message to a lot of americans. In new jersey we have a lot of ukrainian and polish americans. In pennsylvania and key battleground states there are a lot of folks whose ancestry goes back to eastern european countries who know about the horrors of totalitarian dictators and their ambitious territorial aims. So this was again, she gave a masters class last night and showed how you let your opponent expose themselves before all of the country and see things that many of us have forgotten where he has found ways to hide. He got a chance to tell the truth about donald trump and let him do the talking. Senator cory booker of new jersey, thank you very much. Thank you, good to be on. Next, the successful baiting of donald trump and the reaction of voters, particularly undecided voters. That is ahead. Rinvoq works differently and it's a oncedaily pill. When symptoms tried to take control, i got rapid relief with rinvoq. Check. When flares tried to slow me down, i got lasting steroidfree remission with rinvoq. Check. And when my doctor saw damage, rinvoq helped visibly reduce damage of the intestinal lining. Check. Rapid symptom relief. Lasting, steroidfree remission. And visibly reduced damage. Check, check and check. Rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. 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Get cash back rewards, and live large. credit one bank. this one is for you. Donald trump was an unfocused, undisciplined mass last night. The consistency cross the board is that he got his clock cleaned. I think it is apparent to anyone who watched. He took the bait and fell into the traps that kamala harris set for him. What goldman sachs has said is that donald trump's plan would make the economy worse. Mine would strengthen the economy. What the wharton school have said is donald trump's plan would actually explode the deficit. It is just a soundbite. They gave her to say. Look, i went to the wharton school of finance and many of the top professors think my plan is a brilliant plan, a great plan. A plan that will bring up our worth, our value as a country. Trump was never a disciplined candidate, but he has clearly gotten worse. His brain is scrambled at this point, with conspiracy theories and bigotry and it was on full display last night. Jon favreau is a former speechwriter for president obama. Rebecca traister is a writer at large for new york magazine where she recently wrote about the joyous plot to elect kamala harris and they join me now. Rebecca, what did you think of donald trump's performance last night? it is interesting because i thought so much since last night about the impact of her baiting him into saying these ridiculous things, right? and the level at which i think a lot of us absorb him is ridiculous, unhinged, out of control. She spoke to him at times like he was a toddler. I think he looked like a toddler a lot of times, but the thing that stuck with me today is a little less fun than that. The things he was baited into saying. Him at his most unguarded and explosive is so chilling, right? and i think it is easy for us to forget that in the sort of relief and exhilaration of seeing a candidate who can really, you know, talk to him and speak in full sentences and bring up this side of him, but the side that is exposed. The horrible, racist, xenophobic lies he is telling about haitian immigrants in ohio. These are dangerous. And that she got him to say them i think people are joking about them, but this is so perilous for our country and this is a man who wants to be president. I think it was powerful that she used another rhetorical trick and senator booker was talking about it earlier. Returning it to you. This was a rhetorical thing she was doing. He does not have a plan for you and breaking the third wall and saying i invite you to go to his rallies and telling stories that bring back the human realities. She said i was at the capital on the day of january 6 and a woman on a plane who can't get reproductive health care and i think that was powerful as a reminder that this isn't a show and he is not a carnival barker or a skit. He wants to be the president and these ideas and nonsense which are so dangerous will have an impact on you, on me, on us, on the american people and i think that was really powerful and something i've been thinking about a lot today. And he, the bait was often to get him to be self obsessed, right? it is a thing that she knows he will litigate about his own sense of honor or whatever and again, i am a little confounded because at some level it is like how is this not apparent to anyone that this guy is like a clinical narcissist? but it does seem to me that it is useful to remind voters of that. It is very useful. She did not treat donald trump like he is the main character in american politics, which is how he has been treated for nine years. She treated him as if he is an old man, disturbed, in the middle of the street and yelling at cars. That is how she treated him and drove him crazy her and made him sail the things rebecca was mentioning are quite dangerous. What is important is now she was able to turn it to what matters to voters, which is what she is going to do over the next four years versus what donald trump is going to do and how that will affect their lives. She also narrated the debate for voters at home, which i think is important. He's going to tell a lot of lies. He will say a lot of crazy stuff, but i know that you want to understand from us what we will do to improve your lives and i'm going to tell you that. I thought that was really effective because it left him talking about himself and getting angry and ranting and raving and i think for voters who have not decided yet, and makes them think she seems strong, clear, and command, caring about us and he seems angry and incoherent. I will say this knowing that i have said this before, i am not an undecided voter. I think about politics for a living. I have developed views on a bunch of stuff. It is because it is what i do and there are areas where i wouldn't know anything and i would seem ignorant about it. I would say given all of that, rebecca, that last night cnn had one of these samples that are basically scientific, but align with my feeling, which is 63% said she one and 37% said he won and i saw that number and said that should be the outcome of the election. How am i watching this? like that is a number that feels about right. When i watched last night i was like, that's about right. 37% are like whatever. You know, she whupped them and the fact that is not what the polling is is a little tough to swallow. Listen i think one of the reasons i feel a little bit like a buzz kill and they feel enormous relief and she did an incredible job rhetorically. I have my own complaints but she did an incredible job. I share the relief and happiness that so many do, but i am also left with a chill because i remember 2016 and hillary clinton cleaning donald trump's clock three times in a row and that is pretty rare in presidential debates. Barack obama had a bad debate. Hillary clinton didn't have a bad debate. She whupped him three times in a row and you know she did not become president. So i am so thrilled. The feeling, the contrast between the june 27 debate and this debate i think has left people a little euphoric today and i think that is a good thing to feel. An important thing to feel moving into november, but i don't think we can let that obscure the fact that this is incredibly close and he still might very well win and we need to think about that. Yes, probably like the best you can hope for is a point or two coming out of this, which would to be would be a huge gain. It is a divided electorate. I have heard the hillary clinton comparisons a couple of times. The difference between now and 2016, hillary clinton then was an extremely well known quantity in american politics and donald trump was more like the challenger, so there was less elasticity in terms of people making up their mind about hillary clinton. What we are seeing with the smallest lies of undecided voters this time is that they are interested in kamala harris. They want to learn more about her and the conflicted voter, the one you are talking about is someone who thinks i don't like donald trump. I think he is a jerk. I think he is offensive but i remember his economy is better than the last four years and i think she is going to go after that voter by reminding everyone how dangerous and crazy he is but also saying here is what i will do for you, here is what i value and here are my plans. That point about who people know more about and where the upside is i think is a hopeful one. Jon favreau and rebecca traister, thank you both. Still ahead, the desperate spin by trump and his cronies after a disastrous debate performance including the candidate himself. That is next. (children speaking) millions of children are fighting to survive due to inequality, conflict, poverty and the climate crisis. Save the children is working alongside communities to provide a better life for children. And there's a way you can help. Please call or go online to give just $10 a month. Only $0. 33 a day. We urgently need 1000 new monthly donors in the next 30 days to help the children we support around the world. You can help provide food, medicine, care and protection, plus so much more that a child needs by calling right now and giving just $10 a month. All we need are 1000 monthly donors in the next 30 days. Please call or go online now with your monthly gift of just $10. Thanks to generous government grants, every dollar you give can have up to ten times the impact. And when you call with your credit card, we will send you this save the children tote bag as a thank you for your support. Your small monthly donation of just $10 could be the reason a child in crisis survives. Please call or go online to givetosave. Org to help save lives. Ahh, yellow! didn't pass the tissue test? buckle up! whoa! there's toothpaste white, and there's crest 3dwhitestrips white. Whitens like a 400 dollar professional treatment. Pilot: prepare for nonstop smiles. Crest. () we need a miracle. Miracle every thursday starting at 2:45. I know. I love you. Find childcare that fits your schedule at care. Com vicks vapostick provides soothing nonmedicated vicks vapors. Easy to apply for the whole family. Vicks vapostick. And try new vaposhower max for steamy vicks vapors. did you know that 96% of customers recommend the hartford? boy that's higher than most movie ratings. And those who switched to the aarp auto insurance program from the hartford? they saved hundreds. For the savings, benefits and best in class claims experience you deserve. Make the switch today. To get your free quote call or click today. The buck's got your back. [child laughing] () () [child giggling with delight] () come on you two. Dinner time. ooooh. Ooooh. one of the weird traditions attached to a presidential debate is the spin room. Exactly what it sounds like. After the debate is over supporters gather to answer questions, to offer hot take some soundbites of how their candidate was great and won the debate and trump surrogates had a rough night doing so, like congressman byron donalds. What did you think about him saying that pets are eaten by immigrants? i don't care about that. Reporter: shouldn't people care about these things? that is a minor issue happening in the united states. It is not happening. That is the point. Let me finish. Would you let me finish? most candidates for president have better places to be after the debate except if you perform so abysmally that you feel you must get another word in edge wise. So donald trump after the debate going from microphone to microphone desperately looking to change the narrative. Trump had a secret weapon he deployed her the night deployed through the night and this morning. Mystery poll numbers that only he can see. What made you come to the spin room? i felt i wanted to. I was very happy with the result. The worst poll that we had was 71. We had a 92% rating and one poll. 8020, and we sent them a lot this morning. We had an 86% rating and another, 77%. One is 927. Mister president, speak louder. All of the polls, 60, 70, and 80. 863. Every single poll last night had me winning. 71% to like 24 or 25%. Why don't you do a shout out poll of who they thought when the debate last night. It would be great. Reporter: you know we always do it at the end, mister president. The polls are indicating that we had 90%, 60%, 72%, 71% and 89%. Where are you getting these numbers from? yes, where are you getting those numbers from? an esteemed member of the trump brain trust explained. Well i have seen those polls. They are polls that you see on, you know, on the internet. And a lot of them probably have statistical problems with them. I had 20 years of (music playing) experience as an hr professional and i had reached a ceiling, so i enrolled in umgc. I would not be the person that i am today had it not been for the partnership with umgc. We realize some home maintenance jobs aren't worth the risk. That's when we call leaffilter to protect our gutters. Leaffilter's patented filter technology keeps debris out of your gutters for good, guaranteed. Call 833 leaffilter or visit leaffilter. Com (tony hawk) skating for over 45 years has taken a toll on my body. I take qunol turmeric because it helpslter with healthy joints and inflammation support. Why qunol? it has superior absorption compared to regular turmeric. Qunol. The brand i trust. music unnecessary action hero! unnecessary. was that necessary? no. Neither is missing your daughter's competition to do payroll. With paycom, employees do their own payroll so you don't have to miss your daughter's big day. Time to shine. Get paycom and make the unnecessary unnecessary. [] did you know, how you feel can be affected by the bacteria in your gut? try new align yogurt coated probiotic fruit bites. With a delicious apple and blueberryflavored fruit center and yogurt coating, each bite is infused with added probiotics, to help promote a healthy digestive system every day. Plus, they're packaged in individuallywrapped pouches, for daily digestive support on the go. Look for new align yogurt coated probiotic fruit bites online and in the digestive care aisle of your local retailer. Brand power, helping you buy better. F0 so we know donald trump thinks he did great last night. What about some of those undecided swing state voters we are always hearing about. Legal strategist has been running support groups with those voters since last night' debate. Here's a look at what they had to told her. A lot of the things that trump was, you know criticizing exploiting joe biden for, now he's the old man that can't keep up. I think she was the clear winner. She was more presidential. He did a poor job of taking her bait. And allowing himself to get upset and caught up in different issues that we didn't need to spend a lot of time on. I was actually pleasantly surprised at harris. Because many of us we haven't heard much from her but she, you know she addressed most of the issues pretty well. And she gave donald trump like, what maybe other candidates couldn't. She was a little sarcastic or talking back with him which i appreciated. Executive director of republican accountability project and the host of the project group podcast and she joins me now. Sarah, you've been doing groups since the debate. What are people talking about. People think that kamala harris swept the floor with donald trump. I was interested in something that we heard in the group this morning, the swing voters from swing states. Four different people, unprompted sort of on their own brought up she seemed presidential. That encapsulated some of the hurdle she had. Some maybe be sexist. Others that they may not think a vice president is ready for the chair. Whatever it is. She cleared the bar last night. These are people that probably don't like donald trump but they're looking at an affirmative reason to get in on harris and she gave them that reason last night. There were some in the group that said i didn't know about the immigration bill that donald trump stopped. That was something that was interesting to them because for a lot of swing voters is some of the areas that immigration are the most vulnerable. They also liked that she was talking about small businesses. They are right leaning independents. Last night she appealed to them directly. Not only welcome her policies. He was pretty hawkish on russia and china. She talked about being a gun owner. She was focused on small businesses. But she also specifically said during her abortion answer, hey, if you want to be part of our coalition, regardless of your faith, there's room for you here. And she talked about liz and dick cheney. She talked about the former bush, former romney staffers that signed a letter endorsing her. She made it clear this could be a candidacy for you. As someone who works on persuading these voters to vote against donald trump and for kamala harris. I appreciated that she made that specific in treaty to them. You wrote this, earlier today in the atlantic about the foreign policy part. Which i think is interested and complicated because most voters will tell you it's not the top issue when you poll it reliably. People worry about harris's standing up to dictators. And they're saying harris held her own. Many times we ask will americans vote for a woman president. We hear a lot of people say, you know i will vote for women for the senate or the house but i worry about president because you have to deal with these dictators and leaders from other countries where they don't respect women. So they're worried they won't represent a woman president of the united states. Being a stand in for an autocrat. It was a signal of how she would deal with autocrats. And a voter brought that up, i am wondering how she will face trump because that will show if she can handle these other world leaders. That got people over that particular mental hurdle. I think it's worth engaging this. Frank lens who also does focus groups said if she wants to win harris need to train her face not to respond. It feeds into a female stereo type and risks offending undecided voters. A lot of people are like, buzz off. Politely to frank lunz. But you know, again, i don't know the mind of an undecided voter. Maybe they feel that way. I'm curious if that showed upd for you at all? i do think that there is this kind of underlying, i don't flow know if i would go so far as to call sexism but just concerned that women don't go far enough. And i think frank lunz is not crazy enough to bring up that there's sometimes if you're being overly dramatic with your face that that could work against you in a situation like this. Where you really do want to project a kind of serious presidential demeanor. That being said i did get into it with trump because her face, was oftentimes reflecting in her face what many of us who were sitting there listening to the rantings of a deranged lunatic. If we were standing 10 feet from them we would be making those faces and much much more. I thought that she handled it perfectly well. And certainly better in every way than donald trump's glowering, unpresidential performance. Thank you very much. Thanks. That is all in on this wednesday night. Alex wagner tonight starts right now. There's no