Their family members, lieutenant general mark hertling. Thanks very much. And thank you for joining me. Im Jim Acosta Inside Politics with Dana The Bash starts right now today on Inside Politics, game time, just hours from now, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will face off in a debate that could find the final weeks of this deadlocked president ial race and we have new reporting on both candidates, tactics on this crucial night. Plus change the way you speak about women. Nikki haley is offering some blunt advice for the republican ticket that needs to narrow the gender gap, but will Donald Trump fallen too familiar habits on that tonight . And the most important audience of all cnn is asking undecided voters in Mustwin Pennsylvania what they want to hear . On the Debate Stage. One persons tip, tell us what youre going to do, not what the other person has done wrong. Im dana bash. Lets go behind the headlines and Inside Politics after months of talking about one another. Kamala harris and Donald Trump, or about two actually talk to one another. And its all happening tonight on this Debate Stage at 9 00 p. M. Eastern inside the national Constitution Center in philadelphia. Tonight. Is each Candidates Chance to directly appeal to millions of voters before ballots go out. They likely wont have an audience. This big. Again, cnns new poll of polls show why both nominees have so much riding on tonight. Its essentially a tied race nationally and what probably matters the most, which is these big Battleground States. It is an especially high risk, high Reward Moment for a Kamala Harris says, shes only been at the top of the ticket now for 51 days and many americans are still learning about her cnn is on the ground in philadelphia covering this massive day in politics from all angles, Priscilla Alvarez is following the Harris Campaign and kristen holmes is talking to the Trump Campaign and both have some new reporting for us. Priscilla want to start with you. What are you hearing from your sources . Well, dana sources are telling me that the Vice President is expected to lean in On Reproductive Rights and needle former President Donald Trump over his muddled messaging on abortion. Of course, the Vice President has emerged as a key voice on this issue starting at the beginning of this its year and democrats see it as a Galvanizing Issue for voters. But this is also an attempt by her and her team to capitalize on an edge that weve been seeing in the polls, Cnn Polling recently showing that she has built on from president Joe Bidens lead on this very issue with an average of 27 percentage points for following her women over former President Donald Trump. And so the Vice President here is again trying to capitalize on this issue. Against the former president tonight. Now cnn is also learning that the Vice President is looking for advice elsewhere, and that includes from Hillary Clinton, who also debated former President Donald Trump. And so this is all been part of what sources have described to me as a robust Debate Prep over the last few days that is going to culminate in this first facetoface encounter tonight, dana priscilla, thank you so much for that great reporting. We have some more coming from The Other Side of the aisle. Donald trump is notoriously reactive. Youve got new reporting on what his aides are trying to do to prep him with how to respond to what we expect will be digs from Kamala Harris. What are you hearing . Yeah, thats right. Dana, they expect some goading remarks from harris, as you said, Donald Trump is notoriously reactive and part of the belief among Donald Trumps team is that the reason that harris, his team wanted those mics on muted was so she could get under his again, so she could go at him into having one of these explosive moments that we know Donald Trump has had before now a number of aides and advisers have warned him against him saying that this would be a huge problem for him, and also telling him that if hes going to react to use facial expressions, not to actually go out there and Say Anything that he can make the same point using his facial expressions, but that anything he says could be it was against him later in a commercial or played on repeat over and over again. Now it was really interesting in a campaign call yesterday, Tulsi Gabbard was asked if the tone was going to shift Donald Trumps tone when he was facing off with Kamala Harris versus his debate with president Joe Biden. And she essentially said no, but that is exactly what his team is worried about, not just this team, but his allies that hes going to come out and be extremely aggressive. They understand that his aggressive nature, that this kind of biting remarks that he makes is going to play differently with a woman. So they have stressed to him over and over again do not respond. If youre going to respond at all, make sure your response is on your face, not an actual verbal response, but obviously dana, there is only one person who knows which Donald Trump is going to show up on that stage . Age tonight. And that is Donald Trump himself. We will see if he can heed this advice. Yeah. And i think Donald Trump isnt necessarily always sure which Donald Trump is going to show up until thank you so much, kristen. Appreciate that terrific reporting. Im now joined by other incredible reporters here at the table. Axios, hans nichols, cnns mj lee, and Aaron Blake of the washington post, happy to make dei very exciting, glad to be mj, im going to start with you, you cover the Harris But Campaign for us. What more are you hearing from your sources . Well, look, i think the Harris Campaign is very much aware that for a lot of people tuning in tonight, it is going to be a first impression that the Vice President gets to make to an audience. The size of which they may not get again, before election day. I do think it is sort of the second and third impression that she might itd be making to some people that they might be even more focused on. These are the people who may have tuned in for the democratic national convention. Maybe liked parts of what they saw, but are still undecided. The other thing i think in this so goes without saying its very obvious, but i do think we should say it. They want to make sure that she can avoid a perry oops, moment. And frankly, a Joe Biden Debate Day, right . The fact that this debate at that cnn hosted weeks ago ended up completely changing the trajectory was obviously because president biden unexpectedly had a completely disastrous debate against Donald Trump. That is something that they fact they should be able to avoid by sticking to the Talking Points and landed some punches when the moments present themselves. And i want to look at some extraordinary numbers we have been talking about how much its almost impossible to digest, how much money is already in this race and how much the campaigns are racing, racing. And one of the main avenues of spending this money for both camps. Their campaigns, and even beyond by their allies is defining Kamala Harris just look at these numbers just in the last 30 days, 194 Million of ads focused on harris. And by the way, thats negative, but its also positive. Theres some bio adds that her campaign is doing 69 Million focused on trump. Yet the amount of money thats coursing through the system. Its almost at Overload Food and this is to sort of mjs point. Its hard for me to imagine their voters in america that still dont have a sense of who these people are, right . And yet they keep Coming Up in Focus Groups. They keep Coming Up in polls. But both campaigns have really tried to use this last say, 56 weeks to define harris youre seeing that a little bit in the polls. But this is her chance on a stage with Donald Trump to i dont want to say introduce or reintroduce, but really make her case and its really the contrast that they want to focus on. This isnt just about harris talking about her agenda. Its her agenda compared to trumps, and its in the future tense i just imagine so many times were going to hear tonight from Kamala Harris talking about what shes going to do, not necessarily what shes done for the last three. Well, you asked you Cant Figure out who out there who doesnt know about Donald Trump. Im with you, but 9 of people in the New York Times Sienna Poll said these, and these are likely voters, said that they dont know its, there you go. 9 say that they need to learn more about Donald Trump, but its that 28 . So just under a third of likely voters one to know more about Kamala Harris, which again, is totally understandable. Her campaign knows that and they appreciate that, which is a very big part of her strategy going into tonight yeah. And i think its worth remembering. This is a moment that there are a lot of people who dont pay attention to these things until the very end. This may be the only thing that they consume until the final week of the campaign. I do think that harris has more at stake in this debate just because of that introduction factor, people might know a little bit about her, but dont know a whole lot. They may have seen her speeches, but havent seen, for instance, your interview with her . I do think also though that Donald Trump has a lot at stake in this debate as well because Kamala Harris is a popular politician right now, its kind of rare that we see popular politicians right now. Shes got a favorable rating that is generally a little bit higher than her unfavorable rating. And so he needs to bring her back down. Its not just the policy stuff. Its also the personal stuff. And so i think that creates a dilemma for trump, where he wants to bring her down personally and kind of Take A Bite out of those vibes that shes gotten over the last several weeks. But sometimes when he feels the need to do that, he can bring things into these other areas that his campaign gets very nervous well, speaking of that, lets talk about the Woman Factor here. The fact that he is debating a woman. He did so in 2016 dean first i want to play a little bit of sort of a taste of what happened in 2016 she doesnt have the look. She doesnt have the stamina i said she doesnt have the stamina. And i dont believe she does have the stamina. Believe me she has tremendous hate in her heart, such a massey was fond it can haley was on Fox Yesterday i believe it was and she of course, is somebody who did endorse Donald Trump hasnt been out campaigning for her for him, rather but some of her support in the primaries did come from women who did not want to, republican women who did not want to support Donald Trump, listen to what she said about how Donald Trump should comport himself tonight Donald Trump and j. D Vance Need to change the way they speak about women. You dont need to call kamala dm. She didnt get this far you know just by accident when you call even a democrat woman, dumb republican women get their backs up to the Bottom Line is, we went on policies, stick to the policies, leave all the other stuff thats how he can win and mj, i know you have some new reporting on this element of the Kamala Harris Debate Prep . Yeah. We just reported that one person, Kamala Harris spoke with over the weekend is this Hillary Clinton, who of course is very familiar with what it is like to go up against Donald Trump on the Debate Stage, its incredible watching that footage from eight years ago of the former president calling Hillary Clinton nasty, thats the word that he has used this time around to describe Kamala Harris, the campaign is preparing for all kinds of its all its derogatory comments, namecalling because theyre going up against Donald Trump as kristen was saying earlier, hes the only person that knows exactly which version is going to show up. I do know that clinton and harris over the weekend and their conversation did talk about Debate Prep. I dont know exactly what was said, but one thing that i was told is that when Hillary Clinton sort of looks back on those debates from eight years ago, she does think that the Vice President has a real opportunity tonight. When she is going up against Donald Trump to allow him to selfdestruct according to one person i spoke with and thats basically this idea that less could be more when youre confronting Donald Trump, that if he hes going off on a tangent or he seems to be unraveling, sort of letting him go down that road. And in some ways, she almost doesnt have much of a choice because of this muted mics rule, that the campaign has made such a fuss about and as we prepare for this, each campaign is trying to get into the head of the other candidate. We mentioned how much money Kamala Harris in particular has. So shes got a little money to play with quite literally. Lets look at an ad that they are targeting to the airwaves in florida theres 70 78yearold billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems she had a big Crowd Audit crowd, this weird obsession with Crowd Size and before you answer that, i want to bring in The Other Side of this and knew Trump Campaign memo saying, by shielding her, meaning, harris, of course, from the press, and insulting her, insulating. Forgive me, insulating her from genuine interactions with the Boat Voters they have set a high bar for kamala to clear. Now that her honeymoon is over, the debate will be the first time kamala will answer tough questions. I will take issue with that personally ahead. Well, i think mj made this great point which is less is more and i dont want to, i dont think we make hamilton references anymore, but for those of us is still watched weather kids, you know, though i talked less smile, more, and that could be advice for both Candidates Tonight as to getting inside of Donald Trumps head you know, Donald Trumps live rent free in a lot of peoples heads. These last his last 89 years. I dont know how successful it is going to be to rile up but Donald Trump, but im not going to make any predictions about what donald j. Trump is going to do. Whether hes going to say in his zones or not. I think we just have to watch it and see what happens very wise. The other thing that i think is really important here is i was looking back at the 2019 debate, you know, Kamala Harris hasnt debated since 2019 when she was a democratic president ial can of course Trump Hasnt debated except for or against biden. This onetime this cycle. Those early debates back then she was the runaway winner in cnn polls and other polls that were conducted. She has shown that she has an ability to succeed in this forum, even though her campaign ultimately didnt amount to much. And then of course, she debated Mike Pence, which was a biggie. All right. Dont go anywhere. Coming up, j. D. Vance is pushing a bizarre and racist conspiracy claiming haitian migrants are kidnapping and eating your pets. He also said how he would approach, presiding over the election certificate occasion, and it is not what Mike Pence did. And later, Sarah Longwell, well be here to weigh in on Tonights Debate. What do Kamala Harris and her team need to do to win over trump . Skeptical republicans these are the voters she is talking to and vote in Focus Groups Kamala Harris, Donald Trump the debate. Everyones been waiting for Follow Cnn for complete coverage and exclusive pre and postdebate analysis. A cnn special event, the abc News President ial debate. Tonight at nine eastern on Cnn And Streaming on max. Why did we choose safe play . A hallways working on a project while loading up our suv one extra push. And for bragg so we schedule that safe flight. Com we were able to track our technician and no exactly when he arrived we could keep working safe. Flight came to us. I am kendrick with the replacement. We could trust that service the way we want it. We will free mobile service now at safe flight. Com we pay your cbp might be traced Morgan Stanley is partnering, but the Womens Tennis Association to remove boundary because this game is for everyone byebye, Call Nato Chest congestion. Hello, 12 hours of relief wow, bowers. Not copy. Past shaq still not coughing up. Next he gives you 12 hours of relief from Chest Congestion in any type of Cough Day or night mucinex dm, its combat the best way to solve a problem is to keep it from happening and ever north, we combine medical and pharmacy data with behavioral health data to identify members in need of Care Predicting and treating behavioral health issues quickly while lowering costs for planned sponsors and members thats wonder, made possible. Ever north Health Services and a waiver he table high got this that way. After the last Book Club every book that should have yes, my shopping. What did everyone think of the chapter, the right Area Rug for every budget, ill say it. This section on washable rugs was thrilling Richard Part about the floral rugs really spoke to me. I want to know whos Gonna Play The Rug in the movie. Why is nobody discussing the plot twist, wayfair ships fast and free . Please. Every style, every Home Hunger does here and i needed it because my fridge is super empty, 3 00 p. M. To 7 00 p. M. It is crunch time for our family. Honestly, i barely have time to wash my hair, let alone meal prep, rule allows me to get everything that i need so easy to just whip together a quick, healthy meal, Hungry Route has been a huge Game Changer Hungry Route. Com for healthy groceries and simple recipes. Plus get free veggies for life. I have 20 years of experience as an hr professional and i hit reached a ceiling so holding young gc, i would not be the person that i am t