Kamala harris, and former president trump are about to come face to face for the very first time tonight. Good evening, i'm brett bear. And i'm martha mccallum. This is a moment we could not have predicted a few short weeks ago, and the stakes kong be higher for these candidates tonight. The abc presidential debate is moments away, we'll see it live from beginning to end here on fox. A showdown from vicepresident harris and president trump seemed unimaginable, just two months ago. President biden was at the top of the democratic ticket, his stunning debate performance, we saw it here, changed the trajectory of this race. And it has been a roller coaster ever since [ ♪♪ ] if we finally beat medicine car. I don't know what he said, i don't think he know what he said either. A campaign in the making, thrown into disarray. If the lord almighty said joe get out of the race, i'd get out of the race, but the lord almighty is not coming down. As the calls to step down, biden persisted. I'm determined on running. U sa! and a season of political surprises came unforeseen chaos [ ♪♪ ] tonight, with faith and devotion, i proudly accept your nomination for president of the united states. Thank you [ cheering and applause ] [ ♪♪ ] breaking news right now on twitter. President biden is saying he will step aside, as a candidate. It is my great honour to have joe biden's endorsement in this race [ cheering and applause ] [ ♪♪ ] i decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. ♪ ♪ i accept your nomination to run for president of the united states of america. Tonight, for the first time, these two candidates will battle it out, to win your vote [ ♪♪ ] the two nominees about to speak directly to voters and pitch themselves as the best person to try to run this country. We have a full house, with us tonight in new york, brett hume, dana, harold ford junior. Laura ingram and jesse watters, and jackie henrik kicks us off, she's there at the site in the spin room where there's a lot of excitement, highjacky. Good evening, martha and brett. The vicepresident has been studying president trump's past debate, his comments and policies, she wants tonight to feel predictable. Democrats see this as an opportunity to show that if she can handle trump, she can handle someone like vladamir putin and handle the job of being president. She had to scrap plans to direct questions at trump and put her prosecutor hat on and they lost the bid to keep the microphones on, instead they're going to have the travelling press positioned close enough that they can hear what's become said. It might not be picked up on the mike phones and hopefully have the press write about it. It's unclear how she will explain her shifts away from the more progressive views of the past, and try to convince projective voters, she's a safe bet for a moderate. Employing public endorsement and former trump officials as surrogates for her in the spin room, and she will try to frame herself both as an agent of change, and a new way forward, and distancing herself from this administration's biggest challenges, like inflation, and the border. Her campaign being pretty tightlipped about how she sees tonight as going. Except for saying she's ready, and that she is going to take trump on tonight, face first, guys. Let's bring in our panel. Let's bring in our panel, jackie, thank you, our instudio panel, brett, this is a big night, usually you say debates maybe don't move the needle that much in the big picture. This seems bigger. This isn't a night where people will change their minds about donald trump, very few people lack opinions of donald trump, they've probably had them for some time and are unlikely to change. It's more about her, she has to explain herself on a number of score, introduce herself to the people as someone with substantive knowledge of positions, and she's got work to do here tonight. And that doesn't mean she won't win the debate, but it means, she has a more daunting task than he faces. Laura, no doubt, when i watched a number of interviews today, with her surrogates, they talked about how unhinged trump is, and how he's done this so many times before, what a threat he is to the country, she's got to try to get him, to show that, at some point, whether or not she s succeeds. It's a hard balance, because she wants to turn the page, she is the most logical change agent as an scum, and that's kind of hard to do, but i think on the getting under his skin point, that's really her only card to play, i believe, because that's been their whole argument, that he's this, and that, and a tyrant and hitler, when you say that, and lay that predicate and if he comes out, and says, look, i've done this before, i'll do it again, turn the economy around and we'll have fun doing that, some of you don't like me much, but i'll have your interest first and if he can manage to keep that overall tone, i think it will be hard for her to turn the page to a new change era, when she's basically the incumbent. Harold. Biden was asked about conversations today that he may have had with the vicepresident. He answered reporters, take a listen. I spoke with the vicepresident, she is calm, cool and collected and she's going to do great. And i'm not concerned didn't say what his advice was, but it's so stunning, and you saw that timeline piece, 75 days ago, we were on this set, watching him come out for that first debate, and the entire race changed, now the onus is on her. Good to be with you, it seems a couple things to that point, a lot of people are going to watch tonight. A lot of people, that know kamala harris. We are invested in it as we should be, talk a lot about her in this political race and what she's done the last three and a half years, but most people know her as vicepresident and know a caricature of her. For her, the biggest test tonight is to convey leadership, calmness, and if i was her, i wouldn't litigate every back and forthwith the president, if he chooses to be that way. I think he'll be good tonight himself as well. If indeed he gets rattled by her, it would be in her best interests not to get rattled back. Two, we talked about it this morning, change is the issue, every presidential race is a race who can be the best change candidate, so your point laura, can she do that tonight, can she explain the shifts in positions? that's going to be her second big test and if she passes that, she will be off to a good start here, in these last 60 days, because this race has still got a long, long way to go. 8 weeks, maybe that's a long time, we've seen how quickly things happen in that opening piece, dana, but touched on something important for kamala harris and that's to explain how she got from medicare to all, and some of these more extreme takes she took, this aclu questionnaire, had wild stuff in it, to where she is now tonight. You wonder how the moderators will press her on that, because of the micssh the mics are muted when the other person is speaking, so the moderator is playing a role, saying why did you flipflop and why did you change your position on that. And i agree, you've had these election altering events, like, the candidate dropping out of the race, and it hasn't really altered the election, we're back to status quo auntie, and both of them need to figure out a way, to talk to, one the small sliver of the electorate that is undedecided but also to reassure their base. I think harris has the most to lose and possibly the most to gain. If you've seen ups and downs in election, it's all on the democratic side. Donald trump has his numbers pretty locked in, but the democrats say it's not guaranteed. Both need to have some sort of a phrase like ronald reagan had, like there she goes again, or there he goes again, something that means, you don't have to prosecute every thing the other person said and be the live fact checker, but lets the audience know this person is not telling the truth. Jesse, what are you looking for tonight. It will likely be a different practice jesse: we were on set, there was going to be a big debate, and you asked me to predict what would happen and before the debate, i said, this debate i don't think is going to change much [ laughter ]. Jesse: so i don't know if you want to hear what i have to say. Give it a shot. So unpredictable, because both these people can self destruct. We've seen trump blow himself up. You've seen kamala blow herself up, and wander around and search for things to say, and maybe land it, now she has a concise time limit to see if she can make the case. She's never been in that format before, and we don't know if the moderators are going to interfere. Are they have going to fact trump live. Will he engage with the moderators, but if he keeps her on the defensive, he wins, and if she keeps him on the defensive, she wins. That is what it will be, who is more reasonable, whether he can make her eat her record. Sex change surgeries for migrants, if you would have said that ten years ago, i would have said you were cuckcoo, it's here. Former donald trump is doing better than he did in 2016 or 2020 at this point, this debate is in pennsylvania, the swingiest of swing states. It doesn't get closer. I think it would be discouraging to the democrats that trump is standing in the public better than it was in 2020, and indeed, much of 2016, so he's and on that count, which matters, he looks pretty good. Otherwise, but the polling doesn't really show that. It just shows a tight race, which we've all expected for some time, and so, it will be interesting to see, how we go from here, i have a feeling he'll come out of this debate, in about the same position with the public that he holds going into it. So, as i've been saying here, i think it's everything does going revolve around how she does, and how, and of course, to some extent depends on how he approaches her. If the moderators do their job, he'll have to do less. If they don't, then there's a distinct possibility they won't, given the performance of these mainstream media outlets in recent years, he'll have to carry the fight to her, challenge her, and demand explanations and so on. I'm sure he and his team are hoping he doesn't have to do that, being the aggressive guy, and being there by thought of as a bully, is i'm sure something he would like to avoid. We heard all week, from kamala harris, that president trump goes low, and she expected him to do that, expects him to come at her, in some way shape or form on the issue of colour, on the issue of her gender, and what if he doesn't do that? and how does she make him look bad. Goes back to my original question, if he resists that, uncanny one of the big questions for him. She's got to play chess, if she does that, jesse said it well, who is first on defence, and is able to sustain that. You have to expect, this is a guy who had six presidential debates. He knows what is good and bad, and knows right and wrong in these debates, if she goes all wrong, you have to assume he won't be bellicose and pugnacious. She's got to be less prosecutorial, and explain i've come to some different positions because of experience in government, and this is why, some of the big issues of today. This strategy of not doing interviews or going engaging with the press, made that cnn interview a bigger moment, and it makes this a bigger moment, because we haven't engaged with kamala harris that much. I think you're right, and the univision radio interview didn't help either, because you could hear her literally turning the page, everybody has notes, but that takes on more importance when you're not out there. To brett's point, that trump has the momentum in this race right now, it's close, but i like how nate silver does analyze the breadth of the polls and the trend line, so pennsylvania has tied one of these swing states, i think by tuesday of next week, she has to be up five points in the national average to sit pretty for an electoral college win. She's not there. She needs a massive momentum shift tonight, to really give the media a reason to write the story tomorrow, that this race is back in kamala harris' favour. They've been angered they haven't been able to write this story, they want to get back on the narrative. And the nate silver projection, the markets take into account the historical undercounting in polls in 2016 and 2020 before election day, it's two, three points, maybe and that makes a difference. She came out of that relief rally, after she was chosen with enormous enthusiasm, that brought her into sick go, jesse, and then it has diminished, as a lot of people thought it would. The sugar high went away, and these two are neck and neck again, so she has to do something bold tonight to try to take away some of those voters, we've seen what happened with latino voters and black voters, and young voters, that have eroded for democrats. Like she went to bed for three weeks, and everybody defined her. The media did here, and trump was able to do it, and she let everybody do it to her. So tonight she has to come out and say who is kamala harris? because half the country has no idea, and to get the momentum back, she has to attack, so i'm going to think there's going to be a lot of vicious hay makers, constantly throughout the night, because that's what biden didn't do last time and that's why the democrat base is so upset. Because he couldn't, but to your point, about this needing to be about who she is. Think of that, right now, and for as long as this campaign has been going on, since she's been now, the nominee, it's been about who she is not. She's not she's first of all not biden, that's the main thing, and the second thing, is, of course, she's not trump, and that automatically means she inherits the antitrump vote which is considerable, and cost him the election in 2020, and tough on the republicans in the midterms interand since then as well, that's what she inherits, she's got to add to that. That's the challenge for her. 23 minutes from now, we will see, where this goes, as we wait for the start of that debate. This is a high level chat between the two top politicians in america for the presidency of the united states, so anticipation clearly building. The countdown to the debate is on, sean joins us live from the spin room, coming up next. ♪ ♪ have you always had trouble losing weight and keeping it off? same. Discover the power of wegovy®. ♪ ♪ with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. And some lost over 46 pounds. ♪ ♪ and i'm keeping the weight off. Wegovy® helps you lose weight and keep it off. I'm reducing my risk. Wegovy® is the only fdaapproved weightmanagement medicine that's proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with known heart disease and with either obesity or overweight. Wegovy® shouldn't be used with semaglutide or glp1 medicines. Don't take wegovy® if you or your family had medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. Stop wegovy® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. Serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis and gallbladder problems. 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I don't understand the point that you're making. Announcer: here's her grim scorecard: murders, rapes, attacks on children. A 12yearold girl in texas. A mother of five in maryland. A nursing student in georgia. All savagely murdered by those biden and harris let into our country unlawfully. Harris: we have a secure border. Announcer: kamala harris was and is a complete failure at her job. Now she's asking us for a promotion. Who in their right mind would give it to her? restoration pac is responsible for the content of this advertising. Rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. But i'm protected with arexvy. Arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. Rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd and certain other conditions. But i'm protected. Arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. (♪) arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. Those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. The most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. Arexvy is number one in rsv vaccine shots. Rsv? make it arexvy. Welcome back. Live from the spin room and sean is standing by, the action will be right after and sean will be raching it all. Give us a sense of what the mood is there, and whether or not you think these two candidates ready to go. I think they're ready to go, everyone had a lot of great points to make, and i can't i don't have a lot of value add. I think donald trump's challenge is simple, and i think brett made a great observation, america knows donald trump, he and jamie vance have done 40 plus interviews and press conferences, i think his challenge is if kamala harris tries to make him angry, not to get angry, and number 2, to prosecute the case against the radicalism that she has not been challenged on for 50 days, and that therein lie the the biggest challenge, is she still for gun confiscation, the green new deal she cosponsored in the us senate with bernie sanders, 93 trillion, i would argue that would be the end of capitalism. She doesn't answer that question. Does she want government run health care for all, medicare, the elimination of private insurance. We learned today, jesse made this point, we're going to pay for sex change surgery, not only for criminals, which we knew about, but now for illegal immigrants, i think america, when they hear these positions, you can't say, illegal immigrant, you can't say the word radical islamic terrorism. Fy a lot of that comes out, i think it will be devastate for her and her demeanour won't matter, if donald trump stays measured, is not impacted by any negativity she throws at him and how he refers to her and stays calm, i think it could be a big night for him. Sean, a lot of times moderators do make a difference, some of the best fall back into the wall paper you and martha make the best moderators. Thank you. The former president was complementary of jake and dana of cnn and david and lindsay, who we haven't seen if a moderating situation, he's been skeptical, obviously of abc. What do you think heading into this, the role of moderators and what this looks like tonight? i think there's a lot of stake for abc/disney in this debate. We saw the media research centre, came out with a study since kamala became the nominee, 100 stories on abc world news tonight, hosted by david muir, 100% positive coverage for kamala, 93% negative coverage for donald trump. That will be on display. They have their own issues, that they will deal with, because look, we're a pretty divided country, half of the country would be very unhappy if they spend their time going after donald trump and more importantly, if they don't do the job of asking the questions that kamala harris and her team have been ducking and dodging and avoiding the entire time. I think there's been a great disservice to her, by her campaign, by not allowing her to do more interviews, 16 minutes and 29 seconds, that was not particularly impressive to me, with her safety blanket with her, tim walls. Her saying my values are the same doesn't answer if she supports the green new deal, banning fracking, and free health care education, and everything else, now sex change operations for illegals and convicted felons. These are real issues that america needs to get answers to. If abc wants any credibility at the end of this night, they have to go there and they have to ask those questions, if not, maybe that's abc's way of saying they don't want conservatives to go to disney theme parks. That's their prerogative. Brett has a question. Do you think donald trump can make the case, on her as well as you just did? i think he can do a better job, you're asking me a question. I wouldn't have the pressure of being that spotlight, but you did make the point earlier, and i agreed with you, that donald trump is a known quantity. Do i think that she will be able to rattle him in any way, i would argue right now the chance is 0. 001%. Do i think he will be respectful, i do. Do i think he'll passionately prosecute the case against her? i believe he's fully familiar with it, and especially in light of some new developments today, look, we now discover, think about she's for decriminalizing for personal use, hard drugs, crack, fentanyl, heroin, cocaine. I didn't know this before last night. I think that has to come up in a debate like this, but i think the president is prepared and well versed on her record and i believe his demeanour, he's said he can be presidential when he wantses to be and i would expect that tonight. You think that will be the stand he takes, not to brawl her, but the person of presidential demeanour? i think so, look, he's i think there's rally donald trump, town hall donald trump and presidential debate donald trump, and i think that that person for example, i thought joe biden despite obvious cognitive issues in the last debate, there was a point during that debate when he went very very hard at donald trump and donald trump parried it away and just ignored it, and i think that works to his advantage with the microphone being off. The only debate, i would have any criticism that he feels ever a part of, when he had the first debate with joe biden, and i thought he spoke too much, and i think that format is better for him overall and i think if it's water off a duck's back, that's half the battle for him tonight. I am kamala's challenge will be answering those hard questions, those very radical positions she's staked out. That she's not had to answer to heretofore which is a big media epic fail in my view. We'll see if abc allows that tonight. May i get a word in, sean. Sorry, i'm teasing you. Here is the problem, she's been so vibeed out over the last several weeks, really cool and done her recipe thing, which is kind of fun, and the spotify play list, and eats pretzels, so that's all cool, but now is where the rubber meets the road. I think to jesse's point, she has got to go on the attack, and show a different side of herself, if she doesn't d do, tt i think voters are going to continue to drift towards president trump precisely because as brett and i talked about earlier, these cross tabs on the poll that just came out, 63% of voters believe the economy is on the wrong track and 49% say their financial situation is it getting worse, 42% named inflation the biggest threat facing the country, and those numbers are not going to change, because kamala harris comes across as a nice person. They're only going to change if there's a reason for people to say, okay, she has the answer to turn it around. I don't see that happening, but you know, anything is possible in politics. We've been doing this a long time and we've watched a lot of presidential races. Laura, can you name a presidential candidate ever in history, where they had said so many things that i would argue that would make them unelectable as president, and the john mclachlin poll was a bit frightening, because many americans are not aware of the things we've said about her positions on immigration, sex change operations, paid for by taxpayers, for criminals and illegal immigrants, free housing, health care, education, no fracking, no drilling, how do you walk away interest that. Americans are getting poorer, under kamala. How do you walk that back. I don't disagree with a lot of things that have been said. Both these candidates changed their pipings on things, and at the end of the day, wee deciding about choosing a president, and any of her challenges, most people don't know her, but harris faulkner said something about what happens at the beginning of the debate. How do they approach each other out of the gate, so many americans are going to be watching, and i'm going to be watching closely how and how definitively on substance does she separate herself from joe biden, security, fracking, the border, and even as we think about economic issues, she will have to defend that, and to your point, laura, it will have to be credible. And we have about 11 minutes to see what is going to happen. Sean final word before we bounce before the debate? ill respond gently to my friend harold, and say she's not just separating herself from joe biden, she has to separate herself from herself here. She's the one who said no fracking, no drilling, and she in august of 23 said we call that bidenomics and we're proud of it, but most persons when they go to a a store, the price they pay is through the roof. Debating herself a maybe a bigger challenge than separating herself from joe biden in my view. Sean, we'll be checking in right after to see what you think. Thanks from the spin room. Minutes away from the big beginning of this debate tonight. The presidential debate is about to kick off in pennsylvania. Pennsylvania may be the most important state when it comes to this election, the key to victory for both candidates as we cap off our pregame coverage, next. ♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. Like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. Voya helps you choose the right amounts without over or under investing. So you can feel confident in your financial choices voya, well planned, well invested, well protected. (♪♪) behind every splenda product is a mission. Helping millions of people reduce sugar from their diets. Now try a sweetener grown by u. S. Farmers. Introducing zerocalorie splenda stevia. At splenda stevia farms, our plants are sweetened by sunshine. Experience how great splenda stevia can be. Grown on our farm, enjoyed at your table. (♪♪) we are moments away from tonight's presidential debate, more from the spin room. Hi brett, the spin room is getting busy, you can see behind me over my shoulder, that's a big old gaggle, surrounding governor gavin newsom, we saw the same thing happen with rfk junior, i tried to ask rfk junior a few times, whether he was worried about michigan, he has to stay on the ballot, whether that was going to hurt the former president, he did not want to answer that question. Let's talk about the former president, how he's feeling as he walks on to the debate stage tonight, i'm told that he's cool, calm collected and the strategy tonight, brett, is it to try to force kamala harris to own up to all of these failed policies, in their minds for the past four years, going to try to make that happen tonight on the stage. Brett. I should thank you. Let's bring in kelly anne conway, and jessica turlock, kelly anne, if you could say one thing to former president trump, what would it be? you're fighting for the american people, not fighting with kamala harris. Treat her like a worthy opponent, the way you did hillary clinton, hillary didn't really treat him like one, huffing and puffing, rolling her eyes, calling his supporters irredeemable and deplorable, don't worry about how harris got there, worry about stopping her from where she wants to go, the oval office. Jessica, same question to you, you have one thing to say to vicepresident harris before the debate, she's watching, i know she is, what would you tell her? i would tell her to be just like she was in chicago. The independent voter, the swing voter, the undecided voter, who isn't interested in media issue, they want to hear about foreign policy, a cogent economic plan, they don't want the name calling the tit for tat, or even how much you were a prosecutor or he was a convicted felon. Do whatever you can to attract that pennsylvania voter, and be polite and hopefully trump will be the same, and it will all be however in 90 minutes. Kelly anne, what about the ststate of the race, you ran the race at one point, in 2016, and it's in pennsylvania, this is the swingiest swing state, this rails is really tight, and he's doing better than he did in 2016, or 2020. He is, on this day, in 2020, he was negative 7 against joe biden nationally, and against hillary, about 2. 8%. Pennsylvania has always been tight. The reason we made it a read state in 2016 and kept going back there with trump and other surrogates is because the messages that were winning in ohio and iowa, two states that president obama carried twice, with winning in those states overwhelmingly and took the same messages to a lot of the workers in pennsylvania and honed in on specific industries, manufacturing, coal, mining, construction, and so fracking, of course, and he was able to speak to them. We had a strategy, can't eliminate the deficits for the republican candidate in those counties around philadelphia, but you can mitigate them, and you can run up the score in western pennsylvania in some other pockets. My advice to kamala harris is show up. I think trump and vance have tightened up their swing state schedule, and they're going to basically live in pennsylvania, and she's got to follow suit, or they're going to run away with this. All right, thank you both. Go around the horn here. I want to bring dana in. One of the structures here, is that they're not allowed to ask each other questions. It's going to be tricky to get there. Brian tweeted saying it is possible for them to open up the mics if it gets heated. She's been paying the price for being so far left four years ago. But she has a cash advantage right now and it could work. Jesse: decriminalizing heroin, and giving voting rights to serial rapists, in any normal race, this woman shouldn't be the nominee, but she is, and donald trump is going to have to put her on defence, but speak poetically about the restoration of the american dream, make sure you can buy a house, make sure you can have a family and have safety and security. Those things are slipping away fast under her, and he needs to put that within reach again. Harrell, where she's had slippage is with independent voters, black voter, latino voters, what does she do to get back in her corner tonight. Talk about the future, give a sense of how she will govern, and the difference in the last 3 and a half years, acknowledge a mistake or two, talk about how you can get better, and contrast it with the guy standing next to you. Laura. People are looking at less money when you look at real median household income today, than they did december 19 of the pandemic, the story of the election is the economy, people's pocketbooks are not as full, their optimism is not where they want it to be, hope for the future, to harold's point, they want to change, and i think they want a change. 15 seconds. There's a test for abc news as well. It's not the place i worked 2 years, subject to a lot of credit, some of it justified and perhaps the institution will take a crack at answering some of the doubts about we will find out right now