That is tonights last word. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Stephanie Ruhle starts now. Tonight, the race for the white house its up as the harriswalz team lunches of bus tour across georgia hoping to turn momentum into votes then jack smith goes on offense with the new indictment against donald trump and veterans of the bush, mccain and romney team reject trump and back Kamala Harris for president as the 11th hour gets underway on this tuesday night. That evening, everyone. We are now 70 days away from the election, just hours from now the harriswalls team will hit the road for the First Time Since accepting the democratic nomination last week. The campaigns twoday bus tour of Southern Georgia is set to begin tomorrow. They will continue their focus on the Battleground States By Labor Day next week. Vice president harris will head to pennsylvania to appear with President Biden on monday. Meanwhile, republican candidate donald trump has once again been indicted for his efforts to obstruct the 2020 election. Special counsel jack smith filed revised charges late today coming two months after the Supreme Courts ruling on president ial immunity and remove some of the charges in an effort to save the case. Much more on that in a moment ahead. Dont go anywhere. Also tonight we are exactly 2 minutes away from the first president ial debate. Donald trump has suggested he might back out of the September 10th Event but today he posted on his Social Media Site that he would debate harris as long as the rules are the same as his matchup with joe biden. Remember, cnn muted microphones when the other candidate was speaking. A Harris Campaign spokesman said quote, both candidates have made clear their willingness to debate with in muted mics for the duration of the debate fully allow for substantive exchanges. With that we will Pulitzer Prize winning White House Bureau chief for the washington post, he wrote the book romney, a reckoning. Aaron, i want to start with you because you know atlanta and georgia as well as anybody actually down there covering the state. The Atlanta Journal constitution notes this is a big deal because it is outside the atl, the bus tour. That is definitely not atlanta. Its quite a ways from atlanta and the world away in terms of being a very different georgia. This is going to bring a focus on rural america. Its going to bring a focus on workingclass folks, you know, really the kind of people she is trying to highlight and that the Campaign Says theyre focused on the middle class trying to get to the middle class. She has a Housing Add Up today that really taps into one of the most important issues for voters in this election, which is the issue of affordability. People in South Georgia are struggling to make ends meet whether youre talking about gas prices, whether you are talking about housing, whether you are talking about groceries, so to hear directly from the Vice President in governor walz about what theyre going to do something that could be very meaningful not just for people in South Georgia but people in communities across the country that look like those communities in South Georgia. It really says this is where they are choosing to go coming out of that convention. To Focus On Americans who are struggling even as this campaign, so much of it, has been about momentum and joy. Rural georgia is, in fact, in play. Youve got to close those margins across the state if they want to be competitive. Mckay, i want to play what harris is rentable Deputy Campaign manager said about this. We have to be statewide in that state. Even compete in counties democrats dont traditionally go. That is how you win statewide in georgia. This is her second trip to georgia since taking the spot at the top of the ticket on the bus tour again is going to rural areas. Mccain is a little bit about closing gaps and going all over the state. He was the Campaign Manager to senator warnock. Are these kind of plays that might make the trump team nervous . I would have to think so. It was not that long ago at the Republican National convention in milwaukee when Chris Acevedo was Briefing Reporters and talking about how the Trump Campaign was expanding the math and how they were going to possibly contest states like new mexico and virginia, how they were so ahead of biden in Battleground States that they were going to be able to venture ahead of these states trending blue in the battleground cycles. I dont think we are hearing a lot of that rhetoric from the Trump Campaign anymore. The fact that the Harris Campaign is doing this pretty ambitious blitz in georgia suggests that they see a real opportunity there and from the Trump Campaign perspective, if they have to be defending a state like georgia, talk of expanding the map and contesting states like new mexico is probably off the table at this point and it probably shows how much the race has shifted just in the last two weeks. Mckay, one followup. In selecting senator jd vance, that the Trump Campaign also think jd vance was an expansion of the map running mate . To me it suggests that they were doubling down on the base but they heard all the briefings and were very forceful about the fact that not only mexico, but minnesota was in play. Yeah, i think when they talked about jd vance they would say we are just going to drop them in states like pennsylvania, let him move in there and win the state for us. I dont think they necessarily saw vance as somebody who is going to compete in new blue states although minnesota wouldve been one where he couldve contested but i do think they saw him as somebody who could solidify the gains republicans were making in the socalled blue wall states, those midwestern states will trump expanded into other states. I also have the theory that jd vance is a pick born out of supreme overconfidence by the Trump Campaign. You recall at this point biden was still at the top of the ticket. They were writing that disastrous performance biden had had in the debate and i think trump thought he could pick whoever he wanted because he thought he was on track to win. The race looks very different now than it did when he picked jd vance as running mate. Speaking of what a difference a month makes, the harriswalz campaign has scheduled a sitdown interview on thursday thats going to happen in savanna during this bus tour although it is my understanding the savanna stop was a solo stop for the Vice President only. The Vice President s opponents have been calling for an interview. They say that planes i gavels were not enough. Members of the Media Apparatus of been asking for it. Voters have not been defending an interview so what do you think it says that this is gotten scheduled at this time . What is the white house chatter from the press corps . People have been talking about an interview for the last several weeks in part because every White House Reporter wants to get an interview with Kamala Harris. She is the hottest ticket right now in politics because she is new and also because people want to know about various positions she is taken and partly because the Trump Campaign has not been able to land a punch on her and the strategy theyve been using over the last several weeks, say she has to stay on script. She is not good unscripted. Those are the arguments theyre making and now shes met the challenge of saying i will do an interview. Whether or not she delivers on that and how she performs during the interview will be important to understanding whether she can beat back the latest charge from the trump folks because they first charged her with whether or not she is black, whether or not shes asian, whether or not as a woman she can stand before leaders on the world stage. Shes been able to push back against a lot of those arguments and they tried to label her as a liberal. She said im the president for everyone. Now theyre saying she cant do an interview. She is scheduled this interview and whether or not shes able to rise to the moment will determine whether or not the trump folks go to another tactic and try to lend a punch on her in a different way. I was talking to some strategists and reporters today about this. You are a bureau chief. You have to give the marching orders, if you will, to the reporters. Is there a double standard here in some respects because donald trump has talked a lot to the press but he doesnt Tell The Truth oftentimes. Sometimes he doesnt answer questions at all, he will run over the reporters verbally, if you will, but does that make it okay . If hes answering questions but not telling the truth is there a double standard here . Trump is one of the hardest people to interview because he does not have any allegiance to the truth. Sometimes he strays very far from the truth and trying to fact check him in real time is very difficult so he has made a strategy of using the media to put forth his bluster and bowl over reporters and not stop to focus on the facts and so hes been willing to talk to the press in part because he knows he cant be fact checked in real time while Kamala Harris knows that if she does talk to the press some of the things she says are going to be picked apart. Some people would say thats a double standard. As a reporter we want access in every different circumstance because we want Ask Questions that our readers and viewers are asking. They want to know what the candidate thinks but its a very difficult situation when you have one candidate who is not caring about the truth and you have another candidate is going to be picked apart whether or not she sticks to the truth. Theyre operating in very different lines. As reporters we want them to be everywhere talking to the press, talking to reporters to find out what they believe but its a very different circumstance looking at trump or harris. They have two different approaches. Two different approaches to the truth. Im going to start using that phrase, aaron. Lets talk about Georgia Democrats because we did a story on this last night. Theyre fighting Election Rule changes right now. I want to play with their party chair said just today. We saw republicans changing the law. We played by the rules so they change them. Theyve been trying to set this case so they cannot certify a very valid election this going to be in november. Do you think voters are playing close attention to ms. Like this in the states . Absolutely. Georgia voters are very familiar with attempts to make it more difficult to vote in georgia. This is something thats been going on that predated the 2020 election for sure although i think it came to National Awareness after the 2020 election. We are unfortunately in an era of election that comes down to the strategy of Voter Suppression or voter turnout. Georges election was fair in 2020. Georgia continues to make steps to make it more challenging for certain voters to participate equally in the process so that is something certain georgia voters have to be very vigilant about because the very bottom line is for people to have confidence in the system they have to believe their votes are going to count before and after the cast a ballot and that is not necessarily something all voters in the state have gotten. I want to switch topics. This budget model just today predicts that economic proposals would add between 1. 212 trillion to the deficit whereas we take a look at Donald Trumps they would add between four and 6 trillion to the deficit. Do you think harris could use a traditional republican Talking Point of deficits against trump . Are we just too far past that . Ill put this on the screen to be clear. During his first term, donald trump [ inaudible ] double what biden had. Is the deficit conversation one that is going to speak to the voters . I think there is very little evidence voters in either party especially care about the financial deficit. Maybe they should. [ inaudible ] he cares about the deficit. He cares about the National Debt and said he went around to senators in both parties trying to drum up support for some kind of deficit plan and what he heard time and again, including from republicans was look, nobody cares about this. Its not a popular issue. Its a political loser. Were not going to tackle it. Youre not going to get anywhere on this and that was frustrating to him but i think it has proven true. You know, mitt romney, 2012, he ran on the deficit. It was not a winning issue for him. Since then, one of Donald Trumps frankly political innovations was to realize that he could break with republican orthodoxy on these issues at least in rhetoric. The reality is always more complicated. Republican president s have often expanded the deficit but he didnt even try to pretend like he was going to tackle deficit and i think he realizes the voters are going to let them get away with it. I do think though, to a point about republicans, you know, there is a reason a lot of these republicans from the bush campaign, the romney campaign, the Mccain Campaign came out and endorsed Kamala Harris. They dont see donald trump as somebody who is a fiscally disciplined fiscal conservative like those republicans of the past and so you know, that is one of many reasons they dont feel any special loyalty to donald trump as a republican standardbearer. Aaron made the point at the top of the segment that housing is one of the top issues for folks and talk about the economy so maybe we will hear more from donald trump on housing as the Harris Campaign leans in. The last question i want to get into is the border conversation. Donald trump is spending a lot of money and i think his allies are spending a lot of time attempting to attack the Vice President on the issue of the border, the border and immigration of been an issue that has plagued the Biden Administration since they came into office. He is saying that she changed her mind. Republicans are saying she changed her mind on the order wall which is part of the Immigration Bill former President Trump helped kill earlier this year. I remember when the bill was killed donald trump killed it. Do you think this is a salient topic. Top Talking Point for the Term Campaign . Its the best thing they have going right now. They tried to hammer her on the economy and the things that seemed to stick to biden dont seem to stick to harris because she is not the president , she is the Vice President and shes rolling out different policies but on the border she has taken a tougher stance than that Biden Administration are previously taken. Biden said he would sign the bill. Biden said he would sign the bill but there were questions about whether she would continue to push that message after the bill failed in congress. She said as president she wouldnt reopen the negotiation, she would sign the bill just as it is so she has taken a position of strength and force on the border when in the past, democrats have been on their heels, theyve been on defense and now shes going on offense trying to turn a liability for the party into an asset by attacking trump and saying he is undermining the Border Security of the country. Whether or not that will play out in her favor or not we will see but she is trying to neutralize the stance of republicans. Thank you all very much for starting us off. When we come back, tom gets indicted in the federal Election Interference case again. What exactly the council reworked and later Vice President harris gets a nonlikely outpouring of support, the 11th hour getting underway on a tuesday night. Underway on a tuesday night. Pete g. Writes, my tween wants a new phone. How do i not break the bank . We gotcha, pete. Xfinity mobile was designed to save you money and gives you access to wifi speeds up to a gig. So you get high speeds for low prices. Better than getting low speeds for high prices. Right, bruce . Jealous . Yeah, look at that. Honestly, someone get a helmet on this guy. Get a free unlimited line for a year when you buy one unlimited line. Plus, get up to 800 off google pixel 9 phones. Switch today introducing a revolution in pain relief. Absorbine junior pro, the strongest numbing pain relief available. Its the only solution with two max strength anesthetics for fast penetrating relief absorbine junior pro. Nothing numbs pain more. Before the break we before the break we told you a grand jury has indicted former President Trump. The indictment now includes some key changes. Reporter t