Week when i had a little bit of a bug. I really appreciate it. You are welcome and the best news, you've gotten better, so you have a great labor day weekend. Thanks, chris. You know, labor day weekend, it's finally here. The next three days are the time when americans everywhere try to get the most out of their summer. Maybe squeeze in one last cookout for beach trip before the weather gets colder and everything starts to taste like pumpkin spice. But in an election year like this one, labor day weekend also marks the moment when most americans really start to pay attention to the presidential race and for the campaigns this is a moment when every detail starts to matter. Vice president kamala harris and her running mate tim walz are coming off a two day bus tour through southern georgia. The first democratic campaign in that part of the state since 1992. Last night the vice president sat down for her first major interview since becoming her party's nominee. She defended the record of the bidenharris administration while taking her opponent to task. We have had in the former president, someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and strength of who we are as americans. Really dividing our nation. I am very proud of the work that we have done that has brought inflation down to less than 3%. The work we have done to cap the price of insulin for seniors. Donald trump said he was going to do a number of things including allowing medicare to negotiate drug prices. It never happened. We did it. Donald trump responded to that interview on his social media site, saying that kamala harris, quote, rambled incoherently, which is pretty rich coming from a former president who seems to struggle daily to be coherent. For context, here was donald trump that same night in la crosse, wisconsin. Some people don't eat bacon anymore and we are going to get the energy crisis down. You know this was caused by their horrible energy. Wind, they want wind all over the place. People don't eat bacon anymore. They want wind all over the place. That that you just heard and saw was part of the republican message to wisconsin where a new bloomberg morning consult poll finds kamala harris leading donald trump by eight points. That same poll shows kamala harris leading trump within the margin of error by four points in nevada and pennsylvania. By three points in michigan and two points in georgia and north carolina, a states that no democratic presidential candidate has one since 2008. It also finds trump and harris tied in arizona. That tightening race may be why donald trump is now trying to walk away from some of his party's most controversial positions. In the last 24 hours he has waffled back and forth over whether he will support a ballot measure in his adopted home state of florida that would overturn the states six week abortion ban. More on that personal struggle later in the show. We are also watching for new details on how the two candidates are preparing or in trump's case not preparing for their first debate in 11 days. Nbc news reports kamala harris has been focused on how to needle donald trump. How to rattle him and remind people what it was like during donald trump's ears. By contrast, though, trump is reportedly not doing anything to level expectations. In fact a spokesperson for the trump campaign told nbc news, president trump has proven to be one of the best debaters in political history, as evidenced by his knockout blow to joe biden. He does not need traditional prep, because unlike kamala harris he has a command of the issue, frequently sits down for interviews and takes questions from hostile news media almost every day. Okay, so that is a pretty high bar to set for your candidate, especially at this stage of the campaign with a candidate like trump, when every little thing counts and the race could hardly be closer. Joining us now is a former campaign manager for bernie sanders 2020 campaign. Also joining us is simon rosenberg, author on substack and a former dnc staffer. And staff writer for the atlantic. Simon i would love to start with you. Everyone who knows me knows i am not a huge fan of polls, but i recognize trends and we've talked about this before on my own show, but let's talk about those polls because there are significant numbers and if we look at some polls that came out after the announcement of kamala harris going to the top of the ticket, it is the same ticking upwards for kamala harris. It is seven points in our direction. She is consistently leading in battleground states. Senate pulling across the country is very encouraging. House democrats feel bullish about chances because one of the things that has happened in the past few weeks in addition to improving polls is all of the money and volunteers that have come into our campaigns have made our campaign stronger and more muscular and one of the big stories i think in these final two months as we will have a much greater capacity to close out this election strong because of all this money and volunteers. I think we feel very good. I've been talking to people in the party this weekend there is a clear optimism about our ability now to feel good about where we are. We have a better ability to close and now we have to execute and when this thing. Last night we had senator richmond on and he talked about the bus tour in georgia that we have seen the harriswalz campaign doing. The ajc is reporting in georgia the surge of new voter registrations, this number is fascinating. Black women lead with a 75% jump in registrations compared with the same 3 1/2 weeks in 2020. Simon talks about the vibe. I love vibes. Good vibes maybe in this instance translate to actual votes. Absolutely i agree with everything simon's bed and i want to remain everything simon said and i want to remain in that positivity. This race is not one, there are 60 days until the election and i try to think of donald trump were to win, how does he pull it off? if you go back to 2020 how he pulls it off is quite sad to reflect on that one of the stories was how he outperformed. One of us thought the chaos of that for years editing days years heading into election day. Covid and shooting rubber bullets at protesters. It was a chaotic scene and on election day, hopefully everyone remembers on election night wisconsin, georgia, arizona, nailbiters. If that were to flip the other way around, really tens of thousands of votes, donald trump carries the election. That is just to invoke some caution to say there is work to do to make sure this enthusiasm that simon is referring to gets solidified and lastminute voters will come on line as you mentioned postlabor day who are not following the news as intensely. They are looking for who stands with me, who fights with me and we have to win those people over. It is very critical. Mark, if people are starting to dial it now and by the way this is a whole other conversation we could have about whether it makes sense to narrow the runway of 90 days ahead of an election versus the torturous time that it normally is. So we have stuff like the interview that kamala harris and tim walz did yesterday, last night on cnn. When you have these battleground states where you have very entrenched voters i would say on both sides of the aisle, especially republican leaning areas in these battleground states, are they tuning in and catching the fact that you have somebody like kamala harris delivering messaging that includes policy when that is substantively lacking when you ask donald trump what his policy platform is? i think last night was an effort by harris and walz. There were not vibes in the way the convention was and the last few weeks were. It did not have the visceral joy we have seen since really the middle of the summer, but i think it really did, it was a perfectly fine and kind of unspectacular but also victoria's evening because they did get a message out. I think to the larger point, i very much agree with both of these guys, but also i think the numbers are really encouraging. The way they have run the campaign in the past few weeks is really encouraging, but you can't get past the fact that yes, people, joe biden one and 2020, but trump seriously over performed as he did in 2016 and there is something about the two times he has been on the ballot that leads you to think you have to take any polls with a grain of salt that trump supporters might not be able to be pulled accurately. There is a lot to consider, but it certainly feels good if you are sitting in their position then if you are in trump's position. Simon, that is the sobering part of this conversation. The inescapable reality that we can't just go and i love your substack because i believe that the hopium chronicles is appropriately named, but you can't lose sight of the fact that if you take your foot off the gas pedal it could be disastrous. Another big opportunity that will come up to highlight the differences between these campaigns will be the debate. The debate is on the event horizon. I think compared to maybe the cnn interview we saw last night of harriswalz, when you pit kamala harris against donald trump and who cares about the muting and not muting and whatever, ultimately it is how they perform. Simon, your thoughts about the fact that trump says i don't need to prep because i am so good at what i do? listen this is going to be an important moment in the campaign. This is the final debate and we are going into this debate i think in a favorable position. It is going to be a critical moment. I am confident kamala harris will perform well. She has been an extraordinary political athlete as we say sometimes in our business. Over the past few months she has performed at the upper end of what is possible. She is in the zone. Executing at the highest level. The campaign feels like her campaign. I think we go into this feeling good. Trump has really been struggling. To be fair since she became a candidate, the campaign has looked confused and they don't really know how to go after her and he has been far more erratic and wild and crazy on the stump than he even was months ago, so i think the trendlines are good for us and i want to say one thing about the idea of underperforming. Remember republicans have been underperforming since dobbs. Trump underperformed in public polls during the primaries. The fascists underperformed in europe and france. This is a different election in 2016 than 2020. Mark could be right that it may happen, but the trendline has been underperforming, not over performance since dobbs. You know, it occurred to me that we have normalized, and i will say the collective week, i won't include you guys, though. There has been the normalization of trump's behavior and conduct, so he will do something crazy and we will say it is just trump doing something crazy. And yet what has happened is when we witness something like the no fireworks interview like the kamala harris interview, it is not because there weren't fireworks, it is because it is the normal way to do things. There wasn't rambling and sanity happening and i guess what i want to ask you, faiz, i always say we can walk and chew gum at the same time. Kamala harris says i'm not going to respond to the stuff from trump because i will stay focused on my mission of making sure the american public understands there is policy in substance, but it could still work. There could still be the/and push back to trump when it comes to kind of the below the belt punches that he is trying to do. Sometimes there is method to his madness and sometimes he is crazy, not stupid. As he heads into the debate it is to drag everybody else down. That is the goal, to bring you down into my sewer and make this an ugly election. The hope, the joy, the positivity is not working to his advantage. He lives in darkness. He lives in everything is terrible, america is in decline and he needs to drag people there and fight in the mud and to her credit she is not going there. Kamala harris in my view has two major obstacles and challenges in this debate. One is she has closed the gap with donald trump and outperforms him on the question of strength. Who i believe is a strong leader? on this question trump has been rocksolid with his base. People perceive that he is a strong leader. Harris is now outperforming which is critical and important. That prosecutorial framework is working to her advantage. On the economy do you relate to me and understand what i'm going through? do you understand the challenges of my life and tell me an economic story that reflects what i feel. You can see her working through that. The corporate price gouging and the desire to tackle affordable housing and contrasting that with trump will be most important. He has promised the stars and moon and didn't do any of those things and now wants to give tax cuts to billionaires. I hope that contrast works really well on the economic lens particularly. She does call it the opportunity economy and she led with that last night. Faiz, simon, mark, you have to stay with me. We have so much more to get to tonight. The harriswalz campaign has labor day weekend plans that involve time spent in three states that could determine who wins in november, but first of all of the campaign issues the presidential candidates can focus on, donald trump seems fixated on one very specific matter. Who exactly is weird? that is next. E like my best bu. Yep, had them my whole life. C'mon bo! so we got him and he is a, an absolute joy. Daddy's puppy. Once we got on the farmer's dog he just attacks it, it's incredible. They're so tuned into you and they have such, such personality. Being without a dog, i don't know, can't imagine it. 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