Can trump stay focused, and can the moderators keep the whole thing on track. Plus more than 30,000 people fleeing their heads ahead of a giant fire ripping through nevada and california. One of them burning unchecked through san bernardino county. Fueled by dry weather and temperatures pushing 110. How bad could it get . And a royal sigh of relief. The princess of wales revealing Shes Cancer free. Her frank assessment of going through chemo and what she said shes focusing on now. But we start with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Both off the Campaign Trail Behind Closed Doors and armed with new Polling Information as they hone their strategies and sharpen their attacks ahead of tomorrows first and so far only president ial debate. But before they even make it to the stage, harris is trying to get in trumps head. Releasing this new ad in philadelphia and in west palm beach. It features his former aides slamming their old boss. Meantime, in a Radio Interview released this morning, harris talked about what shes expecting tomorrow. I mean, he plays from this really hold and tired playbook, right. Where he, theres no floor for him in terms of how low he will go. And we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth, and we should be prepared for the fact that he is probably going to speak a lot of untruth. But Harris Wont just be dealing with trump. Shes trying to define herself for skeptical or least unknowing voters. Because a New York Times Siena Poll shows 28 of likely voters still they till need to learn more about her. Far more than say that about Donald Trump. At the same time, a new Washington Post Poll shows shes stronger among black registered voters. 68 said they would vote for her, and that is up from 48 when Joe Biden was on the ticket. We are live in pittsburgh where Kamala Harris has been camped out for Debate Prep. Michael wall helped prepare for big debates against Bob Dole in 1996 and president of the brennan center for justice. And jordan served in george w. Bush White House and also an msnbc political analysis and she joins me here in studio. This is going to be interesting. Well set the standard there. Look, we know that Kamala Harris wants to help Donald Trump lose his cool. She just said, there is no floor for him. Maybe shes trying to get him to reach it. But, with these new polls showing, so many people, far more than she would need, right, to potentially win this, want to know more about her. How does she balance those two things going after trump but also trying to say this is who i am. Well, chris, in many ways, this is her big introduction to the stage. She isnt going to be giving prepared remarks like she was at the dnc. It is not a shorter interview, it was a longish interview that she did with governor walz. But this is still the most uncrypted performance alongside Donald Trump. So voters could compare and contrast and shes going to have to lean into how she wants to project herself. Is she the new wave. How is she not an incumbent. Youll hear a careful balance between praising the biden administration, yet being hopeful for what needs to come and how shes going to build on achievements yet not while bee laboring her association. So easy. And michael, i want to play what harriss principal Deputy Campaign Manager said on our air about what theyre expecting. Were taking this extremely seriously. Donald trump is a skilled debater. He has been in the most president ial debates of any candidate in president ial history. This will be the Vice President s first president ial debate as the nominee. So it is an interesting debate. But make no mistake about it, Donald Trump will be prepared and hes a show man. So we know the takes of this and the Vice President will be ready. So if you have the candidates here, what is your best last Minute Advice for harris and for Donald Trump . Well, given the somewhat stilted format of these president ial debates, in a way it is like parallel joint press conferences, joint interviews. Shes first and foremost will want to lay out her own policies and especially have a contrast with trump. With how she wants to see trump defined. I think that she doesnt need to spend a lot of time talking about her childhood and the other biographical things. But i think what shell want to show in terms of who she is to people, is her strength, her command. Just as trump in the last debate, people didnt pay that much attention to this, yes, he lied a lot, but he also kept his cool and that was a stride forward for him in his performance. He did seem to be able to say, im going to let Joe Biden do what hes doing. He made a a real time assessment. But erin, take me to pittsburgh. What is Kamala Harris doing in the final hours and what are you hearing from voters there . Well, chris, the time for Debate Preparation is winding down here in pittsburgh. You could see the moving vans that have pulled in between us and the hotel here. We believe the mock debates are winding down and moving some things out quite likely. Shes been here since thursday. Hunkered down with her closest advisers going through Briefing Books and Q A Questions she may get on the the Debate Stage and trying to figure out how to weave her personal story into the responses that she gives on the substantive issues. Wanting people to understand what she wants to do as president and as a candidate who wants their support. We did have an opportunity to talk to some voters here in the pittsburgh area, the Vice President did step out of her Debate Prep sessions twice over the course of the week. I want you to hear what voters said when they asked what they want to see from Kamala Harris come debate time. Strength. We need a very, very strong leader. One that is going to, you know, make the right decisions. As far as harris is specific, what she needs to do, it is just showing up and making clear that shes capable. I want to see her to be her and be honest and tell us what shes going to do for this country. And i know shes going to do such amaze things. Part of the Debate Prep we understand shes been doing is to figure out how to respond to Donald Trump on the stage if he were to launch an insult or some other derogatory comment as hes done on the the Campaign Trail. Part of the Preparation Process is to figure out how to respond to those things. Weve heard from sources and surrogates on tv over the weekend, part of the plan is for the Vice President to remain calm and to appear president ial in those situations, but also be prepared to stand her ground, to call out any lies that she may hear on the Debate Stage and to take Donald Trump to task on things that did or didnt happen during his time in the White House and plans that he has going forward, trying to tie some of his ideas to things that have been presented as part of project 2025, chris. Let me bring in dasha burns following from new york. And the former president , has said his whole life is preparing him for this debate. But i cant imagine hes going totally off the cuff either. Not totally off the cuff. That is not what his campaign wants. They have been hunkering down, a little bit, not to the extent that harris has, but to our sources, hes been at maralago in more extensive policy Sessions Yesterday and today. That is going to continue. And look, these arent mock debates the way that harris is doing. The former president has been poking some fun at her for Stud Yig and preparing for this. And he instead has been pounding the pavement on the Campaign Trail. He likes that contrast. But at the same time, we have heard his allies on the air and Behind Closed Doors are telling hip, focus on the policy, not the personal attacks. And that is easier said than done for the former president who does tend to get antagonized and want to hit on the personal. But the sessions preparing for the debate are focused on the policy and it might be because that is largely what voters are saying they want to hear from him. Take a listen to some of what they told nbc news. If you had a advice for what he needs to do or not do, what would you tell him. Not to talk too much. Stay on point on what he needs to do in this election and i think hell win. I want him to continue explaining his positions. I dont want him to have The Other Side Fluster him. I want him to stay true on point and stay focused. Dont call her names, just stick to the issues. It is okay to call her unintelligent, because she is. But dont call her anything else. But dont just stay away from just stick to the issues and how youre going to solve stick to the future, not past. And we did see a slightly more restrained trump during the biden debate. But the question is, now that weve seen him on the Campaign Trail lobbing the personal attacks and getting angry in his speeches, will he be able to restraint himself or will we see the o. G. Trump or will the Policy Issues a good question, thank you for that. And i think the difference is that he went into the Joe Biden debate believing he was confident he was going to win the presidency. Hes in a very different place right now. In spite of the fact that over the course of the last, i think it is 50 days since Joe Biden dropped out and she got a jolt and this is a still a race that is too close to call. So to dashas point, and actually the point of the woman who was interviewed, will he get flustered . Will he call her names . Will he go too far . What are you watching for . Those were great Trump Voter interviews because it is the litany of what you hear when im doing Focus Groups from Trump Voters about what they want trump to do. Less of the Name Calling and the meanness and more of actual substance. Which, as we know, can be quite difficult for Donald Trump. So going back to last debate, from the moment that Donald Trump saw president biden, he felt that he was going to win. He had, as we know now, that was just not a good night for president biden. And so this could going forward tomorrow night, it is a new candidate, it is a younger candidate. It is a woman. He doesnt do well, we know, with women. It is going to be interesting to see if hes going into the gutter the way some of his supporters and he has been doing lately, casting aspersions about her personal life and general nastiness, can he stay above the fray . I dont know. It is really that just a Super Human Challenge for Donald Trump who, as we know, likes to dwell in the gutter. So michael, lets talk about tone on her part. Because harris has a little bit of a balancing act, i think, right. She wants to show her strength. She has real prosecutorial skills so she can go after trump. She knows how. Shes done it in the courtroom for years. But then the thing that seems to have resonated with folks, in the middle, this idea of joy, getting past the vitriol. How does she find that balance. Well i think she has to do what she does with a smile but with steel and strength. And youre right, it is a bit of a a bit of a balance. But one thing that trump didnt hear in Donald Trump did not hear in the debate with Joe Biden was a meaningful calling him to account for his 34 felony convictions, for January 6 and trying to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power, for project 2025, those are all things she could say with a smile and with some class. Shes carried herself very well since she became the candidate. The trick is of course, theyre not talking to each other, theyre not interrupting each other. I wouldnt be surprised if she leaves her answers with a Hanging Question or two that he has to choose whether to respond to. Or maybe poses it to to the viewers. I want to ask you, michael, as you go through that litany, about trumps most recent threats which is to imprison his political enemies including, quote, lawyers, political operatives and donors and people who come to a different conclusions that he does about the election. How do you think that plays . Well, i think that she has a real question here. Because there has been a pretty searing critique, a valid one in my view, of much of the traditional media. That it has not covered this stuff. It has not been Headline Front Page News Candidate for president threatens to imprison all of his opponents, Threats Election workers, and all of these other things. Weve normalized it by not even discussing it. And so, i think that she should find a way to bring it up. Again, she wants to let the public know, she wants to let viewers know, what the future focus means for them. She didnt want to dwell obsessively on it, but i think if she could throw a punch or two on these kind of things. I have a feeling there will be some punches thrown on both sides. We shall see. In 90 seconds, playing by the rules. The major way Tomorrows Debate could be impacted by a single change. Single change [introspective music] recipes. Recipes written by hand and lost to time. 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Someone needs to tell them, that theyre sitting on a goldmine, and you have no idea hey, guys youre sitting on a goldmine come on, guys do you hear that . I dont hear anything anymore. Find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. Tomorrow Nights Debate could be almost but in one critical way not quite the same as the bidentrump faceoff. Im talking about the rules and you know they matter a lot because the Harris And Trump campaigns fought hard over them. And they include muting microphones and no audience and a ban on questions to the other candidate. Well the potential difference makers this time, Fact Checking. How much the moderators will do is an open question. But it follows heavy criticism over none of it at the first debate. Back with us, Michael Waldman and elise jordan. The abc political director was asked about this by the New York Times. Here is what he said. Were not making commitments to Fact Check everything or nothing, were there to keep a conversation going and to facilitate a good solid debate making sure it is civilized. I wonder to what extent it is going to be interesting to see whether, when they Fact Check, they give Donald Trump an opportunity to answer that and to what extent do you think if they dont Kamala Harris is already making up her mind where she will go in for the kill. So will Kamala Harris be the one doing the Fact Checking tomorrow night. Right. From the sounds of the comments, that is what it sounds like. I dont disagree with the approach that the moderators cant Fact Check every statement because we know that would take the entire hour long format. If you tried to Fact Check Donald Trump. So, to keep the flow going, to keep it snappy and moving along, theyre probably going to do what theyre capable of but no one could have that manyin accuracy. And you said this is a twoheaded press conference. But is there a way with Fact Checking to make this a little more lively, but more importantly, frankly, a little more informative . Well, if it were an Interview Oneonone with the candidate and the candidate told the big lie, the interviewers would call the candidate out on it. That is the big question. Not if Vice President harris said something and the moderator said you average and it was really the median jobs number. But when Donald Trump said i won the election in 2020 because of massive voter fraud, that is an absurd and devastatingly lie and will the moderators call him out on that, as sometimes does happen on interview shows. Well let me ask you this. Because it picks up on what we were talking about before. So technically moderators could ask questions during the debate but is there an opportunity for Kamala Harris to ask a question to viewers . For example, if you cant ask Donald Trump, where is your proof you won in 2020 . Can you ask viewers, look, trump lost every Court Case challenging Election Results, does it make sense to you as a voter that all 62 judges who said he was wrong, they were all wrong . So youre Debate Prep days are ahead of you. I know. That is a good way to do it. Do you game out all of these things and when i worked with bill clinton, he was very eagerly focused on the mock debates and playing out like a decision tree, well if the other person said this, and then you say that. And there are certainly ways to make it a contrast to ask the questions. One of the most significant things in any president ial debate is when ronald reagan, when people didnt trust him, they werent sure he was ready to be president. When he at The End of the one debate he had with Jimmy Carter i