Stuart stevens gets tonights last word. The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle starts now. Tonight, the day after the debate, president ial hopefuls meet again just hours after their fiery faceoff. Where the race goes from here. Quiet baseless Conspiracy Theory about migrants eating pets in springfield, ohio found its way to the president ial debate. We will speak directly to a local official there. Is the only democrat who is faced Jd Vance. Former congressman Tim Ryan is here with some advice for the Harris Campaign is the 11th Hour gets underway on this wednesday night. Good evening. Once again, i am Stephanie Ruhle and we are now just 55 days away from the Election But Today campaigning was temporarily set aside as the candidates join together with the country in marking 23 years since the 9 11 terror attacks. Just 10 hours after facing off against one another in an intense debate, vp, Harris And Donald trump greeted one another and shook hands and a solemn commemoration at Ground Zero here in new York City. Harris, trump, and Jd Vance spent the day attending several events and were in new york, washington and pennsylvania for governor Tim Walz was in minnesota where he honored victims by helping Pack Meals for food banks. We are going to see how last Nights Debate is change the national Conversation And Candidate strategies. My colleague, peter alexander, has more than that. For 90 minutes, harris delivered a new strategy to provoke outburst from the former president , blocking his rallies. You will also notice people start leaving his rallies early after exhaustion and boredom. She said people started leaving. Reporter harris pressing arrival and his refusal to accept the 2020 election results. Donald trump was fired by 81 Million people. Clearly hes having a difficult time processing that. Reporter and another dramatic moment slamming him for praising the repeal of roe v. Wade. You want to talk about this is what people wanted, pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to Term Suffering from a miscarriage being denied care in an emergency because Healthcare Providers are afraid they might go to jail and shes bleeding out in the car in a Parking Lot . She didnt want that. Reporter harris did not specify if she supports any restrictions on abortion. Trump targeted harris for her record on the economy. Ive never seen a worse period of time. People cant go out and buy Cereal Or Bacon or eggs or anything else. They have destroyed the fabric of our country. Millions of people let in. With that lets get smarter with the help of our Leadoff Panel tonight. Peter baker joins us, Molly John fast is here, and Michael Steele is here, former chairman of the Republican National Committee and former Lieutenant Governor of maryland but you know him as the cohost of the weekend right here on msnbc. Peter, i turn to you first because you are at Ground Zero with president biden as well as the vp Donald Trump, Jd Vance. What was it like to see kamala Harris And Donald trump together , the only thing separating them was little Mike Bloomberg standing between them 12 hours after an absolutely brutal debate. There was something kind of surreal about it. They had spent an hour and a half on stage savaging Each Other, calling Each Other a Disgrace And Weekend horrible in all of these insulting things and then there they were the next day 12, 10 hours later, standing under the same tent at 9 11 and it was Mike Bloomberg who actually reached out to touch Kamala Harris to get her to turn around to draw her in to shake Donald Trumps hand and they did have a seemingly friendly handshake. In fact, trump seem to us that something pleasant to her and patted her hand, and they got along fine but its a reminder, i think, not of how politics used to be where there used to be respect across the aisle. Instead i think it is a reminder of how important 9 11 still is, the solemnity of this moment that it forces politicians who really dont like Each Other very much to at least pretend that they are part of the same country, the same nation, the same society at least for an hour. it is something New Yorkers are so proud of, The Way we come together but it is something. When Mike Bloomberg is the one asking you to be polite, that is a rare day. Michael, lets talk though about 9 11, a truly devastating day for our country, especially for New Yorkers and on that day Donald Trump made a point of saying that his building became the tallest in new York City after the World Trade Center fell. Not only was that a grotesque thing to say, it was also a life along with the other lies he told that thousands of muslims were standing on roofs of buildings in New Jersey celebrating the attacks. That is who Donald Trump was 23 years ago today, so why is anyone surprised that 23 years shy one day later Last Night on the Debate Stage he lied for 90 minutes straight . That is who he is. Yes, that is who he is and that is who he was 23 years ago and that is who he is today. Donald trump has never been sensitive to the moment. He did not understand the gravity of 9 11. He did not process it. What he did process was now he has the tallest building in new york. That is what he processed. The other thing he processed, you know, was Conspiracy Theories that muslims keeping with this vein of antimuslim hatred that tried to emerge on the heels of 9 11 but for the guidance and soft words, actually, of President Bush to remind us who we are in a moment like this, he would have gone down that Rabbit Hole and tried to perpetuate those lies about muslims stirring up anti muslim hate among white people. That is basically his m. O. so it does not surprise me that he is standing on the stage 23 years later with a black woman who was running for president parroting the same bs, and nor should the rest of us be surprised, especially the media that is covered them for 23 years. Especially the now last nine years so i wish the media would stop acting surprised when Donald Trump behaves a certain way because youve been covering that for as long as he has been on the stage and i think that is something that a lot of americans, as you look at this moment, are trying to pull themselves away from this sort of Oh My God you know, look at Donald Trump perform again. We are tired of it and there is a level of exhaustion that a lot of americans have, which has opened up this moment for, as harris Kamala Harris to say youve all got to be tired by now because i know i am so lets go forward. In 2016, for a lot of americans he was a new face, he was a new voice. People liked The Way he spoke directly but now in 2024, people know exactly who Donald Trump is. There are no surprises but molly, Frank Luntz had one of the most notable traits of the night and im just going to share it with our audience. If harris wants to win, she needs to train her face not to respond. It feeds into a female stereotype and more importantly , it risks offending undecided voters. What a harebrained idea you had there, frank. Are you kidding me . Yes, this is a stereotype if youre living in 1982. You know, i dont like to commit media on Media Violence but in this case i did troll him and say this is just totally misogynistic. Its stupid. It is also very stupid and it is not what happened at all. I think that is the most interesting thing was she actually got the power, she used the power. I read today the Sarah Longwell Piece in the atlantic about how a lot of these on the fence voters were saying she looked president ial, and even i read some other sort of on the fence voters were saying that they [ inaudible ] when she was laughing so i think it was just something from another century and there are the sort of hot Take Punditry things and some of them are misogynistic in the idea that she cant have normal facial expressions is one of them. But molly, isnt this like she really won the game of tv Last Night. She couldve had a lot of totally normal outraged responses, but she showed incredible discipline, like a silent assassin, wedding him spin himself like a top. Yeah, and she did a ton of research. She did a ton of person you could tell because she sort of knew what would get him and then she stepped back and let him do it and you know, that was just sort of she has been very good it kind of proving the doubters wrong. He did prep. It was Too Gabbard and Laura Loomer who prepped him. I believe that there. Peter, we are hearing Team Trump go on and on today about how unfair it was because he got fact checked way more than Kamala Harris did but heres the thing. Of course he did. Donald trump spent the entire night repeating wellknown lies and the fact checks were pretty basic. Its not an aggressive fact check to say im sorry, sir, nobody is eating animals or killing babies. Yes, if there is more Fact Checking its because there were more alleged facts to check and no question about it, he laid out a lot of things that were obviously completely false or fictional. One of my favorites is where he says that everybody in the country, liberals and conservatives, democrats and republicans wanted roe v. Wade overturned so the Abortion Issue could go back to the states. Thats obviously not even close to true. The last poll said 60 were opposed but he is said this repeatedly now as if it were true and somehow doesnt seem to be daunted when people do not back as you rightly say the eating Dogs Episode is likely what we will remember most about Last Night because it seems so farcical and absurd to bring it up in the first place but you know, the moderators got criticized last time around when trump faced off Joe Biden for not doing more realtime Fact Checking. Im sympathetic. It is really hard to do that in the moment if you stop every single sentence a politician like Donald Trump and say wait a second. This isnt quite right. There is a balance to be had between allowing a debate to go forward in allowing the other person in the debate to challenge factual miss assertions and not allowing complete falsehoods to be put on the air and that is a tough balance for any moderators to take. I think the moderators Last Night did a good job. If anything, hes going to be mad about Donald Trump repeating these Dog Stories he should be mad at Fox News and Jd Vance for feeding him this puppy chow. He said it right in the debate he learned it from watching his favorite tv personalities. Do you think at The End of the day any votes were changed Last Night because before the debate we talked about the undecided voters who said they didnt know enough about her, they havent seen her Last Night and Last Night she put on a show and so did he. Yes, generally i would say probably just a little bit at the margins maybe perhaps around the corner where somebody said oh yeah, i think im going to vote differently. That was not this debate. I think this debate did have more than a marginal impact on voters. I think it was apparent in some of the overnight reaction and responses from Focus Groups as well as Spot Poles that were taken. When you are showing 60 percent of the people watching the debates so that Kamala Harris won yeah, and when a lot of those voters are you know, sort of undecided centerright, independent voters who have largely been on the fence because of their hesitation around Joe Biden and now feel a little bit more engaged and leaning into this conversation for the presidency, i think it did and i think she acquitted herself as a president should, and that was important because going into this, one of the things i was very interested in seeing how she would manage was her prosecutorial instincts up against her president Ial Mantel and she was able to hold that president ial mental in front of the american people while she spanked that behind a little bit along The Way, as a prosecutor, and i appreciated that. I appreciated that because that is what she needed to do and i think a lot of voters responded to that. I think peter, in his reporting, and others could rapidly sense that there was something different about this, not to put peter on the spot, but something different about this debate as opposed to some of the others. The voters were receiving this a little bit differently than they had Bush League or or you know, the first bidentrump debate. I should correct myself. We know that Laura Loomer was there. She traveled with Donald Trump and was in the spin room. We do not know that she prepped him. Too gabbard gets all that credit. Lets talk about Taylor Swift. This morning, Donald Trump said she will probably pay for her endorsement in the marketplace i. E. Shes going to lose scores of fans, shes going to lose business. I heard that from other right wing pundits but i want to remind our audience that Taylor Swift endorsed Joe Biden four years ago. Since then, the Eras Tour raked in more than 1 billion, the highest grossing concert ever. She had the Topselling Album of the year three of the last four years. For you and i are sitting here shes across The Street at Radio City probably taking home all of the Video Music awards. What do you make of this endorsement in this backlash that her fans who are republicans will no longer be swifties . Theyre going to take her off. I mean, Donald Trump likes a threat. He loves to threaten people and Conservatives Love of white a boycott. Done, liberals are no stranger to the boycott. Yes for sure. But political boycotts im not too worried about Taylor Swift. I think shes going to be just fine but it is important you know, trump really has the sort of binary you are either for him or against him and if you are for him than he wants to bestow Crony Capital on you. Is michael saying debates usually dont matter. We can say the same about celebrity endorsements. Could taylor be different . She didnt just say im on this team. On her instagram she said and here is how you register to vote. In fact there were searches of you know, am i registered to vote in texas, right . So yeah, she is a huge driver of Get Out The Vote and by The Way, conservative Radio Hurst Houseware there was a celebrity there. Rush limbaugh was the biggest get out the Vote Driver when he was still alive so you know, shes not a political person but you know, her music is in some ways very emotional for a lot of these people so she is sort of and musicians, rock stars, artists have been political forever. This is nothing new. Miguel, peter, molly, thank you all for starting us off this evening. When we return it is not just his election lies. He is doubling down on another debunked claim. Donald trump had brought it up. Im going to bring it up again, this ridiculous claim that immigrants are stealing and eating pets in the state of ohio. We are going to get the facts straight with someone who was actually there. Later, striking fears about migrants is nothing new for trump vp pick. It is how Jd Vance edged out a win in his Ohio Senate rates. We are speaking about it with his former opponent Tim Ryan. Lets say youre deep in a show or a game or the game. On a train, at home, at work. Okay, maybe not at work. Point is at xfinity. Were constantly engineering new ways to get the entertainment you love to you faster and easier than ever. Thats what i do. Is that Love Island . Among the many things we heard from Donald Trump during the debate with Kamala Harris was a baseless lie about haitian immigrants in springfield, ohio. These are the people that she and biden led into our country. In springfield, they are eating the dogs, the people that came in, they are eating the cats. They are eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what is happening in our country and it is a shame. Know it is not. That right there was former president Donald Trump spreading a Conspiracy Theory that he learned from Social Media in front of tens of millions of americans. The truth matters on the show and i want to make this absolutely clear. None of what you just heard from the former president is remotely true. For more on this i want to bring in an actual expert on the subject, Clark County Commission president melanie wilt. Thank you so much for being here, commissioner. The governor of your state has said this is not true. Can you please tell us in your official capacity, have you seen any evidence of these claims, pets been stolen, killed and eaten . Absolutely none. I have spoken with Springfield Pd and our sheriffs office. We have had concerned calls come into our Dispatch Center and they have been followed up on and have not been substantiated. What was your reaction Last Night . You, like millions of other americans, are watching the debate. What was your reaction when you heard Donald Trump talk about springfield and spread this lie . We do have very real issues in springfield, ohio and immigration is a very real issue so im glad that our potential president is talking about it and bringing light to it but the issues in springfield that are really related to a big surge of haitian refugees coming to our community, most of them are actually here legally. Local leaders in our community are really focused On The Issues that matter, which are ensuring that people are driving with proper licenses. Secondly, funding to help alleviate the pressure we are feeling from the infrastructure when we have 20,000 more people working in the same infrastructure, it just doesnt work anymore and finally, we want to work on cultural assimilation and helping people to overcome some of these cultural gaps and barriers we are seeing between our traditional Springfield And Clark county residents and those who are new to our community. Why do you have this large group of immigrants mostly from haiti . It is my understanding that they came here several years ago for jobs and inexpensive housing. We have a very low cost of living in comparison to the rest of the united states here. They came here for jobs and were brought by Temp Agencies that had opportunities to place the