The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris,
a lot of clues and signs that it is barreling
forward, that it is on.
And that's even amidst the very Trumpian way that it
has been publicly debated.
Yes, they debate the debates these days, but Trump did
in writing, post online that he will debate Harris.
That reflects a further kind of reiteration of what had
been expected.
He has largely claimed he will do the debate and
wants to do the debate, but there has been squabbling
over the details.
But best we can tell you tonight, we have public
statements from both sides and the moderators, the ABC host
saying that this thing is still on September 10th in
Philadelphia.
Now, Trump had threatened to skip the debate and there
had been a dispute about the microphones and whether the
old system that had been agreed upon in that first
now infamous Biden Trump debate would be held over or
not.
There were reports the Team Trump basically wanted to stay
with the muted microphones that were used this year in
the Biden debate but weren't usually the way it was
done in past cycles.
Harris wanted them open for the whole time, according to
her aides, and discussions are ongoing about those details now.
Since accepting her nomination to the DNC, Kamala Harris has
not had as many events in the public spotlight, which
is understandable.
As we've reported, they beat the RNC in terms of
television ratings narrowly and an online attention probably more broadly.
They had a huge week.
They want everyone's mind.
And this is the last slow summer week before Labor
Day and the full official kickoff of the general campaign
season.
But that doesn't mean they're not planning things.
Today, Kamala Harris announced that she will do her first
formal interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, and it will
be with her seemingly popular and well accepted running mate.
So this is going to be a joint interview.
Now, I can tell you if you follow the news,
you probably know this.
And any journalist will tell you this is a big
get.
And we congratulate our colleague across the aisle, if you
will, CNN's Dana Bash.
And scoring the big first interview, it will be Harris
and Walls together.
And it's scheduled to air on Thursday night.
So that'll be a big deal, as I say, this
week going into the holiday weekend.
Now, there were efforts by Republicans and others to say
that Harris was completely dodging interviews.
Whether this quiets them at all remains to be seen.
We also know a bit about where it'll take place
because for all of our interests here in the national
news, on national stories, I can be honest with you
and tell you that you probably know presidential campaigns are
all about the States and not all 50 are treated
equally.
And as we get closer to the general election fall.
And the early voting, some states matter a ton more.
Georgia is one of them.
And that's where this interview will take place.
It coincides with Harris and Walls doing a joint bus
tour through there.
Now, Georgia was one of the places that Democrats showed
they could beat back Trump, not just in their supposed
so-called blue wall in the Midwest, but they beat him
there in 2020 and took and picked up those Senate
seats as well.
Now, this cycle, Georgia May not be any kind of
must win.
State polling does show a very tight race.
When you look at the state polling, and I've told
you how this works, Trump is up by about four
points in a poll that has a margin of error
of ±4 points.
So it is a statistical tie in the Peach State.
Today, we also learned President Biden will join Harris on
the trail for the first time next week in Pennsylvania.
Now, why does that matter?
Well, you might have seen at the convention, day one
was Biden's, then he ceded the ground back to Harris.
It's all about the future.
And yet on some pretty key issues domestically, the people
who Biden did bring together in the 2020 coalition, Democrats
who watch the convention and love the unity, but still
are wondering about how this all works.
Those are people where Joe Biden has a connection.
He has a history.
He's the only person whoever beat Trump in the Electoral
College in a presidential race.
So him getting out there for Harris is going to
be at least helpful for her with the base.
No one's suggesting that Joe Biden is going to be
key to winning over new people or that he's going
to do 51%.
Indeed, everyone knows that's one of the reasons Democrats wanted
to step aside.
But again, when it comes to these key states, Joe
Biden going out there in places where the Democrats think
he has a following and matters and continuing to show
that this is a unified front, Well, that's something that
not only Kamala Harris draws on, but let's be clear,
it's something that her opponent cannot draw on.
We didn't see any former Republican presidents out in force
at the convention, let alone in the key states where
they might matter.
A contrast to Trump and his lack of unity with
the traditional history of the Republican Party.
Now, there's also news tonight that Harris is making inroads
with the flip of that coin.
I just told you how some of these Republicans, including
former presidents aren't all in publicly for Donald Trump and
some of their aides are actually going towards Kamala Harris.
This is new.
About 200 aides to Bush, McCain and Romney coming together
making it count in a big open letter where they
say we have disagreements with Harris, plenty of them.
But quote, the alternative is simply untenable.
Retired Bush administration general also chiming in to endorse the
Democratic ticket.
And this shows follow through with specific names and specific
Republicans on what the DNC tried to tout the idea
that this was more than just one or two random
people or one or two Trump turncoats.
And we've seen many people work for Trump and then
leave him.
No, Kamala Harris is trying to argue that, as she
showed at the convention, they have a lot of conservative,
independent and Republican support, including veterans of the Trump White
House.
The Republican Party is no longer conservative.
I love my country more than my party.
Our party is not civil or conservative.
It's chaotic and crazy.
I resigned from the Trump administration As a Republican who
dreamed of working in the White House.
It was a hard decision, But as an American, it
was the right one.
Let's turn the page.
Let's put country first.
When she takes her oath of office, we will have
a commander in chief that we can trust.
That was unusual.
It was striking.
And while the convention is something that many politicos live
together and we showed online in the coverage last night
that we can see 10s of millions of people followed
parts of it.
Some of it was so big and exciting and the
Obamas and the performances and the musical roll call that
the Republican part there that I just showed you might
not have gotten as much attention as it would have
been other cycles.
And I could just tell you as a factual matter,
we haven't seen a convention in the last several decades
with this kind of contrast.
Again, it happens to benefit the Democrats, but I would
tell you the truth if it didn't or went for
the other way.
But we haven't seen a contrast where, as I mentioned,
one major party candidate is completely abandoned by the former
presidents in that party and former major officials and is
out there just saying the state the party is, me
paraphrase a little French for Donald Trump.
While the other candidate is not only drawing on the
United front of their party.
There are obviously differences and disagreements with Bill Clinton and
Bernie Sanders and a bunch of other figures, but they
all came in together for Harris.
And not only is she doing that, but she's reaching
across the line and getting these other Republicans.
Now, you've heard Tim Walz and others talk about how
the Republican Party has become just weird under Donald Trump.
And they mean that not only as a kind of
a caricature or personalized insult.
They mean it as the mix of Donald Trump's issues
with his actual underlying policies.
In other words, the way he talks and the way
he walks.
But I wanted to share something with you tonight as
we see this news about so many Republicans coming in
towards Harris, all this talk about the party turning weird.
You can date it all the way back to former
President George W Bush listening to Donald Trump's inaugural speech
during that shockwave when he first came to power.
And he said, and this was reported the time it
was, according to reports, The Hill reported it out.
Not the kind of thing you usually hear Bush say
in public, that having listened to that odd, discordant and
at times angry inaugural address, Bush thought it was, quote,
some weird ish, some weird blank.
We don't say that word on the news, but you
could figure it out.
So it's a parallel all these years later, the Democrats
saying in public what may be so many people in
the Republican Party worried about it.
First in private, stuck with this clearly allegedly weird leader.
Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has
been more public than George W Bush.
Indeed, as you look at whether Donald Trump should get
power again, let's remember these former Romney aides are endorsing
Harris today.
And they know what their boss said when actually posed
and presented with this question, Should Donald Trump have power
again?
And Mitt Romney was one of the few Republicans who
voted to convict him for the insurrection all the way
back in 2020.
The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is
whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious
that it rises to the level of a high crime
and misdemeanor.
Yes, he did.
Accordingly, the President is guilty of an appalling abuse of
public trust.
There's no question he has authoritarian rulings and and interests
and note notions which he will try and impose.
That's dangerous for the country.
Romney speaking out there after January 6th, 2021 and again
later.
Dangerous for the country.
Now we hear so much about the blue wall and
Democrats have their work cut out for them.
Tim Walz himself mentioned at the convention that he views
the race is still down.
A touchdown approaching the fourth quarter, give or take.
That's the blue wall.
But what about the red wall?
What about all the talk?
We've heard that Republicans fall in line and are loyal
and Donald Trump is resilient.
Are we seeing the red wall crumble?
And is it not only because of the weirdness as
alleged by President Bush and Tim Walls alike?
Is it not only because of Donald Trump's problems?
Is it because in some small part, the opponent, Kamala
Harris is doing what Biden maybe was not doing six
weeks ago, saying come on over, let's get this done,
it's time to move on?
Absolutely think so.
There's a crumbling and it's more than just a quake.
We saw in 2020 that the that the Biden campaign
was trying to peel away some Republicans without nearly as
much success as I think that we're seeing from Kamala
Harris on the ground.
And part of that is due to the fact that
Donald Trump has been not only aggressively weird, but a
lot of the things that he promised Republicans they didn't
follow through on.
But in addition to that, people are tired of the
vengeance and the grievance politics.
They want to see an economy that works for them.
They want to be able to afford that first.
They want to be able to get to the middle
class and stay there.
I think that there are so many things that Kamala
Harris campaign and her vision for the future offers that
Donald Trump's just does not.
And because this campaign cycle in and of itself, he
has allowed himself to completely unravel attacks on race, attacks
on gender, the crazy things he's saying across true social.
This is the weirdest campaign I've ever seen run.
He's out here selling playing cards with his face on
them right now.
This is strange, and Republicans are finding it very hard
to align behind it.
Also, the more Donald Trump runs, the more Republicans down
ballot tend to lose.
They're not going to consistently keep trying to keep this
man on top while he really, really pretty much destroys
their party along the way.