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Inside Politics

New Poll: Before Debate, No Clear Leader Between Harris, Trump; Harris On Cheneys: "I'm Honored To Have Their Endorsement"; Trump Rallies In Wisconsin Ahead of Critical Debate; 2 Days Away: Trump & Harris Making Final Debate Preps. Focus Narrows as Trump and Harris Work the Margins; Democrats Fight to Hold Senate Runs Through Pennsylvania; Wanna Bet? Aired 8-9a ET

Aired September 08, 2024 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[08:00:43]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST (voice-over): Face to face.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Is anybody going to be watching?

BROWN: With Harris and Trump set to square off, two pollsters break down brand new numbers this morning.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This race is going to be tight until the very end.

BROWN: Our panel dives into the preparations and how they could go on the offense. Who will come out on top?

Plus, on the trail.

DAVID MCCORMICK (R), PENNSYLVANIA U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm the underdog. There's no doubt about that.

BROWN: Manu goes one on one with both candidates in a key race that could decide control of the Senate.

SEN. BOB CASEY (D-PA): I don't care what they spend. I'm going to win this race.

And upping the ante. Who the betting markets think will have the upper hand Tuesday?

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

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(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN (on camera): Good morning. And welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Pamela Brown in for Manu Raju.

In just two days, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will meet for the very first time at the presidential debate. It could be the only time they face off. And a new poll out this morning from "The New York Times" reminds us just how crucial the debate could be. There is still no leader in this incredibly tight race.

Harris's campaign announced today that she and running mate Tim Walz will campaign in North Carolina and Pennsylvania later this week.

And then yesterday in Pittsburgh, Harris was relishing a new endorsement from two staunch conservatives, former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I am honored to have their endorsement, and I think that, what they both as leaders who are well respected, are making an important statement that it's okay and if not important to put country above party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Trump, meanwhile, is rejecting traditional debate prep. At a rally in Wisconsin yesterday, he floated a barrage of new ideas for a next administration playing directly to his base.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Your son leaves the house and you say, Jimmy, I love you so much. Go have a good day in school. And your son comes back with a brutal operation.

We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education.

Finally, I will support modifying the 25th Amendment to make clear that if a vice president lies or engages in a conspiracy to cover up the incapacity of the president of the United States, if you do that with a cover up of the president of the United States, it's grounds for impeachment immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Let's break this all down with CNN's Jeff Zeleny, "Punchbowl's" Anna Palmer, Mario Parker from "Bloomberg News", and "The Daily Beast", Joanna Coles.

We have an all star panel with us on this Sunday morning, and I'm going to kick it off here with my colleague Jeff Zeleny.

I mean, the stakes really could not be higher when you look toward this debate, right, on Tuesday and both candidates are prepping, though in different ways. Tell us what you're hearing from your sources. JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning,

Pam. They couldn't be higher. And if debates you think don't matter, just think back to June. Debates changed the course of this presidential race, potentially even history here.

But, look, no American presidential candidate has debated more than Donald Trump. This will be his seventh general election presidential debate.

What that means is Kamala Harris has a lot of game tape to watch, and I'm told she has been watching all of those old debates with Hillary Clinton back in 2016, three of them, as well as, of course, the Biden debates from 2020. And she was watching in real time that June debate, as all of America was, of course.

But that is what she's focusing on. But look for her. There is a big opportunity. Her advisers tell me that they believe this is an opportunity for her to not only not necessarily define Trump, he is defined in the minds of people.

So I'm told this is not going to be a replay of 2016 where Hillary Clinton called him out, you know, saying he's misogynistic, et cetera. She's going to be focusing on policies, but then also trying to define herself before he can do that.

There are still so many questions about what she stands for. "The New York Times" poll this morning shows that there's still a lot of room for her to fill in the gaps here.

[08:05:01]

So she is has a couple different objectives, but one is answering more questions about her rather than raising them about him.

BROWN: Right, 28 percent of those polled actually said that they still have more to learn about her. So this -- this is an opportunity. But it also carries a lot of risk for Kamala Harris.

MARIO PARKER, BLOOMBERG WHITE HOUSE & POLITICS TEAM LEADER: Yeah. No absolutely. And to Jeff's point, I mean, the campaign has talked about this Kamala curiousness, right, that's out there within the electorate.

And so to his point, that we do see the campaign, they plan to try to define her, to get her story out, to have some type of narrative about her background as well. Part of the -- from what I understand from sources, part of her debate prep is to put things in simple terms. So she's not speaking as much as a prosecutor as well.

But then of course, and I mean, you have to when you're dealing with Donald Trump, muted mics or, or otherwise, she's going to find a way to try to get under his skin, throw him off track and make him kind of appeal to some of his worst instincts.

BROWN: I wonder to get your perspective on this, because so far on the trail, she's largely avoided talking about race and gender. What do you think, as you look toward this debate? Is that something that she should get into or not?

JOANNA COLES, CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, THE DAILY BEAST: Well, I think what's really interesting about this debate is actually television. We must never forget is Donald Trump's natural medium. He's incredibly talented at it.

And actually, as far as we know, Kamala's natural medium is the courtroom. She's very good as a prosecutor. That's where she feels confident.

It's going to be very interesting to see if she can bring those skills. She's clearly not leaning into the fact that she will be the first woman. She will be the first Black woman, first Indian woman to actually be in that role.

She's going to have to bring an energy and a television celebrity confidence, which we've certainly seen at the DNC, but we haven't actually seen on television. And I think that the interview she did on CNN with Dana Bash wasn't showing Kamala at her best, actually.

And you could see that she doesn't have actually the producing skills that Donald Trump has. Donald Trump understands how he appears on television. He understands his energy. It's incredibly compelling.

Even if you don't like anything, he says, even if he lies, all of the time, he brings an incredible, compelling energy. And that's what she's actually up against.

BROWN: How do you think the muted mics will impact that energy?

ANNA PALMER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS FOUNDER & CEO: Well, clearly that's not what her campaign wanted, right? I think they wanted to have that kind of unscripted moment, the ability to probably in real time fact check Donald Trump when he went off the rails.

I do think that's going to be very interesting to see, is how she deals with some of the issues, like abortion, where Donald Trump has been every single way and kind of hasn't figured out how he's going to respond to that, how does she kind of take some of these issues where she's had a leg up? Can she actually deliver in the debate format and kind of land some punches on those issues?

BROWN: Well, let's take a listen to some of the new ads from the Harris campaign on Project 2025, and abortion rights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: Trump's Project 2025 agenda will give him unchecked political power with no guardrails, and it would take Black America backwards.

AD NARRATOR: He told us who he was.

QUESTION: Should abortion be punished?

TRUMP: There has to be some form of punishment. AD NARRATOR: Then he showed us --

TRUMP: For 54 years, they were trying to get rid of Roe v. Wade terminated and I did it. And I'm proud to have done it.

AD NARRATOR: Now, Donald Trump wants to go further.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: I wonder what you think about that being her focus this week, Jeff.

ZELENY: Look, I mean, Project 2025, which is loosely, you know, a roadmap potentially for a second Trump administration that he has tried to distance himself from. It really has taken hold among voters far more than I thought it would a few months ago. She's been talking about it endlessly.

But if you look at that new "New York Times" poll out this morning, I mean, I was really surprised at the majority of people who said they're familiar and sort of worried about Project 2025. So I think that ad that she has been using to drive this home, obviously, it's telegraphing what she will say at the debate on on a Tuesday is effective, there's no doubt.

But abortion rights hangs over this campaign for all the differences. We talk a lot about 2016, 2020, the reason this is an entirely different race is because of the Dobbs decision. And we will find out in a presidential campaign and a presidential race, the resonance of this issue.

It's not been tested before. It has in midterms, of course, but she clearly wants to, you know, improve her standing among women and widen the gender gap, which is really the heart of this campaign.

And he has squirmed around this issue unlike anything else. His instinct is correct that it's been a loser for Republicans. He's right about that. But he also is sort of in a box on this as well.

So what he says on abortion on Tuesday night in front of the biggest audience he will have, will be certainly telling.

PALMER: And not a base and not just base voters, right? I think what he has really struggled with, and you've seen this time and time again in the last couple of weeks, is Donald Trump can't figure out what his message is on it. And the question is going to be, how does he actually answer this to a very wide audience?

[08:10:05]

Not just base voters, but women, independents, people that are wanting to see where he is on this issue?

And clearly, Democrats, this isn't just a presidential race for issue for them. They are playing this up and down the ballot. They think this is the issue that turns out voters for them and will change this election.

BROWN: Right, because you have to wonder, the abortion referendum is on several ballots in several states, right? I think it's around ten states, if I'm -- if I'm not mistaken.

COLES: But one of the things we also know is that Donald Trump is prepping for this debate by already attacking ABC so that he can say that the ground that they're playing on is actually unfair. We've seen him go after George Stephanopoulos, who isn't even part of the debate. But we know that they're in legal action together. He's going after Dana Walden, who's the co-chair of Disney and ABC TV, and saying this is unfair for him.

The only person and we wrote about this in the piece this week that he hasn't gone after is David Muir, because he loves David Muir. David Muir is a winner. He's a winner in the ratings. And I think Donald Trump wants to be wants to associate himself. He wants the sort of proximity to the winning qualities of David Muir to rub off on him.

But he's fully prepping by every time he goes on telly or when he's talking at his rallies criticizing ABC.

BROWN: He's laying the groundwork just like he is with the election, right? I mean, it's just like with the election. Well, if I lose, it's because it was rigged. If I, you know, don't come out as a winner in the debate, it's because ABC, you know, is rigged against me. Like you point out, George Stephanopoulos, not the actual debate moderator.

COLES: Right, nothing to do with George Papadopoulos, as he calls him. And, you know that Kamala is studying all the policy statements. And Donald is just thinking, you know, how can I go on the attack here and undermine the whole thing? It's an incredible it's an incredible philosophy.

PALMER: And we saw him say, say just as much in his Friday news conference where he talked about Republicans need to get better at working the referees, right. So we see him doing some of that right now to that point.

But going back to Project 2025, just speaking to Republicans and Democrats alike, they're both surprised about just how much has penetrated the psyche of the electorate. And each time that Donald Trump says things like he did last night in a Truth Social post about remaking the government, consolidating power under the Department of Justice, doing away with the Department of Education, it makes it that much harder for him to distance himself from that platform, because those are some of the very tenants that are in there.

BROWN: That's interesting. He has tried to distance himself, right. But then, as you point out, he undermines it by making comments like that.

All right. Stay with us, more to discuss.

Coming up, two pollsters join us to tell us what Harris and Trump need to do to pull ahead on Tuesday. Plus, we take a stroll down memory lane for clues about how the

candidates will handle that make or break debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I have --

HARRIS: I'm speaking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:18]

BROWN: Great expectations. Tuesday night brings a debate stage clash that the country has never seen before. You have Donald Trump squaring off against Kamala Harris.

And while the pair have never shared the same stage, the pass does give us some clues about what it might look like and sound like when the two meet under the bright lights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, Joe, I ran because of you. I ran because of Barack Obama, because you did a poor job.

HARRIS: Women are the majority of the population in this country. People need to keep their hands off of women's bodies and let women make the decisions about their own lives.

TRUMP: These are wars that will never end with him. He will drive us into World War Three.

HARRIS: This is about a pattern of Donald Trump's, where he has referred to our men who are serving in our military as suckers and losers.

TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: But with only one debate on the campaign calendar, at least for now, will either candidate change up their strategy in a bid to change the dynamics of this race?

My panel is back to discuss this.

You know, there is the question, can Harris score some memorable moments on stage? We talked about the mics being muted, and we talked about the fact that, you know, she is relatively inexperienced compared to Donald Trump. She has debated before. We remember, of course, when she debated against Mike Pence and of course, when she was running for president the first time.

But what do you think?

COLES: Well, I think television is an incredibly visual medium, which is often overlooked when people discuss things like the debates. And the one thing that we know Donald Trump is actually thinking about is how good looking Kamala is.

She is fabulous. She's got gorgeous skin, hair. She has great presence. Whether or not she can really translate it on television, we'll know a bit more on Tuesday.

But we know that it gets under his skin because at a rally, he actually said, you know, they say she's good looking. She was on the cover of "Time Magazine", right?

And you remember he compared her to an actress and said, she looks like Sophia Loren slightly dating himself. But he went, I'm better looking than Kamala, I'm better looking. And you're like, Good Lord, I've never heard a man compare himself to a woman and say, I'm better looking.

So you know that against Joe Biden, he certainly brought a different kind of energy and a more televisual good look.

I think the visual comparison between them is going to be much more important than people are discussing. And it's almost as, if not more important than actually what they say.

BROWN: And we saw how important the visual comparison was in the debate with Biden, right. And now -- now you have this.

ZELENY: It absolutely is. And now he's the candidate, 20 years her senior.

[08:20:01]

But look, one of the questions at the heart of this campaign for the next eight weeks is who is seen as a candidate for change? Is it her or is it Donald Trump?

And the times poll this morning shows that only 25 percent see that she is the candidate for change, more than 50 percent believe that he is. So that is her challenge here, that she has to put some distance between herself and the Biden administration, which we've seen her do this week on the economy and a few other issues.

But also, is she the change candidate? Every election is a change election per se. So that is her, sort of challenge here to talk more about the future and about her rather than defending the Biden administration.

But that is what he is trying to do, try and tie her to the policies of the moment and the past. But look, she is a change candidate in some respects, just look at her. I mean, just her whole being shows that she would be a different kind of candidate. BROWN: Right? And as we talked earlier, she hasn't really talked

about the fact that point, right?

ZELENY: She lets others do it for her.

BROWN: She does.

ZELENY: At the convention.

I mean, when everyone else is wearing a white, she was wearing navy blue.

BROWN: Exactly.

COLES: And Hillary -- Hillary was the one that talked about breaking the glass ceiling, because obviously that's what's associated with what Hillary was trying to do. But Kamala's freed herself from the identity politics of it. She's just going -- she hopes for policy.

BROWN: But the bottom line is this will be the first time that Donald Trump debates a woman since Hillary Clinton. And you have to wonder how -- how is he going to navigate this?

PALMER: Absolutely. And I think when he was debating Hillary Clinton, it was also the Clinton history that he could kind of poach on to that where he has had a really hard time trying to figure out to say not sexist things, not racist things. How can she kind of use this to her advantage? Not talk about maybe her history, but define herself?

And I think also not get too in the weeds. I think the big thing for when you look at Kamala Harris is that she can, can she make some zippy quotes? Can she take the Donald Trump and find the viral moment, as it were, that she's going to need to kind of energize people to say, hey, she's -- she's smart, but she also brings a new energy to this campaign.

BROWN: Yeah. And it's also worth mentioning just how Donald Trump is doing with female voters according to the polls, not so good. And so that's part of the dynamic, too, as he, you know, goes on stage to debate Kamala Harris.

And you have this quote from Hillary Clinton that was in "The New York Times". I want to read it out loud. She said she just should not be baited. She should bait him.

He can be rattled. He doesn't know how to respond to substantive direct attacks.

PARKER: And that's to the point right where he said, no puppet, no puppet. That's the subtext that Hillary Clinton is speaking about there.

We would expect Kamala Harris to try to land one of those punches. Her most memorable debate performances are when she attacked Joe Biden. I am that little girl on the busing desegregation, right?

Also, just in terms of Mike Pence, I'm speaking, Mr. Vice President. So we'll expect her to try to land some of those points as well.

I want to go back to another point. Just on identity politics. When you speak to some of Kamala Harris's advisers, they say it's not a winning thing for her to just point it out. She just her very presence to Jeff's point, shows that, right?

Hillary Clinton broke the glass ceiling. That was part of her campaign. Barack Obama was the first African-American president, as well. Why bother yourself further, especially for those Midwest voters, those non-educated, those uneducated, non-educated -- non- college educated, excuse me, Midwest voters that you have to try to eke out in places like Michigan and Wisconsin.

Why try to lean into that identity politics and then give Republicans a cudgel to say that that's all that Democrats do?

BROWN: Right, and we've seen her also try to move more moderate, more to the center. You have to wonder at this point is, has she been convincing enough to get those voters that you're talking about?

COLES: But there's no logic to something like this, right? And there's no logic when you're dealing with Donald Trump. It's not a straightforward debate. He does what he wants in the moment.

And the thing that he does have is a feral instinct for homing in on the thing that actually unsettles his opponent. He did it with Hillary. We saw it.

And she's a fantastically competent debater, but it was hard for her to sort of match some of the things he did, not least the fact that he was patrolling her around the stage at one point.

So I think Kamala has to a hit some really good short sound bites, and she doesn't want to get into a word salad. She should keep her answers short too, because you can see her sometimes over-thinking herself when she's talking live, but there's no logic to what he does. He's an entertainer and he's going to set out to be the entertainer in chief on Tuesday, and she has to keep it real short, and she has to introduce who she is.

BROWN: And she's no doubt prepping for those moments when, presumably Donald Trump will lob that personal attack against her.

ZELENY: Without a doubt. I mean, she's been in Pittsburgh, not surprisingly, western Pennsylvania is one of the most important swing parts of a swing state.

[08:25:01]

So she's been preparing for all of this quite literally, with a lot of advisers from the Clinton campaign of 2016. Philippe Reines, who we all know, of course, is playing Donald Trump with the oversize suit, the long tie. And she has all of that, history to learn from, I think, which is key.

BROWN: For sure. All right. Thank you all so much for your insights and perspective.

Up next, ahead of the debate, voters put their faith in Trump to fix the economy. But is that enough for him to win in November? And how will his comments on childcare play? Two top polling experts will be here next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: With the debate just days away, the focus of both campaigns is growing narrower. CNN's poll of polls, newly updated this morning shows just how tight this race remains even as Americans learn more about Vice President Harris.

So who exactly are the voters each candidate still needs to win over. Two polling experts are here to provide some insights for us. CNN political commentator and Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson and Democratic pollster Margie Omero. Great to see both of you.

So I want to start with you, Margie, on the Democratic side of things. You know, we've seen this sugar-high as it relates to Kamala Harris. Where is that sugar-high now? Is it waning at all?

MARGIE OMERO, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, GBAO: Well, I think we need to push back on the phrase "sugar-high". I can see why people wanted to use it in the first week or two, but this is where Kamala Harris' vote is right now because of the consolidation with Democrats. That was something that happened really right away and has not receded.

So you see Democrats --

BROWN: So it wasn't a sugar-high? It was --

OMERO: Well, I mean, I think to say it's a sugar high as to say, we have some insight of what's going to happen in the future but right now the actual -- the polls are quite stable.

And what we expect to see a completely divided race, a politically- divided electorate, Democrats who are enthusiastic and motivated to vote for Harris.

But there are Republicans who are still motivated and excited to vote for Donald Trump. So those things have not changed and the fact that the national polls and even the state polls show very little fluctuation and a lot of stability at a tied race, it shows that it's not actually a sugar-high. It's really the reality of this race right now.

BROWN: Yes. It's really neck and neck. But what's interesting is when you look at this latest poll out from "The New York Times", opinions about Trump are baked in, but 28 percent of the voters say that they still want to learn more about Kamala Harris. They need to know more about her. How significant is that KRISTEN SOLIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's huge. It's why the debate that's happening this week matters so much because voters do know exactly how they feel about Donald Trump.

And right now, if you like Donald Trump, you're voting for Donald Trump. Right now those voters who don't like Donald Trump, there is a small but very significant portion of them who are the ones who are going to say, I don't like him personally similarly, but I think his policies were better.

So that's why in this debate over the next week, if Harris wants to win these voters over, she's got a credibly make the case to them. No, no, no. I'm not what you think. I'm not super progressive. I'm actually in the center. I'm the one that's going to have the policies you'll want.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, as he said at the convention, you know, though you don't have to wonder what the next four years would be like. My administration, you already saw what it was like under me. And voters do have positive memories about at least the economy in the way that was going under his presidency.

BROWN: Yes. And the question is, how convincing has she been? Will she be moving forward of being more moderate to those Independents and those questioning Republicans.

And in "The New York Times" there is this quote from a Pennsylvania voter on that note that says "Everybody says if I don't vote, it's a vote for Trump. I guess I have to vote. I'm not going to love it. I'm not going to enjoy it. I'm not going to have fun. There might be wine afterwards."

I think a lot of voters are going to be having wine after voting.

ANDERSON: Yes. So that was from a focus group that I conducted of moderate voters in Pennsylvania. And many of these voters, they felt pretty set in what they were going to do, but it wasn't 100 percent.

And the big X factor for many of them was what does Kamala Harris want to do as president. For all that those of us who work in politics feel like we know her real well, one of the other respondents described it as you know if you're vice president, you expect to see them warming up in the bullpen and they didn't feel like they've seen Kamala Harris warming up in the proverbial bullpen.

So they didn't yet feel 100 percent comfortable that they knew what an administration of hers would look like.

OMERO: Well, if you look at the advertising that's coming from the Trump campaign and his allies and what's coming from the Harris campaign and her allies, you'll actually see that she is running a lot of positive ads.

And we hear people in focus groups all the time that say -- people say, I want to know what the candidates are going to do. Don't just tell me what the other side is going to do. And in fact, you're hearing both of those things from the Harris

campaign. And the Trump campaign is just negative its only negative, its negative, very specifically about Harris.

There -- there's almost no positive track whatsoever coming from Trump campaign. And so it really does speak to the fact that, you know, people are hearing more about what Harris is doing.

And in "The New York Times" poll, the folks who said I want to hear more, a lot of them are already Harris voters. There are a lot of Trump voters who say, I know what I need to know because there are Republicans who are going to vote for the Republican and that's what they're going to do.

There are Harris voters who say, I would like to know more. I think those voters are going to stick with Kamala Harris. We've seen this incredible consolidation. Even if they're saying, I'm interested in knowing more.

BROWN: The question is what more can she do when it comes to the messaging on her economic policy? She has been -- she's tried to get out there and, you know, let voters know what her policy is. But when it comes to the economy, a top issue for voters, Trump is still ahead in the polls.

[08:34:54]

ANDERSON: He is, and that's in part because he retains this brand of being a business guy, even though he's been the president of the United States. Even though he's been a very controversial political figure, there are still a lot of voters that think of him as being a business guy first and foremost.

And so that gives him that credibility on the economy, especially considering that voters don't feel very good about the way things are right now. They really didn't trust Joe Biden on the economy.

Harris has had an opportunity to say, oh no, no, I would turn the page, but right now it's still an open question if with those key swing voters is that message going to stick.

BROWN: And there is still this gender gap we are talking about in the earlier segment, you know, when it comes to Kamala Harris not doing it as well with male voters, Donald Trump not doing as well with female voters.

And then this past week, you had these sort of unscripted meandering answers on childcare policy. You heard it from Trump, I believe we have sound. And then J.D. Vance also tried to weigh and didn't really help their situation.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that because of childcare and stuff -- couldn't, you know, it is something you have to have it. In this country, you have to have it.

J.D. VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: One of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for daycare is make it so that, you know, maybe like grandma or grandpa wants to help out a little bit more. Or maybe there's an aunt or uncle the wants to help out a little bit more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: We should note that J.D. Vance then went on Twitter and gave a more nuanced description.

But it didn't get the pickup or the, you know, amount of attention as that did. How much do answers like that hurt the credibility of Trump and Vance in help, you know, Harris.

OMERO: It's terrible. Look I mean, gender gap has a lot to do with party differences and party identification differences between the two parties. That underlying fundamental has been happening for a long time.

But that's not going to close the gap. I mean, kudos to my friend Reshma Saujani (ph) who asked that question because it showed that Trump has no fluency in the topic, no interest in the topic. Nothing. Couldn't even muddle through an answer.

BROWN: You have to wonder if he's asked that on the debate stage. Do you believe that the answer would be less meandering. What do you think?

ANDERSON: Yes. These are issues that all tie back to cost of living, which is the biggest issue that voters care about, whether it's paying for health care, whether it's paying for childcare, whether it's paying for groceries. You've got to have answers on all these.

BROWN: All right. Thank you both.

Up next Manu hits the trail to talk with both candidates in one of the swingiest senate races, in the nation. Does Democrat Bob Casey cling too tightly to the new nominee. And will Republican Dave McCormick say it says he disagrees with Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: would you consider yourself a Biden-Harris Democrat?

Do you consider yourself a MAGA Republican?

[08:37:33]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Democrats are in the middle of a tough battle to hold onto control of the Senate this fall with Democratic senators in red and purple states across the country fighting to keep their seats.

And that includes Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. He's being challenged by Republican David McCormick and new CNN polling out this week shows it is neck and neck.

Manu's not here with us in person today, obviously but he did travel to the Keystone State this past week where he hit the trail with both candidates and brought back this report about their critical race.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Senator Bob Casey is sounding the alarm.

SEN. BOB CASEY (D-PA): I need your help in this race.

RAJU: As is a three-term Democrat, campaigns with Vice President Kamala Harris, Casey is locked in a dead heat against Republican David McCormick and about to get swamped by a GOP bombardment on the airway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the border was secure, chances are my son would be alive today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harris and Casey, dangerous radicals.

RAJU: McCormick and his allies are preparing to spend more than $100 million on air in just the final two months of the campaign. More than half from an outside group designed solely to help the Republicans. All giving Republicans a roughly $40 million on-air advantage over Democrats, an edge bigger than any other Senate race.

CASEY: I think I'm the underdog. I don't have a personal super PAC funded by Wall Street billionaire. I don't care what they spend. I'm going to going to win this race but it's going to be a really difficult race.

RAJU: With the West Virginia seat almost certain to turn red, Democrats must hang on to Pennsylvania and seven other seats simply to keep the Senate at 50-50.

KAMALA HARRIS (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Bob Casey will help us do that.

RAJU: But a new CNN/SSRS poll finds that Casey-McCormick race at age 46-46 tie. And since 2016, the GOP has cut into Democrat voter registration advantage in the state.

DAVE MCCORMICK (R-PA), SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm the underdog, there's no doubt about that. But the reason the race is closing is that Senator Casey is just out of touch with Pennsylvanians. He's been a week senator.

RAJU: As he stumped in rural Pennsylvania last week, McCormick aligned himself with Donald Trump up to a point.

Trump had said that he'd won Pennsylvania in 2020, that it was stolen from him. Do you agree with him? MCCORMICK: I don't believe the election was stolen. So President Trump

and I don't agree on everything but we agree on a lot of things.

RAJU: Do you consider yourself a MAGA Republican?

MCCORMICK: You know, I consider myself a Dave McCormick Republican. My positions are very much in line with what President Trump has said on policies. I'm a guy that's put America first his whole life.

RAJU: After serving in the military and then working in the Bush administration, McCormick ran a major hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates.

Now fodder for Democratic attack ads like this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dave McCormick got rich --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really rich by investing in China.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: China.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: China.

RAJU: McCormick defended his tenure.

[08:44:49]

MCCORMICK: When you're the -- one of the biggest global investors in the world, 3 percent of its holdings were in China.

RAJU: That's a lot of money though.

MCCORMICK: That's what we're talking about. There's no global firm in the world that doesn't have exposure to China.

RAJU: As Casey attacks McCormick's character, the Republican turning his attention to Casey's ties to Harris.

MCCORMICK: He's voted 98 percent of the time for Biden-Harris.

RAJU: Why are you aligning yourself with her?

CASEY: Look in this state? Her campaign already has brought a real lift to the turnout dynamics.

RAJU: Would you consider yourself a Biden-Harris Democrats?

CASEY: Oh, I don't -- I don't put a label on it.

RAJU: Well, what issues do you break from her on.

CASEY: Oh, I'm not going to try to itemize issues that we might have not a total agreement.

RAJU: In 2022, McCormick lost the senate primary to a Trump-backed opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz. TRUMP: Dr. Oz is running against the liberal Wall Street Republican

named David McCormick, who I've known.

RAJU: But now McCormick has been stumping with Trump and was about to go on stage at the July rally where Trump was nearly killed.

Did you ever think back to that day, think that could have been you.

MCCORMICK: Yes. I didn't think that at the time then I got home that night and talk to all six of my daughters and they were freaked out.

RAJU: But McCormick's positions in 2022 are inviting fresh scrutiny including comments at a debate when he did not mention his support of abortion exceptions for rape or incest.

MCCORMICK: I believe in the very rare instances, there should be exceptions for life of the mother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dave McCormick praised the Supreme Court.

RAJU: Now, turned into a series of attack ads.

You only talked about life of the mother. Why did you always talk about that?

MCCORMICK: I said before the debate, after the bait, over and over again that I support all three exceptions. In the debate I didn't say I was against the other exceptions. I simply said that I was for that exception.

RAJU: Will you codified Roe v Wade, if you had a chance to vote for it, would you.

MCCORMICK: my position is very clear. I think the state should decide, voters should decide.

RAJU: Casey had previously harbored anti-abortion views including saying this in 2002.

CASEY: My position has always been a pro-life position.

Well, my position has always been the favoring the one exception for the life of the mother.

RAJU: Now, Casey says the Dobbs decision overturning Roe has changed the dynamic.

Do you still consider yourself pro-life?

CASEY: I don't think those terms mean much anymore. I really think that the choice now before -- before the American people is if you support a ban, which means you support the overturning of Roe and all that comes with it. Or you support this right? And I do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And our thanks to Manu for that story.

Our panel is back with us now. (INAUDIBLE) to start with you. When you look at Bob Casey, why do you think he is having a tougher time compared to other Democratic candidates in these top Senate races who were outperforming the top of the ticket.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think Pennsylvania is a tough state for Democrats. Bob Casey is always in a tight race every single time. He has advantages though with the Casey name. His father was in politics. The fact that he's been a senator for quite a while.

And I think when you see what they're trying to do on attacking China and abortion, those are going to be two of the big issues that Democrats play over -- over and over again as they try to eat into and continue to try to edge up those numbers on the voting.

And they're going to look the Kamala Harris to actually help deliver some of those votes.

BROWN: Do you think Donald Trump is helping Dave McCormick, Kamala Harris already (ph) Bob Casey, a combination of both.

MARIO PARKER, BLOOMBERG, WHITE HOUSE & POLITICS TEAM LEADER: Well, what's interesting is it's just the Penn (ph) state, right, that they have because given their history in 2022 midterms where he backed Mehmet Oz even though McCormick had a slew of former Donald Trump aides on the campaign.

It's a calculation I think that for Trump, that he could bring McCormick across the finish line. And just looking at some of the swing state polls, most of the other Republicans have been trailing Trump by about four or five points.

He's right there with them, so they're hoping to ride each other's coattails.

BROWN: Yes. I mean, Pennsylvania is so key -- going to be the key to just -- not just control of the Senate, but also the White House.

JOANNA COLES, CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, "DAILY BEAST": Yes and I should declare a conflict of interest here. I'm actually a good friend of David McCormick's wife, Dina Powell, who as you know, national -- deputy national security adviser to Donald Trump in his first year.

but I do think the fentanyl deaths play into this a lot. There've been 4,000 in Pennsylvania alone in the last year, which is incredibly high.

And I know that one of David's ads has really gone viral, the local policeman talking about his own son dying from it. And these really difficult issues to resolve.

And you saw there that Bob Casey, he's got low energy around this. He's talking quite -- I mean, he's got a squirrely position on abortion and he's low energy.

BROWN: All right.

Thank you all so much for that.

FanDuel for politics, bettors walk online to put money on, well, everything from a handshake to who will win Tuesday's debate just as a judge may have opened the door to wagering on U.S. elections. That's next.

[08:49:42]

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BROWN: With the presidential debate just two days away, the prediction markets online have people betting on everything from whether Harris and Trump will win, to whether they will shake hands.

Polymarket is one online prediction market where people can use cryptocurrency to place bets on sports, politics and more. Ahead of Tuesday's showdown, 28 percent of people think the two candidates will shake hands; 70 percent think Trump will speak more than Harris; and 61 percent think Harris will gain more in the polls after the debate ends.

[08:54:51]

BROWN: And asked for what the candidates will say, abortion and Project 2025 are among the top words or phrases people are betting Harris will bring up.

And there's also McDonald's where the vice president worked during the summer in college, according to her.

And for Trump, some of the top phrases are fake news. Of course, along with border czar, Marxist and Comrade Kamal all titles Trump has used to attack Harris on the trail.

But if you're a U.S. resident looking to join in betting on elections in the U.S. has long been mostly illegal, although that may all change as soon as this week, according to "The Wall Street Journal", which reported that on Friday, a federal judge ruled in favor of another prediction market platform that wants to let Americans place bets on the outcome of congressional elections.

The government can still appeal that ruling.

And of course, be sure to follow CNN for complete coverage and exclusive analysis before and after the ABC News presidential debate simulcast Tuesday night at nine eastern on CNN.

Well, that's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X and Instagram @PamelaBrownCNN and follow the show @INSIDE POLITICS.

And if you ever miss an episode you can catch up wherever you get your podcasts, search for Inside Politics.

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH. Dana's guests include former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, as well as Senators Tom Cotton and John Fetterman.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.

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