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Inside Politics

Harris & Trump Face Off In Critical Debate Tomorrow; Poll: 28 percent of Likely Voters Say They Need To Learn More About Harris; New Polls Show Statistical Dead Head In PA, MI, And WI; One-on-One With Senate Candidate Angela Alsobrooks. Aired 12:00a-12:30a ET

Aired September 09, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Today on INSIDE POLITICS, great expectations. We are just 33 hours away from Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, meeting face to face for the first and potentially only time before votes are cast. We're going to break down how the candidates are preparing for the debate, showdown tomorrow night.

Plus, mind games. The Harris campaign is clearly trying to get into Donald Trump's head, releasing a new ad featuring his former vice president, defense secretary, and national security adviser, all explaining why they think their old boss is unfit for a second term.

And Melania speaks. We hear but don't see the former first lady in a new video promoting her memoir, while claiming there are, quote, "efforts to silence her husband." Could this be a sign of more campaign comments or even appearances to come? Or is this just a clever marketing tool for her upcoming book?

We're also going to give you an update on breaking news from across the pond regarding the health of Catherine, Princess of Wales.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and INSIDE POLITICS.

First up, debates matter. We all saw it 74 days ago right here on CNN when one debate completely upended this presidential race and the stakes are just as high, in different ways, for tomorrow night, because in some states, early voting starts in just 11 days, which means that debate stage will likely be the candidate's last chance to make their case to those all-important undecided voters.

It will also be the first time Donald Trump and Kamala Harris meet, literally. The Vice President talked about the big night in a taped interview with the Rickey Smiley morning show that aired earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE (via telephone): He plays from this really old and tired playbook, right, where he -- there's 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNNS Jeff Zeleny is here with us now from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, one of those critical collar counties around Philadelphia, Bucks County. What are you hearing from voters there, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Dana, there is no doubt there will be a global audience on this debate, but it is the voters here in Pennsylvania, really across the commonwealth, that are perhaps the most important audience of all here as Vice President Harris and Donald Trump do have their very first meeting.

We know that because look at the spending. There is no battleground state that has seen more advertising, spending some $157 million. Democrats have a slightly edge on that, but Republicans also spending more than 70 million here. So look, the backdrop of this is a very, very tight race.

The Vice President has been preparing all weekend long for five days in Pittsburgh, the western part of the state. I'm told she has one objective overall to still introduce herself to some voters who may be exhausted at the notion of a second Donald Trump presidency, but also who are not sure about her. So to fill in some of those gaps and also to be seen as the candidate of change.

For Donald Trump, of course, he wants to tie her to the Biden administration. So talking to voters as they begin to tune in, there's a bit of a sense of exhaustion as well. Of course, they've been living and breathing this debate for a very long time on television with candidate visits. But the head to head contest tomorrow evening in Philadelphia here certainly is likely one of the biggest final moments of this debate. So voters certainly will be tuning in, paying attention because they know that once they vote, they can tune out some of those advertisements that have just been deluging them here.

But there is no doubt a big moment. And the slice of undecided voters, they are still out there. Sometimes they seem as though they're unicorns. They are out there. So that is what both Harris and Trump are going after tomorrow night, Dana.

BASH: I absolutely do not think that you see real life unicorns. They exist. I believe that. Jeff Zeleny, thanks for your great reporting as always. I'm joined now here at the table by other fantastic reporter, CNN's Manu Raju; The Washington Post's Leigh Ann Caldwell, and CNN's Isaac Dovere. Hello, everybody --

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.

BASH: -- on debate eve. Isaac, you talk often to Harris campaign officials and people in her orbit, what's the latest that you are hearing about how she's feeling inside debate camp? EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Look, they have been preparing for this debate since before the Biden and Trump debate. And of course, it was originally geared to be a vice presidential debate to kind of launch into a 2028 campaign.

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This has been something that they've worked on. They want her to come across as her, as a normal human being, that's a big part of the thinking here. But also as strong and confident. Not going through different policy positions like Joe Biden tried to do, but tripping Trump up whenever she can, letting Trump trip whenever she can make that happen, and then just making herself presented to the American people as someone that they can see as president.

We can forget almost just how little most people know about her. Of course, we're all paying so much attention to her. But this is other than the interview that she did with you, Dana, she has not had an unscripted moment since she became the Democratic nominee for president.

BASH: Yeah. And there's a poll out this weekend asking that very question, "Do you feel like you need to learn more?" Kamala Harris, 28 percent; Donald Trump, 9 percent. We were joking, like, who are the 9 percent who don't know all about Donald Trump? Kamala Harris makes a little bit more sense since she's a relatively new candidate at the top of the ticket.

Manu, I do want to talk about the way Donald Trump has been preparing for this debate, not so much about the mechanics of it and the informality of it and all of the things that we have told, but what he is saying on the stump and on his social media platform. He's going back to election denialism, threatening voters -- excuse me, threatening poll workers, both past and present and future, talking about mail-in ballots being fraudulent, which I'm sure that really thrills the people who are trying to win Pennsylvania for him.

But then also this truth, cease and desist. I, together with many attorneys and legal scholars, am watching the sanctity of the 2024 presidential election very closely because I know better than most the rampant cheating skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 presidential election. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, prosecuted at levels unfortunately never seen before in our country.

If I'm a swing voter -- well, first of all, we should also say, just for the record, there is no evidence that what he said is true. It went through in 2020. All of the courts, including Trump appointed judges, they did not see any evidence, nor is there evidence yet that anything that he is suggesting will happen, will in this election.

But going back to sort of the politics of this particular argument, do you know any swing voters who hear this and say, oh, OK, so I better vote for Donald Trump?

RAJU: Yeah. I mean, this is the reason why that Harris wanted the microphones unmuted, because he could say things like this and pop off in ways that will make him look unelectable to a lot of voters who want to move on past the 2020 elections. The challenge for Trump is going to try to make Harris look like someone who's going to be a continuation of the last several years and that he can actually represent a serious change to something completely, totally different.

Because voters in that New York Times CNN poll made clear they are tired of the status quo. They're tired of -- 61 percent want to break from Joe Biden, but they don't necessarily want to go back to all the chaos from the Trump years and all the things that he's been saying. So can Harris draw out Trump to say things like that that will undercut his credibility in the eyes of those swing voters? That is something that Joe Biden was not able to do in the last debate where Harris wants to change.

BASH: And I don't want to just for one second set aside the politics of this and just talk about the danger of what I just read and what the former president continues to do. We saw it bear out on January 6, we talked about this book that I coauthored, which I wish I knew a lot more about what happened in 1872 in this country before I covered the 2020 election.

Because when you sow the seeds of doubt and when you threaten people who are supposed to be in charge of counting votes, it has real life impact and potential potentially could lead to violence.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CO-AUTHOR, THE WASHINGTON POST'S EARLY BRIEF NEWSLETTER: Absolutely, Dana. It's twofold. It's the intimidation factor that you just talked about people who are working at the polls, the elected officials, what's happening in Georgia, how Donald Trump is trying to persuade the Georgia -- the new Georgia Election Board to move forward with these pretty draconian rules and what the governor -- Republican governor is going to do there, but it also has to do with the people who do support him.

Donald Trump has successfully and effectively convinced a large portion of the American public that the last election was stolen. He is trying to already do the same again. It's because he is scared. He does not like what he sees in the polls. He has done this in every single election he has run in 2016, 2020, and he's doing it again in 2024. It's the same old playbook.

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It had consequences in 2020, and it could very well have consequences here in 2024.

RAJU: Kamala Harris wants nothing more than for him to say the election was stolen.

BASH: And I want to pick up on some of your reporting about what's happening in the Harris camp and I want you to listen to what Pete Buttigieg said. He actually helped her prepare for her debate against Vice President Pence in 2020, debated against her in the primaries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PETE BUTTIGIEG, (D) TRANSPORT SECRETARY: It will take almost superhuman focus and discipline to deal with Donald Trump in a debate. It's no ordinary proposition. Not because Donald Trump is a master of explaining policy ideas and how they're going to make people better off. It's because he's a master of taking any form or format that is on television and turning it into a show that is all about him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOVERE: So when Harris is up on stage, she will be facing Donald Trump in a way that she has never faced anyone quite, right. I reported years ago that when she was preparing to run in 2019, her team then asked her what she would have done if she'd been in the debate with Hillary -- in the Hillary Clinton's spot where Trump was stalking around behind her. And she said that she would turn around and say to him, why are you being so weird, right?

BASH: So she was the one who came up with weird.

DOVERE: She was there in 2018, was when that conversation happened. But they've never met before. The dynamics are strange. They're strange no matter what the debate is. Trump is an unpredictable character in a lot of things that he could do. This is part of why they want the mics to be unmuted. We'll see what happens with that. So far, they will stay muted.

But Harris' job here is to make Trump look unelectable and like the person that Americans won't want to have back. We'll see if she can do that.

BASH: All right, everybody, stand by, we have more to come. Brand new polls show a deadlocked race continues to be the case. So why is Team Trump declaring, quote, "The Harris honeymoon" is officially over? We'll discuss after a quick break.

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BASH: The Harris campaign seems to be trying to psych out their opponent on debate day. Check out who they're highlighting in a new ad that's coming out tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Here's his vice president.

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the United States. It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year.

ANNOUNCER: His defense secretary.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think Trump can be trusted with the nation's secrets ever again? MARK ESPER, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: No. I mean, it's just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation's security at risk.

ANNOUNCER: His national security advisor.

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Donald Trump will cause a lot of damage. The only thing he cares about is Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Pretty remarkable. The ad will play nationally and in Philadelphia where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will meet on the debate stage. It comes as a new CBS YouGov poll shows the candidates tied in the must win commonwealth of Pennsylvania. There's also no clear leader in Michigan or in Wisconsin. These are all three must win states. Or at least in the case of Pennsylvania, must win. Others are perhaps just in the critical column to both candidates as they try to find a path to 270. Everything is a statistical tie at this point. My panel is back with me now.

Manu, what is your sense from talking to your sources about just this battleground map and looking at it, how really remarkable it is, how if you look at all of these states, it's impossible to know right now based on the polls and based on broader data.

RAJU: That's why there was some feeling that when Harris became the candidate, polls were looking great, Democratic enthusiasm was back, the coalition was back together, that some of that was a bit of a rational exuberance at this point. And then the campaign would get back to a traditional Democrat versus Republican slugfest, which is exactly what we're seeing right now, a total flip of the coin. And really, this debate could be the one that could actually change the dynamic or maybe we'll be back where it is.

What will be interesting, and when you're talking to Democrats in particular, how much does she want to make this race an issue about Donald Trump's character, which you saw that ad that was played going with his former Trump officials questioning, saying that he should not be president again.

Democrats believe focusing mostly on -- making it focused on Donald Trump's character. Trump falling into some of those traps, making it about himself saying things about the past, election stolen and like, could it change the dynamic and could disqualify him, for a lot of those suburban voters in those very battleground states where it says is essentially tied.

BASH: And Nate Cohn made a really interesting point in a piece that he wrote over the weekend about, if you look inside The New York Times Siena poll about the question of whether Harris is perceived as too liberal or progressive, this is among likely voters. 56 percent of men say yes, 40 percent of women say yes.

[12:20:00] And the point that Nate made is that this is at hangover from her attempt at running for president in the Democratic primary in the 2019-2020 race, that put her in a disadvantage because it gives Republicans a lot of ammunition.

DOVERE: Certainly some of that. I think some of it is also that she is a black woman. And the association, there tends to be, people think that she must be liberal because of that. You saw that happen -- go back to the 2018 Georgia governor primary there, where Stacey Abrams was running against a white woman who was more liberal than her on the issues. But Stacey Abrams, as the black woman, got raided by a lot of voters as the more liberal candidate in the race.

So Harris has to push back on that. But I think that that's part of why she has not been focusing or even really talking about herself as a woman or as a black candidate. You're not going to see that out of her in the debate tomorrow. She wants to, as I said, talk about things that she wants to do for the middle class, talk about ways that she can project strength, what she wants to do on the world stage, what she wants to do in fighting for Americans.

And at the same time, again, highlight these things that Trump has said and let him continue to say them. I think, honestly, if we were to have Joe Biden read the transcript of what Donald Trump said at the rally that he had in Wisconsin over the weekend, that we would think that he had completely lost it. Hannibal Lecter, all these things.

BASH: Oh.

DOVERE: Yeah.

BASH: Sorry, you were just teeing up my next soundbite. Finish your soundbite. Sorry.

DOVERE: All these things that we do sort of slough off as that's just Donald Trump --

BASH: Yeah.

DOVERE: I think we have a moment here over the next 57 days that we're at of thinking about what it is these two candidates are and what they represent, what they would do. It is the stuff like threatening poll workers and questioning the election. It's also just ranting and raving about things that have no connection to reality at all.

BASH: OK, so I'm anchoring a program and we're not just talking in my office. So I should probably use my inside voice sometimes. But you mentioned Al Capone and Hannibal Lecter. Let's roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been indicted more than Alphonse Capone. I say it all the time. He's sort of the ultimate. You know, he's the ultimate criminal. They say he rambled and started talking about Hannibal Lecter. What does that have to do, that's a representative of people that are coming into our country. Dr. Hannibal Lecter he will have you for dinner.

I knew Putin. I knew him well. And, you know, he endorsed -- I don't know if you saw the other day he endorsed Kamala. He endorsed Kamala. I was very offended by that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOVERE: I wonder if tomorrow she's going to correct him on how to pronounce her name.

BASH: Oh, I thought you were going to say if she's going to ask if he knows that Hannibal Lecter is not a real person.

DOVERE: Or that, too. Look, tomorrow night, Kamala Harris, she, as we saw earlier, you mentioned, I think that there's still 27 percent of people who don't really know a lot about her. Donald Trump presents himself in who he is by himself. Like he presents, people like it, some people hate it. But the challenge for Kamala Harris is to convince people that she has a plan, that she is strong, that she is someone who is able to be president.

You look back at her entire career as a prosecutor, and she has effectively delivered that message over and over again. She has always been a first in any sort of election that she has won: first time woman, woman of color in every single election. And so she has this entire biography. She introduced herself at the convention, and tomorrow she has to prove herself that she is able to be president. And it's going to be that simple, really.

BASH: All right, everybody, thank you so much. To both Isaac and Leigh Ann, stick around because we're going to look at your reporting out of Pennsylvania.

Coming up, though, could Republican control of the Senate come down to a blue state? Democrat, Angela Alsobrooks is in a very tight race with former Republican Governor Larry Hogan, and she will be here in the studio after a quick break.

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[12:25:00]

BASH: The balance of power in the U.S. Senate could very well be decided by a race in deepen blue, Maryland. That's because Republicans see an opening to flip a seat, thanks to the state's former Republican Governor, Larry Hogan, who was well known.

My next guest is trying to ensure that does not happen. Democratic candidate for Senate and Prince George's County Executive, Angela Alsobrooks joins me now.

County Executive Alsobrooks, thank you so much for being here. Now, you have been trying to tie Larry Hogan to the larger Republican Party, particularly Mitch McConnell and the leadership in the Senate. But you are running against somebody who is --