Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2: No handshake at the end of the ABC News presidential debate.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to special coverage simulcast here on Bloomberg TV
Speaker 2: and Radio. I'm Kaylee Lines alongside Joe Matthew in Washington.
Speaker 2: We all just witnessed together more than ninety minutes of
Speaker 2: debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump,
Speaker 2: in which a range of issues were covered, from the
Speaker 2: economy and the border to abortion and foreign policy. There
Speaker 2: was a great deal with policy focus in this debate tonight, Joe,
Speaker 2: though we did see attacks frankly coming from both sides
Speaker 2: against you.
Speaker 3: Shatha.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we should note for our viewers and listeners they
Speaker 4: did go into overtime. That was a debate scheduled to
Speaker 4: end roughly five minutes earlier than it did by the
Speaker 4: time they got the second commercial break in and closing arguments,
Speaker 4: closing statements. That is where we were here, So more
Speaker 4: than a ninety minute romp here, no audience and a
Speaker 4: range of issues. To your point, Kaylee, I think we
Speaker 4: can argue that Kamala Harris had Donald Trump on the
Speaker 4: defense from the start, got into the economy, moved into abortion.
Speaker 4: I think an issue we can agree is favorable to
Speaker 4: her and remarkable to see in this case. ABC News
Speaker 4: fact checking live on a number of important issues which
Speaker 4: we have not seen by a lot of networks so far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that included the issue of abortion, Donald Trump claiming
Speaker 2: that Democrats were supporting including vice presidential nominee Tim Walls,
Speaker 2: nine month abortion bands or execution after birth. ABC did
Speaker 2: a fact check that there is no state in which
Speaker 2: that is legal. We also got a fact check on
Speaker 2: something being propagated in certain circles regarding the town of
Speaker 2: Springfield and the idea that migrants are eating dogs. They
Speaker 2: did reach out to the city manager. ABC did no
Speaker 2: credible reports of pets being taken. We also saw a
Speaker 2: number of other fact checks as well from ABC. It
Speaker 2: is worth pointing out, though that there were a number
Speaker 2: of things that we heard from both frankly that we
Speaker 2: did want to check as well. We heard, once again
Speaker 2: Donald Trump making comments around the border, the idea that
Speaker 2: migrants and criminals are being sent in directly to Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2: Of course, we've heard similar rhetoric before, and Kamala Harris
Speaker 2: herself when I wanted to point out she said no,
Speaker 2: member of the active duty military is currently in a
Speaker 2: combat zone. We would point out just last month, the US,
Speaker 2: together with a rock launched a joint raid targeting the
Speaker 2: Islamic State. Seven American troops were hurt. And of course
Speaker 2: we saw three soldiers killed in Jordan near the Syrian
Speaker 2: border earlier this year.
Speaker 3: There were a few more where that came from.
Speaker 4: Donald Trump said Kamala Harris as a plan to defund
Speaker 4: the police, which she refuted repeatedly over the course of
Speaker 4: this conversation. And she said, he said that she has
Speaker 4: a plan to confiscate everybody's gun. Interesting, Kaylee Kamala Harris
Speaker 4: telling the audience tonight American voters that she as well
Speaker 4: as Tim Walls are gun.
Speaker 3: Owners, which is not something we hear too often.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was something that was raised in her
Speaker 2: primary campaign in twenty nineteen, but of course this is
Speaker 2: a different campaign now. She was pressed during this debate
Speaker 2: about some different policy tune she's singing now compared to
Speaker 2: that the issue of fracking, for example, which she addressed directly.
Speaker 2: Given this debate took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, critical swing state,
Speaker 2: made it clear that she does not support a ban
Speaker 2: on fracking.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 4: David Gura for Bloomberg is standing by in the spin room.
Speaker 3: We're going to connect with him in a moment.
Speaker 4: As the next phase of this operation is the spin itself, Kaylee,
Speaker 4: Democrats and Republicans acting as surrogates for both campaigns are
Speaker 4: filling the spin room right now.
Speaker 3: Why don't we join David Gura.
Speaker 4: He is with Michael Wattley, the co chair of the RNC,
Speaker 4: just moments after the conclusion of this debate.
Speaker 1: David, thanks show, Michael, good to see you, and I'd
Speaker 1: love to just start by getting your sense of how
Speaker 1: that went and sort of what stood out to you.
Speaker 1: I know that there's some focus on policy at the beginning.
Speaker 1: In the end, what did the president former president need
Speaker 1: to do and sort of are you happy with with
Speaker 1: how he comported himself?
Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, Look, the president needed to come out here
Speaker 5: and tell America what he is going to do to
Speaker 5: solve the problems that Americans are facing right now. Every
Speaker 5: American family is facing things like inflation, the invasion at
Speaker 5: the southern border, and frankly our standing in the world.
Speaker 5: And he came out very clearly and said that he
Speaker 5: is going to stop the Southern invasion, at the border.
Speaker 5: He's going to seal the border. He said that he
Speaker 5: is going to stop inflationary spending, unleash American energy, and
Speaker 5: help bring down prices for every American family. And he
Speaker 5: said that he's going to ensure that America is strong
Speaker 5: enough to protect our interests at home and abroad, as
Speaker 5: well as our allies across the world. We feel very
Speaker 5: good that that's the message that he needed to deliver tonight.
Speaker 1: What did you make of the way he responded to
Speaker 1: what the Vice President said repeatedly, which is it's not
Speaker 1: time to look back, it's time to look forward. Did
Speaker 1: he have, in your estimation a good response to that.
Speaker 5: I think he did. Look I mean, we want to
Speaker 5: look forward. This is all about what's going to happen
Speaker 5: after this election cycle. We're at a critical inflection point
Speaker 5: here right now in the history of this country, and
Speaker 5: are we going to be strong or are we going
Speaker 5: to be weak? Under Donald Trump, we are going going
Speaker 5: to have a strong economy, a strong southern border, and
Speaker 5: a strong standing in the world. And under Kamala Harris,
Speaker 5: the exact opposite is true.
Speaker 1: We heard a lot from the Vice president about her
Speaker 1: tax plan, for instance, about the benefits she hopes to
Speaker 1: get to small business owners. Was it by design that
Speaker 1: we didn't get a lot of specifics from the former
Speaker 1: president when it came to his tax plans, which we
Speaker 1: saw unveiled a couple of days ago at the New
Speaker 1: York Economic Club.
Speaker 3: Not at all.
Speaker 5: Look, President Trump has made it very clear he's going
Speaker 5: to extend the Trump tax cuts. He is going to
Speaker 5: make sure that we have no tax on tips, and
Speaker 5: he's going to have no tax on Social Security. What
Speaker 5: Kamala Harris has said is she is going to let
Speaker 5: the Trump tax cuts expire, which will be the largest
Speaker 5: tax increase on American families in the history of this country.
Speaker 3: So when she.
Speaker 5: Talks about the tax policies that she's rolled out there,
Speaker 5: she is going to unleash the largest tax increase on
Speaker 5: Americans and every American family.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about what happens in the coming days,
Speaker 1: how we kind of move things forward from here? The
Speaker 1: James Carvill line about you know, you're focusing on districts,
Speaker 1: not on swing states themselves. What does the campaign need
Speaker 1: to do in the coming days and we're just, you know,
Speaker 1: less than two months in till the election itself. How
Speaker 1: does this translate into momentum going forward as you see.
Speaker 5: It, well, I think what we're going to do is
Speaker 5: continue to go out there and talk directly to the
Speaker 5: American voters. That's what Donald Trump did tonight, was he
Speaker 5: delivered a message. He was not there to talk about
Speaker 5: any particular rebuttals to Kamala Harris, but he wanted to
Speaker 5: talk directly to the American voters about the issues that
Speaker 5: they care about. We're going to continue to do that
Speaker 5: for the next fifty five days.
Speaker 1: Michael, let me ask you lastly about if there will
Speaker 1: be any more debates. Having watched this one, do you
Speaker 1: think there needs to be more? You in favor of
Speaker 1: there being more debates between these two cana I.
Speaker 5: Would love to have more debates. I think that it's
Speaker 5: a good opportunity for us to have Kamala Harris try
Speaker 5: and explain her positions. What we saw today, she's going
Speaker 5: to double down on every single one of the failed
Speaker 5: policies that she's championed over the course of her last
Speaker 5: four years in the White House as well as her
Speaker 5: terms in the Senate. Donald Trump is going to continue
Speaker 5: to talk directly to the American voters about his vision
Speaker 5: for making America great again, and any opportunity we have
Speaker 5: to do that we want to take.
Speaker 1: Michael, thank you very much, appreciate you. It's Michael Watley,
Speaker 1: he's the chair of the Republican Notional Committee. Back to
Speaker 1: you and Washington, Joe and Kayley.
Speaker 2: All right. Bloomberg's David Gura with co chair of the
Speaker 2: RNC Michael Wattley on the spin room floor in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. As we now have the Harris
Speaker 2: campaign as well, talking about another debate. They say the
Speaker 2: vice president is ready Joe for a second debate. I
Speaker 2: guess we'll all have to stay tuned to see if
Speaker 2: we actually do see that in October. There is an
Speaker 2: October first debate scheduled between the vice presidential nominee.
Speaker 4: A good reminder, so maybe a couple of weeks after that,
Speaker 4: we could find ourselves here again in primetime. Brian Fallon
Speaker 4: from the Harris campaign tweeting that was fun.
Speaker 3: Let's do it again in October.
Speaker 4: And based on what we've just heard from mister Wattley,
Speaker 4: sounds like that might happen.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Of course the market will be watching as it was
Speaker 2: watching this debate tonight. Shirley, you're already starting to see
Speaker 2: movement in the predicted betting odds of the outcome of
Speaker 2: this election. Over the course of the debate, the line
Speaker 2: was going higher for Vice President Harrison, lower for Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Right now predict it showing fifty six percent odds of
Speaker 2: a Harris victory forty eight percent odds of a Trump
Speaker 2: one that has widened over the course of the last
Speaker 2: several hours, and of course with us for the last
Speaker 2: several hours watching this debate here on Bloomberg TV and
Speaker 2: Radio as we simulcast it in real time. Rick Davis
Speaker 2: stone Court Capital Partner and Jeanie Shanzino, political science professor
Speaker 2: at Ioni University and senior Democracy Fellow at the Center
Speaker 2: for the Study of the Presidency in Congress our signature
Speaker 2: political panel. Rick, if you just look at the odds,
Speaker 2: I was mentioning, it seems that there is a feeling
Speaker 2: that Kamala Harris won this debate, that it may make
Speaker 2: it more likely that she wins.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I think if you put it in a context of
Speaker 7: who was going after swing voters, you know those folks
Speaker 7: in suburbs, mostly women, or the white working class, especially
Speaker 7: males elderly in the Ross belt states, then you could
Speaker 7: hear her actually reach out to them and talk to them. Clearly,
Speaker 7: what Trump's strategy was tonight was to fire up the base.
Speaker 3: He talked to his own voters.
Speaker 7: He didn't talk, you know, anybody who would be considered
Speaker 7: an independent or swing voter in his rhetoric. And so
Speaker 7: maybe that was the strategy, and I think they both
Speaker 7: pursued their strategy in effective way. I would say most
Speaker 7: of the moments i'm you know, sort of following from
Speaker 7: this debate or how strong Kamala.
Speaker 3: Harris was on national security.
Speaker 7: She used Donald Trump's own former cabinet members as a
Speaker 7: wedge to show his weakness in this category, which I
Speaker 7: thought was an interesting turn about. And Donald trump unwillingness
Speaker 7: to say that he would veto a national abortion band,
Speaker 7: which we have not seen up until this point in time.
Speaker 7: So there was a little bit of newsmade. And I
Speaker 7: think this will go down as a very very helpful
Speaker 7: debate for the American people to judge very two, very
Speaker 7: different views of America.
Speaker 4: Some people wanted more details on policy proposals tonight.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure they got a lot of.
Speaker 4: Them, but one of the biggest questions facing Kamala Harris
Speaker 4: tonight was is she competent? Did she project competency for
Speaker 4: people didn't know a lot about her?
Speaker 8: You know, I think she did. I don't think Kamala
Speaker 8: Harris had a moment which is going to say go viral,
Speaker 8: which we sort of look for in this day and age.
Speaker 8: But she projected strength, she projected competence. She certainly is knowledgeable.
Speaker 8: And you know, I'm thinking to the end of the
Speaker 8: debate Donald Trump's line, why.
Speaker 3: Didn't she do it?
Speaker 8: That's where his team wanted him to start the debate.
Speaker 8: He waited until the last what were we on minute
Speaker 8: one hundred and ten by then to do that when
Speaker 8: people are tuning out. Had he started there, he would
Speaker 8: have had a better night. But he had a tough
Speaker 8: night because he didn't start there. She was in control.
Speaker 8: She put him on the offensive. I mean, she put
Speaker 8: him on the defensive rather many times throughout the debate,
Speaker 8: and he didn't seem to find his footing until the
Speaker 8: very end. And I think if we think about moments
Speaker 8: that define a debate, one thing that will define the
Speaker 8: debate will be him talking about illegal immigrants eating pets,
Speaker 8: something that has clearly been he went there. It's fact
Speaker 8: jacked it's so obviously not true, but that's what he
Speaker 8: went to as opposed to where his team wanted him
Speaker 8: to go issues economy, immigration, and the idea that she's
Speaker 8: in office right now she could be doing all these things.
Speaker 8: So I think it was a wasted opportunity for Donald Trump,
Speaker 8: and I think she did what she needed to do
Speaker 8: to show American people, particularly in those swing states, that
Speaker 8: she has the competence and the ability and the strength
Speaker 8: and the know how to do this job.
Speaker 2: And it did seem the vice president was able to
Speaker 2: successfully go Donald Trump into responding to her directly a
Speaker 2: few times, including when she raised his rallies.
Speaker 6: You will see during the course of his rallies he
Speaker 6: talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter, he will talk
Speaker 6: about wind mills cause cancer. And what you will also
Speaker 6: notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out
Speaker 6: of exhaustion and boredom.
Speaker 3: She said, people start leaving.
Speaker 4: People don't go to her rallies, there's no reason to go,
Speaker 4: and the people that do go, she's busting him in
Speaker 4: and paying them to be there.
Speaker 2: Rick, did Donald Trump have to do too much defending
Speaker 2: and responding tonight?
Speaker 7: Well, she trolled him well on that one and frankly
Speaker 7: many others. I mean, he did take the bait repeatedly,
Speaker 7: which actually is the opposite of what he typically does.
Speaker 7: Usually he's the one trolling and hoping that his opponent
Speaker 7: takes the bait. So there was a little bit of
Speaker 7: turn about his fair play tonight on the behalf of
Speaker 7: Kamala Harris. But I would say that I think people
Speaker 7: will take away from this two different visions, right. I mean,
Speaker 7: you can parse the fact that there aren't very many
Speaker 7: hardcore policy discussions that were today, But we had a
Speaker 7: very dark, dystopian point of view from Donald Trump on
Speaker 7: the future of the world and America's place in it,
Speaker 7: to the point where he even said in the clothes
Speaker 7: that you know, we were headed toward to World War
Speaker 7: three and nuclear weapons.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 7: And yet on the other side of that you had
Speaker 7: a candidate and Kamala Harris who kept talking about the
Speaker 7: future and didn't want to go back, and it's in
Speaker 7: her advantage to not do that, but she did an
Speaker 7: effective job of painting a completely different, much more moderate
Speaker 7: and rosy picture of the future of our country. And
Speaker 7: so if people are looking at sort of the simple
Speaker 7: aspects of you know, what is it that we believe
Speaker 7: the current condition of our country is and where we
Speaker 7: think it's going to had They had plenty to choose
Speaker 7: from a very very stark contrast between the two candidates.
Speaker 4: Interesting face off on geopolitics when it came to the
Speaker 4: matter of Ukraine. When it came to the matter of Israel,
Speaker 4: Donald Trump said Israel will not exist in two years
Speaker 4: if Kamala.
Speaker 3: Harris is elected president.
Speaker 4: Harris said that Vladimir Putin would be sitting in Kiev
Speaker 4: right now if Trump were president.
Speaker 3: Are either true?
Speaker 8: No, I mean, both of those are not true. And
Speaker 8: you know, I think that Kamala Harris did an effective
Speaker 8: job in terms of responding on that Israel point. But
Speaker 8: the reality is, in both cases what we heard from
Speaker 8: them on these geopolitical issues where you know, these sort
Speaker 8: of broad statements where you didn't get any meat. You know,
Speaker 8: Kamala Harris, how are you going to end this war
Speaker 8: in Israel? She said, We're gonna keep working on it.
Speaker 8: There was no end. Donald Trump, what are you going
Speaker 8: to do about Ukraine? It wouldn't have happened if I
Speaker 8: was there. So I didn't feel either one of them
Speaker 8: gave really satisfactory policy responses in either of those situations.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump would not answer definitively if he wanted Ukraine
Speaker 2: to win the war, just said that he wanted couple.
Speaker 4: Times on that that might be one of the biggest
Speaker 4: pieces of news to come out of this debate.
Speaker 2: That just wants the wor to end. He says, we
Speaker 2: want to go back now to the spin room floor
Speaker 2: in Philadelphia, where we find Bloomberg's David Gura together with
Speaker 2: the Democratic Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper.
Speaker 1: David, Yes, the governor of my home state, North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Governor Cooper, thank you very much. And I heard you
Speaker 1: before this debate talking about the need for Vice President
Speaker 1: Harris to really emphasize economic issues, and we saw that
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the debate and the end as well.
Speaker 1: Your reaction to what you saw in the degree to
Speaker 1: which there was engagement on the top of the economy
Speaker 1: and specific she was very strong.
Speaker 9: She looked presidential tonight, and I think she showed to
Speaker 9: the American people how she will be a president for
Speaker 9: all Americans and that it's time to turn the page
Speaker 9: on Donald Trump. She put him on the defensive on
Speaker 9: pretty much every issue. She has a detailed plan on
Speaker 9: the economy, he doesn't. She believes in protecting women's reproductive freedom.
Speaker 9: He couldn't even answer the question about what he would
Speaker 9: do about a national abortion ban and started babbling about
Speaker 9: student loans twice. On immigration, he never explained why he
Speaker 9: killed the strongest immigration bill of a generation. And on
Speaker 9: foreign policy, I thought she was very strong in showing
Speaker 9: how many of his former military advisors and foreign policy
Speaker 9: advisors don't believe he's capable of being president, how he
Speaker 9: cozies up to dictators and that they can bend him
Speaker 9: to their will with favoritism and with flattery. And I
Speaker 9: believe that this is a debate tonight where Kamala Harris
Speaker 9: shows that she has the medal to serve as commander
Speaker 9: in chief and to lead this country governor.
Speaker 1: She's going to go to North Carolina in a couple
Speaker 1: of days. She'll be in Charlotte and in Greensboro. She's
Speaker 1: been to the state many times, as you know, you've
Speaker 1: been with her for most of those visits. What does
Speaker 1: she need to carry over from what we saw on
Speaker 1: stage tonight to North Carolina? As you talk to your constituents,
Speaker 1: what are they most eager to hear from her when
Speaker 1: she goes through to campaign.
Speaker 9: This will be her eighteenth visit to North Carolina as
Speaker 9: vice president. We're going to try to reach people who
Speaker 9: haven't been involved in politics and really how bothered voting.
Speaker 9: I think she is causing excitement in those people. The
Speaker 9: way she responded to Donald Trump's assertion about her race,
Speaker 9: about how we need to pull together as a people
Speaker 9: and concentrate on things that bring us together instead of
Speaker 9: divide us.
Speaker 3: I think that was a.
Speaker 9: Very strong moment for her. I also think Donald Trump
Speaker 9: was incoherent and unhinged and obviously very angry because he
Speaker 9: deserved to be defensive about all of these issues.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you lastly, what it's going to take
Speaker 1: for Democrats to carry North Carolina. There's been a lot
Speaker 1: of talk about the purpling of the state for so
Speaker 1: long now stepping back, yes, to look at the presidential election,
Speaker 1: but others, what's it going to take to get Democrats
Speaker 1: to win here in a couple months?
Speaker 9: Well, I could say more votes, but obviously this is
Speaker 9: going to be this is gonna be a binary grace.
Speaker 9: It's Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris. But it's really for
Speaker 9: the heart and soul of our country. It's about character.
Speaker 9: I believe the people of North Carolina will see through
Speaker 9: Donald Trump. Yes, North Carolina voted for him in twenty twenty,
Speaker 9: but it was the closest win that Donald Trump had,
Speaker 9: only one point three percent. I believe that when you
Speaker 9: think about the plan that Kamala Harris has and the
Speaker 9: chaos that was caused by Donald Trump during those four years,
Speaker 9: I think the choice is clear and we know that
Speaker 9: if Kamala Harris wins North Carolina, she is the next
Speaker 9: president of the United Date.
Speaker 1: Yep, butter, thank you very much, a pleasure. It's Roy
Speaker 1: Cooper of the state of North Carolina. And back to
Speaker 1: you guys in Washington, Joe and Kayley.
Speaker 4: All Right, David Gura, with great work from the floor
Speaker 4: of the Spin room. We thank you reporting for Bloomberg
Speaker 4: on this important debate night.
Speaker 3: Thank you, David.
Speaker 4: With some final thoughts now from our signature panel. Rick
Speaker 4: Davis and Genie Shanzeno are with us our signature panel
Speaker 4: on an important night. But Kaylee, I feel like we
Speaker 4: need to talk about something that's just crossed the Instatagram. Yeah,
Speaker 4: this is maybe the most important potential endorsement of the cycle.
Speaker 2: Taylor Swift says she will be casting her vote for
Speaker 2: Kamala Harrison Tim Walls in the twenty twenty four presidential
Speaker 2: election because she fights for the rights and causes she
Speaker 2: believes a warrior needs to champion them. She also says
Speaker 2: she's done her research and made her choice or research
Speaker 2: is all yours to do. She signs it Joe Taylor
Speaker 2: Swift Childless cat Lady, and it is a picture of
Speaker 2: her with her meetings around there.
Speaker 3: Today I let to talk about pats Rick. Is this
Speaker 3: a big deal or not?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 7: No, this is a big deal. She obviously has an
Speaker 7: enormous following. I can't imagine a better thing to hit
Speaker 7: the Spin room just moments after the debate ended, when
Speaker 7: a massive endorsement like this culturally puts her in the
Speaker 7: middle of the mainstream America.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I think that.
Speaker 7: I was just going to say, now we've seen the debate,
Speaker 7: it's all about the Spin post debate, and I think
Speaker 7: this is like a nuclear bomb for Spin.
Speaker 3: What does this mean in our thirty seconds remaining?
Speaker 8: In our thirty seconds remaining, you know, this is a
Speaker 8: big deal and it has been a pet night. So
Speaker 8: Taylor Swift ends it with a cat lady comment, and
Speaker 8: the Swifties are happy and she has an enormous pull.
Speaker 8: This is not what he wanted to hear tonight. You know,
Speaker 8: this is you know, he was worried about what might
Speaker 8: happen in this regard. He talked about wanting her endorsement,
Speaker 8: and she went the other way. So this is the.
Speaker 3: Taylor Swift kid rock campaign. Apparently. I guess it happened
Speaker 3: before our eyes. Rick Davis, G. D.
Speaker 4: Schanzeno, thank you for being with us. You've been watching
Speaker 4: special coverage of the ABC News presidential debate simulcast on
Speaker 4: Bloomberg TV and radio.