CNN issues deadline for Trump and Harris to agree to final 2024 debate

This just in CNN has given the Trump and Harris campaigns a deadline to officially accept or reject an invitation to debate one another on CNN later this month. I want to get straight to CNN's Brian Stelter. Brian, what are we learning?

That's right. In practice, this is a deadline for Donald Trump, because, as you recall, Dana, Dana, about two weeks ago, the Kamala Harris campaign immediately accepted CNN's offer for an October 23rd debate. Trump has been avoiding that offer.

So now, in a new statement, CNN has saying to both campaigns that there's a deadline coming up this Thursday at noon. After all, in order to hold a presidential debate, you have to organize it for days and weeks ahead of time. So CNN is saying if the campaigns want this to happen, they have to give a formal response by this Thursday at noon eastern time.

The Harris campaign has been trying to goad Trump into a grain. Trump has claimed it's too late to have another debate, but in fact, that October 23rd date is right in line for when past presidential debates have taken place in past cycles. So now there's a 48 hour clock.

We will see if the Trump campaign agrees or not. It'll be a shame if there's no more debates between these two candidates, because I, for one, have a lot more questions. I think a lot of viewers do as well.

Dana, no, 60 minutes. so far, no debate. Maybe he'll change his mind.

Thank you so much, Brian. Reporting. And the New York Times is out with a new poll this morning.

It has Vice President Harris leading former President Trump 49 to 46, which is within the margin of error. They were tied in that poll last month. Meanwhile, Harris kicked off her busiest day of media since entering the race.

Just minutes ago, she finished an interview with The View and she brought with her a brand new policy pitch. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has the details. Priscilla.

That's right. Diana. She wanted to appeal here to what's known as the sandwich generation, those adults who are caring for both their aging parents and children and outlined a proposal directly targeting them and explaining how she would structure long term care for senior citizens.

Take a listen to what she said. There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle. They're taking care of their kids, and they're taking care of their aging parents, and it's just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work.

We're finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income. What I am proposing is that basically what we will do is allow Medicare to cover in-home health care. Now, she was also asked how she would do that, how she paid for it.

She said that it would be expanding Medicare drug price negotiations, as well as increasing drug discounts from manufacturers. But here's what's also interesting about this policy proposal. We know that Harris aides are trying to roll out more of these types of proposals to show a notable difference from President Joe Biden.

Now, she was asked if she would have done anything differently from the president over the last few years. And she said, quote, not a thing comes to mind. But this, as we also know that behind the scenes, aides are trying to strike that very delicate balance of create, of defining her and creating some distance where they can from the former president.

Again, as these polls remain just so close weeks ahead of Election Day. So certainly a notable interview, one of many she'll have today, later this afternoon, she'll have that Howard Stern show targeting that male, mostly male audience. And later The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Dana Howard Stern, best interviewer in broadcasting.

But anyway, we'll talk about that later. Join me. Joining me now are three great interviewers, three great reporters, Zoglin Cano Youngs of The New York Times, Jackie of The Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal's Molly Ball.

Hello to all of you. On this very busy day, I want to, get to what Priscilla was talking about in that one of the questions that Kamala Harris was asked was about how she differentiates herself. Is there any daylight effectively, between what she would do and what the Biden-Harris administration did?

Let's watch. Part of the answer. We're obviously two different people.

And, we have a lot of shared life experiences, for example, the way we feel about our family and our parents and so on. But we're also different people. And I will bring those sensibilities to to how I lead.

Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years? there is not a thing that comes to mind. Molly, what do you make of that?

I'm surprised, frankly, that she doesn't have, more to say about this, given that she and her campaign know that this is one of the main questions that voters have about her. And one of the main things she's been trying to establish as part of her candidacy is the idea that she would represent a break from the past four years, and to not be able to come up with something to say in that moment. she continues to to not be particularly nimble on her feet in a lot of these interviews.

And this is a very obvious question that gave her an opportunity, frankly, to differentiate herself, in a way that that would have made news that would have answered, I think, the curiosity of a lot of voters who want to know how she would lead differently. And and she's not very specific in, in laying that out. And she can't point to a decision she wouldn't she would have made differently, which, you know, in an electorate that thinks that, that that doesn't like the way this administration has lead and that doesn't like the track that the country is on, that may not be a very satisfactory answer.

I mean, it's a it's a delicate dance because it's not as if she's coming in. It's not as if she just fell out of a coconut tree. She's been part of this administration as the vice president, for, for four years now.

She did later, talk about the fact that she would put a Republican in her cabinet, which she first told me over the summer, and then she said, oh, that's something that's different. She sort of added it later. Sure.

This has been the central sort of point of tension, when it comes to the Harris campaign. you are framing yourself as a change candidate, but you also represent incumbency. You are a vice president for the past four years, and often saying that you were the last one in the room as well, when President Biden would make a decision.

So it's tough to detach herself from a president that, you know, consistently in the polls has been unpopular with the public as well. when it comes to the policy platforms that the vice president has proposed thus far, it's it's very much it's it's similar with some differences in scale and also the way that she describes them. For example, the child tax credit a bit, you know, more sprawling as well.

and when it comes to tone, you see some differences on foreign policy. I reported as well that at times she was, saying behind closed doors in the white House that she didn't want to, that she didn't necessarily agree with the way President Biden, described foreign policy as autocracy versus democracy. because some American allies, not all our democracy.

She more so want to go with saying this was a matter of international law. And she obviously, it's been reported, has also pushed to have more empathy for Palestinian civilians when it comes to Israel and Gaza. But thus far, the policy platforms are very similar.

So this will continue to be the challenge. How do you represent yourself as a change candidate when your policy platform is so similar to the person in office? And let's go back to what Priscilla was reporting, which I should have started the conversation with.

Forgive me, the home health care aspect of this somewhere, Bernie Sanders is, you know, dancing in his office or or wherever he is because expanding Medicare to take care of, basic needs, real needs of people in American society right now, particularly the sandwich generation, is a big and important thing for for a lot of, a lot of voters. And she addressed that and she addressed it in, in a way that I her campaign believes is relatable to people who are really desperate, to figure out a way to take care of their parents, their kids in between. And I think they feel that she's a good messenger for this, because where she is in her own life and you know, her, her, that cohort, you also see her plans about child care is another, you know, an emphasis that's a huge, cost for American families and really trying to bring it to that level.

And, you know, maybe at this point of the campaign, they don't think feel like they need to draw a distinction from themselves. And President Biden, I mean, we're seeing in the New York Times poll, she that voters do are starting to see her as a change candidate, which is a bit of a rabbit out of a hat considering who she is and what she's been doing. But maybe at this point, going down the road, they don't feel like that sort of, line is necessary to cross.

And there is a thinking among Democrats that you don't necessarily among some Democrats, that you don't necessarily need to draw a distinction from the policies. This is actually a good example, this policy here that would help the sandwich generation. President Biden did propose, you know, had a proposal to invest, I think, 400 million and home health care that got gutted out of his, one of his domestic legislative packages that was popular.

When you look at polling across the American public, the question here is, can you take the same policies but apply a different messenger? And can that be the key to building support among working with abortion? I mean, she's she's a much better messenger on that than Biden was.

And just we're having a whole discussion about what Kamala Harris is doing, what she's talking about. president former President Trump did the wrong time to play the soundbite, but I just want to be on record. He was on Fox last night after saying no to 60 minutes.

He told Laura Ingraham that he is, still very much considering the notion of going after his political enemies if he were to win. A lot of people say that's what should happen. You want to know the truth.

And that, of course, was greeted by a lot of laughs and chants. If, the Trump campaign is responding to what the vice president said on The View about not wanting to or not being able to think of a big difference with Joe Biden, they said, if you're a voter who wants to turn the page from Joe Biden's failed economy, open border and global chaos, and Kamala Harris is not the candidate for you.