and we are now just one day away from the ABC News presidential debate in Philadelphia and former president Donald Trump is maintaining his lead over vice president kamla Harris nationally with voters a new New York Times Senate College poll finds that 48% of likely voters support Trump 47% back Harris now this is the margin of error but the poll also found that more voters consider Harris to be too liberal or Progressive on key policy issues then they consider Trump to be too conservative uh meanwhile the Harris Waltz campaign is set to kick off a 4-day
campaign Blitz through major swing States after the debate I want to bring in for our election debate panel former Bush 43 White House official and West Front strategies founding partner Ashley Davis Democratic consultant and former house Judiciary Committee Chief counsel Julian Epstein so good morning to both of you it is a big week Ashley uh and I'm going to start with you uh first to what we can expect you know a lot of the the commentary coming out about Donald Trump on the debate stage tomorrow night is that he has to be careful about Persona
versus policy and that if he comes across too aggressive that could hurt him in the minds of the millions of viewers we expect to watch this debate well absolutely and what was said earlier by the congresswoman everyone knows president Trump's personality but he does have to be careful in regards to uh criticizing her personally but he will definitely go after the policies that she and the Biden Administration have had for the last four years in regards to the economy the Border crime I mean I can go on and on but his personality does need to
be a little bit toned down but she has a lot more to lose on this debate than anybody else 30% of this country is unhappy 30% of this country thinks that it is in the right direction for her to say that the last four years her policies are making people feel happy about where they are in their life is just absolutely the wrong uh conversation that she is having you know it's interesting too because obviously now that we've gotten KLA Harris's policy page which was published about an hour ago uh to be clear here Julian
now we get a sense of of some of her ideas I think it's interesting that this was done the day before the debate but but I digress oh so let me ask you this Julian about her debate prep because apparently she's working with um lawyer Karen Dunn That's who worked with her under 2020 presidential uh vice presidential debate excuse me against Mike Pence with many many Saw is actually a strong performance by her and then she's also got a former Hillary Clinton adviser Philip Reigns uh who's playing Trump in her mock debates you know I
think people forget that K Harris is 5 foot4 uh so on that stage he is going to be a towering presence above her that's the Optics Julian yeah I look I think that um she did decent in 2020 I think she has to stay away from the gimmicks like excuse me I'm speaking that kind of stuff I think that's sort of warn th and look I I I I agree with uh I agree with your guest here I think if this is a debate if this debate devolves into a debate over personality that's good for
Kamala Harris if it debates devolves into a debate about policy as it should that's not good I mean as a New York time for her that what the New York Times poll shows is that the public wants change uh and they want centrism and right now they think Donald Trump is the Agent of Change and they think uh that he is also the agent of centrism I think it's been a big big mistake for the Democrats uh and the and the Harris campaign to hide her from the Press uh I think there as the New
York Times poll shows about a third of the public has no idea what she stands for and she is being defined as a far-left candidate uh you know Bill Clinton Barack Obama when they were running for president they both shifted to the political Center and you could not get between them and a camera uh they would make themselves available frequently and as often as they could for unscripted uh media environments I think the campaign signaling that they are not going to make her available beyond the debate uh for these environments is hurting her and allowing
the Republicans to Define her as being an agent of the status quo which the public doesn't like and an agent of far- leftism which you know 70% of the public is moderate or conservative so I think you know sort of running as say far-left progressive is not a winning strategy well and also too you know she hasn't debated in four years which I think you know it we have to remind everybody that he's he's been I mean he's on that stage and he's doing interviews uh on a consistent constant basis and she as to your
point has only given that one interview with CNN as a presidential uh candidate I want to talk to you about the some news that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders made um he was facing questions on Harris's flip-flopping on policy positions ahead of the election watch what he said do you think that she is abandoning her Progressive ideals no I don't think she's abandoning her ideals I think she's trying to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election uh my own view is is slightly different I support Medicare for all
she does not she has another approach toward moving toward universal healthcare moving towards Universal healthc care Julian well look I mean I think this is exactly to my point as to why she cannot have a Rose Garden strategy going into the fall there are just too many questions about you know if you change your position on one issue that may show growth it may show flexibility if you change your positions on everything whether it is being soft on crime all of a sudden you're tough on crime uh immigration your open borders all of a sudden
you're for secure borders uh Medicare for all all of a sudden you're against you're against uh uh taking away Private health insurance if you change your position on everything it's going to raise questions about authenticity and this is where exactly I think Republicans are going they are going to go at whether she is an authentic candidate and whether she is actually prepared for the office and to the extent that they hide her from unscripted environments in the news media they are going to feed that issue and they're going to build a momentum in the event
that there is a slip in the debate or slip in some UNS rted environment uh for the Republican argument this is why I think the Democrats I'm sorry to say this as a Democrat are making a big mistake by this cocooning or this very very protective approach that they're taking with her she needs to explain exactly why she's changed her position on so many different issues and what her thinking is other than just saying my values haven't changed yeah no no no and and I think that again the timing of that is very very interesting
Ashley before you go I do want to ask you about this so she made a campaign stop over the weekend at this Pittsburgh SP shop they they're known to openly hate and slam Republicans um peny spicy offer discounts to celebrate Trump's indictments here's what she said when she was there at the store main message to Trump in the debate what's the one thing you want to really get get across to him well there's a lot but um look it's time to turn the page on the divisiveness um it's time to bring our country together try
a new way forward Ashley your thoughts well first of all I think Julian should switch to our party he sounds almost like I do uh but I what I don't understand not even about the spice shop but in general but she is running as an incumbent she is an incumbent she's been the vice president for the last four years that has been a Bulldog against all against President Trump and all of his policies so her saying they want to change the they want to turn the page well she is the page so I don't understand
that that is why in this poll when 50% of the country think he's the one that's changed and not her the message isn't resonating because again she's the incumbent right now well I tell you what Ashley Davis Julian Epstein two of my favorites and I'm really grateful for both of you being here thanks guys I appreciate it
