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Harris & Trump Debate Tonight As Polls Show They're Virtually Tied; Harris & Trump Square Off Tonight At High-Stakes Debate; Harris & Trump To Face Off For First Time In Presidential Debate; Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) Discusses About Preparations On Debate. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 10, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:44]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The stakes could not be higher and sadly we're not talking cheesesteaks. In just a few hours Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will face off in Philly. How they plan to take their attacks from the campaign trail to the debate stage.

Plus, Israel just releasing video they say shows the tunnel where six hostages were killed last month by Hamas this just hours after a deadly Israeli airstrike inside a Gaza humanitarian zone. The latest details from the Middle East.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Firefighters in California and Nevada are fighting more than 60 wildfires and they have forced thousands of people from their homes. Now record heat could make matters worse.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Top of the hour, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside Boris Sanchez and the clock is ticking now. In just a few hours from now, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will be meeting face- to-face for the first time ever, imagine that, tonight on a stage in Philadelphia in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Trump and Harris will have 90 minutes to make their case to American voters on why they should be the next president.

SANCHEZ: And one of the fascinating angles about tonight is that this is a record seventh time for Donald Trump participating in a general election presidential debate. It's Harris' first and of course the stakes are sky-high.

It comes at a pivotal moment in the campaign. CNN's new poll of polls out today shows the race is a virtual dead heat. No clear leader in the race just 56 days until the election. We have a team of correspondents there at the debate side Priscilla Alvarez is covering the Harris campaign for us.

But let's start with Kristen Holmes and team Trump.

Kristen, talk to us about how Trump is approaching tonight's showdown. I know you were talking to us earlier about the preparation that he's been undergoing but his team doesn't want to call it preparation.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, the preparation that isn't quite preparation. Well, if you talk to Donald Trump's team, they say everything he do - does is preparing him for this debate. That means talking to the New York Economic Club like we saw last week taking questions there, sitting in on a town hall in Pennsylvania where he took questions from voters.

They say all of that is a part of the preparation for this. We also know that on his calendar, he's had these hour-long blocks that they call policy time or policy review sessions where he meets with some of his senior advisors as well as lawmakers and former lawmakers, Tulsi Gabbard is in the mix with that. And goes over not just policies that he should be talking about or his team thinks he should be talking about like immigration, the economy and crime, but also how to pivot back to those topics if, say, abortion comes up which the Donald Trump's team expects Harris to bring up during this debate.

They don't want him talking about it, and he doesn't want to be talking about it. They don't believe that it's going to be politically helpful to him, so they want to pivot back to things, like immigration, like the economy, like crime.

Now the other part of this though is not just about policy. It's also about his performance and how he acts. And we have been told by various Trump allies that they have encouraged him not to react, not to respond to anything that she says that might be a goading remark, might try to get underneath his skin.

Now, obviously, with Donald Trump, it's easier said than done. We know that he is notoriously reactive. He is somebody who often lets people get underneath their skin. But his team is saying that he has been very much prepped on this and is ready to take that stage and keep a stone face whether or not he does remains to be seen. We'll see which version of Trump we get up there tonight.

KEILAR: All right, not preparation. It's quality time that we spend together pretending to fight. I like - I think I like that better. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much.

I want to bring in Priscilla Alvarez who is covering the Harris campaign.

Priscilla, what do we know about the Vice President strategy going into this debate?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, she is going to try to get under former Donald Trump's skin because, as you heard there, they're also aware that that's exactly what his team doesn't want him to entertain or engage on.

[15:05:07] But this is going to come after days of robust debate prep. The Vice President had been in Pittsburgh before arriving here in Philadelphia where she had been gathered with her closest advisors to prepare for this exact moment. And in that preparation, part of that included identifying where they can needle former President Donald Trump. And one issue that came up was reproductive rights.

Of course, the Vice President has been a key voice on this issue and she is going to lean in on it tonight, trying to needle him on his muddled messaging on this issue, which for Democrats is one that they have seen has galvanized voters and help them sort of forgive momentum looking forward.

Now, of course, the Vice President has also sought out advice. CNN also learning that she was in touch with Hillary Clinton who also debated Donald Trump, so she has been preparing extensively for this and also talking to others to try to get a position where her campaign wants her to be because they recognize that part of what they need coming out of this is to continue the momentum, to try to rake in the money that they have, at this point, been a bright spot in the campaign.

One source telling me that after this debate, they're planning major fundraisers with the Vice President headlining those fundraisers. So this is all part of a strategy to - for her to come out in a position where she can continue the momentum they've had so far. But to your point earlier, this is why the stakes are just so high because she's also in all of this continuing to introduce herself to voters.

SANCHEZ: Priscilla Alvarez live for us in Philadelphia, thank you so much.

Let's discuss further now with Natasha Alford, she's host of TheGrio weekly and Lance Trover, former spokesperson for North Dakota governor, Doug Burgum's 2024 presidential campaign. Thank you both for being with us.

Natasha, first to you, one of the things that Harris will have to do tonight is to walk a tightrope between the policies of the Biden administration and her own vision for the future. How does she do that with the incumbent to this point not having the highest popularity rating that we've seen the President have that's actually relatively low?

NATASHA ALFORD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think people can relate to the idea of being the number two, right? You kind of have a vision for your job or your workplace, and maybe the boss above you has a little bit of a different vision. You play your role, you're loyal, you do your job. And so I think that's what Kamala Harris did. She did what was asked of her, she was asked to solve these root causes of border issues, which is a really big thing to give someone who's a vice president.

And so I think that she shows her respect for Biden, but she also says this is my moment. This is how I'll do things differently. She's already given very clear policy examples expanding affordable housing, expanding the child tax credit.

So she has things to point to, that's what people want to hear. Not that it's just a continuation of Biden, but this is what she brings that's unique in terms of her vision for America.

KEILAR: Trump though is going to try to make her own the Biden record, so what are you expecting to see how do you think that he should do that one, Lance?

LANCE TROVER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: This - really this is all about Kamala Harris. The country knows Donald Trump. They know who he is and everything that comes with him, so it is all about Kamala Harris tonight. He cannot let her own - this lane of trying to pretend that she's a moderate when clearly she's not been for the - for her entire career.

I mean, the KFILE had a story just yesterday about some of the positions she took on an ACLU position like talking about its taxpayer funding of sexual changes for migrants and decriminalizing things like heroin and the like. I mean, those are the type things that he cannot let go and needs to hammer it at every chance he gets to remind people that, look, she is trying to occupy this moderate lane. He cannot let her do that.

SANCHEZ: He does have a tightrope to walk himself in and that you want him to hammer those points. But we've seen Trump before sort of become undisciplined in debates and - especially in his first debate with Joe Biden seeming to go in a direction that turned off voters. Where is that fine line in your mind?

TROVER: I mean you've heard it in the reporting out there all go, I mean his campaign is pushing them. And obviously, yes, he does do that. But again, I would go back to a large segment of this country. I would say the majority - vast majority of this country knows who he is. They expect sometimes those types of outbursts and the things that he does.

Again, I would go back to - this is more about Kamala Harris and less about Donald Trump, because if you believe The New York Times poll that came out, just a sizable chunk of this country has no clue who she is. And if we go even further back, remember, the Democrats switched out Joe Biden for Kamala Harris, now we have somebody who no one knows who she is and those who do know think she might be a little too liberal.

And so you put that together with the fact that this is probably one of the last unscripted events we're going to see from her outside of - she's not committed to any other debates. That makes this a debate more about her than it does Donald Trump.

KEILAR: As much as we wish people would watch this in its entirety and fully, you know, inform themselves of this, that's not what it's going to be for so many people, right?

[15:10:07] They're going to engage with these moments that live in perpetuity on the internet afterwards, right? And Trump is so inherently reactive, Natasha, it's hard to see how he doesn't get goaded into some kind of moment that does become one of those moments. How does Kamala Harris manage that without letting it be just sort of about - a moment about him like a nasty woman comment with Hillary Clinton and allow it to be about her and defining her.

ALFORD: I think it's about being quick on her feet, but also keeping the American people as the center of this story, right? It's not about Trump. It's about her empathizing with their pain, empathizing with their struggle, saying I don't - I'm not having a blind eye to what you're going through. Because if she just goes up there and says everything is okay, people will say she's completely out of touch, right?

She has to be able to emphasize that she understands the pain that people are experiencing, but that she's laid the groundwork in working with Biden and now she's going to take it to the next level. So be quick on her feet, but don't let Donald Trump be the center of the moment. This is about serving the American people, not proving that he's some sort of bad candidate.

SANCHEZ: And when Trump inevitably goes after her for some of those previous progressive positions like defunding ICE and that sort of thing. How should she respond?

ALFORD: I'm so glad that you asked that, because I think this is the time to address the critiques head-on don't deflect, right? Don't talk about other things. Say, look, I know this is what he's been saying about me, right, but this is what I stand for. It's okay to change your mind. If you have new information this shows I know how to be presidential, I know how to be a leader. I'm not just going to stick to a position just because I said it once just to sort of prove a political point. But this is what leadership is about, it's about evolving and doing what's best for the people, which is a little different than Donald Trump flipping on abortion just to get political points.

KEILAR: That really is going to be his biggest vulnerability tonight is talking about abortion. How do you expect this is going to go? How do you expect he is prepared to confront that when, you know, one of his go-to answers has been that everyone wanted Roe v. Wade overturned and that's just not true.

TROVER: Well, I think in the same vein I think it's an opportunity for him to be clear with the American people given how many people are going to be watching tonight. Yes, he appointed three justices to the court. But if he believes in states' rights and it's a state's issue, he should be very clear on that and be straightforward.

I advise candidates that I work with all the time just state where you are on the position and be clear and the voters will take that for what it's worth. I think that's what he needs to do tonight is be very clear with them on terms of where he stands on this position. And I wouldn't, also, spend a lot of time talking about it. There are a lot of other issues out there like the economy and the border that I would think he'd want to focus on.

KEILAR: But just real quickly ...

TROVER: Sure.

KEILAR: ... when he does do that, he tends to lose - when he says where he is, you know, more than six weeks, he tends to lose people on the right. They get very upset with him.

TROVER: I haven't seen a poll yet to suggest anybody on the rights abandoning Donald Trump.

KEILAR: It's a good point.

TROVER: So, yes ...

KEILAR: A good point, Lance.

TROVER: ... they don't like it, but they're certainly not going with Kamala Harris.

SANCHEZ: It may be just more rhetoric on the internet, but it doesn't necessarily (INAUDIBLE) --

TROVER: Right, correct. Yes.

KEILAR: Natasha, Lance, thank you so much.

TROVER: Thanks.

KEILAR: It's a big night. I think we're all really excited to see what happens here.

And still to come, more on our coverage of this presidential debate ahead between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Democratic senator, Cory Booker will be joining us live next.

Plus, more than 2 million acres burned as gusty winds and extreme heat fuel wildfires in the West. Thousands of people forced to evacuate.

SANCHEZ: And later, breaking news, not that kind of breaking - we're talking about the Olympian turned viral sensation, Raygun. Remember she apologized? We'll explain why she should never have apologized at all and why she's making news again. Stay with us.

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[15:18:13]

KEILAR: Vice President Harris has said many times on the campaign trail that as a prosecutor she knows Donald Trump's type. And tonight on the debate stage she'll try to prove that to voters. When Harris ran for president in 2020, she voiced a similar message during the primary debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we need is someone who is going to be on that debate stage with Donald Trump and defeat him by being able to prosecute the case against four more years. And let me tell you, we've got a long rap sheet.

We must defeat him and then in turning the page, write the next chapter for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, joining me now is someone who was on the debate stage that night former Newark, New Jersey mayor, current New Jersey Democratic senator, Cory Booker. He's now a Harris wall surrogate.

Senator, first, let's kind of take the way back machine to 2019. I think actually we'd all like to do that a little bit sometimes, but how did you prepare ...

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Yes, I do that.

KEILAR: ... to - I mean before the pandemic, that's sort of the joke I'm making there. But how did you prepare to debate Harris in the primary? And I wonder after you did, what your observations were?

BOOKER: Well, first of all, I prepared in - similar to I think the way that Kamala's preparing now, because the person in charge of my debate prep Karen Dunn, one of the most amazing preppers I've ever had in my life is now in charge of her debate prep. And so I just remember how good she was, how sharp she was in preparing me and making sure that any eventuality I could - I was prepared for and strong on and I'm excited that she's in Kamala's corner.

But let me tell you something, the Vice President is such an extraordinary person on formats like this and she's only gotten better.

[15:20:05]

I think Donald Trump has set a record for any president in their televised debates, he's had the most, but I think people are going to see somebody who brings heart and spirit, a vision and concrete policy in a way that is going to be very impressive. So I'm excited about tonight's debate and to see my friend up there and how well she'll do.

KEILAR: In that July 2019 debate, you both found yourselves in the position of having to defend your progressive stances on issues like healthcare and the border. Now, your Democratic colleagues find themselves in the position of having to explain Harris' centrist pivot. This is Bernie Sanders and Maryland governor, Wes Moore, on Sunday and this morning respectively.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT): So 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. My own view is slightly different.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you still consider Vice President Kamala Harris to be progressive, Senator?

SANDERS: I do. Her views are not mine, but I do consider her progressive.

GOV. WES MOORE, (D) MARYLAND: I don't think that it's helpful to put her or any person into a box as to where they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Okay. So it's kind of all over the place or people not wanting to put her in any place. How can voters understand her position?

BOOKER: Well, again, she has been very specific in her policy proposals. Time and time again, I was reading through even more about her policies to bring housing costs down, to get more affordable housing. I was reading her policies on immigration that have already shown Results at the border with the executive order that she was a part of that now we're seeing record low crossings for the last five months.

I know what her policies are on stopping the outrageous cost of prescription drugs. So again, she's been very clear about where she stands.

Now, if you're talking about the evolution of us in public office, god, I'm so happy. I don't believe the exact same things I did half a decade ago. She and I, as everybody, should evolve and get better as they get more exposure and they learn more. Let's be clear, JD Vance, for example, used to compare in the same sentence Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. He has changed and evolved in a dramatic way.

And so this is a pragmatic person who's running for president of the United States and if it's anything that I personally want from the next president of the United States is to cut through the toxic tribalism in our nation and bring us together on common sense practical policy positions and she is equipped to do that.

KEILAR: Democrats do try to hold him certainly to that Hitler comment for sure, I should note. I was a little surprised, turning to something different here, in the latest New York Times poll, 53 percent of young voters - we're talking people in the category of 18 to 29 years old - say they don't know enough about Harris. That is the most of any age group by far. A lot has been made about how her social media operation is reaching young voters, but isn't reaching as many as it needs to.

BOOKER: Yes, look, you and I follow this stuff, live and breathe it, and know it, we could probably do a PhD thesis on current events. But most Americans they're worried about paying their student loans, they're worried about putting food on the table and are starting to pay attention to the election coming out of Labor Day.

She has only been running this campaign for president for about 30 days. Give her - cut her some slack for getting out there and letting folks know. She said the whole time as has Walz, I love his metaphor about we're three points down. This is going to be a close race. It's going to come down to a few thousand votes.

What encourages me is that everybody knows Donald Trump and he still can't get over 50 percent. There's a lot of concerns about his threats to democracy, about his - using the justice department to go after political enemies and all the things that he himself is saying tearing down Roe v. Wade, abolishing people's reproductive freedoms.

So this is her chance on this big stage tonight to continue to let voters see the truth of who they are. And the more they learn, I believe the more that they will like.

KEILAR: The last time that we saw Trump taking the debate stage with a woman was in 2016 with Hillary Clinton. During one debate he called her nasty on stage. How should Harris handle any sexist or racist barbs that Trump might throw at her tonight?

BOOKER: Well, look, you remember this, Donald Trump wasn't only disrespectful to the women he was debating, he was disrespectful to the women who were asking the questions and moderating the debate. This is a guy from the Access Hollywood tapes to his policies of ripping away reproductive rights from Americans.

[15:25:04]

This is a guy who has done so much to set back women and their freedoms and their well-being. But this is something that you know as a woman that I know as a black man that the focus of having a lifetime of encountering sexism, encountering racism, makes you very good at dealing with those challenges. What Kamala Harris really wants to do is not talk about race or gender, she wants to talk about the policies that are best for Americans and she, I know tonight, will keep bringing it back to her clear focus on lowering costs, creating an opportunity economy, restoring freedoms like reproductive freedoms, keeping our children safe so they don't have to fear for their lives when they go to schools.

This is where she's strong. This is where she has better policies and a better vision for turning the page on the past and opening up a new chapter about our future.

KEILAR: Senator Cory Booker, thank you so much. It is a big night and we will all be watching.

BOOKER: Thank you for having me today.

KEILAR: Ahead, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians in an area that Israel had designated as a humanitarian zone. We're live from Tel Aviv after a quick break.

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