Dave Briggs reviews the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump with MarketWatch's Washington Bureau Chief, Rob Schroeder. Watch!
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00:00In the long-storied history of U.S. presidential debates, they rarely, if ever, matter.
00:07This election cycle, however, has flipped that dynamic with two of the most impactful
00:13debates of all time.
00:16Following historical patterns, though, policy once again had nothing whatsoever to do with
00:22it.
00:23Dogs, cats, and yes, eating pets, is Rob Schroeder, Washington Bureau Chief for Market
00:30Watch.
00:31Rob, safe to say you had no clue we might talk about this this morning, but here we
00:37are.
00:38Where did this rumor, this conspiracy come from, and what do you make of it?
00:44Yeah, good morning, Dave.
00:46Didn't quite expect this to come up at a debate that did have its policy moments, but yeah,
00:52as you said, this was sort of one of those breakout moments of this faceoff between President
00:59Trump and Vice President Harris.
01:01Really, this got started this week when Senator Vance, who was President Trump's running mate,
01:08put on social media that his office had gotten inquiries about Haitian migrants abducting
01:14pets.
01:17Senator Vance did acknowledge that this could be false, but it did come up last night.
01:22Vice President Harris, I think, effectively got President Trump to talk about this, leading
01:29to lots of posts on social medias and memes and so on, that sort of thing.
01:37Probably not a way into serious policy discussion, but it does speak to one of President Trump's
01:45key issues and key issues for many voters, which is the issue of immigration, legal,
01:51illegal and so forth.
01:54This is something that he talks about quite a bit and I think was probably listened to
02:03with interest by many in his base and who probably would have been voting for him anyway,
02:08while others may have been scratching their heads about where on earth this came from.
02:13In terms of policy, did he have any moments where he did land a punch?
02:20He really talked a lot about his tariff plans, of course, his tax plans, his immigration
02:27plans and to the extent that they do discuss the impact on the economy.
02:35One thing to make out of the debate really is to do a sort of tale of the tape.
02:41Media shares this morning were slumping, solar energy stocks were rising and so we associate
02:51each of those, of course, with the different candidates.
02:55What this points to is Vice President Harris having a pretty good night and in fact, she's
03:01up this morning quite a bit in the betting markets, the prediction markets in which people
03:06actually put money on how they think these things are going to go.
03:11So yeah, there was an effect, you could say, in the markets from the debate and what they
03:18said on policy issues.
03:20That's a great point about Trump media, the stock down 16% at last check.
03:25So Kamala Harris, the pressure was really on her because she's had just one interview,
03:28so many questions from the American public.
03:31Do you think she answered them?
03:33What do you think of her performance?
03:36She got closer to explaining things to many people, but in that hour and a half timeframe,
03:42it's extremely difficult and I think that while she may be up in the betting markets,
03:49as we've discussed, I think the election is decided in just a handful of states.
03:54So she's going to have to get out and go to Pennsylvania where it was last night.
03:59She mentioned fracking and that she is not opposed to it.
04:05She had been opposed to it in the past.
04:08She says she's not now.
04:09I think she'll probably need to drive that message home in Pennsylvania, energy dependent
04:16state.
04:17She'll need to go to Wisconsin.
04:18She'll need to go to Georgia and so on or spend more time in those places, I should
04:21say.
04:22The same for President Trump.
04:23He needs to capture those voters as well.
04:28But yeah, I think Vice President Harris seemed well prepared last night.
04:33I think President Trump did better in his debate versus President Biden than he did
04:39last night.
04:40Trump supporters consistently blame the ABC moderators for being biased toward Kamala
04:46Harris.
04:47That really was the line of attack on Fox News and other right wing networks last night.
04:51What do you make of it?
04:54Well I think when President Trump this morning, or was it last night, said that he wasn't
05:00sure if he was going to debate her again, that that was not a good sign.
05:04And I think blaming for another debate that is.
05:08And really, yeah, saying that he had at least two competitors last night, or three if you
05:15count both moderators, is not a sign that he believes the debate went well.
05:21And I don't know that it's an entirely fair charge for him to make.
05:27He's up there.
05:28He can rebut the rebuttals from them if he so chooses.
05:32They can also fact check Vice President Harris.
05:37The moderators in any debate, I think as a journalist, should be equal opportunity fact
05:43checkers towards both candidates on the stage.
05:49So Donald Trump went so far as to say that if he did another debate, he'd want Sean Hannity
05:54or Jesse Watters or Laura Ingram, that the news personalities at Fox, Bret Baier and
06:00Martha McCallum, weren't even enough.
06:01Will we get another debate?
06:04Right now I'm thinking not.
06:07Just because of what he said last night.
06:09I mean, I think that he would like the debate to be a friendly environment.
06:15He perceived last night, and some of his supporters perceived last night as a friendly environment
06:20towards Vice President Harris.
06:22But I think regardless of the forum or the moderators, given the closeness of polls and
06:30given the closeness of this race, both of them still have quite a bit of work to do,
06:36no matter who the moderators are, no matter if there's another debate or not, and so on,
06:40to go out and convince people that their vision for the country is better than the other person's.
06:48We just had a reading today on the Consumer Price Index that showed core inflation, so-called
06:55core inflation that strips out energy costs and other costs, was up a little bit more
07:02than expected.
07:03Now, year over year it was down, so the trend is good.
07:08But those inflation pressures are still there.
07:12And the stock market is down today because that gives the sense that the Federal Reserve
07:16next week might not cut interest rates by as much as it could, 50 basis points, and
07:24that maybe 25 basis points is a better bet, so to speak.
07:30Yeah, that looks likely.
07:31All right.
07:32From cats and dogs to cats, cat lover Taylor Swift, I have to ask you, she comes out with
07:37this endorsement on Instagram of Kamala Harris late last night.
07:42Does it make a difference in a race that certainly was neck and neck?
07:47Well, we saw as soon as Taylor Swift put out her post on Instagram that several other celebrities
07:57did the same.
07:58I think they liked the post or there was that sort of buzz.
08:02And buzz matters in these situations.
08:06For me, I think that that was a surprise landing right after it did.
08:13And youth vote or vote of Taylor Swift fans, most of whom I think are young, it does matter.
08:23And, you know, any attempt to get out the vote is going to make a difference in an election
08:28this close.
08:29If you have a celebrity of her status saying I'm with with one candidate or the other,
08:37I think it could make a difference.
08:38Yeah.
08:39I mean, like anything that turns out, young people certainly will make a difference.
08:43But the race still clearly tight.
08:45Washington Bureau chief from Market Watch, Rob Schroeder, good to have you, as always,
08:49sir.