‘Obvious traps SE Cupp reacts to Harris strategy to distract Trump during debate
‘Obvious traps SE Cupp reacts to Harris strategy to distract Trump during debate
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Joining me this hour, Meghan Hayes, former special assistant to President Biden, as she
00:03was the director of message planning at the White House, and CNN political commentator
00:06Essie Kupp, who's also the host of Battleground.
00:09Good to see you both this morning.
00:11Gosh, you know, I've been thinking all morning about where do we begin.
00:14There's a lot of different things we can talk about, but Essie, I want to throw this to
00:17you.
00:18One of the things that I found fascinating is, you know, as Kevin Liptack was just pointing
00:20out, the fact that Donald Trump went into the spin room after, that says something.
00:24Donald Trump wanted to get in front of a camera again.
00:26Donald Trump wanted to work on, one would imagine, his narrative.
00:31But that's because the person who really seemed to understand the medium and play to it, that
00:38being TV and the TV audience, Essie, I would argue, is the vice president.
00:42Yeah, they both had a bunch of jobs to do last night.
00:48And unfortunately, I don't think he accomplished any of his.
00:53And she, on the other hand, seemed to accomplish all of hers.
00:56One of her jobs was to speak not to her base, not to the far left, but to swing state voters
01:03who are undecided.
01:04And we heard time and time again on policy and substance, she was sort of tacking to
01:09the middle on a number of these issues and pushing back against Trump's attempt to define
01:13her as radical and Marxist and far left.
01:16She also was meant to put him into a defensive crouch, and boy, did she.
01:22I mean, she laid some bait that was not cleverly hidden.
01:26This was like, these were obvious traps, and he walked giddily into all of them.
01:31She knew that revealing his personal attacks, the distractions, this turns off swing state
01:37voters who are undecided.
01:39She accomplished that mission.
01:41He was meant to go in and talk about the issues that resonate with his base, and a lot of
01:45moderates by the way, the economy and immigration.
01:49And instead of really drilling down on his policy or even attacking the Biden administration's
01:54policies, he really got distracted and went into some very strange territory, territory
02:00that I don't think will appeal to those undecided swing state voters.
02:04Yeah, territory that his campaign and debate prep certainly did not want him entering.
02:08Megan, as we look at this, look, Kamala Harris getting a lot of praise this morning, but
02:16there are some questions about perhaps a couple of missed opportunities.
02:19Part of what she needed to do was introduce herself and her policies a little bit better
02:23to the American voter, to those who aren't as familiar with her.
02:27And there was a real opportunity there when it came to a question about why she had changed
02:31when it came to certain policies.
02:33Talked about that she would get to all of them.
02:35She stuck with fracking, which of course is important in the state of Pennsylvania.
02:39Should she have done more to explain her changing positions?
02:43Look, I don't think she has as many changing positions as we all would like to believe
02:48here in what Donald Trump is pointing her out to be.
02:50I think that it's a very short debate when you break out the timing and the commercials
02:54and all the things.
02:55I think that her bar was extremely high to me.
02:57She had to show that she was presidential.
02:59She had to reintroduce herself.
03:00She has to talk about her policy.
03:02She's never going to be everything to every person, but she knocked it out of the park
03:05last night.
03:06She, Donald Trump, again, denied the outcome of the 2020 election.
03:11He doesn't think that Ukraine should be winning the war against Russia, which sends shock
03:15waves through democracies all around the world.
03:18She showed that she was presidential.
03:19She showed that she's willing to take on a bully.
03:21There are a lot of things that she accomplished last night that I don't think people were
03:24expecting from her and ready to see.
03:26But I do think that she did lay some traps for Donald Trump that he walked into and not
03:30accepting the results of the election again and again.
03:33That is something that swing state voters and these moms and these suburban and the
03:37battleground states just cannot understand.
03:39Their toddler has to take responsibility for their own actions, and he just refuses to
03:43do it.
03:44And I think the more that they can hammer those types of things home and over the next
03:4756 days, I think that she will have a very good chance of winning in November.
03:51I think she hit the mark of what she needed to do.
03:53But this race is by no means over.
03:55And the hard work still is in front of them.
03:57I see this polling that we just went through with Harry and noting that 63 percent of those
04:01after the debate said that who watched said that they thought she won.
04:05Harry noting that they leaned more Republican.
04:08I know you were speaking to a lot of people in the state of Pennsylvania ahead of the
04:11debate about what needed to happen and what voters were looking for.
04:16What do you make of that outcome?
04:21Listen, we have to remember that a lot of the people who tune into these big nights,
04:24whether they're conventions or debates, are already politically engaged.
04:28So some of those voters, the cake is baked.
04:31However, we've also been speaking to a lot of undecided swing state voters who said this
04:36debate is what they were waiting for.
04:38They wanted to know more about Kamala Harris.
04:40They wanted to see these two on a stage together and see how they would react and
04:45interact. And if we believe the three percent of Pennsylvania voters who are undecided
04:51or the 18 percent of all American registered voters who say they are undecided, that
04:56they were waiting for this debate, I think that inures to the benefit of Kamala Harris.
05:01Megan, as you watch where we move from this moment, right, moving into these 55 days of
05:08the campaign, what are you going to be watching for over the next, let's say, even 48
05:14hours? What would your message to Kamala Harris be in terms of what she needs to do?
05:20I mean, I think she needs to get out there and continuing to talk to voters.
05:23I think she needs to do more local media.
05:25I think that that is one way that people can get to know you.
05:27Not everyone's going to have time to go to a rally, take off work.
05:30That's an extremely rare thing that people are able to do to be able to go to these
05:33rallies and see her in person.
05:35So I do think having a local media strategy in these battleground states would be
05:38extremely beneficial to her.
05:40But I think she needs to continue to talk about the issues and where she stands on
05:43things. And I think that's what people need to hear.
05:45And I think the more you say it and the more you keep reminding people who you are and
05:49the things that they've done, the Biden-Harris administration has done for you, I
05:52think people will get to see a real difference and continue to draw the contrast between
05:56you and Donald Trump and the character argument.
05:59Nobody wants a president that is going to be extremely volatile and yelling all the
06:03time, regardless of what their policies are.
06:05Nobody wants America to be represented that way in the rest of the world.
06:08And so I think, you know, she just needs to keep her doing the work and doing the
06:12things that they're doing right now and and continue throughout the next 56 days, 55
06:16days. I mean, who's counting, right?
06:20You know, we've talked a lot.
06:22We've talked a lot in this election.
06:24We've talked certainly after the June debate about the concerns of down-ballot races
06:28when it came to Joe Biden's performance in that debate.
06:32Where are things down now? When you're talking to voters, how much are they talking
06:35about those other elections?
06:37Is their focus more on the top of the ticket or on the down-ballot races, those local
06:43races that are going to impact them more on a daily basis?
06:48It's mixed, and it depends on the state, right?
06:52If you're in Arizona, a lot of voters are tuning into that Senate race between Kara
06:56Lake and Ruben Gallego.
06:57If you're in North Carolina, a lot of voters are tuning into the gubernatorial race.
07:02And those don't have to portend what's going to happen in the presidential races.
07:06And voters know how to separate those, you know, politically and in terms of
07:13partisanship. So they are tuned in.
07:15But I think what we're seeing is a very high tune in to the presidential election this
07:21year. And that's why these margins are so tight.
07:24And that's why I think they're going to continue to be tight right up until election
07:27day. Yes.
07:29Well, it may be a bit of a campaign message.
07:31I think it's also pretty clear this, the underdog thing, this is not a decided race by
07:36any stretch of the imagination.
07:37So we've got a lot to talk about, which keeps us all employed for a little while longer.
07:41My friends, thank you both.