New poll reveals how voters are viewing Trump and Harris after the debate
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00:00The new national Reuters Ipsos poll has Harris ahead by five points. Let's take a look at that
00:06right now. CNN's Harry Anton is here with much more. Harry, can you give us some context around
00:10that margin and the movement that you're seeing in polling post-debate?
00:14Yeah, I think it's rather important, Kate, to point out that the Reuters Ipsos poll has actually
00:19been one of Harris's best. So look, you get that five-point margin, right, that 47-42 that you
00:24mentioned post-debate, but that's actually not a lot of movement from where we were in August when
00:28Harris was up by four. Now, that is movement from where we were in late July when Harris was up by
00:33two, but the bottom line here is this. At least in the first polling that we're getting post this
00:39debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, maybe slight, slight, slight movement in Harris's
00:45direction, but not overwhelmingly so, which I don't think is really much of a surprise given
00:50the 50-nation we are right now. But the bottom line is in the average of polls, Harris had a
00:55slight national lead, and at this particular point, I think she'll probably hold on to that,
00:59at least based upon this initial signal. Yeah, didn't hurt her. Maybe didn't also,
01:05like it wasn't, you know, the nail in the coffin for a Donald Trump candidacy either,
01:11which is exactly kind of what people expected with this debate in the 50-nation we are in right now.
01:16What is the biggest difference, though, you see in polls,
01:20these polls compared to those that came after the Biden-Trump debate in June?
01:26Yeah, I mean, look, it all comes down to mental state and being able to deal with challenges.
01:30All right, so mental sharp and can deal with challenges. Look at this. Back in the post-June
01:34debate, right, look at that. 52% of voters said that, in fact, Trump was mentally sharp and can
01:38deal with challenges. Look at the Joe Biden number. It was just 26%. Now look at the difference here.
01:44Look at this. 58% in the post-September debate poll said that Harris was mentally sharp and can
01:49deal with challenges. Trump's number actually dropped below 50%, down to just 46, so that 52 to
01:5546. So this was the big change that I think a lot of Democrats are hoping for when they switched out
02:00Biden for Harris. It came down to mental sharpness. And the bottom line is the clear majority of
02:05voters believe that Kamala Harris is mentally sharp and can deal with challenges. And the
02:08number for Trump, that declined by six points between post-June and post-September. I think
02:13that's a very welcome sign for Democrats. So on the top line, maybe not so much movement nationally,
02:18but underneath the hood, I think Democrats really have to like what they say.
02:23And talking with people on TV from the Harris campaign, and then hearing from Democrats
02:28involved with the campaign, one of the things you hear is that everyone feels they did great
02:32in the debate. The question is, can it reach the undecided voters? And I'm not sure they have an
02:39answer, at least not the answer they want yet. So it leads me to this question, Weta, what really is
02:43an undecided voter? Where are they and who are they? Yeah, well, look, part of the challenge here
02:49is that undecided voters are undecided because they're not really focused on this campaign.
02:57They are low information voters. They tend to be younger. And likely they didn't watch the debate.
03:05They may be seeing some social media on it, but they're hard to reach voters and they may make
03:12the difference in this race. Are they undecided between the candidates or are they undecided
03:17about whether they show up to vote? Well, I think a little of both. I think one important thing to
03:23note is they probably have a pretty strong judgment about Donald Trump. They're skeptical
03:29about politics generally. They don't particularly like Trump, but they don't know very much about
03:36Kamala Harris. They're open to her, but they're also prepared to be disappointed by her as well.
03:43So a big task for the campaign is to continue to fill in the picture of her and particularly around
03:50sort of transactional issues about the economy. What is she going to do for me?
03:58On that note, one of the things you hear in the chattering class is, oh, Kamala Harris needs more
04:03distinctive policy proposals. Is that what undecided voters want? Well, I don't know if,
04:10you know, I don't think what she needs is a voluminous list of policies, but there may be a
04:16few signature policies that speak to the economic experience, quality of life experience of voters
04:24in which she wants to go deeper and drive with those voters to give a sense that, yeah, she gets
04:30it. I think she might help. I'll take a chance on her. But these voters are not going to be,
04:38this is not 2008. They're not going to be swept along here. They're going to grudgingly conclude
04:46that I'll take a chance on this. Which is why the Harris team, I think, genuinely does want
04:51another debate, another chance to reach people who may not be paying attention.
04:54The problem with her debate, John, performance, one of the problems with it is it came rather
05:00early in this. I mean, there's going to be an eternity between now and November. And so
05:06the other motivation for a second debate is it's a second chance to do well. And I think they're
05:12pretty confident she would. And I think Trump's people are like, you know what, this didn't
05:18benefit us very much. Why should we take the risk of doing another? Yeah, for all the argument that
05:24goes on out there inside a campaign, you do a debate if you think it will help you and you don't
05:27do it if you don't think it will help you. Full stop. Yes. And that's, I think, the only analysis
05:32on the Trump team right now. They may change their mind because they think they need it.
05:34But I don't know if they'll change their mind. He may change his mind. And they keep goading him
05:38to try and change his mind by making it seem like he's not courageous enough to do another.
05:43I do want your take on the Laura Loomer thing. Donald Trump has been traveling the country with
05:48her. George Bush, when I covered him in 2000, used to say you can judge the character of a
05:51man by the company he keeps. Donald Trump is keeping company with this person who said just
05:56wildly racist things. What does he get out of that? Including anti-Semitic, by the way,
06:04which is interesting given Trump's rhetoric about that. I think, first of all, I don't pretend to
06:12live inside of Donald Trump's head, so I can't tell you exactly. But it may be that if there's
06:18a strategic reason, he's thinking, look, I got to get these people out who aren't particularly
06:24activated, or I have to get my base out. And she speaks to that base. And I don't really care
06:30what the rest of the world thinks. I'm speaking to these voters who may make the difference. And
06:36right now, this is a motivational race to try and get your base out. It's not a persuasion race.
06:42She can help persuade. He had all those influencers who, there was a kind of
06:50exotic character to them, but they speak to tens of millions of people.
06:56David Axelrod, next time, I promise there will be fireworks.
06:58Yes, please.
06:59Thanks so much for being here.
07:00I insist.