Who won the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate & social media's impact on voting

Take that in for a moment. 53 days. That's all the time the candidates have to make their case to you before polls open November 5th. And we will be here each and every night to bring you the unbiased political news you've come to expect as we roll right along. And tonight we have some great guests for you. Social media dominates our lives. You know that. You're probably on your phone as you're watching this, and both of these candidates know it. We're sitting down with a social media guru, a specialist, and he's done a very cool study on how effective both Harris and Trump's posts really are. He's a local guy. You'd be surprised how they're missing some simple, low hanging fruit when it comes to getting your vote on that phone. Plus a pulse check on the debate. Our unscientific poll Tuesday showed most of you thought VP Harris won the debate. Unscientific. That margin was close, though. But new scientific polling data gives her a much wider margin of victory than you may imagine. Pollster Steve Mitchell breaks down that data, and what both candidates need to do in the sprint to Election Day. And speaking of debate, some big developments in the presidential race. Former President Donald Trump saying he will not debate Vice President Harris a second time. Harris's camp said she'd be open to the idea. But in a post on, well, social media Truth Social, to be exact, this afternoon, Trump said there won't be another one going on to claim that polls show that he won that debate. All right, let's turn the clock back a little bit this week to the debate. If you missed our fact check on both sides last night, we fact checked both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. You can see it on Fox two detroit.com because both of them said things that weren't true. But as we say, it's a show that's all about you. So we wanted to get a pulse check from you after the candidates left this famous state asking how confident you are about your candidate actually winning. Here's what some of you had to say. I'm very confident in my choice for president of the United States in 2024. I think Kamala Harris will be an ideal candidate for the job. And I look forward to hopefully seeing her win election here in November. I'm very confident that she's going to win and she has some great ideas moving forward. I, I'm hoping and praying that she'll win because I'm I'm not I don't know, it's really for me. We live in Michigan, so I feel like here it's so polarized where like the rest of the world, I feel like if you're like in California or New York, they're like, yeah, Harris is going to win. But in Michigan, I feel like it's like, you don't know because you're surrounded by like, every other sign in your streets. Trump and then Harris and then Trump. So I think she's pulling ahead, especially after the debate. All right. There were plenty of people, by the way, who also believe that Donald Trump is going to be the next president. And as you heard her say, there are plenty of signs on the lawns making this a very purple state. The debate not the only thing that we're getting new poll numbers on. We're also getting a look at where the race stands. And that's a lot closer. Again, our conversation with Steve Mitchell is coming up in just about 20 minutes now. Some frightening moments for a city in Ohio. Former President Trump mentioned in the debate Tuesday night a bomb threat made toward multiple facilities in Springfield, leading to big, I should say, leading to City Hall being evacuated and the closure of all county office buildings there. Authorities say the closures were a precaution, but it comes after Trump echoed a rumor that immigrants are eating pets of people who live there, despite the fact authorities in Ohio say there has been no credible reports of that actually happening, it's not clear if today's threats are connected to that. Tonight. We're hearing from people in that city about those claims. It's preposterous. Some of them are scared for their life. Today's Haitians tomorrow may be Somalian, it may be African. It may be German, it may be. But we need to stop this today. Everybody should have a chance to, you know, be free and come to America. I just feel like if they're going to give this much benefits and support to foreigners, it should be the same. As for ones that are here. Living here. So where do these rumors come from? Are you thinking that the police is hiding it? That the district attorney is covering something up? No. Those rumors actually started with a post on social media describing how a person saw a cat hanging from a tree on a property where Haitian people were living. But again, there's no evidence to back up that one claim that led to a bigger story that has now since been debunked. Now to the campaign trail, the candidates are back on it. After that important night in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Not surprisingly, Michigan is in the spotlight in a big way for both candidates. In fact, starting today, when Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was in West Michigan speaking at an event in Grand Rapids. But that's not his only stop here. In fact, tomorrow he'll be in the capital city for an event in Lansing before going to another key swing state, Wisconsin. The one at the top of the ticket. VP Harris spends her day in Pennsylvania and all new today, former President Donald Trump will hold a town hall in Flint, Michigan. On Thursday. It will be moderated by a familiar face Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Remember her? She's the governor of Arkansas now, but she was Trump's press secretary. That will happen at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night. Turning now to Trump's legal battles and a loss to tell you about in court, a tossed out bid to lift the gag order in his hush money case. This basically means Trump still can't talk publicly about prosecutors in the case or his families. Trump argues his First Amendment rights are being violated. His sentencing in the hush money case was pushed back to Novembe. A judge is also weighing whether the verdict should be overturned because of the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity. In the meantime, several former governors of Michigan are joining an effort to push back on misinformation and attacks about elections in Michigan, former Governors Jim Blanchard and John Engler, a Democrat and a Republican and then former lieutenant governor John Cherry and former Congressman Mike Bishop, all part of the Democracy Defense Project. Now, the goal is to strengthen trust in elections following years of false claims of election fraud in the 2020 vote, and many officials are preparing for similar challenges in this year's election, there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 vote. It's been litigated in courtrooms throughout this country, Blanchard said in a statement to The Associated Press. Quote we're going to jointly, wherever necessary, speak out when people try to call into question the integrity or the accuracy of our voting. We believe in our system and we don't appreciate people making up stories that are self-serving. Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 11 people related to protests that broke out on the University of Michigan's campus over the war in Gaza. You remember that this was the scene back then. On May 21st, when police removed the encampment right there at the diag that led to clashes between police and protesters. And when officers moved in to tear down the tents, demonstrators threw chairs to stop the progress. The protest was related to Michigan's connection to Israel amid the war in Gaza. Some of the protesters just face trespassing charges, while others face resisting and obstructing a police officer as well. Those are more serious. Two others were also charged with a counter protest in April. Those charges include disturbing the peace and attempted ethnic intimidation. As you know, Dearborn was in the spotlight this past spring with a vote uncommitted effort over the war in Gaza. It's back again, but for a very different reason. The National Arab American Convention is happening this weekend in Dearborn, and the State of Palestine, and the war in Gaza will no doubt be a major topic at that big event. The conference runs through Sunday. Organizers tell us the goal is to bring the Arab American community together and make positive change. But we were also able to get the reaction to what both VP Harris and former President Trump said about the war. On the debate stage. The answers don't matter. I mean, they can answer any they want, any way they want at a debate, right? What we need to see our policies and actions. So really, I don't have a reaction to the answers. I don't take any answers. As you know, set in stone. We need to see more action. We need to see policy commitments and we need to see them move on that action. And we need to understand that there's a president in office now that needs to act. So it doesn't really matter what's said on the debate stage. We want them to leave empowered. We want them to leave understanding that they have the power to make change at a local level and in their everyday lives, and give them ways they can exercise that power and get involved and stay involved in their community and providing them the information they need to make a conscious decision on many issues. This conference is in this town for a reason. Because of the big population of Arab Americans in our community. And so guess what we're going to do tomorrow on the pulse? We're going to dive deeper into the war on Gaza. What was said on the debate stage, and what both candidates need to do to get those votes. We always say we get both sides and we will make sure to have an Arab-American and a Jewish perspective. Tomorrow night on The Pulse. Before we go to break, we wanted to get one more pulse check from you about social media and the candidates. I asked the question, how closely do you follow your candidate or party of choice on social media? Here's what so many of you had to say. David had this to say on acts. He said, I'm currently following Harris's personal and VP accounts, but I don't actually follow what's being posted. I'm too busy working and being present at home or complaining on social media about the lack of transit funding in Michigan. On the flip side, Tamara said this on Facebook. I follow and try to post things that debunk truths posted against Donald J. Trump. He is and will remain my pick for president. And finally, headlee had this to say I don't. I am so overexposed to political ads. I look forward to a commercial break with a few slip and fall attorneys and the roofing guy. We like all of those attorneys and the roofing guys and they will be back. But first, we pause from now until November for a lot of political ads. And we asked you the question on Fox two detroit.com, giving you the options of very somewhat or not closely at all. If you want to weigh in, just scan the QR code right there at the bottom right of your screen. So far, most of you say not closely at all. And that's where our conversation is headed right after this short break. A social media guru is in the hot seat talking about what both of these candidates are doing well and what they We are back now on the pulse, looking at everything. People power and politics. From the Motor City to Washington. And we're diving deeper into both candidates and their use of social media. This is going to be an interesting one here to talk about it. Ethan Lloyd, a social media specialist who actually worked on Hill Harper's Senate campaign, but he actually got critiques for both sides, Trump and Harris, because he's someone who, outside of his work for the good man, Mr. Harris, Mr. Hill, Harper, you've been really studying social media for so many years, and you are a huge advocate for people using it for the right reasons, the right way. Yes, sir. You also look at effectiveness. We want to make this very clear. When we hear from Ethan Lloyd. He's not saying it's good that someone did this or bad. He's saying from a social media perspective, this is the messaging that works. And here's what doesn't. We're going to begin. You say with a good of former President Trump because he posted a meme of a cat. Talk about that. So you know what? People have to realize is when something bad is said about you, it's your job to jump on top of that narrative and take control of that messaging. So I think that is his attempt of turning a bad into a good with the former president. Did is he made a meme of him talking at a rally where it was nothing but cats in the audience, and it said cats for Trump. That's not what we're looking at right now, by the way. This is something we'll get to in a minute, but this is fascinating. So you're saying everyone was saying, let's debunk this. Yes, former President Trump, this is a rumor. It's not true. And instead of pretending like he didn't say it, he leaned into it. He embraced it. He turned it into a joke because everybody was already joking with him. So instead of laughing at him, he turned it around and said, we're going to laugh at this together. And I think that's a way of making the best out of a bad situation. And I think that's honestly a positive. That's good use of social media. There's going to be for those who watched eight mile with Eminem, there's moments in that, oh yeah, doing the rap rapping phase where he kind of made fun of himself. Absolutely. And the other people were left powerless. He couldn't say anything. All right, so let's talk about Harris now. This is the bat. We're going to do the bat for Harris. The bad for Trump. Vice President Harris simply not enough. Schwartz. When you say Schwartz, for those who aren't familiar, we're not talking about what we wear in the summer, this is on social media. You're saying she has not posted enough? Schwartz. What do you mean by that? Absolutely not. And just to clarify, for people, there's YouTube and then there's YouTube shorts. YouTube released YouTube shorts, which is their version of a tick tock, tick tock style platform. So it's vertical videos that are short and nonstop and that's why it's called YouTube shorts. And there they are. You're seeing lots of views on the ones that she did post. Some say 82,740 2000, but you would argue that someone of that stature that's not that big of a number, not a lot at all. Let's look at the difference between the two. That post is from many days before the debate. If you're looking at what she's put out on Instagram, she is firing off like crazy on X, she's firing off like crazy. But on YouTube, shorts, that is an untapped market. And on social media you don't want any untapped markets. So to your logic about if something doesn't go well for you, and if you argue that perhaps former President Trump wasn't as strong as he could have been in the debate, and some people are saying that both conservatives and Democrats, he did have good moments in the debate. You're saying former President Trump needs to post those debate clips and he's not? Yes. And that is something that is not good as a social media manager or social media director, what you want to do is show your highlights. Kamala Harris is showing her highlights. She has at least 5 to 6 clips already out from the debate. She clips them up in 32 minute long segments and she posts them. Trump has only posted one and it's. And that's what we're looking at right here, right? Yeah His final statement that's all he put out. And what that looks like is that was the only high point in the debate. And that's the issue. And we know that in an hour and a half debate, both of these candidates had very profound moments and very moments that their followers were going to love. Okay. Let's talk about that's the bad. So Harris not enough shorts Trump. You got to post more debate clips got to we're not going to have another debate. So you won't see any more of that. But the good for president former President Trump his Instagram game is strong. You're saying that he really knows how to post about policy. And that's what people care about. Talk about that. Yes. Because I think a lot of the critics would say that he wasn't so strong on policy during the debate. You know, he had his 3 or 4 points that he hit. But, you know, the big thing that everybody took away from it was it sounded like he didn't have a plan. You know, he said he had a concept of a plan. And to combat that, to kind of go ad, you know, fuel to the fire, fix what? He made a mistake of doing in the debate. He listed off all his policies on Instagram. He listed off every bullet point that he wants to accomplish. That can help give context to what people might consider a poor fool. So some of the people on and I hope you don't think I'm being ageist, but some of the people who are above the age of like to throw out a number out there, like 55 or 60 are saying who reads policy points on Instagram. You would argue that everyone who's a young voter is reading Instagram, like the morning paper used to be read 30 years ago. Where else am I going to get my news? Well, here, you get it here, Ethan Fox two. We have a lot of young people watching our station. Absolutely. But I understand what you're saying. It's complemented by social media. When you know what's real on social media, that's the issue that we of course, we, you and I can debate about for a long time. Okay. The good of Harris here, you're saying her ex game, the former Twitter is very, very strong. Oh my goodness. Talk about that. She has been killing the game on X. You know she has her vice president account. She has her Kamala HQ account which is essentially her campaign account. And they are firing off like crazy. She has posted more than 30 ex posts on X that is very, very impressive. I almost said tweets. We don't call them tweets. No right? Right. I mean, I don't want to be the old guy who keeps calling it tweets. It's ex post. Yes, but you're saying that this is important. Is this when you talk about engagement, is this where you get engagement from? Right. By posting, you got to put something out there for people to engage with. High volume is never a bad thing. It's never a bad idea to keep the conversation going. We're living in a digital age of instant gratification. People want it and they want it right now. So if I have a question about a candidate, I want the answer right now and to communicate all day long with me makes me feel like you're a friend. And that is something that's very, very positive that she's been doing on X and that Donald Trump really hasn't been doing okay. So let's talk about what both of these folks can do moving forward in this race. Is it more of the video game where they show up on video and does it not look rehearsed, like, how do you how do you really touch voters through some of these social media posts? Is it video? It is video. I think it is vertical short videos. But what I really think they should do is clip up more interviews, more interviews across the board. I want them to talk through their philosophy, talk through their policy, talk through why they're even running. You know, these are important things. But so literally to have like someone in the camp with a cell phone look organic, not look all staged, because a lot of times Trump and Harris will have these well lit, you know, and they're on the platitudes and it looks rehearsed. It does. You're saying have like a camera, a cell phone and someone goes up and says, all right, VP Harris, what do you got? Hey, former president Trump, what have you got? Yeah. That works. It really does. All right. Well this is good stuff. Ethan Lloyd, thank you so much. I can't argue with your expertise. I can only argue that this is where you get the news. Ethan. On television. And we have a website and a connected TV app where we are all over the place. Thanks for joining us here on The Pulse. We appreciate you as always. Thank you. New numbers in the race for president. Some pundits, even Republican ones, say former President Trump's debate performance could have been better. But what do the poll numbers say? Well, b All right. Back now on the pulse. You know the mission. We're talking about people, power and politics. And we have new numbers about the race for president and the debate. Joining us in the hot seat. Pollster Steve Mitchell with Mitchell Research and Communications. He worked for the Reagan Bush campaign in 84. And he's been doing polling for many, many years. The first time he walked into this studio where we're sitting right now, 1989, and he's only like 50 years old. That's right. So this is 12 at the time. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's so good to see you. Great to be here. We appreciate your wisdom and your perspective. And of course, what Mitchell Communications does to kind of navigate these tricky poll numbers because we think, you know, we put up these Twitter polls. Obviously it's not scientific. We're just sampling what people are saying at that moment. Yours is scientific. You look at a two way poll between Trump and Harris right now. Tell us what you're finding. We want to put that up. As you talk about it. We our survey was done the day after the debate. And of course, many people, including the people who responded to our pol, thought that Kamala Harris did a much better job than Donald Trump. And yet, our poll shows the race exactly where it was. When we did a poll on June 3rd, 48% support Donald Trump, 48% support Kamala Harris. It is a dead heat here in Michigan. Despite the positive debate performance. So people are saying she did exceptionally well, better than they thought. But still, it's a dead heat. It's literally a tie game. That's exactly right. When you take a look at the question who won the debate? You know you've got the fact that 56%, said Harris won and only 29% said that she won, or that Trump won. And yet the race remains absolutely as tight as it was. And it's just amazing how people just really don't care. It was funny that night I did an interview with Dubai Television and I said my prediction was she won the debate. It won't move the needle at all. And that's exactly what's happened. The needle hasn't moved. So if debates don't matter necessarily, and I don't say they don't matter, but they don't impact polling numbers as much as perhaps these candidates would like. Why is Trump saying I don't want to do anything? Is because he can only hurt himself. He doesn't want to do a third debate. He doesn't like to prep for debates. I think he got through that one. The question is, could he make a more serious mistake than he made in this last debate that he had? I'm in the school that people don't win debates, people lose debates. Joe Biden lost that debate because of his cognitive issues. People don't don't don't win them. If you go along and even if you get beat. But if you don't make a major, glaring mistake, then chances are you're going to survive to fight another day and the and the numbers won't move dramatically at all. And also, you're in control of your message when you go out on the rally tour, right? When Trump or Harris go out on their respective rallies, there's no debate. They can just go out and get earned media, which is to just say things and have the media cover it. You also have we talked about the debate one, but in general, when you look at this race, have you seen anything like this in your more than 40 years of covering this kind of stuff? This is the closest race, perhaps in American history. I mean, you've got the national polls about 1% separating both parties. It just is so incredibly close because everybody is just absolutely no matter what happens. Okay, my candidate didn't do well in the debate. I'm still for my candidate. Whatever it is. They're so firmly entrenched and it's going to stay that way, I believe all the way up to Election Day. Now, there's some little sort of hints you can see. Sometimes I ask a question on my survey. What's the most important problem impacting your vote for president? And then I ask, who do you think can best solve that? Well, when I asked that one, actually Trump does better than Harris. And among independent voters, those very important voters, he wins by 12%. So that could be an indication that some of those people are going to go in that direction. So let's talk. We have about a minute left here. But when it comes to the extreme left, the extreme right, and then we got, I don't want to say extreme, but the left and the right, the ones who are dedicated and committed to their candidate. How big is the middle, the independents, the moderates? How? I mean, is that a large portion of our country, or do you think most people have chosen their camps and are sticking to them? I think it's a very narrow band of voters. Probably about 8%, maybe 4%, but a powerful band nonetheless. But and it's a band that keeps going back and forth because you got a lot of people who say, God, I can't stand Trump. But I think things were better when he was president. And they're trying to say, rationalize their vote, or you've got people who say, well, I really like, you know, vice President Harris because of what she stands for. But I'm a little worried about the economy under her. So it's going to be a roller coaster all the way through, and it's going to be tight all the way to the end when or whether they're going to be campaigning at a place or on social media or on television, every word that comes out of their mouth will help, of course, or hurt in some way. And they are aware of that. And so is Steve Mitchell, our friend here on The Pulse. We thank you for joining us here tonight. Thank you. It was great to be with you. Good to see you as usual. That is the pulse on this Thursday night battleground. Another great show by the way, as he does a fantastic host. He's going to take a look at the other battleground states and what they're dealing with. Stay tuned for that. I'm