Harris, Trump neck and neck in 3 important states ahead of debate

vice president KL Harris and former president Trump are quite expectedly gearing up for their presidential debate just what you would imagine they would the candidates will face off for the first time tomorrow night that's in Philadelphia both are taking slightly different approaches in their preparation Harris has been practicing with campaign advisers standing in for Trump while Trump has had not very many of these mock debates but has been brushing up staff for SE on his various policies election day is just 57 days away tomorrow night's debate could of course prove pivotal our CBS News Battleground tracker poll shows a very tight race in three important States Michigan Pennsylvania and Wisconsin our Caitlyn huy Burns and Edo Keefe are standing by with more on the debate but we will start with Anthony salvanto and the latest CBS News polling Anthony what can you tell us hey there major could to talk to you look this is the definition of tight right even in Pennsylvania where the debate's taking place effectively even Michigan Wisconsin I want to show you one reason why with within the framework of the economy and it's this people say that their incomes aren't keeping up with inflation when people say that inflation is a major factor in their vote we find Donald Trump winning the Lion Share of those voters okay that's Advantage Trump but that's a little bit retrospective right sort of punishing the party in power if you don't think the economy is doing well but then when I ask people okay whose policies or would their policies help the middle class you get a much more even breakdown you slight majority ities in all these these states saying they think Harris's policiy will you get about half saying Trump's will but a little bit of an advantage there for Harris so framing how they approach the economy that's one way you sort of do a viewer's guide to what you're going to see tomorrow night major and Anthony what can you tell us about the various groups that show up in our surveys and how they are supporting either Harris or Trump or how there has been any movement in those groups recently sure well one thing want to look at I think is the gender gap and we're going to keep coming back to this because we've seen it in these states and Nationwide this is an example from Pennsylvania Harris doing better with women some of that is about the abortion issue not all of it though but that's one thing to track and that's one big group to to look at the other in these states really important are union households workingclass voters and look how tight all of that is both of them obviously we've been fighting for Union endorsements talking about workingclass voters that's all really tight as well so that's that's a couple of the key groups you know white non- col voters make up almost half the voters in these states and that's another critical group we're going to look at and that's another critical group that I think you're going to have to see they're breaking towards Donald Trump but can Harris cut in to some of those numbers Major Anthony it is assumed in the Trump World then would former president Trump post on his social media platform he is talking only to his base and no nobody else in America really pays much attention to those remarks no matter how incendiary or ranting they may sound what do we know about the effect of any of his social media posts on the electorate oh people pay attention they don't necessarily weigh that against their vote though by which I mean this we find seven and 10 and this is an example from Wisconsin in all the states who don't like those posts in fact they say that they're trying to be insulting toward kamla Harris but just the same a quarter of those voters about are voting for Donald Trump nonetheless and many of his supporters don't think they're insulting they like them same is in the eye of the beholder major there's a lot of trump voters who feel that the message is coming out of the Harris campaign they also consider insulting yes they tell us in this poll that they'd like to hear positive messages that they'd like to hear good things from both candidates it's politics and so they may not get what they want but that's how they feel Major Anthony svant always a pleasure thank you very much Caitlyn Huey Burns and Edo Keefe join me now want to bring in you both uh Ed let me start with you at the white house uh from the Harris campaign's perspective how important is tomorrow evening's debate oh it it's crucial major I think they see some of the surveys released by us and others over the weekend that continue to show there are gaps to fill in regarding who she is what she's about what she would do and then the conversations I've had with Democrats today across the Spectrum across the country they've said she's really got to set up a contrast and give a sense of what she would do going forward spend less time going back if she can Stoke him into personal attacks on her or grievances that he likes to Heir every so often that's a net positive for them because it will remind those handful of undecided voters in these seven states or so what he's been about and what he could continue to be about for the next four years and if she's got some kind of a positive looking ahead message that helps uh it all Al is sort of the one and only chance they have to contrast side by side with him they've never met before she's been in the uh house chamber when he gave said State of the Union that's about it but they've never been face to face she's never faced an adversary quite like this she's a good debater since she was a DA an AG and a Senate candidate she's she can she can take on competition but never quite someone like Trump a and so that's what these last few days of intense reparation out in Pittsburgh have been all about Ed before I go to kayln I want to ask you also about what difference if any has it made in these preparations for the vice president that it has been determined that the mics more often than not will be muted in these exchanges look they're trying to cast this as a real disadvantage for them and I think that's partly designed to lower expectations so that if she can find a way uh she looks even more masterful at this the reason they're frustrated by it is remember some of her best moments have come when putting men in their place whether it was telling my Pence to stop interrupting her whether it was sharply questioning Brett Kavanaugh or Neil Gorsuch back in the day during Supreme Court confirmation hearings and so if the mics are off and she can't provoke him while she's got hers on or vice versa their concern is it's going to be harder for her to create a moment or two that ends up in your Instagram feed the next day that ends up in an ad that ends up in our Recaps of it on the CBS mornings the next day whether she can do it some other way I'm sure they've worked on that and I'm sure they we working on that ahead of this but they're trying to sort of just put that out there and say oh gosh if only the mics hadn't been muted maybe we'd have a better shot at this still undoubtedly they've been working on it despite what they might suggest ad ke please stand by kayln Huey Burns is in Philadelphia kayn talk to us about the Trump preparation well the Trump campaign likes to kind of Pride itself on the idea that they say that Trump doesn't need the kind of preparations and doesn't do the kind of preparations that kamla Harris or his previous opponent Joe Biden did they argue that he's doing interviews with media that he's out there talking uh in rallies off the cuff on the campaign Trail and of course you can argue whether that is whether that does accw to his benefit uh when you look at the polling but uh they kind of Pride themselves on that he has a more informal approach to that and it could have worked to his advantage in that first debate he essentially knocked out his opponent during the race this however is a completely different set of circumstances namely he is now running against a woman and the campaign has been asked you know how that changes their approach and Tulsi gabber the former uh congresswoman former democratic congresswoman who's now advising Trump and helping with the preparations said today that to kind of battle that or to to kind of confront that they are going to argue uh what Trump's policies do for women compared to the current uh status quo but it's also interesting major uh a senior adviser to the campaign Jason Miller told reporters today that it is impossible to prepare for a debate against Donald Trump in their view because he said that going against Donald Trump preparing to go against Donald Trump is akin to preparing to go against Muhammad Ali or uh Floyd Mayweather uh I you know in so far as you don't know what angle he's going to to come at you with you don't know how he's going to come at you um I don't know a lot about boxing admittedly but in my view that is setting pretty high expectations for this kind of performance to make that kind of comparison so as much as they argue that this is a moment uh that they believe all the stakes are high for kamla Harris they're setting some pretty high expectations for themselves as well today yeah they're setting high expectations and yet the former president is on record saying that the vice president is incompetent can't put sentences together is unintelligent I mean how do you square those two kinds of orientations yeah that's exactly right major and uh what they are trying to do what the campaign says their goal for Success how they would define success tomorrow night is if the the former president can attach Biden and all of the baggage of this Administration in their view to kamla Harris because that's what they've been trying to do over the past six weeks or so uh essentially say she is a standin for Biden and attach all of his uh policies and all of his uh perceived um failures to her and in polling you know you haven't necessarily seen that yet although the race has certainly tightened as you mentioned in those key Battlegrounds so that is how they are defining success for their campaign for tomorrow joining us from the City of Brotherly Love Caitlin Huey Burns and from the north line of the White House Edo Keefe thank you very much here's something you will be very interested to know we will have special editions of America decides tomorrow from the debate spin room in Philadelphia at 5:00 p.m. and 700 p.m. Eastern the debate itself hosted we should note by ABC News can be watched right here on CBS News 247 starting at 900 p.m. Eastern