This is what Buttigieg thinks Harris will need while debating Trump

In two days, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will take the stage in Philadelphia, and the new CNN poll of polls out this morning shows that their first, and perhaps only presidential debate could not be more consequential. The race between Harris and Trump is neck and neck with no clear leader. And while a new poll shows Harris outpacing Trump with women, younger people and Black and Latino likely voters, Trump maintains strong support among men and older likely voters. Harris is already in Pennsylvania. Informal debate prep facing off against a stand in playing Trump. While Trump's preparations are, as always, more informal, his advisers hope he will stay on message against Harris, who may try to needle him. But Harris also will look to answer voters questions about her policies. Here with me now is someone who has debated Kamala Harris on stage 2020 presidential candidate up for the Democratic primary back then. Pete Buttigieg, thank you so much for being here. So there is a new New York Times poll out this morning, and it says 28% of likely voters said they still need to learn more about Harris. Only 9% say that about Trump. What does she need to do at the debate to fill in those blanks? Well, I think the main task will be to make sure Americans understand the difference in visions and are reminded that they already agree with her on the issues that matter most to them. But that's going to be challenging. I've competed with her for the Democratic nomination, and I had the honor of being involved in her debate preparations against Mike pence. She is a very focused and disciplined leader. But it will take almost superhuman focus and discipline to deal with Donald Trump. In a debate. It's no ordinary proposition, not because Donald Trump is a master of explaining policy ideas and how they're going to make people better off. It's because he's a master of taking any form or format that is on television and turning it into a show that is all about him. But the less we're talking about him, and the more we're talking about you, the better it's going to be for the vice president, because she has laid out an agenda, things like making sure that our tax code is fair and protecting a woman's right to choose. That is, of course, the opposite of Donald Trump's agenda, which has been around tax cuts for the wealthy and his record of destroying the right to choose. It's again an extremely challenging task in the face of all of the distraction, whatever outrageous things he does and says, because they will require a response, and yet you can't allow him to change the subject from the difference between his very unpopular set of policies and record and her vision for America's future. I want to get to a couple of issues that are almost certain to come up, but you just mentioned that you were, debating her and that you learned from that. What did you learn? What should we expect that you experienced as somebody who was jousting with her? Well, I think about intellect and focus. She's somebody who was extremely smart about getting to the core of an issue. That's what made her so effective as a D.A., as a prosecutor, then as attorney general, and of course, as vice president. And one of the things I remember from those debate preparations when I was involved, supporting her team four years ago, was anytime some issue, area or topic came up. We were kicking around statistics, ideas, arguments. She would always take it back to the question of okay, how is this going to affect somebody at home? And I think that's especially important right now with some of the issues at stake right now. For example, the Trump economic plan, economists estimate that that will cost about $3,900 for a typical American family going forward and really supercharge inflation. but, you know, it's not going to be about getting into the niceties of economic modeling. It's going to be bringing that to the kitchen table. And why, people in their everyday lives will be so much better off with her in charge, growing small business, delivering a fairer tax code, importantly getting us, a way forward on childcare affordability. She has a plan for expanding the child tax credit. making sure that we have paid family leave in this country. two things we would have right now if Republicans weren't blocking them. And as we saw when Donald Trump was asked about childcare, the other day, it wasn't clear whether he even understood the question I want to ask about, Afghanistan, which is almost certain to come up in this debate, and in particular, the chaotic withdrawal under the Biden administration from Afghanistan that left 13 service members dead in 2021. The vice president told me that she was the last person in the room on that decision decision, and she was comfortable with the outcome. I want to make clear that was before the actual withdrawal happened. Just after the decision was made. tomorrow we expect the House Foreign Affairs Committee to release the findings of its three year investigation into what happened, how does Kamala Harris defend what we all saw? First of all, of course, I haven't seen what's in the report coming out tomorrow, but I do have a question about what they're doing over there. If they've had three years to assess what happened, why are they delivering a report, after Labor Day in a presidential election year? I think it really feeds in to a sense that, this is something they're using as a political football. look, this administration made the decision not to allow this war to be inherited by a fifth president and to end that conflict. And this is on my mind a lot in September, not just because of the anniversary of the withdrawal, but because it was September, ten years ago that I left Afghanistan. And when I left again ten years ago, 2014, they told us we were some of the last troops that they were turning out the lights, only to find that it passed on to another presidency and another presidency after that. Well, it's of course, most at stake right now, as is true in any election, is our future. And what is going to be the future of American national security? Do we have adults, grownups in charge, who understand the stakes, or do we have people who are incapable of taking even the most serious issues seriously? And I think it's especially revealing and important that among Trump's own advisers and appointees who have gone on to denounce him, to talk about him in scathing terms, to make clear that he has no business being president. So many of them come out of the national security side because they saw up close how dangerous it was to have him in charge of American national military affairs. Let me ask you about something that you mentioned. You said that the timing of this report is political. Couldn't both things be true, that it is political and politically advantageous for advantageous for Republicans because the withdrawal was such a mess with regard to how not not whether the U.S. should come out, but how it actually happened. And it is a political, problem for the Biden administration, even privately, the people I talked to admit that. So how does Kamala Harris address that? Since she was vice president? Well, I think, however you view the the things that are going to emerge in the report, what's clear is that this America's longest war needed to be brought to an end. And the question at stake in every presidential election is what's going to happen next? she is clear about the need to make sure that a place like Afghanistan never again becomes a haven for attacks on the homeland. That's a counterterrorism policy and posture that is different from an open ended presence over there, but also with all of the threats that America faces, whether it's making sure that Afghanistan is never again base for an attack on the homeland, whether it's what's going on in the middle East, whether it's what's happening with China, whether it's the latest evidence of Russian interference in our own affairs, or any number of other issues, we need to make sure that the next president of the United States is somebody who is equipped to handle that with a view toward what is best for the American people and what is best for America's troops, not somebody who is obsessed with what is best for him. which I think is exactly what we're going to see on display from Donald Trump in the debate in a couple of days. Pete Buttigieg, thank you so much. Really appreciate you coming on this morning. Yeah. Same here. Thanks very much.