Debate showdown: Trump, Harris to face off in 2024 presidential debate | LiveNOW from FOX

from Fox 651 here on the east coast and giving you a live, look at the White House. there in Washington DC, as you all know, the race to the White House. is on this morning. And speaking of the race to the White House, you know, we are just 1 day away from what could be the defining event in the 2024 race for the White House. by president. Kamala Harris. and former president Donald Trump Trump are scheduled for their first and perhaps only debate tomorrow night. Fox News correspondent, Douglas AER has more this morning from Washington on how the candidates are preparing. 90 minutes in Philadelphia. tomorrow night and we're seeing 2 very different approaches to this debate. Are you ready, man? And that was about it from vice president. Kamala Harris out for a stroll with her husband during a break from what a number of reports described as intense debate prep in Pittsburgh. She also emerged briefly on Saturday to visit a nearby spice store I finally got home debate prep to look at these spices. Best part of debate pre so far. Uh, thank you very much everybody. This is a former president, Donald Trump held a rally in Wisconsin, over the weekend. He's often discounted traditional practice sessions and he says, it's not a level Playing Field. If I They'll say Trump suffered a humiliating. defeat tonight. No matter what? the Harris campaign has also complained saying rules that require muted microphones to prevent interruptions are a disadvantage for her. Let's be honest, You know, Donald Trump is the best counter puncher in the history of American politics. Democrats are trying to Tamp down expectations for Harris ahead of the debate, but there was a sobering New York Times poll over the weekend for the Harris campaign showing a neck and neck race in which much of Harris's post convention Bounce may have disappeared. 1, Republican strategist urged Trump to stick to the issues. if the debate is about personality and she can get under his skin, I think that uh, is much better territory for the for the hairs campaign. It looks like both candidates are going to remain off the campaign Trail today. in advance of the debate with just 1 day to go. in Washington. duck luser, Fox News. now, thank you so much, and joining us live this morning to further discuss the anticipated. 2024 presidential debate. none other than political. historian and analyst Rich Rubino. Happy Monday Rich. Good morning to you. Thank you. Good morning to you as well. So a lot of people looking ahead to this presidential debate. if we can First Look Back In Time the last time we saw a presidential debate was with former president Donald Trump and current president, Joe Biden. And for many people, it was difficult to watch rich. uh, compare and contrast. What we saw then to what we could see tomorrow please. Alright, well, there was actually Joe Biden. I think his campaign tried to lower expectations, but he still did very poorly and inevitably he landed up, dropping out of the race as a direct result of that, I don't think anyone expects this to happen with vice president Harris. She's still relatively young She has she's done. pretty well. in past debates to go back to her time as was running for attorney general running for da running for vice president. She did have 1 poor performance and that was with, um, when Kelsey Gabbert kind of caught her off guard, about her record as a prosecutor in terms of marijuana convictions, But other than that, she's been, she's been okay In terms of these debates. I don't think I would necessarily expect them. I think the real question is going to be what's going to happen on the other side with President Trump. and how will president Trump will perform. Um is there any way that will vice president Harris Will should get a rattle? Will they try to stick to the issues or will it become like in the previous debate or the debate between Joe Biden? And and Donald Trump in 2020? more or less about um, personalities than about policies. and we know, Trump has his standards of how he wanted the debate to go and so did. VP Harris are you raised a great point about what the former president might do to come out on top during this debate? And many people think? uh, 1 of his plans might be to tie in Um, Harris to Biden. So basically saying what he thinks are the failures of the Biden Administration putting that on. Harris, Could you put that into perspective, please? Yes. Well, the last time we had an unpopular president, whose vice president was running to succeed him would have been 1968 And the Nixon campaign tried to run against President Johnson as much as they tried to run against vice president Humphrey. And they tried to tether um, unpopular policies with the Johnson Administration toward Hubert Humphrey. I think they're going to see this very scary very similar situation. in this time around. he obviously, he's going to try to tie the inflation. and tether it. to vice president Harris. He's going to constantly talk about the Biden Harris Administration. Um, he's going to talk, he might even bring up the other thing he might do is he might try to call her a San Francisco liberal that was a term that came out of the Republican. on a republican jeane Kirkpatrick. a former Democrat after the Democrats held their convention in 1984 in San Francisco. And do they received as Mo? It was perceived. Um, as very as a very liberal convention that nominated Mandel and jeraldine Ferraris. So I think that's basically going to be his kind of boilerplate. strategy if you will try to tether vice president Harris to unpopular policies, including the econ, including economic Policy, if you get by Administration. And also, con constantly trying to tax, Her. Um, at trying to trying to bring make the case that she is a s a San Francisco liberal or an out of touch liberal, which is kind of typical. uh, Playbook of the Republicans against the Democrats. Absolutely. And on the flip side Rich, uh, what do you think, it'll take for uh, VP Harris to shine during this debate. We saw what Biden did and it was a lot of muscle slinging right? Bringing up uh, the former president's charges and Court appearances, and all of that. I think he's she's going to try to first of all, she's going to probably try to at the beginning to kind of ignore president Trump. try to be above The Fray if you will. I think she thinks that the she really in her case, I think she has her. base basically sewn up. It's a little there's a little wiggle room on the left and there are some people that might vote for the Green Party candidate, Joe Stein or, or Cornel West ranking the P But generally speaking she has her base Zone up. so she's really needs to send a message and economic message if you will, that she's there to help the tens of thousands of Voters in those 7 swing states that are so important. This time around why her economic policies will help. Why? It's why it's time? why there were certain things that the President Biden did that were popular Like for example, Bringing Down the price of insulin even though it was just without mentioning for a specifically, the name, Joe Biden's? That's kind of what I think she's going to try to do. But I think she's going to try to knock it right out. No matter what kind of exploration she receives on the part of Donald Trump. rich, as we saw with the previous debate with Biden. and Trump, we know sometimes those 1 liners can be entertaining, right? For many of the viewers it is. But for others, you know, they don't care about the mudslinging. They don't care about the 1 or they care about hearing the answers to the questions. Do you think we will actually get those answers because for some of the candidates, when it comes to these debates? even some interviews, if we're being honest, it seems like there's a lot of walking around the issues and no definitive answers. It reminds me a little bit of back in 1988 when Democratic nominee, Mike takus was talking about how to how he would. Um, close the bud. The budget Gap and George HW Bush went, right at it and said, is this the time for 1 or is that answers the clearest, Boston Harbor? So he actually said specifically, it was time for 1 liners, but I think that the there certainly are American people There are there are there there are those very small subgroups of actual swing voters in Showdown states. that are going to be looking for substance. But usually, in a debate, the reason it rarely answer questions. directly answer questions necessarily lie. Sometimes they mislead or what the, what what likely happens when you, when you ask a question, you really don't want to answer what you do Is you try to answer it in 2 or 3 sentences then you pivot. your pivoting, and you move over to speaking about something that is completely unrelated. that's what happens, Pretty much. that's what happens pretty much in just about every debate. It's about staying on message about getting your message out on the best example, I can think of for that. to 1994 George W. Bush is running for governor of Texas. against Dan Richards and Richards would give uh, would give would give answers to questions that you would answer the question George W, bush. no matter what you said, he would say. well our children need to read. weed, welfare reform. and we need Court reform, and people got the message the next day. because those were 3 things that had pulled very well on the part of the Bush campaign. And that election and Bush landed up. Upsetting Ian Richards. Rich. You see why we like to call you a political historian? My goodness, you can just spit out those facts left and right. we'd love to see it. a rich when it comes to those. Hot Topics. What do you think? Those will be for many people? It's immigration. It's the economy. It's uh, how much groceries cost when they go to the grocery store? Yes, it really will be those kitchen table issues. It's going to be those economic issues. Donald Trump will try to tether the fact that they and that the economic situation is currently does not favor the Democrats. Um, vice president Harris will try to say that on a preliminary is actually lower than she's going to shoot the problem with the Democrats is from a macro standpoint, The economy looks pretty good, but Americans are not Feeling it, and in part because of the, um, because of the what they view as the high inflation. So she has to say that the inflation is coming down and that the economy is actually doing very well. Vice president Trump will say, say, essentially that in day 1, he's going to get in there and he's going to propose an economic plan will, um, that will decrease inflation. And that, he can have a better economy and that's kind of in a sense, Trump will say the economy is better in my Administration vice president Harris will say that you actually lost jobs jobs in your Administration that type of a thing. The other thing you're going to hear about but advise president Harris is as many times as possible is is uh, is abortion rights because it's an issue that ever since the overturning of Roe v, Wade, with the do's decision has tended to favor the Democrats last time around. In the midterm elections in. 2022. the Democrats did much better and actually picked up a seat in the House of Representatives which the Senate rather which which is almost unheard of in part because of Reproductive Rights, they're going to try to make the case that Donald Trump becomes president that he will nominate more conservative Supreme Court Justice decision that there's no chance that Roi Wade that that the dobs decision, rather would be a would be overturned. um, and they would go back to the row standard or the row Casey standard, if you will. So I think those are that's going to be kind of this and maybe perhaps the sleeper issue but it's worked on many referendums. around the country. and there's actually 1 in Florida. Um, where Donald Trump is kind of waffled on so far. Rich rebina. Always a pleasure to talk politics with you. Thank you so much for joining us bright and early this Monday morning, 1 day away from that anticipated. exciting 2024 presidential debate. Look, I'm excited as Well, I can't wait to watch. I'll actually be a spectator. watching from my house when that happens. So look, we'll have to catch up on, uh Wednesday. Uh, to see how this played out and I love to get your thoughts Always a pleasure rich? Thank you so much for joining us. Uh, anything that you like to add before? We let you go. just that this is going to be in this debate will be in Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania is probably the most critical swing state in the country. is 19 electoral votes and no Democrat has won the presidency without caring Pennsylvania. This is without caring the caring the caring Pennsylvania since Harry S Truman in 1948. So it's the state of the Democrats. Absolutely positively have to win Republicans can win with all. It will be very, It will be harder, but it's possible. but it's almost. it's almost. it's virtually impossible and I really can't investigate Jensen in any scenario. where the Democrats win the presidency without carrying the state of Pennsylvania. Rabina, Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy the