Who won the U.S. presidential debate? | Power Play with Vassy Kapelos

that was the first in-person meeting for Donald Trump and kamla Harris if you can believe it at the ABC News presidential debate was there a winner and is the race any different today as a result of that debate let's bring in the front bench to talk about that S sim is the vice president and practice lead of public affairs at National Public Relations Jamie Allerton is a conservative strategist and the founding partner of kapus limited former interim NDP National director K Carl B is with us he's now the president of traction strategies and you're looking at Ma wall she's a senior that's Carl up that was R walls There She is again she is a senior political reporter with the glob of meal and she's in N Mo covering caucus over there hi guys nice to see everybody uh we were just talking before we came up Carl about watching the debate last night I said it I felt like it kind of flew by uh do you ultimately think there was a winner I mean it seems like a naive question at this point and everything but and and if so why well I mean I think uh I think there was a clear winner in cam Iris I think she she dominated that debate she set traps he fell for it he took the baate again and again and again uh but more than having a winner it's the first time that Donald Trump lost to debate and he lost badly because he he launched all kinds of attacks all over the place we've heard a few Clips uh it was not focused he was Ill prepared he thought he could handle her the way he handled Joe Biden clearly that didn't work and uh the question though is does it matter how many people were tuning in with uh an interest in being convinced to vote for one or the other or was it just the partisan tuning in and and that's a key question really I wonder even if it is Jamie the partisans who tuned in on that question I think this the key question of whether or not last night mattered even if it is just the P partisans do you think his performance is enough to turn off soft Trump voters if if if if they exist at all yeah I think in terms of like the winner obviously was Comm when you look at what transpired but I think on the Trump side if you're like Trump curious and perhaps frustrated after four years of the Biden Administration Donald Trump didn't have anything for you he's very egocentric always talks about himself and there wasn't much there and as an opening solvo I thought KET did okay in terms of outlining some of the policy I think if she really wants to close the deal with the dozens of Swing voters that are left in swing States in this campaign I think she's going to need to distill her message she talked about the opportunity economy sounds nice but what does it actually mean for me what does it mean for the voter and so I think the the Harris campaign has some work to do to distill that to seal the deal for undecideds but in terms of if you're a Republican voter on the fence perhaps like oh do I really have to vote for Trump again you're not going to be motivated to come out and vote for the guy based off what you saw last night yeah do you think say there's going to be another debate if you had to guess well given what Trump is kind of alluding to it looks like there may not be which could be an indirect admission of defeat although you would never hear it from him but I honestly think that if if the goal of the debate was to convince undecided or swing voters definitely the edge would go to Harris but keep in mind Trump still has a lot of loyal followers and many followers as well who may not admit to be followers publicly so some of the things that he said that were inflammatory that were inaccurate um that were fear mongering sometimes that works with his particular base and that's likely who he was dra attempting to draw on when he was speaking about some of those uh things like getting migrant or talking about the migrants who are eating pets um or executing they by the way just to clarify and executing babies after they're born none of this is true and he had to get fact checked um many times by the moderators so when you have such inaccuracies being put out there especially by a presidential candidate yes it is objectively problematic and it is objectively wrong uh but the unfortunate thing is that we're living in a political climate right now where many don't know what's right and what's wrong and what's true so uh you know the the real poll that matters is the one on Election Day so you know time will tell where this goes but uh it was a very interesting and uh borderline chaotic debate last night but I'd give that one to Harris I I totally understand s's Point ma that a lot of the I mean for lack of a better word crazy stuff that we heard from Trump last night would be aimed at motivating people in his base but I went to the RNC like his base is motivated I don't know if they're going to stay home I think they are I motivated to go but there are like a constituency also of Republicans who aren't necessarily DieHard trumpers like I think he risked a lot by that performance because it's not just your base that tunes into a debate it is a broader audience I think the early estimates are somewhere between 60 and 70 million people at this point yeah I think I see things a little bit differently I think you're absolutely right and I mean differently from from my other panelists I think you're absolutely right he didn't he didn't do many things to or anything really to win over the soft voters in the middle the the dozens of Swing voters as Jamie said and I think KLA Harris did what she needed to to in terms of presenting herself to people who do not know her she didn't face plant she held her own but I think the people the thing that people are forgetting is that people know Trump he is a known commodity and nothing he did last night was new or out of the ordinary from what people already expect from him so while it might not have won him a vote it's it's hard for me to see how it actually loses him vote there was a lot of commentary after the debate on the American networks that seemed to think suggest there was sort of some sort of knockout punch that she landed and I just didn't see that from from the chunk that I saw I do think that the sentiment around him Carl is baked into a degree but I also think something's happened since he left office in that people have been able to kind of turn a blind eye right like I I'm not paying attention to the degree I was or I haven't been in the interim you know from 2016 to 2020 when we hung on every word in a press conference when we were constantly confronted with these wild statements so I wonder if people have become largely agnostic some like a small group enough that last night did punch through to them yeah and and this is where I think there was a bit of a concepts of a plan to bring down Aris a little bit when he raised the Biden Administration again and again and again cuz so far he had not done that and you could see I thought he was going to do that whole debate I think should have she started to run for office for presidency but but he had not and he did yesterday and that message is punching true and our response was not great like I'm not Joe Biden well that's a little defensive uh you know when you were the vice president of Joe Biden um so so so there's there's there's a message there people are still upset about what's happening in the United States cost of living is a key issue our answers about the plan and and everything that she wants to do for the middle class and the for the workers it fell a little short and so that is what could swing mate and Republican mate to go back to Trump because you know the best of the opponent is still the opponent and the worst of my guy is still the best guy we have I mean not that they would ever take my advice but my advice Jamie in that instance would be le to their campaign leverage the exposure you got last night and do like a hundred interviews where you can focus on that message and not just spend 90 minutes you know getting Donald Trump to successfully accept your bait yeah I think one of the things that's a bit micro of an issue that kind of jumped out for me last night is how much the two of them spent talking about fracking in Pennsylvania which to me suggests that the research on both campaigns is saying that this is very much an up forg grab to vote voters have not decided where kamla Harris stands on fracking they're obviously being bombarded by ads by what she said when she was the senator from California and before that uh which was definitely not in favor of fracking and so from an issues management standpoint the Harris campaign is clearly vulnerable there but I think when you look at what KLA had to do last night I think she did introduce herself to the nation uh in a way that perhaps people tune in for a debate when they don't say watch the DNC convention last month uh and when you look at kind of what her path is going forward I think she really needs to distill down as like how she's going to continue to make things better make the case and kind of when you contrast that to what Donald Trump is doing again it's all about him now this is not about making America great again this is not about forgotten industrial like mid US states that are fly over country and forgotten he's not talking about any of that it's all himself and the witch hunts and Yad yada the goes on and so I think those kind of middle of the road voters who are apolitical uh to the extent that they are undecided those are still up for grabs and if kala and motivate them to show up in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania she's probably got enough to win the White House