Analysis on latest polls as Harris and Trump prepare for debate | U.S. politics

the US now where Donald Trump has threatened jail time for anyone involved in unfair behavior during the upcoming election the fresh warning comes just days before Trump and kamla Harris are set to face off in their first presidential debate now Trump's post on his truth social app reads in part when I win those people that cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law which will include long-term prison sentences so that this depravity of Justice does not happen happen again the message is Trump's latest threat to use his potential second-term win for Retribution the former president's team has been urging him to keep his focus on Harris ahead of the debate and the pair will be facing off with the polls showing Trump and Harris are neck and neck this according to the New York Times Trump is up by one point over Harris now despite some renewed enthusiasm among Democrats the polls suggests Trump's support remains remarkably resilient both candidates are now ramping up efforts to try and sway more voters their way joining me now is Eric ham R CTV News political analyst Eric thanks as always for joining us it's good to be here thanks for having me what do you make of that poll with Trump having a one-point lead there's been all this talk about Harris having all the momentum yet that poll comes out you know what we are seeing here is Donald Trump's strategy of subtraction of trying to actually make this a turnout race among the respective basis of the two political parties is actually working uh while Donald Trump certainly has not expanded his base what he certainly has done has been able to actually ignite and energize those who ardently support him and what we're seeing here is while kamla Harris is attempting to try to create this big tent which is indicative of what we saw in Chicago at that Democratic Convention it's actually just not paying the dividends in terms of her being able to separate herself from Donald Trump Donald Trump is still remaining steady and close I think where we will begin to see a a change in this race is if either of these two candidates can either can possibly reach 50% in the polls right now this New York Times Sienna poll as well as an another group of polls from CNN are showing that there's still no clear winner in this race which actually puts Donald Trump in a very good position to actually do well in November does this change the Dynamics of the Swing States at all with it it looks like he's strengthening his base it's not changing changing the Dynamics at all what we're clearly seeing is this will be a race that will come down to Pennsylvania whoever wins Pennsylvania will likely win the the White House in November clearly uh it's it's an up for grab State uh state right now Wisconsin and Michigan do appear to be moving in inir and trending towards uh the Democrats right now but because of the many elector votes in Pennsylvania that's a state where I think coming out of this debate we're going to see both of this candidates expend all of their resources and energy on that state in fact we're now learning that Republicans are expected to spend $100 million in the state of Pennsylvania between now and November all right and you mentioned the debate uh what can we expect from that I think the debate is going to be where all of this hangs right now if there's going to be some separation in these Post in terms of where voters are we will see it post the debate and and this debate is going to play out very similar to the first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama many people were watching that debate to see if if if Barack Obama this novice US senator could stand on the stage look presidential appear to be the commander-in-chief next to this decorated War veteran at a time when the country was still in mesed in two Wars overseas people still don't know much about kamla Harris and they're going to see if she can actually stand on that stage and withstand the scrutiny and the insults that are certainly going to come her way from Donald Trump and with Trump is there any do you expect any change in how Trump will likely approach us not at all I mean we I think Donald Trump is going to certainly continue to try to pull KLA Harris down he's got to make this a race very similar to what we saw in 2016 where he was successful he's got to make this a race about about all things bad unfortunately and I think clearly it's working for him and I think we're going to continue to see him move in that direction and here's what's interesting very quickly Donald Trump has been off the campaign Trail the this entire week KLA Harris we know is spending a lot of energy and resources campaigning in Battleground States like Pennsylvania but still what we're seeing is even with Donald Trump off the campaign Trail he's still very very competitive okay Eric thank you as always for your Insight thank you