Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore on the Trump v. Harris debate

Tonight is the high stakes debate for the race for the White House. It will air right here on W USA nine at 9 p.m. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, who ran in the Republican presidential primary back in 2016. And then before that, in 2008 joins us via Zoom. Now governor, welcome. Good to have you. Thank you, Simone. I wanted to jump right in because there's a lot going on tonight and I wanted to start with this who has more at stake tonight. Former President Trump, Vice President Harris or in your opinion, maybe both of them, I think Kamala Harris has more at stake in this, in this debate. Uh President Trump's a known commodity, people are used to him. They know they, they know he uh presents himself as a strong leader in the debate. That's what really knocked the president, President Biden out of the campaign. But on the other hand, nobody really knows anything about Kamala Harris. Uh she was very uh unnoticeable as vice president. She hasn't run in any of the primaries. So we really don't know anything about what she thinks about policy other than her previous statements. Now she's saying that all of her previous statements are no longer operable and now she's different. She's gonna have to explain that kind of change and whether that's an honest change or whether it's not true. Well, I wanted to expand on that a little bit more because, you know, in terms of substance versus style, I'm curious, what does each candidate need to accomplish tonight? What do they need to communicate, uh, to voters who are maybe undecided? Well, I think you're right that uh in my experience was that and of course, the debates were different then, but my experience is that the public is gonna first take an impression of the two candidates. They're gonna try to determine who can actually handle the challenges facing the United States today, whether it's gonna be President Trump or whether it's gonna be uh Kamala Harris. Uh I think that's the first thing that's gonna happen. But if this debate gets off into policy into a real discussion of policy, then I think at that point, Kamala Harris is gonna have to explain some of the sort of Democrat, economic ideas that she's put out there uh raising taxes on capital gains. We're in the middle of a recession. So she wants to discourage investment. Uh this, this uh taxing of unrealized income. Uh The there's just kind of crazy kind of ideas, the idea that somehow people are gouging and so whether the price controls nobody in economics thinks that's a good idea anymore. So I think she's, she could be confronted with those issues, not to mention the border issue where the only really thing that President Biden asked her to do is the border. And of course, as we know that's a hot issue in this debate. Ok. How about this? So, in terms of what candidates shouldn't do tonight, uh, for each of them, what would you say? What would be something that would be important for them to stay away from? Well, I look, I think that President Trump clearly should not get into a name calling contest with Kamala Harris. That does nothing but advantage her. I believe that she will do a large number of personal attacks on President Trump because that's what she's been doing. And I think that's really all they got if they're getting over into the issues of foreign policy, into the, with Afghanistan, with the Israeli issue, when you get over to the issue of economics as I laid out, uh, you get into the border, these are great giant weaknesses for the Democratic ticket. And as a result, I think that they'll just do a lot of name calling, but President Trump shouldn't rally to that. He, he should stick with the policies and I think he's gonna be ok. Ok. In terms of, you know, some of the recent polling numbers we're seeing, we're seeing some razor thin margins of error in battle states here. And so I wanted to talk about our independent and our moderate conservative voters in terms of, you know, if you think they could end up deciding this election. And I'm curious, what does Mr Trump need to do in this instance to bring them into his wheelhouse? I think that if he looks a, as your other guest said, Stable, he looks like a person who's prepared to deal with the issues that are at hand, which I think are so troubling to the people of this country, then I, then I think he's going to be ok. I just think that he has to avoid any kind of uh personal attacks. But I think that, uh right now if he presents himself well, the way that he did in the debate against President Biden, I think he's gonna win. And as I've said, I, I really think that the pressure here, well, the pressures on both because it's a national forum. I was there and I felt a lot of pressure when I was trying to do it. But again, Trump's been doing this, he's been doing these debates and Kamala Harris really is not. So I think that the pressure is more on her to try to produce uh in this debate than it is on him. All right. Last question for you. You know, this is something we've come across time and time again. Neither candidate, you know, they really haven't spent a lot of time together over their political careers. How much does that play into tonight's debate, their performances and maybe what people will be watching for? Well, I think you're right. In fact, I think they've spent no time together. I think this is the first time they've ever been together. Uh, but on the other hand, the, the setting is the setting, people know what's gonna happen tonight, they know what the debate is really all about. So I, I don't think that's so much a concern of the unfamiliarity to your point. Uh I really think that the, the people who are swing voters in the various swing states are gonna be basically wanting to be reassured by Trump. And they're gonna have to get to know Kamala Harris and try to try to understand why she has said some of these things that she has said and why she's now changing now and whether that's genuine or dishonest, I think these are the questions that the public is going to be looking for, particularly in the swing states. All right. It's a big night. A lot of pressure, a lot of eyeballs and look, we certainly appreciate your time and expertise. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Simone.