If it's Wednesday. Clashes, conspiracies and questions about what comes next after a historic debate leaves former President Trump trying to spin an undisciplined performance against Vice President Harris as his best debate ever. Plus, Hurricane Francine strengthens and slams Louisiana, with the eye of the storm expected to make landfall this afternoon near New Orleans, bringing flash flooding and storm surge threats to millions along the Gulf Coast. And ready for it, the endorsement of Harris's wildest dreams.
Superstar Taylor Swift announces to her more than a quarter billion Instagram followers that she's backing Harris for president and encouraging her fans to vote in November. Welcome to Meet the press. Now I'm Kristen Welker in Washington as both campaigns chart a course for the final 55 days and debate the possibility of another debate after a fiery and historic face off that left Trump allies frustrated and underwhelmed and Harris allies in high spirits the night full of clashes on key issues, dodges and taunts by both the former president and the vice president. But what stood out the most was how Vice President Harris appeared to accomplish her goal of getting under her rival's skin early and often.
And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom, she said. People start leaving. People don't go to her rallies. There's no reason to go.
And the people that do go, she's busting them in and paying them to be there. Donald Trump actually has no plan for you because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you. It's just a sound, but I think you've ever got to say, look, I went to the Wharton School of Finance and many of those professors, the top professors, think my plan is a brilliant plan. We have a president that we don't even know if he's where is our president?
We don' if he's a president, we have a president. Mr. President doesn't know he's alive. It's important to remind the former president you're not running against Joe Biden, running against me.
Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. So let's be clear about that. And clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that. The former president delivered some strong moments, but the post debate reaction from his allies and the candidate's decision to appear in the spin room made clear he struggled.
He was lured into fights and repeated a number of conspiracies and false claims. The former president turned many of his answers to one of his strongest issues, immigration. But his focus on the issue was overshadowed by raising baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. Take a look in Springfield.
They're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating, they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. The people in Charles should say, my dog was taken and used for food.
So maybe he said that and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager. Dog was eaten by the people that went there. Again, the Springfield city managers know that. Talk about extreme.
And in another of the night's memorable moments, Mr. Trump doubled down on false claims that he won the 2020 election. Of course he did not. Are you now acknowledging that you lost in 2020?
Sarcastically. He does that. And we said, oh, we lost by a whisker. That was said sarcastically.
Look, there's so much proof. All you have to do is look at it. And they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval. I got almost 75 million votes, the most votes any sitting president has ever got.
People should never be thinking about an electionist fraudulent. Vice President Harris, while dodging key questions about her views on policy and her ties to Biden, focus on one of her strongest issues early in the night, abortion. And in a lengthy back and forth, the former president contradicted what his running mate told me on the press two weeks ago, that Trump would veto a national abortion ban. Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.
You want to talk about this is what people wanted. Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the healthcare providers are afraid they might go to jail and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot. She didn't want that. Her husband didn't want that.
A 12 or 13 year old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term. They don't want that. I did something that nobody thought was possible. The states are now voting.
What she says is an absolute lie. And as far as the abortion ban, no, I'm not in favor of abortion ban, but it doesn't matter because this issue has now been taken over by the states. Would you veto a national abortion ban? Well, I would have to if I could just yell yes or no because your running mate, JD Vance has said that you would veto it if it did come to your death.
Well, I didn't discuss it with JD in all fairness, in a barrage of post debate media Appearances in the spin room and on Fox News, the former president claimed victory, criticized the moderators and waffled about committed to a second debate. The vice president, meanwhile, reiterated to supporters that she still sees herself as the underdog in the race, with her campaign also making it clear she wants a second debate. Harris also received a post debate boost in the form of a surprise endorsement from pop star Taylor Swift, who through our support behind the Harris walls ticket in an Instagram post our 284 million followers. Joining me now on Saturday is NBC's Garrett Hate.
For the latest from the Trump campaign, Peter Alexander is at the White House, chief White House correspondent, with how the Harris campaign is reacting today. Thanks to both of you for starting us off. So, Garrett, let me start with you. I know you've been working your sources.
What are they saying to you? Because obviously Trump is saying this was his best debate ever. I've been talking to his allies who say it was a miss. What are you, Garrett?
Yeah, I'm hearing largely the same. I mean, a lot of Republicans, elected officials, people who are close to the Trump campaign, basically people who are always on Trump payroll, are largely willing to concede that at best, he left points on the board. There were a lot of opportunities that he had that he was prepped for to try to tie Vice President Harris more closely to Joe Biden or try to make her own some of her past positions that are more liberal than the stand she takes now. He did not do so.
Instead, he chased, you know, some rabbits basically on crowd's eyes or on, you know, pets in o things that are probably not helpful to a long term. That said, a lot of people don't think it matters that much at the margins that the onus was still on Harris to introduce herself to the country. Nobody in this country's undecided about Donald Trump. He was who he is.
And they're gonna try to continue to prosecute the case. That's probably the best thing I can say for themselves right now. Yeah. Garrett, you were in the spin room when he surprised everyone.
It felt very 2016 when he walked out into that spin room. What were your takeaways? You asked him right off the bat if he thought you did so well, what are you doing here? To me, the sentimental moment of candidate in the spin remember was rick Perry in 2012.
This is when he forgot the third agency he wanted to get rid of. He knew he had to come to the spin room to clean up that mess. That's why candidates usually come to the spin room if they didn't do the job they need to do on the debate stage. That's the framework that I looked at Trump's appearance in the spinner room.
They didn't feel like he successfully got his message across on the stage. If you're Donald Trump, the solution to any problem is more Donald Trump. And if he thought he could be a better messenger, a better spinner than anyone else on his behalf, including, by the way, his vice president, whom he continued to undercut, I would argue even by showing up in this and sort of taking the wind out of his sales by being the big dog in the spin room. Yeah.
What are you hearing about a potential second debate? The president's been waffled. Former president's waffling. He's now indicating, well, maybe he will do it.
What are you hearing? Yeah, last night it was a no. This morning it was a no. This afternoon it's a maybe he's talking again about doing a debate on NBC News or doing a debate on Fox News, suggesting that he's open to it.
My money with Trump always comes back to if there is a debate. If he's being called out for not attempting like Kamala Harris came out right now and said, either we do debate on NBC News on whatever day in October, Trump would be there. I think it would be very hard to keep him off that stage if a debate is set. But I think we'll have another couple weeks of this will he warming story, maybe even until that second debate gets scheduled and shown up for.
Yeah, it's a great point, Garrett. You have to think, do they really want to let the final word be left with their running? So we'll have to see. Peter, let me go out to you.
What are you hearing from the Harris campaign? Obviously, she feels like she had a very strong night. At the same time, she didn't answer some key questions about her record and about some of her shifts in policy and how Harris administration will look different from a Biden administration. Yeah, I think the right person, certainly the campaign, the Harris campaign is thrilled by her performance last night.
Their post earlier today on social media was literally the debate itself, effectively saying, hey, got any questions? Just watch this thing all over again. So I do feel very good about it. I think there are some questions that remain unanswered.
If you want to dig down into over the course of the evening. She never really answered specifically whether Americans were better off now than they were four years ago. She didn't say specifically what she would have done differently on immigration, and she didn't answer the question of whether the Biden Harris administration bears any responsibility for the US's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that left 13American service members dead. But the bottom line here, Kristen, is this was an incumbent against a challenger, Donald Trump, of course over president, but he's a challenger this go around.
And the Harris campaign feels very satisfied that in many ways she made this a referendum on Donald Trump, that turning the page would be turning the page on him, not on the Biden Harris administration. And I think that's a message that they hope resonates with a lot of Americans right now. Not every American views it this way, but she really is the one trying to cast herself as the outsider, as a sort of change agent in this race. She absolutely is.
And Peter, just sort of extraordinary optics today. Of course, the nation pauses to mark the 911 anniversary. Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump came face to face yet again today in New York. And President Biden was there as well.
The optics so interesting because you had Harris shaking Trump's hand for the second time in as many days. And also this reminder that she has served with President Biden. And yet as you just pointed out, Peter is trying to distance herself so that she can make that case that she's a change candidate. How challenging is that?
Well, about that exchange, that handshake we saw between Trump and Harris today, remember? Yes, you first time they ever met. Well, I only waited a matter of hours to say hi one another again. He today described it as a polite greeting.
But your point person about her ability to separate herself from Joe Biden, that is and remains a challenge no matter how she tries to cast it. She said, you're not ready against Joe Biden. You're running against me. She is still the incumbent Vice president of the United States right now.
Again, to where I started here. She's trying to make this race as much about Donald Trump as it is about the Biden Harris record in their administration to this point. Notably, Biden was not in very public alongside her other than one event so far. She's effectively campaigning on her own throughout the course of the campaign.
She's gonna be North Carolina again tomorrow and they want her to be standing on her own two legs to define to Americans what she, what a Harris presidency would look like and how specifically that is different from a Biden presidency. Notably, she's trying to moderate her views on some issues. She has been less, less progressive than him. She has moved further in the middle of Joe Biden on those issues and on some other ones.
She's trying to lock snap her position with him specifically on the topic of fracking as she was pressed last night. Yeah. And you know, Peter, I mean, one of the big questions is will she do a more give a more detailed explanation for how she got from point A to point B? And I guess the question is what is the strategy for her moving forward?
Well, we're gonna see her on the road is I said she'll be in North Carolina tomorrow. I think based on conversations I'm having with smart analysts who are observers of political campaigns dating back decades, they say she's really good herself, a strong foundation from which to build going forward. As it relates to this campaign, she didn't answer everything, certainly didn't talk about a series of different topics. They did the campaign with like her to the chips act American, the infrastructure success of the Biden Harris administration.
But bottom, bottom line, I do feel like she succeeded in communicating the American people a sense of competency and a vision for the future. Kristen. All right, Garrett and Peter, thank you so much for starting us off on a very busy Wednesday after the big debate. Really appreciate it.
Let's now dive a little deeper into one of the most talked about moments from last night's debate, former President Trump's baseless claims that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. Last night in the debate spin room, NBC Schassinger asked Trump's running mate and Ohio Senator J.D. vance about those claims, which Vance has the name of. Take a look.
Senator Vance, what do you say to Haitian Americans and Haitian immigrants who say spreading false claims about them put their lives at risk? Well, I don't think that no one has spread false claims. What they've said is that a small migrant community, 20,000. So it's big for the city, Springfield, but it's small compared to all Hans in the United States of America.
But that small migrant community has caused a lot of problems. It's led to higher rates of communal diseases. That's a verifiable fact. It's led to animals disappearing.
Many of my constituents have said that has been happening. It's led to higher home prices. That is a verifiable fact. So this influx has led to a lot of immigrants have animals.
That's not true. City officials have said that's not true. That's not actually accurate. The city manager said there's no verifiable evidence.
A lot of residents on the ground have said that there is. Now, in recent years, more than 15,000 Haitian immigrants have settled in Springfield, Ohio for jobs and boosting the economy, but also straining local resources, which has created tension in the community. NBC is in Springfield, Ohio. She joins me now.
So you should give us the reality check. What is actually happening in Springfield right now? What has the reaction been to this controversy? Well, there's been a lot of shock and really pain in the Haitian community here.
A lot of the Haitian immigrants came here, came here legally. Most of them came here legally through federal programs. The city also advertised new manufacturing jobs as well as the city's affordability to try to attract people here. Because this was a city that had lost in like 20,000 people and had whittled down to about 60,000 people, from 5 to 80,000 people people.
So this is really a place for people where they felt like we're going to welcoming them. But now there are some residents who say that they really don't like to change. There's a one man who said that he doesn't like the cultural changes. He doesn't like the idea that there are people here, they're changing the racial makeup of the city, saying that the city is sort of lost.
He also said that there were, in his mind, claims that there were stray cats missing and sort of had this idea that maybe Haitians were using animals. Of course, city officials have said there's no evidence of that. And Haitian migrants, there are people who are fleeing violence, gang violence in their country. So they already traumatized when they got here.
And I'm hearing that it's even more traumatized by this back and forth and are really sad that former President Trump, someone who they say is seeing the highest office of the land, is really giving any kind of oxygen to what really is a faceless accusation. And you actually, you actually spoke Amish to one of the leaders of Springfield's Haitian community. What did he tell you? That's right.
I spoke to Villas Dorseville. He only moved to Springfield himself a few years ago, but he's already now executive director of a community center for Haitian Americans and Haitian immigrants coming here. Take a listen. Nobody told me about sort of how Asians are taking in this news.
They are scared for their lives. Some of them asking me. Even yesterday I got a friend called me asking me if he has to leave because he's scared for his life. So another friend told me that it seems that he would have, he would have had some family coming to visit him, but it seems that he gonna welcome them in Columbus.
Updated because he is not, it is not safe right now for him in Springfield. And I have to tell you, Kristen, there are a number of patient members that I talk to who were scared to even go on camera because they're worried that they're harassed or targeted when they show their faces and tell people that they do not like these claims being. The other thing that they told me is that there are a lot of people who want to see their futures and felt welcomed here and now they're really thinking about moving and leaving anyone in Miami or New York, places that have long had Haitian communities. So it really is maybe the change in population here.
And that's something I think is really hard rating for a lot of people. Well, Yamiche, it's a fascinating conversation. Great reporting on this story that continues to get so much attention. We really appreciate you being on the ground there to sort through what's actually happening.
We do want to turn now to what voters thought of last night's debate. Of course, that's the big question. My colleague Jacob Silveroff watched the debate with undecided Arizona voters, including several so called double haters who were skeptical about candidates. Several of those voters seemed more open to voting for Harris after what they saw and heard last night.
Here's a little bit of what they said. I think there's a clear line that there are people who understand the importance of this election and there's people who want to just play, you know, keyboard warriors and making fussing and really saying heinous things about other people. So that's Trump bully. And I think Kamala Harris came out showing some decorum, some presidential nature about her.
I think with Harris, there's just a lot of question marks answering things, debate. You know, I didn't really know a lot about other than she served as vice president. And today, unfortunately, she needs to talk about a lot of her policy. And so I need to step away from this now that she keeps interested in my research and look on her website.
Always so fascinating to hear from the voters. Shaq Brewster has been talking to voters in another battleground state, Michigan. He joins me from the pivotal city of Grand Rapids. Shaq, thanks so much for being here.
So what did voters say to you about last night's debate? Well, Chris, I definitely have heard a lot of positive comments about Vice President Harris and her performance last night. Even if there was some disappointment among some that they didn't get enough policy. They do want to hear more from her, at least based on some of the folks that I've talked to.
You know, we come back to this county over and over again because this is one that President Biden flipped in 2020, and he did so not just because of moderate voters, but because you saw Democratic voters enthusiastic, and that's also helping carry the state. I want you to listen to some of those voters that I've been talking to throughout the day today. Harry's completely smashed. Trump.
You look an idiot. Did she meet your standards? She. She did it out of Harp.
Having somebody come at you over and over and over again. And, you know, my blood pressure is going up. And I'm thinking she really, she really handled it beautifully. I wish you would have answered some of the questions a little bit more directly, but you can tell that she was prepared and you know exactly how you got him trusted.
I did speak to someone who says he's supporting former President Trump, and he said he saw much of the debate and he didn't like the discussion about animals that those basic accusations that you just heard. You missed detail there. He didn't like the fact that race came up at the debate, but he said he did like when he heard about the economy and the references back to the economy under former President Trump. You know, I'm curious.
There's been so much discussion about a second debate. Did these voters say that they had an appetite for that? Did they say that they want to see a second debate? You know, a lot of them are still digesting what they heard last night.
A lot of them were surprised, or I should say they were nervous about Vice President Harris and how she was going to do, especially when we talked to those Democrats who went into that first debate and came out of it rather very uncomfortable, worried about the performance of their candidates. So I think a lot of people are still digesting what they heard yesterday. You know, the question is always, does it change people's minds? I did speak to one voter who yesterday told me that he was undecided, and he said this debate was going to be key for him.
He voted for Trump in the past, and he texted me this morning and said he's going to be voting with Vice President Harris because she really cleared up what he heard on social media and really cut through some of those television ads that he's been watching. Kristen. All right, well, just fascinating stuff. Jack Brewster, thanks so much for bringing us all of your great conversations.
Really appreciate it. Coming up, a live report from New Orleans as the city braces for Hurricane Francine to make landfall as a Category 1 storm. We're also tracking Francine's forecast in the days ahead, including an intensifying tornado threat in Louisiana and parts of the Southeast. Stay with us.
You're watching MEET THE PRESS now. Welcome back. We are tracking Hurricane Francine as the outer bands of the storm lashed the Louisiana coast. The Category 1 hurricane is expected to make landfall soon, bringing with it heavy rain, strong wind, flash floods and life threatening storm surge.
Louisiana and Mississippi have declared states of emergency. Gov. Jeff Landry said Louisiana's National Guard has been deployed several parachutes near the Louisiana Gulf coast had ordered mandatory evacuations. But for those still in the storm zone, the time to evacuate has passed.
Louisiana's director of emergency preparedness now urging residents to hunker down. And join me now is Jesse Kirsch in New Orleans. And Bill Karens is tracking the path of Hurricane Francine. Jesse, let me start with you.
What are you seeing there on the ground in New Orleans? Yeah, Kristen, I'm not sure you can hear it back there, but the wind is starting to pick up a good amount right now. Unpredictable to say the least. How the weather's been unfolding over the last several hours.
It was dry this morning. Then we started having steady rain for hours. It has stopped raining for the moment, but the winds are continuing here as we're dealing with the outer bands of Hurricane Francine just before landfall here in New Orleans. Officials have been asking people since around noon Eastern time to be sheltering in place.
And we heard the governor, governor press conference earlier say bottom line, it is no longer time to be evacuating. Now is the time to be staying where you are and hunkering down. I don't know if you can hear that, but there's a tree that is in a planter over here downtown where we are that is bending quite a bit. So I can definitely hear the noise from the impact of the wind as well.
You can see behind me a car going by and large that has been a rare sight today. It has been largely quiet out here. And I can tell you in the run up to this, we saw people lying up around the blocks to get sandbags to protect property and we went to a grocery store to get supplies ourselves. Much of the bottled water area was already cleared out.
So people clearly taking notice with Hurricane Francine landfall imminent at this point. I mean, just to follow up on that point, it sounds like you were saying people are taking warnings from state and local officials very seriously and yet not everyone has evacuated from the areas that were ordered to evacuate. How are they preparing? What are they telling you about why they decided to stay?
So just to clarify, we haven't been told a mandatory evacuation in New Orleans where We are right now people are being told to shelter and place their ass to do preparations, finish up their preparations by yesterday evening. I'm talking about the city of New Orleans. So sorry for any confusion off of that. But I can tell you anecdotally, yes, it seems like by and large people are taking the warnings.
And you know, this is a state that has been hit hard by hurricanes many times in recent decades. And of course most recently Hurricane Ida in 2021 was a category force storm forced Hurricane Katrina several years ago was something that has brought, you know, continues for my people 19 years later. People still think about it was represented by city council member I talked to yesterday in New Orleans. People taking it seriously and they've now had seven hurricanes in the last eight years in New Orleans.
Air issues being Louisiana. And that is an unusually high frequency for these kinds of storms here. So hurricanes, these kinds of storms, the destruction that can come with them certainly top of mind is committing. Yes for us to answer your question in a much shorter fashion now, it appears that people are largely taking those recommendations and orders seriously.
Well, Jesse, we can see the wind whipping the trees and the rain behind you. So please, please be safe out there. Thank you for bringing us that reporting. We really appreciate it.
Bill Carers, let me turn to you now. How soon should folks expect France to make landfall? I believe it's gonna be within the next two hours. I think that as we head through 6, 7 o' clock on the East Coast, 5 to 6 o' clock on the west coast, on the central time zone, where Louisiana is, that's where I think the landfall is.
You can see there's two things I'm noticing and one of them I don't like and that's this bright red band. So this is the eye. The strongest winds with the hurricanes are always within the eye and it's what we call the eye wall. And this has flared up dramatically in the last hour or two.
And what that means is that the storms can be able to produce wind gusts over land for a longer period of time as long as this holds together. So if you're in Louisiana and you're in the New Orleans area, this is what you don't want to go through. You want this to be by time it gets to because if it doesn't, there'll be significant power hatches worse than what was predicted. The other thing is notice this black line.
This is the path path. Notice this little jog to the east that's going to mean the storm is going to be even Closer than what was expected for New Orleans. And that means you have a better chance of going through that eye wall. So the National Hurricane Center 90 mile per hour wind, it's a strong category one, almost a category two hurricane.
We do expect roof damage. There'll be trees down on cars, on homes. Obviously that could be lights riding. There won't be houses blown away.
It's not strong enough for a storm like that. And here's a closer look at that northern bright eyewitness. Here's New Orleans, here's David Elk. And then we're going to be watching Houlma and Morgan Cities.
Holmanow is only about 25 miles from that destructive winds. Morgan City, you're probably about 10 miles from those destructive winds. Theft damage will start in both of those locations. And we also have a chance of isolated tornadoes right through the scenic as the storm and Clan Falls so far because there no reports of any tornadoes.
Well we know will that we're now in peak hurricane season and NOAA earlier this year predicted actually an above normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic. Is that still the forecast? Is that still what you're tracking? So right now we're about average because we had this big lull for much of the last half of August and the beginning of September.
But now we're heading to the peak. The peak of the season is considered when we get to the second week of September, which is what we're at now. And so this is what we expected to get active. And just like that it has.
So obviously we're tracking Hurricane Francine. For all my friends on the southeast coast, there's now a 30% chance we get tropical disturbance that's going to head your way by the time we get to the weekends. Local wise, I get this look like a big hurricane but it could be enough to have some issues with the beaches, the waves, the rip currents. Then we have a couple other areas way out in the land including a new trop depression.
But we're not worried about any of those questions for at least another week. After we're done with Francine, we'll keep an eye on towards the weekend what happens to the Carolinas. All right, well Karen's tracking all of it for us. Thank you so much.
We are of course keeping our eye on Hurricane Francine and we'll bring you any major updates as we get them. Coming up next, politics, power and pop stars. Could Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris actually motivate young voters to fill in a blank space on the ballot with Harris's name. We'll dig into all that.
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Offer ends May 20, 2026. The price is subject to change. Visit BC news.com details while the back A woman you might know all too well decided to speak now. Shortly after the debate ended, music superstar Taylor Swift announced her support for the Democratic ticket to move Harris's campaign aid say caught them off guard.
Actually Swift posting on Instagram, quote, I'm voting for Kamala Harris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. The 34 year old singer signed her post Childless Cat Lady. That, of course, is a reference to JD Vance's previous comments about women who don't have children.
Trump seemed to try to shake it off this morning on Fox News, saying that he was not a fan of Swift and that she would likely, quote, pay a price in the marketplace. The endorsement comes as NBC News polling shows that Harris leading Trump 50% to 34% among Gen Z voters. But that number is lower than the 60% of young voters Biden won back in 2020. That's according to NBC News exit polls.
Joining me now is Melissa Deckman, CEO of pri, a nonpartisan organization that researches America's culture and politics. She is out with a new book, the Politics of Gen Z How the Youngest Voters Will Shape Our Democracy. Melissa, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me.
So, so many people are buzzing about this endorsement. Usually we don't spend so much time talking about endorsement, but obviously Taylor Swift has hundreds of millions of followers. We have seen her concerts impact the U.S. economy.
So of course the question is how and to what extent could she actually impact this election? Do you think that this will sway younger voters? I think one of the most famous childless cat ladies in America decides to endorse you. I think it's probably a good thing for any campaign.
I do think with Taylor Swift, though, she's probably going to, I think, help the cause for the Harris campaign because she's shown in the past an ability to get young people to register to vote And I think too, if you look back in 2020, she didn't versus Joe Biden. But a lot of things have changed in the last four years. We suddenly have, for example, more genie voters in the electorate. And so estimates are suggesting up to 8 million more voters actually are going to be eligible to vote.
And so I think she really could have a very social impact on some of those voters, especially on women. Well, just to follow up on that, I mean, how much of an impact? It's hard to quantify, I realize, but. But to what extent is it thought that she impacted Joe Biden's campaign back in 2020?
Well, you know, as you mentioned, Joe Biden did very well with young voters. And so it's hard to delineate specifically her impact. But I will say that. So last year in a non election year, she encouraged her followers register to vote and there was a spike in voter registration.
I think more than 30,000 of her fans decided to register in 2023. So if you think about now in 2024, with a very highly publicized election that many people, including lots of young people, are talking about, I think it could essentially really help the Harris campaign. Let's zoom out a little bit and talk about celebrity endorsements. Broadly speaking, historically, what has their impact been on campaigns?
Do they make a big difference? Well, I think the data show that most Americans don't rely on celebrity endorsements to decide how they're going to vote. But I will say this. There was a poll earlier this year that USA Today put out and they asked about the role of influencers, including Taylor Swift, and they found that 1 in 10 women, 1 in 10 independent voters, and about 1 in 10 voters under the age of 35 said that her endorsement would actually influence their vote choice.
Again, it's not a majority of voters, but in an election where it's a matter of the margins in these battleground states, I think it certainly helps. It doesn't hurt the Harris campaign. Absolutely. Let's talk about the gender gap because sort of similarly to what we're discussing, there is a gender gap and yet still not as big as back in 2020.
So the challenge for Vice President Kamala Harris if she wants to win, is to try to garner more votes. What does the national gender gap echo what we're seeing in the Gen Z gender gap? Oh, there's actually a wider gender gap among Generation Z. If you look at the last election in the midterms in 2022, 72% of Gen Z women voted for Democrats in House down House outraces, whereas about 54% of Gen Z men.
And some polling is showing that we can expect that Gen Z women, I think, are going to turn out heavily in favor of Kamala Harris. I think with Gen Z men, it's still a little bit mixed. Some recent polling has shown that she's doing better with young men of color. I think younger white men are probably, probably more poised to vote for Trump at this point in the election.
And obviously, what we're talking about largely today is the debate. How does Gen Z watch? How do they process the debate? Are they tuning into an event like that?
They're watching it on streaming services, not on television. So I think we don't really know necess how many years are watching. But, you know, I've been zoos in my family. I talked to them.
And I think that they were left with the impression that Trump was unhinged, that he was not answering questions directly. And so I do think that many zoomers are looking for information about politics and they're getting it increasingly online and also through streaming platforms. It'll be fascinating to see. It'll also just be fascinating to see if she gets out in campaigns for Vice President Harris, if she performs, for example.
Melissa Deckman, thanks so much. Great conversation. Really appreciate it. Thank you.
And as the campaign enters it's Taylor Swift era, Vice President Harris is attempting to separate herself from the Trump Biden era of politics. We'll take a closer look at some of the key moments from last night and what it means for the race. You're watching Me the Press now. Welcome back.
While it was a rocky debate performance for Donald Trump, his allies are hoping one moment might stand out for voters, even though it came at the very end of the night during closing statements. Look, so she just started by saying she's going to do this, she's going to do that, she's going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasn't she done it? She's been there for three and a half years.
They've had three and a half years to fix the border. They've had three and a second years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasn't she done it? She should leave right now, go down to that beautiful White House, go to the Capitol, get everyone together and do the things you want to do.
But you haven't done it. And you won't do it because you believe in things that the American people don't believe in. Trump allies say it was one of the stronger moments tying Harris the Biden's time in office and countering her efforts last night to paint herself as a change candidate. Clearly, I'm not Joe Biden and I'm certainly not Donald Trump.
And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country, one who believes in what is possible, one who brings a sense of optimism about what we can do instead of always disparaging the American people. That's the kind of conversation I believe, David, that people really want tonight as opposed to a conversation that is constantly about belittling and name calling. Let's turn the page forward. Joining me now on set is my good friend Chuck Todd, NBC News chief political analyst Molly Ball, senior political correspondent for the Wall Street Journal Ashley Etienne, former communications director for Vice President Harris and Mike Ducky, former White House communications director for former President Trump.
Thanks all of you for being here. A little bleary eyed today, so thank you for pushing through. Chuck, let me start with you. Set the stage here.
In terms of the fallout, I talked a lot of allies from President Trump who said what that statement that we just heard there should have been the beginning and end of every answer last night, yet it came at the end of the debate. This is the story of nine years of Donald Trump. If only he would act not like Donald Trump. Right?
That's always what it is. If he could do this like generic Republican, if he could do this like, you know, a candidate that would listen to advisors. I mean, he just thought he violated every simple piece of advice that you had been given, which is, you know, don't, don't take the bay, don't do this. And he did.
It was shockingly easy for her to do this. I don't think she, you know, I'm very curious. What if he didn't do it? What was her plan B?
You know, it is one of those things. I've actually seen that at debates where somebody comes in hoping they're going to rattle their opponent. It doesn't work and they don't have a plan B. But if she had one, she didn't obviously need to use it.
But for me, the whole caution that I would throw at this to the enthusiasm that many hair supporters have today is there's a chart that's been circulating every debate Donald Trump has participated in. He's lost by a lot except one, and that was the one in June with Joe Biden. It's clear that voters are sort of don't like what they see in the moment, but it doesn't seem to have a long term impact it's why I don't think Trump is going to debate, because I think it would be a huge mistake for him. These are.
This is a very good format for her. This is a very good format for her. Where she. If he likes.
How about he's a counter puncher, a prosecutor within a courtroom. They know how to be a counterpuncher. I wouldn't have a debate with her in the middle of voting, which is what the next debate could be. I say this, I'd like to see another debate.
As a civilian, as a citizen, strategically, I don't know if it's a good idea for Mike. What do you say about that? And then to the point that Chuck's making that, you know, Kamala Harris has this strategy and it worked every single time, and he knew that was gonna be the strategy. By the way, Look, I mean, Donald Trump is where Donald Trump is because he's an unconventional politician.
So we need to take that into account. I'm glad you're pointing out all of the debates. I remember Hillary Clinton winning a debate, if you believe the poll. So that's where I really love to say for the next nine and a half weeks, I'd love for him to talk about the last three and a half years.
We're only eight and a half weeks left for the election. But that was his best line and why he didn't do it. I totally agree with the other Republican strategists, but at some point during the debate, Donald Trump is going to do what Donald Trump does. And I don't know that it matters.
This wasn't a knockout. The only knockout debate I know in the last 20 years was in jail. All right, let's play a little bit of what Chuck is referencing. Here's what we heard last night from Harris.
Now, I'm going to tell you that I have traveled the world as vice president. United States and world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. I have talked with military leaders, some of whom work with you, and they say you're a disgrace. It is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because they're so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors.
And that is why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace. Molly was literally like a greatest hits of, you know, jabs to get under his skin. And she landed. I mean, the risk in that is that you flub a line.
She landed most of her attacks last night. And to your point, they all were successful in getting under his skin to the point where even when the moderators gave him an opportunity to say something potentially a little bit more statesmanlike about what happened in 2020, saying so, you know, you have admitted recently you've made these comments about how you did actually lose the point in elections. No, no, no, no. Let me make clear to the American people that I still believe this lie about the greatest bill in election.
So he was sort of helping her continually. I do think, and I wrote this in my analysis for the Wall Street Journal today, that because the debate was all about Trump, it's possible that some of those swing voters that she needs to win over, those undecided voters who still don't feel like they know her well enough, that they may not have come away from this debate feeling like they got their questions about her answered. They may not come away from this debate feeling like they have a strong and clear picture of who she is in her own right versus just having seen hit her, prosecute him. And the debate was just all about Trump.
Yeah, Actually, Democrats I spoke to last night and today have said exactly that, that she did a great job rattling him. But at the same time, she didn't really explain some of the shifts in her policy positions in a detailed way. She didn't really say how Harrison administration would be different from a Biden administration. Does she need to spend the next several weeks doing that?
I think she actually will. And I challenge this notion that she didn't achieve what she wanted to achieve. I think one of the most important things for her to project was a sense of command, a sense of a command of the policy, presenting herself as presidential, giving people the sense that she was not gonna back down on any bully, whether it's Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin. And so I think she achieved that incredibly well.
Now she'll have the next 50 days to talk about herself. But there was a line that I thought a theme that she kept repeating all night that I think is getting lost. She focused on the fact that Donald Trump cares. Doesn't care about you, he could care less about you.
Proof point was that he showed up. He's this is third attempt to be the President of the United States. He's been the head of the Republican Party for eight years, and he shows up with no policy vision for how he's gonna move the nation forward. He couldn't even come up with a plan on health care, although they voted 60 times to undermine Obamacare.
I mean, so she was really affected at driving this notion that he could care less about you. And I think that's gonna be a theme moving forward. If you look at the recent CNN polls, that's the area where she's beating him double digits in his battleground scenes on this question of who cares about you? Which is a great line if you've run in primaries and the American people know who you are.
But she had one job other than survival last night, and that job is to find herself former President Trump had on her. One was three and a half years. The other, I thought was when he focused on Iran. And the money is.
And we're playing a political game of very small margins. And when you can make the point that they made that we dried up terror funding by pulling money away from Iran, and you've got pictures of pallets of dollars being delivered during the Biden administration to Iran, it's going to be very difficult for. I will say this. What Donald Trump needed to prove is that Donald Trump cannot be Donald Trump.
He needed to prove that every debate, as Rush said, he's lost because he's exhausted. I think he just doubled down on who Donald Trump isn't, and I don't think he did himself any favor. Let me play one piece of reaction that we're getting from Senator Mitt Romney and get everyone to respond to that. This was classic President Trump performance.
In the case of Kamala Harris, most people didn't know her terribly well, other than a few clips that were not flattering that you might see on the Internet. And people saw, oh, actually, she's an intelligent, capable person who has a point of view on issues. And she demonstrated that time. Again, Chuck, what about that?
And the fact that you've been arguing for a while, the person who wins this race will be the person who proves himself to be janky. You know, one of the things that we can't underestimate, and I think Matt Monty's making this point because he actually got. Is that first time you stand on stage with somebody who is president or has been president, it elevates you just being on stage. And so that was.
That is an important. And that's, I think, the point he was trying to make. You know, just being on stage, being his equal in that moment. For a lot of Americans, they hadn't seen that.
Right. First time they've been together, obviously, in two days in a row together. But it was important for her. So I think that's a fair point.
She beat him at something that he usually better at, which is statecraft. Right. And she grabbed a piece of statecraft. But.
But look, I actually think she needs a second debate, oddly enough, because I think it's the fill in the gaps. Because this is what I was talking with the colleague about today. A lot of times, you know, the first thing a president's gonna do if they get in office. I don't know what the first thing.
I know first thing's gonna do is support. Yeah, but he has talked about what he wants to do this first week. I don't know. You know, Barack Obama made a pledge.
I'm sign a health care law before the end of my first term. You know, we don't have it. And to my point, that usually comes out of primary campaign. I mean, tax on Obama people is the worst.
Why did he make this pledge? Right, but he did it and you know, he got it done. Right. But it is.
That's what primaries usually are about. I do think. I agree with you that debate isn't the best place to do policy. But she need another sort of large forum to start filling in some blanks here because I do think there are some fence sitters there on this.
And guys, we're almost out of time. But rarely does Taylor Swift's name come. But I do have to ask you, Molly, you've been in my house, my daughter. Fair point, fair point.
Does this endorsement matter? I think so. I mean, I'm not a sweetie, but I live with one. And she can't vote, but she would literally do anything.
Taylor Swift tells much money. She's got a college budget. Is this the plan B? This is not like plan B to me.
Like, if she did not do well at the debate, we have Taylor Swift lined up to endorse. And I can hide this picture of some staff running down the hallway after she did well, saying, stop. See you for next week. All right, you guys, we're out of time.
Great conversation. Thank you. There you go. Thank you so much.
Chuck, Molly, Ashley and Mike, so fantastic. Really appreciate it. Still to come, you are looking at Pictures of the 911 memorial at the World Trade center earlier today. As America remembers 23 years later, a look at how a nation and the White House marked the moment after the break.
You're watching the press now. That was part of today's ceremony in New York commemorating the 911 terror attacks. This morning, President Biden, Vice President Harris, Donald Trump and Senator J.D. vance were ground zero in lower Manhattan to honor Those who died 23 years ago today.
And in what has become an annual tradition, the names of the victims were read out loud. Michael A Ajak Michael Edward Asher Douglas Franks D Sofana Donald Americo Dutulio. The president and vice president also paid their Respects in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Mr.
Trump visited Flight 93 National Memorial later in the day. And just moments ago, the president, vice president participated in a wreath laying ceremony at the Pentagon. 184 people died there when hijacked Flight 77 hit the west side of the building. Here's Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaking this morning.
We have repaired the damage to this building, but we cannot repair the damage to your hearts. No words can take away your grief. No amount of time can make sense of the worst terrorist attack in American history. History.
And of course, nearly 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001. I'm back tomorrow with more me, the Press. Now the news continues with Hallie Jackson. Right now, everyone, I'm Dylan Dryer, co host of the third hour of say and mom to three wild boys.
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