i'm ted koppel. please join jane pauley when our trumpet sounds again next "sunday morning." ♪ o say can you see ♪ ♪ by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ what so proudly we hailed ♪ ♪ at the twilight's laeaming ♪ ♪ i'm margaret brennan in washington and this week on "face the nation," as vice president harris and former president trump prepare to face off for the first time in

philadelphia, an exclusive conversation with trump's top primary rival, former u.n. ambassador nikki haley. >> you have endorsed donald trump. you spoke at the convention. but are you going to campaign for him? >> you know, he knows i'm on stand-by. with just under two months until election day, nikki haley shares her advice on what the republican nominees should be focused on to win. harris ally roy cooper will also join us. his state has gone red the last three presidential elections. what would it take for his party to win it this november? plus, the u.s. uncovers a sprawling effort by russia to interfere with the 2024 elections. we'll talk with the top democrat on the house intelligence committee connecticut's jim himes. and the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee, michael mccaul will be here

revealing the investigation into the biden withdrawal of afghanistan. it is all ahead on "face the nation." ♪ good morning and welcome to "face the nation." we're starting a consequential week for both the trump and harris campaigns. with just 58 days until election day, both are preparing for their first debate. will this change a race that remains neck-and-neck. we begin with our battleground tracker poll of the three key states of pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin. where the race is essentially even. vice president kamala harris is up just 1 point in michigan, tied with former president trump in pennsylvania and up two points in wisconsin. weijia jiang is in one of the

states, pennsylvania, and has the latest from the trial. >> reporter: in pittsburgh, vice president harris took a break from intense debate preps to shop with voters. >> are you ready to face donald trump? >> yes, am. >> reporter: she was asked what she wants to get across during the debate. >> it is time to turn the page on the divisiveness. it is time to bring our country together. chart a new way forward. >> reporter: rallying in wisconsin, trump had a different message. >> we're run by stupid people. stupid, stupid people. and we found out at the debate with joe and we will find it out again on tuesday night. is anybody going to be watching. >> reporter: harris plans to focus on policy, not personality. she is kpesive in part because voters think she'll help the middle class and she has an edge

on making housing more affordable. but trump is doing better with those who say the economy and inflation are major issues. especially holding favor among non-college and white voters. sources familiar with trump's debate prep say it is been informal but he is going over specific policy proposals. a senior harris campaign official said they believe trump thrives under bright lights and on national tv and they expect he will be ready. margaret. >> that is weijia jiang in pittsburgh. we caught up with former republican presidential candidate nikki haley on friday. the former ambassador and south carolina governor explained why she is supporting trump. but also you'll hear her views on what she thinks he should be focused on until election day. we begin by asking if she'll campaign with him. >> you said you're on stand-by. in other words you haven't been

asked. are you advising on his debate preparation or speaking to the campaign. >> i'm not. and that is his choice. whatever he decides to do with his campaign. he can do that. but when i called him back in june and i told him i was supportive. i think the teams have talked to each other but there hasn't been ans ask as of yet. but should he ask, i'm helpful. >> donald trump just finished a press conference and three quarters was grievances related to past conviction related to alleged sexual assault. when you were campaigning, you had no reason to question the findings of the defamation case brought by e. jean carroll. i'm not asking about the specifics of a case, is that the best use of his time and what is the message to female voters to be going through this again? >> well, i think the focus for me is on policy. you know, i think -- >> but he's the candidate. >> and i've always said if i

thought biden or trump were great candidates, i wouldn't have run for president. i ran because i thought i could do a better job. >> you don't think he's a good candidate. >> i think he's the republican nominee and put him against kamala harris who is a democrat nominee, for me it is not a question. now, do i agree with his style, do i agree with his poach and his communications, no. when i look at the policies and how they will affect my family and the country, that is where i go back and i look at the differences. i mean, this is -- these are the candidates we've been given. you look at kamala harris, and it is quite remarkable. she never had a debate. she never had a primary. she never had anyone vote for her. and they basically took her and in 48 hours they put her back out there and she was this whole new candidate. but the reality is, she has a record. the administration has a record. trump has a record. and so neither are perfect. neither are ideal. >> so let's talk about the

policies then. one of the things that we know is hurting american families is the high cost of childcare. the federal reserve said parents spend 50% to 70% per month on childcare as they do on their housing payment which is the largest monthly expense. yet, yesterday, donald trump said -- >> as much as childcare is talked about as being expensive, it is relatively speaking not very expensive. >> that sounds out of touch with the economic statistics. >> i think childcare is very expensive. i know just even at the time that i had little kids, i worked just to pay for our childcare. >> so what part of his policy do you like on that? because you said on your policies, that is what you made you back him. >> it is. and what i liked were the tax cuts that he had. that kamala wants to remove. >> she wants to expand the child tax credit. >> but that is the problem. when you get into child tax credits, you're picking winners and losers. what i would rather, i would rather them just cut middle

class taxes across the board. families need more money for housing, for child care, for gas, and for everything just to live they are life. i'm looking at the facts. under harris they raised taxes, under trump they cut taxes. >> so you don't like the childcare tax trump proposed either. >> rather than saying we're going to give childcare tax credits, help everybody, cut middle class taxes. that is really what people need. let them have more money, whether it is housing, whether it is rent, whether it is groceries, whether it is gas, whether it is childcare, they need some relief. and i don't oppose a childcare tax credit. but think cutting middle class taxes across the board is better. so we know that since vice president harris entered the race, the gap has grown to a double-digit lead for her over donald trump. according to our cbs most recent survey. so, how do they close that? because just as recently as last week, j.d. vance said he's

disoriented and disturbed that the head of the most powerful teachers union in the country doesn't have a single child xd and he continues to say things tht are highlighted as being offensive to women. that is going to hurt, won't it, with female voters. >> it is not helpful. is he an effective messenger for the policies, you say that they are stronger on. >> you could either look at trial or you could look at substance. i choose as a vote tore look at substance. the style -- >> what is the substance of that? >> the substance is, cutting taxes, making housing more affordable, immigration, national security. that is the substance. the style is, no, it is not helpful to talk about whether women have children or whether they don't. it is not helpful to say any of those things that are personality driven. i've said that and i will continue to say to republicans, stop it. that is not helpful. if you want to talk about things, stick with policy.

americans are smart. they don't need all of this other noise to distract them. they just want to know how you're going to help them. and what i would suggest to every american, look at the records of each of them. you have some stark contrast there. harris was not strong on the border. trump was strong on the border. harris wanted to eliminate fracking and now she's taken that backba energy is not as strong under president trump. >> it is at a record high right now. but you said you don't like handouts and you're concerned about the fiscal conservatism here. former president trump pledged to mandate that the government and insurance companies pay for fertilization or ivf treatments for women. is that a policy that you would ensure that they would pay for that. >> it is not a policy that i support, or for kamala harris to remove private health insurance

or medicare for all. >> but this is the head of the republican party. >> you also have to talk about the head of the democratic party. don't just look at one and not look at the other. when you talk about medicare for all, when you talk about removing private health care insurance, you might as well be canada. you might as well look as socialist health care. we never want to get to that point because you're not going to get ivf or anything else. cancer drugs or anything else when it comes to that. when you look at health care, we need to know, both of my children were products of fertility. we want that option to be available to everyone. but the way you do is, you don't mandate coverage, instead, you go and you make sure that coverage is accessible and you make sure that your doing everything to make it affordable. >> you could still urge people would identify as republican to support policies that you say are not conservative? >> i don't agree with trump 100% of the time. i don't have to like him or agree with him 100% of the time to know that life for americans would be better under the

policies where we have strong immigration, where we have law and order, where we have an economy where we can look at opportunities, where we've got national security that is strong. i don't need to sit there and like someone to decide those policies are better. >> they do look like it is grading on a curve. >> i think it is how you look at it. i would ask you, how are people going to be better going through the next four years like we have the last four years. any american will tell you, their live is not better. so our goal is how do we make life better instead of making it about the personalities. could we not start saying what do we agree about on the policies because there is serious policy concerns. >> let me ask you about china. because this is a serious threat picture apr the world right now. you were just in taiwan for the first time. >> yes. >> former president trump said taiwan should pay us for defense and the u.s. is no different than an insurance company. how concerned were taiwanese

officials about that comment. >> i think it is important that americans know what i saw. i met with the president, the vice president, we met with the intelligence officers, the life of a taiwanese every single day, of all, they have 30 million cyberattacks a month in taiwan. they have aggression from air and sea by the chinese every single week. i i wanted to see if taiwan were victims, waiting for a handout, or what they were saying and i was so impressed, because they're not waiting for help from anyone. ten years ago, their chinese investment as 84%. today their chinese investment is 11%. they are proactively not investing in china. their mandatory military service starting at 18 years old, they started at four months and now they increased it, you have to serve at 18 for a year. they have -- while cutting that investigation, they are getting

ready militarily. they're doing joint training with america which is fantastic. when it comes to our allies and freedom loving country, we need to be the best friend to them that we can. because if china takes taiwan, what we saw with russia and ukraine, it affected 1% of gdp and you saw the economy shake from that. >> mm-hmm. >> if china takes taiwan, it would be 10% of the global gdp. we need to care about that. we need to care about it from freedom, from the economy, we need to care about it from security and we need to care about the fact that if russia takes ukraine and china takes taiwan, we can't assume we're going to be okay if we live in a silo, because that is not the case. >> but what you just laid out is a policy that is strongly in defense of taiwan. >> it is. >> are you saying that the next president should commit, because neither j.d. vance for donald trump have said that they would

send u.s. troops to defend taiwan. >> i don't think we need to send u.s. troops to defend taiwan. >> joe biden is he he was. told my colleague at 60 minutes -- >> taiwan does not want troops. what they are asking for is joint military training and to partner with us so they could make weapons to defend themselves and they want intelligence sharing. look, i'm the wife of a combat veteran. the last thing we want to do is keep thinking about sending troops. if anything, we want to prevent war. the best way to prevent war from china is to start arming taiwan now and making sure they're ready. >> when you were campaigning, you said when trump left office china was stronger militarily than before and they've strengthened that with the expansion of the military. you said trump did not put us on a stronger military foothold in asia and did not stop the theft of american technology. he had moral weakness in trying

to befriend president xi. if this is the threat of the century, how you could say he's the commander in chief that you support now. >> because i look at what happened under the harris administration. >> but how are we supposed to judge that record. >> we're going to judge both records. let's first look at the harris administration, russia would have never invaded ukraine. >> they would not withdraw from ukraine. >> well go further. they wouldn't have started war with ukraine and china would not have gotten more aggressive with taiwan if we would have not had that fall in afghanistan. it is not that we left afghanistan. it is how we left it. it was dangerous, it was careless and it was weak. and we have suffered ever since. we didn't have any conflicted under trump. i was his u.n. ambassador. we put more sanctions on russia, we kept china at bay. we let our allies know that they were protected. all of that happened. now what i will say to both

trump and harris, is the worst thing we can do is walk back from our friends right now. so we need to be afriend to ukraine. not make them beg. with he need to be a friend to taiwan, and prepare so that china doesn't do it. we feed to be a friend to israel and not say we're going to give you and then take it back like what harris and biden did. we have to start being friends with our allies. i will say it until i'm blue in the face america with not be so arrogant to be a friend and get a friend. but trump was definitely stronger when it came to national security as opposed to the harris administration and that is just a fact. >> how you could be confident that he will be? you're talking about four more years when he's say things about a protection racket for taiwan, they have to pay us. >> and i'll be the first one to say that is not the way it should be. i'm tell you the truth on where

i should be. this is not blind support for anyone. this is saying don't sit there and threaten taiwan that you're going to be -- on being friends. this is -- they have 50% of our chip production. they have a friend and ally to us. and they're a democracy. let's have -- if anything, this is what i would tell donald trump and kamala harris, what you need to do with taiwan is help them economically, militarily, diplomatically. economically, we should have a free trade agreement with taiwan without question. >> and we start talks toward that. >> we should require that taiwan become a member in the united nations and world health organization and we should do whatever we can to joint exercise and share intelligence and do we what we can. >> and you have talked about the isolationism in the party and it troubled you. this past week the justice department brought a case against russia regarding a $10 million disinformation campaign using right-wing media.

do you think that this isolationist streak is being fueled by the russian state? the problems you are diagnosing right now that you are also saying donald trump is echoing in some way. >> margaret, this is bigger than that. this is the tip of the iceberg. first of all, look at what happened in kathy hochul he's office, look at the murder-for-hire plot that i was named in by iran. look at the russian disinformation, that doesn't tart this year. this has been going on for years. russia, china and iran and north korea, they have spent years on the cheapest form of warfare, which is how to divide americans and cause chaos. they have done that. when i was running my presidential campaign, the fbi had a separate hearing with me to let me know that iran was meddling in our -- influencing

the election through -- with our campaign. >> to hurt you or to help you. >> to hurt me. the murder-for-hire plot named me. that is by iran. this is been going for a long time. and americans need to wake up. don't just look at russia. just don't just look at china or iran. when you look at social media, i bet you a larger percentage of those are former engagements and when i was in taiwan, they could look at facebook, any time taiwan put something out, it was suppressed. anything china put out it was played up. why is this? our social media companies owe americans from a national security perspective, how many of the foreign bots are dividing us. every bit of our government influencers, press and media need to say how many of these foreign influencers are buying people and what are we doing to protect us. nothing. no one is talking about tiktok. biden and trump both said they

were both against tiktok and they are both on it now and kamala harris is on it now. china loves that. and america needs to face the foreign actors. >> nation the nation will be back in a minute. tay with us. were you worried the wedding would be too much? nahhhh... (inner monologue) another destination wedding?? we just got back from her sister's in napa. who gets married in napa? my daughter. who gets married someplace more expensive? my other daughter. cancun! jamaica!! why can't they use my backyard!! with empower, we get all of our financial questions answered. so we don't have to worry. can we get out of here?

i thought you'd never ask. join 18 million americans and take control of your financial future with a real time dashboard and real life conversations. empower. what's next. and we go now to the governor roy cooper of north carolina. a battleground state. he joins us from raleigh, good morning. >> good morning, margaret. >> vice president harris will be in your state thursday. we know this is a consequential week. debates could be catastrophic, they could be inconsequential. do you anticipate the average north carolinan is open to persuasion or even watching what happens on that debate stage this week? >> there is no question about it. it is close here in north carolina. it always is. this was biden-harris's closest loss in 2020. only 1.3%. so the fact that kamala harris as vice president of the united

states has been to north carolina 17 times, shows that she cares about our state. she knows that we are in play. and she knows that if she wins north carolina, she is the next president of the united states. because trump has no other pathway. >> is it winning or is it just reducing the amount about which they lose rural voters? you have a very large rural population in your state. >> and you know, things that the biden-harris administration has done has helped our rural population. i've been able to expand medicaid here in north carolina that has helped working rural north c north carolinians and that is something that people are beginning to find out about. and she's got a plan. she's got a plan to lower costs for north carolinians, particularly in this childcare arena, drug prices. we're excited about the economic plan that she has. and i think north carolinians

will respond to it. >> yeah, well i want to ask you more about some of that. because our latest cbs polling shows it is a very, very tight race. and it is the issue of economy and inflation that is weighing most on voters. so we're going to talk about that in a few minutes when we take this break and we'll come back to finish it with you, governor. stay with us.

"face the nation" will have special coverage of the presidential debate on tuesday with the a preview at 8:00 p.m. eastern and the live simulcast will begin at 9:00 p.m. followed by expert analysis. >> announcer: this portion of "face the nation" is brought to you by simplisafe. there's no safe like simplisafe.

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we'll be right back with north carolina governor roy cooper, house foreign relations chair michael mccaul and the top democrat on the intelligence committee jim himes. stay with us. jim hime. stay with us. i came to bayview hunter's point,

where there was only one pediatrician to serve more than 10,000 children. daniel lurie said, i'm going to help. we opened a clinic for our most vulnerable children. i have worked shoulder to shoulder with him as we have brought solutions where people thought the problem was unsolvable. daniel doesn't take excuses. he holds himself accountable. and i know that he can do it for the city of san francisco. ♪ ♪