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announcer: funding for presentation of th program is provided by... woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, life well planned. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" c world news america. c the stage is set in the battleground state of pennsylvania for kamala harris and donald trump's first presidential debate. the stakes are high with the former president and vice president basically tied in polls.

we will hear about what to expect. a warm welcome to world news america. in a few hours, donald trump and kamala harris will take the stage in philadelphia for what cut -- could be a pivotal moment in the presidential campaign. the debate between the former president and current vice president will be 90 minutes with two commercial breaks, hosted by the u.s. network bbc news. there will be no audience in attendance and crucially, the candidates' microphones will be muted when they are not speaking. it was a sticking point for the harris campaign who expressed concern that it will serve to shield donald trump from direct exchanges with the vice president. here is a look at the stage. after a virtual coin toss harris chose to stand on the right, donald trump gets to have the

last word. the rules say no topics or questions will be given in advance nor will props or prewritten notes be allowed on stage. both candidates can have a pen, a notepad and a bottle of water on hand. for more, let us speak to the cofounder and cochair of the commission on residential debates. great to have you back. your commission, traditionally organizing the debates. that is not the case this year but tell us what you are expecting tonight. >> one of the things that is different in the debates that we have done for 36 years in presidential election cycles is the amount of time being delegated by format for the candidates to discuss the issues that are important. when we do it, each subject matter is covered by 15 minutes. the moderator can have enter to

change -- interchange with the candidates. you want the candidates to talk to each other or question each other. here, it is limited to one or two minutes on each subject matter. it will be interesting to see how it is handled. the first debate in june, president biden had great difficulty and proud -- probably lead to the vice president being the nominee for the democratic party. it should be interesting to see. >> if i could jump in, you talk a little bit about the format and the rules. we mentioned that there will be no muted microphones, or the microphones will be muted when the candidates are not speaking and there will be no audience. what do you think of these rules? >> one of the reasons why i think it is wrong toave the muting, the mutation -- that

could be a good joke. the muting, we had the microphones muted in the last debate four years ago and it was only for that portion of time, each of the six sections, each got to talk uninterrupted for two minutes. the rest of the time, for 15 minutes, it was open so they could debate each other and the moderator could dig down on some of the issues. that is very difficult. i don't understand how that will be handled, to see whether they can handle and deal with difficult problems, the border, inflation, etc., with four or five minutes. >> yes, indeed. let me ask about the fact that there is no real exchange between the candidates. moderators are asking questions and there is time for rebuttal but in the last debate, you don't see the two candidates having a discussion or debate with each other. what do you think of that? >> it is like it as individual

interviews like you would interview a candidate and ask them questions because if they say something that disagrees with something they said two weeks ago, it is not the moderators job to be a fact checker. it is for the other person to correct them but there may not be time for that to take place. in this particular format. so that concerns me. i'm sure we are not doing anything this time but four years from now we are sticking to the format that gets more done to answer questions. >> one more question. there seems to be an obvious question after we saw a consequential debate in june between president biden and former president trump but why are the debates important for voters who might not have made up their minds yet? >> there are some journalists who think they are not worthwhile. others say it doesn't impact anything. over 33 presidential and vice

presidential debates, we have gone out and asked the public, what factor if any did the debate have in your gift -- decision? 65-70% of people say it was a factor. not a major factor, not the only factor but it was something they had to consider and did consider in determining who to vote for. >> frank, good to get your take. thanks for joining us today on bbc world news. the latest polling of likely voters, trump continues to leave harris -- lead harris on immigration policy. she ruggles with voters on likability. a cbs poll shows 51% of registered voters in the battleground state of pennsylvania like the way vice president harris handles herself . that is a contrast from former president trump, 36% of voters

say they like how he handles himself personally. the polling numbers were broadly repeated in other swing states of wisconsin and michigan. we will talk about the president's strategy with the trump campaigns press secretary. good to have you with us. i want to start by asking have you spoken to the president over the last few hours? how confident is he going into the debate? >> president trump is in great spirits and he is confident because he is well read on harris' record as vice president and the biden harris administration, but her time as attorney general from california , district attorney from san francisco, and her failures over the past four years. president trump will use tonig as an opportunity to contrast her failures with his record of success in his first term and talk about how he will solve the problems the biden-harris administration caused. >> you and the campaign talked about the fact that this will be

harris defending her record. we saw donald trump saying what he called the failures of immigration and economy were president biden's problems. why will voters believe harris is responsible? >> it is the biden-harris administration. they share responsibility. kamala harris herself, don't take it from us or president trump, kamala harris said she was a proud supporter of biden on mx.. she said bidenomics is working. it is robbing working families of money every month. to have the same quality of life they did under predent trump. kamala harris said she was proud to be the last person in the room with president biden when they decided to withdraw from afghanistan, which we know was a disaster. kamala harris was tapped by joe biden to be the borders are and oversee the crisis at the southern border and what happened, it has gotten worse

since she has been in the white house. >> i know the economy will be a major topic. harris has talked about tax cuts for the middle class. is that something president trump would support? >> absolutely. president trump signed the largest tax cut in american history. harris' tax cuts for the middle class, she wants to raise the business tax rate to 28% and doesn't want to make president trump's tax cuts permanent which will increase taxes on 26 million small businesses. small businesses are the backbone of the american economy. president trump wants to end taxes on tips, which is a policy harris plagiarized from him. president trump has said he wants to add -- he wants to eliminate taxes on social security. >> president trump has been criticized from several republicans about focusing more on personal attacks, things like

crowd size instead of policy. do you think that is something that could be an issue tonight? ask president trump will focus on policy tonight. >> you don't think he will go into personal attacks? >> it is fair, it is not a personal attack the question someone's competence if they want to be president. we need a competent leader to serve as commander-in-chief of the military, to be the leader of the world and president trump has every right to question harris' competence. the american people should be asking those westerns review will use this opportunity to expose the truth about harris' record. cnn reported harris expressed support for the decriminalization of all drugs. she supports taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for illegal immigrants. these are radical proposals that than -- that no one in the media has been able to ask her. president trump will ask her. >> we will -- we hope she will

sit down with us. let me ask you about the gender gap in the polls. an abc news poll released last sunday showed harris led donald trump by 13 points among women. what will be seen from president trump to women voters? >> he will talk about the policies of the last four years that have hurt women in this country. under kamala harris and joe biden's administration baby formula is up 30%. the affordability of housing, and affordability of housing has skyrocketed. interest rates, mortgage rates are higher than they were when president trump was in office. our southern border has led to the deaths of women in this country. there have been illegal immigrants who have crossed through the border since kamala harris has been vice president that have gone on to murder and rape innocent women in this country. president trump will put an end to that with order security and will bring down the cost of living for working mothers like myself and families across the

country. >> good to see you. tonight's high-stakes showdown comes just over two months after president biden's ill-fated debate performance. ross takes a closer look at how the president's withdrawal from the race changed the electoral map. >> one kamala harris replaced joe biden the polls shifted. this is the poll tracker that produces an average based on national polls. since harris became the candidate, she has established a small lead over donald trump. the national vote doesn't decide the winner. instead, it is about who gets 270 or more electoral college votes. that is decided by state-by-state results. most states are politically predictable. we can be almost certain which way they will vote which means a small number of states in which the outcome is less predictable are crucial. >> less than 1% of america will

decide the next president and that 1% is in urgent. ask these swing states have many routes to victory. if harris takes wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania and wins nebraska's congressional district she is over the line in the electoral college. if trump takes georgia, north carolina and pennsylvania he has made it. here is the latest swing state polling, harris has improved on biden's numbers but look at how close it is. we need to be cautious. the latest swing state numbers fall within the three point margin of error used by most polls. the pew research center notes polls have been less accurate when trump is on the ballot. many reasons include trump voters being less likely to respond to polls. this means in 2016, despite hillary clinton polling well, sh took fewer swing states. in 2020 biden had a lead. he won the majority of swing states in several cases by very

slim margins. this explains why the campaign spends time and money in the states and why sometimes, the polling struggles. >> it is so close that polling really is going to have a hard time telling us what is going to happen. the election is likely to be decided by a small number of groups in the population. unfortunately, those groups are among the most difficult to get good survey samples on. >> there is the issue of turnout area polls screen for likely voters but others don't usually vote, but might this time. that is hard to measure. put that together and we start to understand why, right now, the polls offer both candidates hope but little certainty. >> some voters say one advantage trump has over harri is whether they agree with him or not, they know where he stands. 80% of registered voters in pennsylvania say they know what the former president stands for.

ntage points more than his democratic opponent harris, according to the latest poll from cbs. to talk about the debate strategy for the vice president, we have a senior advisor, adrian. thanks for joining us. let's talk at the numbers in pennsylvania. voters seem to think they don't know what kamala harris stands for. is tonight's debate a must win for her to convince people of who she is and what she stands for? >> number one, it is important for the vice president and she made this clear, to come out of the debate making sure people understand the contrast between her and donald trump. she wants to make sure people understand the dangers of a trump 2.0 presidency and what it would look like a project 2025 was implementednto law, and national abortion ban and the president having unchecked powers, stacking the doj with trump acolytes will do his she wants to make sure the

american people understand what that looks like and her plans to lower cost for middle-class families, expand reproductive rights for women and families, expand economic opportunities. she wants people to understand her vision. she has talked about, she will be talking about economic policy. tonight she has a couple things she will focus on. drawing a contrast and implementing, talking about how she will implement provisions for americans. >> how do you feel about the polling? there was some concern among democrats and the campaign as well come over donald trump leads harris nationally by one point. voters say they want to see a change but they see donald trump as the change candidate than they do harris. how does she need to address that? >> again, the vice president is proud of the record she has with president biden when it comes to

job creation. they created over 15 point 5 million jobs in america. 800,000 of those in the manufacturing industry. they implemented a major infrastructure bill helping repair roads and highways. projects in the district of republicans who voted against the bill, and those republicans are going home and talking about how excited they are to support those projects even though they didn't. she is proud of the work she did but she has her own plan going forward. she rolled out her small business tax plan to lower costs for small businesses, put more money in the pockets of american families by lowering food costs and the cost of everyday goods. she is focused on her own path forward. i think over the course of the next few weeks going into early voting and as we get closer to election day, she will be talking more about her policies. >> coming back to the polling numbers, if you look at the wall street journal analysis kamala harris is pulling behind where joe biden was among black voters and hispanic voters and young

but -- voters in 2020. will we see her with messaging specifically to them to try to win them over? >> absolutely. everybody not -- every nominee for president has their own coalition. there is work she has to do with certain constituencies. she is also doing well with others, especially women across the board. where she has deficits, she is making a major effort and we will continue to do that to make inroads and make sure those voters, a lot of them are not saying they will not vote against her, they want to understand more of what her vision and her policies will be. one thing we are doing after the debate, what we are calling a new way forward. we have surrogates across battleground states, making sure we have one major national circuit in every media market. the vice president, governor walz will be heading north carolina and other states that

are important winning the election. we take nothing for granted. this is a close race from the beginning. >> we are underdogs. >> the new york times poll reflects that this will be a close race decided by a thin margin. >> looking at harris going into the debate, is she confident about it? what would you define as success for heresy? >> she was on a power walk or hike earlier and was asked by a reporter, early this morning or yesterday and she said i'm ready, when asked if you are ready. she is ready. she has been preparing with her team for a long time. taking this seriously because she understands the stakes of tonight. it is important for her to get her message across to the american people. understanding there will be a path -- a captive audience watching, tuning in, wanting to understand what she stands for and what trump will say, holding him accountable on some of the

lies he will say, certainly, from the podium. something she has been taking seriously. sounds like trump is not taking it as seriously but trump is not a good debater. he has done this sev times. we expect him to have a good night as well. >> he is readand prepared. thank you for joining us. joining me from the d.c. studio is rodni, former republican congressman from illinois, and stephanie, former democratic congresswoman from florida. great to talk to you both. rodney, what are your expectations for the debate? >> this is a chance for vice president harris to begin to define who she is. it wasn't long ago that we were talking about president biden debating president trump and the world witnessed what hasn't happened in our lifetime, having a presidential candidate who was

replaced this close to the election. i think harris has to come out strong. she has been practicing for the debate. she has to show the american people why she has been avoiding tough questions from national media and the onus is on her to over perform tonight. >> stephanie, what about your expectations? what do you think we will see tonight? i think the convention was the last time we were altogether and it wasbout vibes and values for harris. tonight will be about policy and politics for her. the debate is an opportunity for her to lay out her vision of the future and she is going to be talking to moderates and people who are still undecided, who tend to self identify as moderates. those are the swing voters that will make the difference for her campaign in swing states. >> to follow-up with you, we were speaking with a senior

campaign advisor for harris about the fact that there are voters who feel like they don't know who harris is and what she stands for. what does she need to do to address that? >> she certainly is the one that has to introduce herself tthe american people through this debate. this might be the largest platform she has before the election. it should be noted i'm a vote by mail ballots have gone out in some states and people are beginning to vote here in the next few weeks. this might be the last major platform she has. the last debate between trump and biden had 50 million viewers. we will see what number tunes in. it will be snificant. the outtakes of this debate will be critically important because for a lot of these voters who don't pay much attention, what they will get is what they hear from their neighbors and coworkers and what they see amplified on social media. for harris, she has to draw a

contrast with trump as well as lay out her vision of the future and address one of the things that i think is key to her winning, which is the idea that she is the change candidate. you mentioned in the polling, that mesge hasn't quite been absorbed by voters or by voters who have been polled. >> rodni, to get your take on dold trump, his team says he is confident and expected to win the debate. what does he need to watch out for tonight? >> i don't think anybody would say donald trump is not confident going into this debate. or any campaign event. he needs to watch out for making sure that he doesn't fall into any debate trap. talk policy. wait for the response from vice president harris before you decide to try to chime in with -- when the microphone is turned on. be the same presidential candidate that he was during the

debate against biden and i think he will come out the victor once again. >> very quickly, do you think we will see donald trump commanding the stage? the tone and tenor will be important. >> the tone and tenor will be important. but the american people know the type of debater donald trump is. this is the opportunity for vice president harris to try to explain to the american people why shisn't held responsible for any of the problems many americans still say exist in this country. she is part of the adnistration. she has to tell the american people why they should differentiate between her as vice president and president biden in the biden harris administration. >> rodney, stephanie, thanks for joining us. we will speak to you later in the evening, of course. here on bbc news you can watch a rolling coverage of the bbc news

presidential debate simulcast. news coverage will start from 8:00 p.m. east coast time in the u.k. and the actualou are debate will start one hour later. on our website we will have a live page with all the info on the debate. stay with us for more special coverage. thanks for watching world news america, and tune into our coverage tonight. stay with us. ♪ announcer: fundingor presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

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