good day. right now we are live in philadelphia, a city synonymous with american democracy and self-governance. tonight, playing host to one of the most visible symbols of that legacy, a presidential debate. and if this year's race was written into a political novel,

tonight is where the plot thickens. what will it take to give either kamala harris or donald trump that critical edge in the final 56 days? and what trump himself is telling our reporter in a phone call just this morning about the big showdown tonight. plus, could the key to winning this election be as simple as getting a small slice of undecided moderate voters comfortable with your candidacy? maybe not so simple. how do you do it? and who has got the edge? and both harris and trump will leave pennsylvania once the debate is done, but likely not for long. i'll talk to two mayors in cities in pennsylvania. we got a lot of experience in what it takes to win in this all important state. so, it is a very busy day, hello, i'm chris jansing, joined by my colleague andrea mitchell for our special coverage, msnbc reports debate day. this is the spin room. and we are just blocks from where the first and so far only presidential debate will be held

tonight. >> and, chris, donald trump is expected to arrive here from florida later this afternoon. kamala harris is already in philadelphia, she's gearing up for tonight's showdown with the former president, what could be the only event left on the campaign calendar that could break this race wide open. right now it is tied. a new npr poll showed a whopping 72% of registered voters say they will be watching tonight. maybe the largest tv audience of the entire campaign. and 30% of them say it will help them decide whom to vote for, if that really is the case, it will swing the election. >> this is a huge number, huge opportunity, right? state democratic leaders are telling me that harris has to seize this opportunity to tell voters more about who she is, and in the words of one party chair, quote, show her chops. trump's team says the former president's job is simple, tie harris to the liberal positions she held in the past, and the

unpopular parts of the biden presidency. trump's top adviser jason miller also saying he's, quote, expecting some surprises. nbc's yamiche alcindor is here and garrett haake covering former president trump and also with us, eugene daniels and former missouri democratic senator claire mccaskill joins us here in studio. great to have all of you here. garrett, you spoke to donald trump this morning. you told me earlier he was in a good mood. so, what's up, and what about those surprises? >> i wasn't able to get any information from him about those surprises. but you're right, the former president definitely seemed eager to get to philadelphia, to get on this debate stage. of course, he's had more general election presidential debates than any other candidate in history. tonight will be one more. i asked him about the challenges he sees and he said the most difficult part about preparing for the debate, kamala harris, the idea, he said, of her

changing policy positions, especially going back to 2019 or so when she was running for president. donald trump has plenty of changing policy positions of his own, but i think the way that trump campaign has chosen to handle this issue, based on my reporting, searches involved in his debate prep, is to basically take what they believe is the comments that harris has made on me particular issue that they determine to be the most liberal or the most out of the political mainstream and try to make that her current policy position, regardless of what she says it might be now. and essentially force her to defend herself on the far left. and risk being painted as a far left candidate. of course, chris, that is the campaign's goal tonight. donald trump and how he chooses to execute and how he behaves on the stage is sort of always a question until the debate gets under way and perhaps until the debate is well under way. >> as you well know, donald trump felt when he was running against joe biden that he absolutely was going to win, he was banking on it. then kamala harris came in,

things started to shift, there was lots of reporting about how worried he was, about how unpredictable he had become. where do you see his frame of mind right now? >> well, i think it is settled a little bit, chris. you're right, donald trump is a big ufc fan. if you're a ufc fighter and knock your opponent out in the first round, they don't get to put another fighter in against you for rounds two and three. the fight is over. i think trump was deeply frustrated by the fact he felt he won the race against joe biden by knocking him out of it and had to face somewhere else. we all watched as he struggled to figure out exactly how to go after kamala harris, what his strategy would be to face her. and my conversations with sources close to him indicated that watching the polls tighten a little bit over the weekend, one poll had him ahead again nationally, though within the margin of error, that soothed his nerves a little bit, he still sees himself as in the driver's seat in this race, or perhaps sees himself again in the driver's seat.

that has calmed his nerves, which i think we all watched play out over 40 some odd days when harris' poll numbers were surging and he was having a hard time figuring out what tactics to use against her. >> and we all know how much donald trump focuses on polls. so, yamiche, the last few hours before 9:00, when it all gets started on the debate stage, what does it look like for the vice president? >> it is a good question. we know that the vice president has been diligently preparing for this moment. she has been having mock debates with an aide who is dressed like donald trump, speaking like donald trump, to embody the person she is going to have to see on the debate stage for the first time in person. we understand tonight she also has been rehearsing with actual tv lights, so really trying to re-enact and in some ways get ready for the exact space and setting that she's going to be in tonight. but she is someone who has a lot of work to do when it comes to introducing herself to americans. we have done a number of focus

groups and what we have heard is that there are a lot of voters who want more specifics from her, when it comes to her policy stances, when it comes to sort of what a harris administration would look like, so you can imagine that in these last few hours, she's really getting herself ready to both introduce herself to a segment of america who maybe doesn't really understand her back story, doesn't understand her middle class upbringing and the fact that she is a child of immigrants, jamaican and indian immigrants, but there is this idea she also wants to really needle donald trump, she's focused on beating him, she looked at clipz of former debates of him and her team looked at full debates that donald trump did to really get a sense of how to get him to lash out, to get personal, to really get in a way sort of frustrated and angry and maybe even using derogatory language at her and her goal will be to keep calm and not get pulled into those personal attacks. but she's also going to have to, while she's doing all of that, have to figure out how to differentiate herself from president biden. there is a lot on her plate as she tries to be loyal to

president biden, to lay out what a third -- what a harris administration would look like and how it wouldn't just be a third biden administration. so, all of that is on her plate tonight. i imagine she's sort of trying to get ready while also not overpreparing and taking in the last few hours to get her mind in a place where she's ready for this. >> two great reporters to kick us off, garrett, yamiche, thank you, both. claire, so they seem like at least publicly they're both feeling good going in tonight. she gave the thumb's up yesterday when on a walk with her husband. so i talked to a lot of grassroots folks over the last couple of days and asked them what is keeping you up at night, about this debate, because they all think she's going to do well, she's the prosecutor, but several of them said that trump may just dominate. that he may so overwhelm the stage that it will be tough for her to get her point across. what keeps you up? >> i bet your dollar that doesn't happen. >> okay. >> by the way, first of all, i can nerd out for a minute? this is so cool. >> so cool, right? >> for me, for the political

nerd in me, this is like christmas. >> we should tell people by the way, we said it is a spin room and in the middle, it is enormous. that's where the folks who are going to say my guy won, my girl won, are going to stand. now it is -- it was empty when i first got here, it is all filling up with the reporters who are behind andrea and me. and those are the folks who are going to put their stories out there. >> one quick point, back in colorado, when we were there, back in 2016, it seems like forever ago, donald trump came into the spin room. and would do the rope line, melania was with him, those were different days, he was very chatty. >> by the way, i used to be the one they're spinning for presidential candidates. i'm glad to not be doing that tonight. i'll be able to focus on the debate. >> we're happy you're here. >> thank you very much. listen, there is no better training ground for a debate than a courtroom. speaking from experience, you never know what is coming at you in a courtroom. when you're the prosecutor and you're handling the case, you

don't know what the witness is actually going to say. you don't know how the judge is going to rule. she is very used to having to think on her feet and pivot, and. >> never under this kind of pressure. >> but she's risen to this moment. i think most of america underestimated kamala harris. i think she has shown the country that she can handle this pressure, that she will be very presidential, and she knows she has to do one thing more than anything else tonight, and that's reassure america she's ready to lead the strongest nation in the world. and i think that's what she's focused on, rather than his phony baloney bs. >> just related to that, one quick point, when i was doing some reporting with a lot of state department and national security officials about what kind of foreign policy she would have, to a person, they all said, she's a former prosecutor, she's a lawyer, she reads her briefs, she reads the pdb, the presidential daily brief, so she

really prepares herself. she comes to the meetings really prepared. it is her mo. if anything, she might do too much homework. >> i think that's -- we need to be more worried about that than not being prepared enough. the policy stuff is important. it is all on her website now, you can see all of her policies. tonight she has to be strong, she has to be likable, and if she can't, she needs to be dismissive of him in a way that makes him smaller. >> i want to bring in eugene, you noted in today's playbook that there is plenty of gamesmanship going on both sides. trying to rattle each other, which is picking up on what claire just was talking about. so, can you tell us about what is going on behind the scenes? >> yeah, i mean, it started with the mics, right? the question of whether or not the microphones would be muted in between answers. and the reason that the harris campaign wanted that is because they remember, they think about the debates that happened not this year, but in 2020, with

donald trump and joe biden and some of joe biden's best moments were those moments where they kind of interacted with both mics on. they remember that in 2020 when she debated then vice president mike pence, the biggest moment and still kind of follows her to this day is mr. vice president, i'm speaking. trying to create that moment. and try to needle him into calling her a name. let's be real, that's the kind of gamesmanship they're working -- that we have moved into as we move to today, and the trump campaign ended up being the opposite of where they were for the debate with joe biden, which is they wanted to keep the mics muted because they know, we all know that, you know, him calling her a name, him getting thrown off is not going to be good for him. if you think about the joe biden and trump debate, trump didn't really do well, right? he wasn't talking about there were lots of mistruths in there, he was saying things that weren't true, but the problem is that joe biden wasn't able to

fact check him, he wasn't able to parry in any way, shape or form, even with the mics muted. i think vice president harris is going to have a different opportunity, she's not going to have that issue. and the question of preparation and discipline on the stage for both of these candidates is going to be really important for donald trump, whether or not he is able to kind of stay where his campaign wants him to stay, and talk about those policy positions that vice president harris may have evolved on her campaign would say over the years since she was a candidate in 2019 or even a senator and now. and vice president harris who if you talk to aides as i have for years, overpreparation is a thing they're always thinking about, they don't want her to, you know, think she's going into a courtroom and have to read every single brief and have every single word ready to go because they're starting to, and she's starting to believe that her gut instincts on some of these things and some of these unscripted moments are, one,

what the american people want to see, and, two, where she can kind of shine, right? she can react to what is happening on stage, instead of looking too scripted. all of these things are -- they're working on behind the scenes and i guess we'll see tonight whether or not both campaigns are successful on the discipline aspect of this. >> that's really a question of confidence, which i've seen a big change in traveling with her over the last couple of years on overseas trips. claire, 70% of american adults say they're going to be watching. this is a huge audience, huge opportunity, also a big risk. if you mess up, everybody is seeing that, and we saw what happened just seven weeks ago. >> if anybody believes that donald trump is going to be a new different donald trump, they haven't been paying attention. and if he is himself, then that 70% of registered voters are going to be reminded why it was so chaotic. and why they really were not happy during the trump presidency. i think the contrast is really going to serve to her benefit

and i think the bigger the audience, the better. it is 90 minutes. it is the least a citizen can do to inform their vote, i hope everybody watches and watches us on msnbc. >> yesterday afternoon when i talked to four state party chairs, contrast was a word that they talk about a lot in having heard about a lot of voters, because they have been doing outreach, hundreds of thousands of doors knocked, millions of phone calls made, right? and people want to get a measure of her. i think there was a little bit of surprise at least among a couple of them how many people who are democrats, whose doors were knocked on, said i don't really know that much about her. they want to see can she command the stage, can she stand up to donald trump and what does that tell them about could she stand up next to a foreign leader? this is a moment for her to say, i got this. >> i think she has an opportunity to remind america that donald trump didn't stand up to putin. he wants to capitulate to putin.

donald trump didn't stand up to kim jong-un. they had a love affair through letters while he was president. she has an opportunity to say, hey, we know he's not going to stand up to the bad guys in the world, because i can and i will because i believe in the national security of our country, that we stay with the good guys in the world, our allies, and not the bad guys. >> claire mccaskill, we'll all be watching together, thank you so much. eugene daniels, thanks to you. >> and be sure to stay with msnbc all day, starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern. rachel maddow and team lead special coverage and analysis of vice president harris and former president trump's first and maybe only presidential debate hosted by abc news, starting tonight, 7:00 p.m. eastern, here on msnbc. and still to come, new polling numbers about those really important moderate voters, how can vice president harris win them over tonight? more special coverage of the presidential debate live from philadelphia after the break, just 90 seconds from now. after just 90 seconds from now

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get your business out there and get more customers in here. no sweat... for you anyway. create a beautiful website in minutes with godaddy. when you smell the amazing scent of gain flings... time stops. (♪♪) and you realize you're in love... steve? with a laundry detergent. (♪♪) gain flings. seriously good scent. new polling shows that kamala harris may have work to do tonight to win over a crucial voting bloc that could swing this election. moderate voters. the npr marest national poll showed 47% of americans think she's too liberal, compared to 43% who say donald trump is too conservative. >> as the chief strategist for george w. bush's successful 2004 re-election campaign matthew dowd points out in an msnbc

op-ed, this race is going to come down to a few thousand moderate voters spread across seven states. he'll join us in a few minutes. let's start with nbc's shaquille brewster reporting live from battleground, michigan, in kent county, where democrats have been increasing gains in a republican area during the trump years. hey, shaq. what are they telling you? >> reporter: well, andrea, throughout the conversations i've been having this morning at this farmer's market, i've been hearing and noticing a pattern from folks and what they're expecting from the candidates. for vice president harris, even among those who say they're likely to vote for her, you have a lot of people saying they want to hear more from her. they want to know what is she going to emphasize tonight. they want her to lay out a few more of the policies and ideas she's proposed in the past month or so on the campaign trail. meanwhile, for donald trump, you have among his strongest supporters a lot of people saying i want him to behave. one person saying i don't want him to be as bombastic as he

normally is. but then said trump is trump. i want you to listen to a few of the conversations i've been having. >> i just really hope he maintains his composure and doesn't start belittling her or taking any jabs at her as far as gender or anything like that and just sticks and stays strong through the policies. >> i want to hear a strong performance from kamala harris and show that she is the best candidate for president. >> i think it is make or break this debate. >> i lie somewhere i feel like in the middle, you know. i feel like i know what i heard from trump and i think that that is -- i know that, you know, that isn't the way that i would lean. >> one person explained it to me like this, she's been hearing so much noise since vice president harris got the nomination, she is kind of overwhelmed with the flood of information on both sides. and this is almost an opportunity to cut through the television ads, to cut through what you see on social media,

and hear from the vice president herself and that certainly seems to be an opportunity for the vice president that she'll have on that debate stage tonight, guys. >> and an opportunity for you to buy some great looking produce. shaquille brewster, as reporting -- thank you so much. okay. as just quoted, matthew dowd is here. also joining us, craig snyder, director of haley voters for harris. quantify the importance as you see it of reaching the moderate voters tonight. >> well, if you take a look at that re-election since 2000, they have been decided by an average of about 3 percentage points and that's what we have right now in this election. it is going to be decided by three or four percentage points. donald trump is locked in at 46, 47%. the vice president is locked in, and at least 46 or 47, some polls have her at 50. you can see that this electorate

is going to make or break this election is that 4, 5, 6, 7% of the people that are either soft donald trump supporters or soft vice president harris supporters or cided, and it is only a few thousand people. but people forget that in 2020, if 24,000 votes had shifted in three states, donald trump would have been re-elected. 24 24,000 votes. that, to me, is the ball game and i think that vice president harris' campaign understands that. i think she because of the dynamics of the race has more to gain than he does. i think the opinions of her are more in flux. the opinions of him are pretty solid. >> let's talk about the nikki haley voters. nikki haley isn't, by example, saying she'll vote for kamala harris. why would they vote for kamala harris? what is the appeal? >> i think that nikki haley

voters, particularly the million in the swing states who voted for her after she was no long are a candidate, they respect her point of view and think she is entitled to her opinion, but it is not going to decide their vote. these are folks who went out to cast a very strong message against donald trump. and that makes them at least open to voting for the vice president. the question becomes can they get that last mile and i think tonight will go a long way toward proving that. i think matthew's exactly right that it comes down to these moderate swing voters in the swing states, and if she can close the deal, then she can get over the top. >> what is more important to show that she's tough, she can be commander in chief, or to focus on the economy, which certainly has been joe biden's achilles heel, no matter how good it gets with inflation coming down, people are not feeling it. >> i think the economy is definitely number one. yes, there is a question in the minds of some folks about her

ability to go toe to toe with foreign dictators. i would tell them to look at margaret thatcher and nadiria gandhi and golda meyer. so, i think the real issue is the economy and i think she needs to tell these voters she is not what she's going to be painted as, what she is being painted as, as a radical leftist. she needs a real explanation of changes in policy since 2019 and why she's the right person for the center because the center is going to decide this thing. >> changes in policy, matthew, are interesting. harris had said that although some of her policy positions have changed, specifically she was asked a lot about fracking, she claims her values haven't changed in that cnn interview and now senator joe manchin had advice for her. he told "the wall street

journal" that she should take an all of the above policy, that touts multiple sources of energy, despite objects from climate change activists, it is a policy that obama leaned into. i wonder what you think about voters and how they view candidates changing their mind. the often side often presents it as a negative, as if they don't know their mind, you can't depend on what they say, but do you think that in some situations fracking being one example of it she can say not that, you know, my values haven't changed, but here's why i changed my position, here's why this is better now in this environment? >> well, i mean, voters expect politicians to be politicians which is that they're going to adjust their positions as the -- as the mood of the electorate to a degree changes theirs. people forget that hillary clinton and barack obama are opposed to gay marriage before they weren't opposed to gay marriage and then became in

support of gay marriage because the public sort of informs them along the way. i think the public expects that. i think her answer was very on tact because voters are -- voters don't necessarily make decisions based on specific issue parameters. they make decisions on broader values, does this person strong enough to be commander in is this person empathetic and compassionate, does this person understand what i'm going through in my life on the economy, is this person's plans in a way connected to my own life in a way that they understand that. and as long as the voters feel that, politicians and people like the vice president can adjust their positions accordingly as the voters sort of adjust theirs as they view the world in this sort of way, how it vastly changes in the 21st century. i don't think it is a problem at all that she's adjusted her positions. as long as she expresses a values connection that she connects well with these voters.

>> thanks to both of you. and coming up, how vice president harris is setting the tone against trump, launching a new ad on one of his favorite topics, ahead of tonight. you're watching special coverage of the presidential debate. we are live from philadelphia. de we are live from philadelphia. g business internet. employees get the information they need instantly. this is how business goes further with t-mobile for business. i'm not a doctor. i'm not even in a doctor's office. i'm standing on the streets talking to real people about their heart. how's your heart? my heart's pretty good. —you sure? —i think so. how do you know? you're driving a car, you have the check engine light. but the heart doesn't have a hey, check heart sign. i want to show you something. put both fingers right on those pads.

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tonight's historic head to head matchup. and using a very popular democrat to do it. >> here's a 78-year-old billionaire, who has not stopped whining about his problem. >> oh, she had a big crowd, oh, the crowd. >> this weird obsession with crowd sizes. it goes on and on and on. america's ready for a new chapter! >> it's the rare kind of ad that has political playbook points out, quote, is being microtargeted to an audience of one, running nationally on fox news, and locally in palm beach, florida. i want to bring in senior adviser for the harris/walz campaign, ian sams. i want to ask you about that ad, why that on debate day, and also how is kamala harris doing? >> well, the former president is notoriously thin skinned.

and so when you're on a day like today, where the vice president who is ready to take him on head to head on stage, you know, you kind of want to get in his head a little bit. and i think it tells a larger point. president trump is only about himself. he only talks about himself, he only talks about his own perceived slights and enemies, only talks about who he wants to enact revenge on, he's obsessed with himself, he's obsessed with his crowd sizes and he doesn't know how to talk about real issues that people care about. i think part of what we're doing is reminding the country that that is who donald trump is, you know, we announced earlier today some of trump's old friend anthony scaramucci will be here in a couple of hours talking about this, about how donald trump is only out for himself and not the country. i think that's a contrast that we'll see from the vice president on stage tonight, she's going to be talking about her actual agenda to try to help people on the issues that matter most, high costs, bringing those down, protecting people's freedoms including reproductive freedom. those are the things she's focusing on and emphasizing on stage.

we'll see what president trump does. he's already on truth social tweeting about my colleague michael tyler being on fox news and how upset he is. i think some of this is maybe getting under his skin a little bit. >> you've already called the debate rules, which were already set, disappointing. in particular the muted microphones. so how are you suggesting a strategy to deal with that? >> i think it should surprise nobody who remembers senator kamala harris on the judiciary committee dais questioning brett kavanaugh and bill barr and jeff sessions to the point where he said, whoa, whoa, whoa, you make me nervous. this is someone who wants to be able to prosecute the political case against donald trump and unfortunately, with the microphones muted, she won't be able to question him directly and jump in when he's lying or making misstatements about his own history and record. or about her history and record. instead, we'll have two minutes and two minutes of kind of structured time where they get to speak. she is ready for it, though. she's been prepared to be able to use those two minutes to really speak to the country

about her agenda to lower people's costs and help their lives. but obviously that dynamic prevents a true debate, it prevents them from engaging each other in exchanges which unfortunately i think will give a little limitations on her ability to prosecute the case against him as strongly as they could. >> didn't they once in the first debate with joe biden leave both mics open. is that a possibility? is there any thought that for some specific exchange there might be two open mics? >> that will be up to abc to make that decision. that did happen at least once in the debate between president biden and former president trump. so, you know if there is a moment where maybe they are engaging each other directly and abc makes that decision, that will be up to abc. unfortunately it is not in the rules, but, you know, moderators have a lot of discretion in a debate like this. you have moderated debates and know how that goes. >> to that point, fact checking, the moderators did not fact check in the cnn debate. abc says that in some instances they will. you don't want to go down a rabbit hole and spend all your time following up on things.

will kamala harris use her time to fact check him? >> well, as the vice president said in pittsburgh the other day, he lies a lot. so, it is going to be very hard to keep up with how many lies he tells and i agree with you, you know, david muir and lindsey davis can't waste their whole time spending five minutes trying to debunk every single lie he says. i think what the vice president will do will be ready to call him out when he says something that is false or misleading so the american people who are tuning in understand that he's lying on stage. but she is also going to really focus her time on sharing with the american people who she is. a lot of people maybe still getting to know her. >> the polling shows that so many people say they don't know who she is. >> people may not know she was a prosecutor in california, for almost two decades, became the attorney general who took on gangs trafficking drugs and humans across the border, took on big banks, got $20 billion during the homeowner crisis. >> they want to know her policies. >> absolutely. i think her story, who she grow

in a middle class family with a working mom, that guides how she views policy, when she talks about taking on corporate gouging, she saw companies ripping people off and she took them on. i think you'll see her talk about that on the debate stage tonight, to help the american people get to know her a little bit better. >> we heard a lot about her preparation, doesn't surprise anybody we had someone on earlier in the day who worked with her in the prosecutor's office, saying that's who she is, she prepares. tell us about her mindset, her approach tonight. does she have any little thing she wants to do before she goes out to do the debate? >> you know, i'm sure she's getting ready and listening to pump up music, we'll see if that's the case. but she does like to prepare, she takes this very seriously. i think that with donald trump, you know this is a guy who doesn't necessarily take it all very seriously. for him it is all about himself, tv show personality. she takes this seriously, there is high stakes for the country and the american people. when she's preparing, she wants to make sure that when she gets

up there under the bright lights tonight, she knows the facts, she's able to communicate her vision to the country most effectively in a two-minute window and that's the kind of focus that she is bringing to her debate prep and what she's been focusing on over the last few days is how to make sure she's maximizing her opportunity on the stage tonight, to introduce herself to so many people getting to know her and to communicate her vision, separate and distinct from her role as vice president, but what she would do as president what she would prioritize. that's what she's talking about tonight. >> great of you to stop by. thank you so much. good luck tonight. we have got a lot more ahead. we're in pennsylvania, and voters are focused ahead of tonight's debate on issues that could turn this election. we'll be speaking with two mayors from this swing state about what their constituents are telling them, next. you're watching special coverage of the presidential debate. you're watching special coverage of the presidential debate subway did what?! any sub? yup! for a limited time. get 20% off when you order in app. hurry and get this deal before it's gone! - i got the cabin for three days. it's gonna be sweet!

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so, local headlines from here in philly, to pittsburgh's north shore drive, to the lehigh valley today are filled with one statement that is not up for debate tonight. pennsylvania is crucial in the 2024 race. and voters in this state know they have the power to significantly impact the presidential election in november. and no one knows how to effectively reach those voters better than the folks on the ground. so, joining us, two pennsylvania mayors. >> mayor matt turk, the mayor of allentown and ed gainey, the mayor of pittsburgh.

mayor turk, you both represent democratic areas. can you offset what is going to happen in parts not pittsburgh necessarily, but parts of western p.a. and central p.a., harrisburg. >> and eastern pavement. allentown is the third largest city in the commonwealth in the heart of eastern pennsylvania. third largest metropolitan area. it is a big area. it's defined by the city of allentown, majority latino city. we have this surrounding area that makes up the lehigh valley that is -- we're hoping we'll be able to offset things in allentown and bethlehem and easton. >> let me ask you about the lehigh valley. it is your city, right, it is bethlehem, easton, right, and there has been some post industrial growth there. the cities have done well. but in talking to a lot of other democrats who are looking at how they're formulating the harris campaign, they are going into rural municipalities, i think 60

in the lehigh valley, places where often democrats are never seen, never necessarily welcomed, how important do you think that could be when you're looking at those kinds of margins, both on your side, but also on donald trump, trying to maintain what he's gotten in the past? >> i want to distinguish between those rural areas, 62 municipalities across the two counties, rural areas have their share of republican voters, but they're very distinct from the maga voters that we see. in other parts of the country. you had charlie dent on earlier, i think, charlie dent was our congressman from the allentown area and from pennsylvania, i can't remember the name of the district at the time, charlie dent is a different kind of republican, lehigh republicans are a different kind of voter. they don't go for the authoritarian project 2025 stuff. >> so for lack of a better term, are they ripe for the picking for kamala harris? >> i think they're absolutely. the lehigh valley voters care

about the basics of economic opportunity for children, they care about women's rights, we elected susan wild to the congress. >> a breakthrough. >> absolutely. she broke through and it was those republicans in places in those parts of lehigh northampton county, they care about the basics. and trump is a violation of those basics and i think that kamala harris is going to be somebody that will resonate with those voters, and not just in allentown, but across the lehigh valley. >> and mayor gainey, the pittsburgh post gazette rights tonight will trust the strategy of painting harris as a communist who would ruin pennsylvania, an approach that has earned a lot of votes in the past, fired up the crowds, packed houses in luzerne and cambria and harrisburg which went blue in 2020. does that strategy have wings among pennsylvania voters? how does harris --

>> one, thank you for having me and hello to matt over there on the eastern part of the state. good to see you. i don't believe that it will. i believe this comes down to two different candidates, contrasts that everybody understands. one is built on hope and one is built on fear. the reality is we know right now vice president harris believes in the things that we hold dear to our values, like protecting our voting rights, fighting for reproductive justice and making sure that renewable energy is a thing we do to ensure our energy is clean. and also making sure that we have gun control. compared to the contrast of someone that leads by fear, and leads by anger. and we know that anger is one letter removed from danger. the last time we put danger in the white house, we know exactly what happened with the insurrection, and people being injured and fatally wounded. so at the end of the day, i think this was a great sense for vice president harris to talk about her economic agenda, and talk about just what she wants to do to bring hope to the commonwealth. >> mayor gainey, there is a growing expectation this could

be one of the, if not the most watched presidential debates, and i wonder from your perspective, in pennsylvania, somebody who knows this state, how many persuadable voters, truly persuadable, undecided voters are out there? >> i don't know the exact percentage. what i do know is you have some out there. that's why tonight's debate is so important. it will be an opportunity for vice president harris to be able to reach them and be able to put some of their concerns to rest and demonstrate why she is the most competent leader, one that doesn't want separation, but wants unification so we can move this country forward. that's what she brings to the table. she's a common sense type of a leader that demonstrates her ability to move things forward. tonight, you will see that. you will see her calm. you will see her consistent. you will see her deposit the type of hope that gives people the belief that we are a country that is on the right path. >> mayor gainey from pittsburgh, allentown mayor turek, thank you

so much. and coming up, what people on the ground here in philadelphia are doing to try to take advantage of tonight's debate from door knocking plans to fund-raising goals. don't go anywhere. more special coverage of the presidential debate from philadelphia next. debate from philadelphia next. so i enrolled in umgc. i would not be the person that i am today had it not been for the partnership with umgc. lawmakers are trying to shut down planned parenthood. the health care of more than 2 million people is at stake. our right to basic reproductive health care is being stolen from us. planned parenthood believes everyone deserves health care. it's a human right. future generations are beginning to lose the rights we fought for. the rights for ourselves,

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governor walz, and his daughter, hope, are making nice with folks at a coffee and waffle shop, which sounds pretty good right now, although my sandwich today, philly cheesesteak, was the size of a house, was very good. but he's doing some gladhanding, campaigning. he had a reception earlier today and he is going to be talking to folks there, introducing his daughter, who i'm guessing is going to be called into taking a lot of pictures. >> they really have adjusted so well to this whole new world. on the national stage, the whole family, gwen, who is a teacher, they've never done anything like this. >> yeah, he's governor, but a whole different ball game when you're running for president. we're keeping an eye on his movements today. we've talked about what it's like to prepare a candidate for a moment as big as tonight's debate, but what is it like to be one of the people who has to then take what happens and try to capitalize on it for the

campaign. >> or fix the mistakes. >> to use the debate performance to hit the ground running, they go door-to-door, get the vote out, fundraise, major money with 56 days to go. remember, this is the shortest national campaign ever -- >> in american history. we have the perfect person to answer these questions. former hillary clinton campaign manager, robby mook. >> who knows better than anyone what it's like to run a campaign after a crucial debate night. are there butterflies in your stomach, robby? what are you watching for? >> not as many butterflies as i've had in the past, fortunately. debates are always exciting and unpredictable. but i feel good about tonight. kamala harris did an outstanding job in her vice presidential debate four years ago. i don't see any reason why she won't do an even better job tonight. but i think the critical challenge for any candidate debating donald trump, and this was absolutely our challenge in

2016, you can do a good job according to the pundits and the press and so on, but will what you said -- will the case you tried to make actually break through to the voters? and i think that's really the challenge for biden tonight. where this is unique for her, i believe, is she still has a lot of work to do to persuade voters. she remains, to some extent, unknown to a lot of people. that's the downside of getting in late. i think there are a lot of upsides. so i'll take it. but this is an important opportunity for her to define new inside she has for the economy. the contrast with donald trump on standing up for the middle class, on a woman's right to choose. but that might be hard to break through to audiences, if donald trump is up to his usual antics, which are going to be, for lack of a better term, interesting in the postmortem.

>> and just on that point, the npr/pbs news/marist poll we've been talking about today says after a month with more than $100 million spent in advertising, trying to define harris, the electorate is split, 47% have a positive view, 46% have a negative one. so it's a better popularity, favorability than joe biden had, but they're still divided. they don't know who she is. >> yeah, a better one than donald trump. and we saw this in the recent "new york times" poll that showed about a third of the electorates were really interested to learn more. and it also -- you were talking about the tv spending, it just points to the brighter the spotlight in any campaign, the more it's talked about, the more it's out there, the harder it is for the paid advertising to break through. people are really looking to things like a debate or reporting or interviews or what they see as more objective

information about the candidates. that's why i think this is a really huge opportunity for harris, but she's got to find a way to push past donald trump's antics, and particularly in today's world, where a lot of the voters that are most movable in this race, there are voters out there that are still movable, they're getting their news more and more from, you know, tiktok, instagram, social media, generally. and so creating those viral moments that supporters can share, that the media can share a clip and move around on social media. that's more important than it's ever been before in terms of really pushing that message out. >> robby mook, it's always great to have you on this show. thank you so much. i want to thank andrea mitchell for joining me this hour. it's been fun. still ahead, i'll speak with former chief of staff for mike pence, marc short, to get his take on what trump's team is looking to accomplish tonight. and a reminder, starting at 7:00

p.m. eastern, rachel maddow and team lead analysis of vice president harris and former president trump's first presidential debate hosted by abc news. stay tuned. we've got a lot more from philadelphia after a break. lot philadelphia after a break [♪♪] did you know, how you feel can be affected by the bacteria in your gut? try new align yogurt coated probiotic fruit bites. with a delicious apple and blueberry-flavored fruit center and yogurt coating, each bite is infused with added probiotics, to help promote a healthy digestive system every day. plus, they're packaged in individually-wrapped pouches, for daily digestive support on the go. look for new align yogurt coated probiotic fruit bites

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