Harris, Trump seek to dominate news coverage with a zinger of a debate to 'target undecided voters'
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00:00Next up, we are just a short while away from the first and possibly the only
00:04presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. With the two
00:08neck-and-neck in polls for the 5th of November vote, the stakes are as high as
00:12they can be. More than two-thirds of American adults are expected
00:17to tune in. They'll be watching eagerly for any slip-ups or one-liners. Trump, of
00:22course, is the most experienced presidential debater around these days.
00:25This is his seventh since 2016. We all know exactly who the former president is,
00:31but many say they still don't know enough about Harris or her policies.
00:36One issue short to come up is the economy. One in ten Americans are living below
00:40the poverty line. Rents are rising and mortgage rates are high. France24's
00:45Eliza Herbert takes a look at how the policies compare.
00:50They have both promised to improve the lives of American people and yet their
00:55plans of how to do so look extremely different. At the heart of Kamala Harris's
01:00agenda is supporting the middle class. Some first-time homebuyers would get a
01:04helping hand with $25,000 in down payment support. She also plans to give
01:09up to $6,000 for families with infants by expanding the child tax credit and to
01:14impose taxes on the rich and raise the corporate tax from 21% to 28%.
01:20Now compare that to what Donald Trump plans. He plans to give billionaires
01:27massive tax cuts and to cut corporate taxes by over a trillion dollars even as
01:33they pull in record profits. And this is a big point where the two candidates
01:38differ. At the heart of Donald Trump's agenda is tax. He plans to extend his
01:432017 tax cuts that are set to expire next year, cut the corporate tax rate
01:49from 21% to 15%, impose 10 to 20% tariffs on all imports and 60% tariffs
01:56on all Chinese imports. And in a recent twist he has also said he would bring in
02:01billionaire Elon Musk to run a government efficiency commission tasked
02:05with a financial and performance audit. As the first order of business this
02:09commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and
02:13improper payments within six months. This will save trillions of dollars.
02:18Trillions. Trillions he could desperately need. According to analyses by the
02:23Penn-Wharton budget model, while Harris's plans would lead to a public deficit of
02:281.2 trillion dollars over 10 years, Trump's would be a whopping 5.8 trillion.
02:33Though that doesn't include his latest promised spending cuts.
02:39Let's take a look at each candidate's economic policies. Well let's talk more about the
02:44presidential debate now with Professor Todd Belt, director of the political
02:48management program at George Washington University. Professor, great to have you
02:52along with us tonight. What do you think each candidate is hoping to achieve
02:57ideally tonight?
02:58Well thanks for having me on, it's great to be with you.
03:02Donald Trump of course is Donald Trump and he wanted a few more debates
03:07actually and the Harris campaign wanted to put some rules on them that he didn't
03:12like but for instance he's slagging in the polls a little bit. He's starting to
03:17make a comeback but this race is pretty dead even. What he wants to do
03:23is win another term and to do that he wants to show that his opponent is not
03:27up to the job, Kamala Harris. So he's definitely going to be on the attack and
03:31he's going to try to remind Americans how much better everything was during
03:36his term. On the other hand we have Kamala Harris who of course was vice
03:40president but still really hasn't been introduced to America. She needs to
03:43define who she is but more importantly what would America under her presidency
03:49look like? That's one of the things that's been pretty light so far. Your reporter
03:53just talked about these economic policies that we're finally getting some
03:56detail on. I'm hoping we'll hear more about that but it's going to be just one
04:00debate and a lot crammed into it.
04:03It's often said that debates don't change people's minds but as we saw in
04:06the first debate with Joe Biden this is certainly no ordinary campaign. Do you
04:10think tonight could help undecided voters make up their minds?
04:14Yes it does so but in a way that's not direct. Interestingly most of the people
04:20who tune in have already decided and they want to see how their candidate is
04:24going to do. For the undecided voters they usually get their information about
04:29the debate in the subsequent days and this is why we see the candidates really
04:34trying to get that zinger or some sort of memorable statement that will be
04:38replayed in the subsequent days that can have a longer effect and really
04:43targeting effect on those undecided voters.
04:46All eyes of course will be on those
04:49potential zingers, any slip-ups or any one-liners that come out of the
04:53debate tonight. We'll be following all of the action between the two
04:57candidates tonight here on France 24 ABC News presidential debate live and
05:02for beginning just before 3 a.m. Paris time. Thank you very much to Todd Belt
05:06director of the political management program at George Washington University
05:11for joining us.