• Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to square off tonight in their first — and so far only — scheduled debate before the election. The stakes are immense, especially for Harris, who entered the race less than two months ago. Many voters still say they need to know more about her before they cast their ballots. Errin Haines, editor-at-large for The 19th, explains what Harris needs to say tonight to win the debate and win over voters still on the fence.
• And in headlines: Trump threatened to jail anyone who he believes is involved in cheating in the 2024 election, the commissioner of the New York Police Department is stepping down, and R.I.P. James Earl Jones.

Show Notes:

• Check out Erin’s work – https://19thnews.org/author/errin-haines/
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast

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TRANSCRIPT

Josie Duffy Rice: It is Tuesday, September 10th. 

Jane Coaston: I’m Jane Coaston. 

Josie Duffy Rice: And I’m Josie Duffy Rice. 

Jane Coaston: And this is What a Day, the show in which we ask critical questions like why is the debate starting at 9 p.m. eastern? Also I have a very smart idea. Why don’t they duel with swords? I think that would be more fun. 

Josie Duffy Rice: They should do like medieval times. 

Jane Coaston: Joust on horses?

Josie Duffy Rice: It’s a joust. 

Jane Coaston: Yes. 

Josie Duffy Rice: On horses. 

Jane Coaston: Absolutely. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Donald Trump could be the world’s oldest jouster. 

Jane Coaston: I am almost certain that he would be the world’s oldest jouster. I don’t even need to look that up. [music break]

Josie Duffy Rice: On today’s show, we say goodbye to a cinematic icon. Plus, we’re wondering just how many employees of the mayor of New York are under investigation. Because honestly, I have truly lost count. I have no idea. But first, Jane, I’m so, so glad to be here with you. 

Jane Coaston: I’m so glad to be here with you. Thank you so much. 

Josie Duffy Rice: It’s okay that you’re a Michigan fan. We’ll deal with it. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, it’s more than okay that I’m a Michigan fan. It is among the many qualities about me that make me so great. But–

Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah yeah. Mm hmm. 

Jane Coaston: Let’s talk about this debate. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Let’s. 

Jane Coaston: Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are preparing to square off tonight in their first and so far only scheduled debate before the election. Before we get into it, let’s talk details. Harris and Trump will debate for 90 minutes tonight in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center. It will be hosted by ABC News. There will not be a studio audience. They will not be jousting, sadly. 

Josie Duffy Rice: I know we keep saying it, but the stakes are just massive for lots of reasons, especially for Harris. Right? Because for one, we are somehow fewer than 60 days out from the election, which feels wild. Two, need we remind you what an immense disaster the last debate was? Have you blocked it out? I kind of blocked it out. 

Jane Coaston: I have no memory of that debate. 

Josie Duffy Rice: No. 

Jane Coaston: It’s going on the list of things I just refuse to remember. 

[clip of President Joe Biden] My handicap, which when I was vice president, down to a six. And by the way, I told you before, I’m happy to play golf. If you carry your own bag. Think you can do it? 

[clip of Donald Trump] That’s the biggest lie that he was a six handicap, of all. 

[clip of President Joe Biden] I was a eight handicap. 

[clip of Donald Trump] Yeah. 

[clip of President Joe Biden] Eight. 

[clip of Donald Trump] Never. 

[clip of President Joe Biden] But I have you know how many [indistinct mumbling].

[clip of Donald Trump] I’ve seen you swing. I know you swing. [indistinct banter] Let’s not act like children.

[clip of unnamed interviewer] President Trump. We’re going to turn– 

[clip of Donald Trump] Let’s not act like children. 

Josie Duffy Rice: I had completely forgotten just how crazy that was. 

Jane Coaston: That’s like talent show level unpleasant. Ugh.

Josie Duffy Rice: It’s like senior home talent show. That’s exactly what that was. 

Jane Coaston: Ugh. 

Josie Duffy Rice: And you know, it’s bad when Trump is the one saying, let’s not act like children. That is like never, ever a good sign. 

Jane Coaston: Nope. 

Josie Duffy Rice: You may remember that President Joe Biden is no longer the Democratic nominee because he bombed so hard that night. 

Jane Coaston: Which brings us to our third point. Harris has only been in the race for about a month and a half, which seems crazy because this race has taken years off of my life. And a lot of voters say they still don’t know a lot about her. That was one of the major takeaways from that New York Times Siena poll that came out this week, which showed the race in a statistical dead heat. More than a quarter of respondents said they needed to learn more about her before making up their minds. And she’ll be up against Trump, who is a notoriously difficult person to debate, not because he’s good at it, he is not, but because he slings a lot of insults at his opponent, spouts a lot of lies the whole time. And let’s be honest, the man knows how to make good television for people who are not me. He loves to put on a show and he’ll do whatever he can to try and rattle Harris. So for more about what Harris needs to do tonight to win the debate and win over more voters, I spoke with Errin Haines. She’s the editor at large for the 19th. Here’s our conversation. Errin Haines, welcome to What a Day. 

Errin Haines: Jane, thank you so much for having me. It’s good to be with you. 

Jane Coaston: So set the scene for us. What should we be looking for Kamala Harris to emphasize in tonight’s debate? What policies do you think she’s going to focus on? 

Errin Haines: It’ll be interesting to see if policy takes center stage tonight. I think the moderators are definitely going to try to do that. But I think her main job is to continue to introduce herself to the American people. Right? I mean, we’ve just seen polling that says that a lot of the American people still don’t know who she is. I mean, what a surprise. She’s had all of six weeks to kind of introduce people to her, even though she has been vice president for three and a half years. She’s only been the candidate and not the running mate for about six weeks. So I think she’ll focus a lot on that. I think she will also really try to hammer, again that contrast between herself as prosecutor and former President Donald Trump as somebody who is facing multiple criminal charges. And also, I think she probably will try to highlight, if she does highlight uh policy, she’ll be highlighting Project 2025 and really trying to tie that to the former president and what that means in terms of what his vision is for what he would do as president if he gets to go back to the White House. 

Jane Coaston: Gender is obviously a big story in this race. There’s the obvious history Trump has with literally every woman he has ever encountered. And there’s also a massive gender voting gap between men and women of all races. So how do you think Harris is addressing the gender voting gap and how do you think she should do so moving towards Election Day?

Errin Haines: How and if identity politics kind of plays out on the debate stage will be interesting, right? Kamala Harris, for her part, has really kind of sidestepped issues of race and gender. Certainly has talked about as part of her origin story who she is, she has owned that. She’s not running away from that piece of it. But in terms of kind of like the history of it all, she is really choosing to emphasize what she wants to focus on, which is, you know, her argument that she is the most qualified candidate in this race. Right. Regardless of her race, regardless of her gender. So obviously, a lot of women are very energized by her candidacy. You have a lot of surrogates that are kind of focusing on on her gender and the history of all of this. And so I think she’s kind of letting them do that part of it. But really just trying to say that she is going to be somebody who would be a president for all Americans, uh maybe giving people, regardless of their gender, a way into this candidacy. And I think that that really is what she has been doing headed into Election Day. 

Jane Coaston: Harris has had to perform a delicate balancing act between being a liberal and, for lack of a better turn of phrase, not sounding too liberal. What has that meant for her campaign and what does that mean moving forward? 

Errin Haines: Yeah, I think that’s really kind of where you get her focus on this idea of freedom, right. Which can mean whatever it needs to mean for a voter. That may be why this campaign has been exciting and resonating with so many people, because freedom can mean different things to different people. And it is not, you know, something that was a phrase, you know, just the idea of freedom and rights and democracy that, you know, conservatives have really tried to lay claim on and that she is really trying to reclaim but in a way that is not necessarily so partisan. 

Jane Coaston: You mentioned this a little bit earlier, but voters do keep saying that they need to know more about Kamala Harris. Why do you think Harris remains so undefined for so many voters and what does she need to do to overcome that? 

Errin Haines: I think a big part of that is just the role that she’s had for the last three and a half years. I mean, despite being our first woman vice president, first woman of color vice president, the vice presidency is not a role that the American people traditionally have been very interested in. It is certainly not a role that we as a political press has traditionally covered. And so a lot of what she has been doing, she’s been doing behind the scenes. And so a lot of people haven’t really gotten to know her, have not really seen a lot of what she’s been doing. And I think that that is why she now finds herself in the position, because she was kind of President Biden’s loyal backup number two person. Um. She goes from understudy to, you know, main character. And so now she has an opportunity to introduce herself to people in a way that she really didn’t have when she was not the person that was really supposed to be in the spotlight. That’s not the job of the vice president. 

Jane Coaston: Mm hmm. So let’s cut to tonight after the debate. What are three things you’d want to hear that would make you say Harris won the conversation? 

Errin Haines: If she is able to effectively communicate on the economy, the affordability question in a way that makes the American people feel that she understands the suffering and the struggle that they are facing in this economy, despite how well the economy is doing for so much of the country. But understanding that there are significant parts of the country that are not experiencing that prosperity. Continuing to talk about reproductive rights and what that means as an economic issue, as a freedom issue. If she’s able to articulate that while also pointing out that, you know, former President Trump’s position on abortion remains unclear, if she is able to kind of draw that distinction, I think that that would probably be something that her campaign would certainly classify as a win. And then I think to the extent that she is able to do what I know her campaign certainly wants her to accomplish, which is to really get under President Trump’s skin and kind of show the difference between the two of them and the dynamic, frankly, that I think a lot of us have seen kind of playing out, especially with him on truth social and and the more personal attacks that he has taken against her. Like if that happens in real time, that will not necessarily be a good look for him with a lot of the American people. And that could be considered a victory for vice President Harris as well. 

Jane Coaston: Thank you so much for joining me, Errin. This was a great conversation. 

Errin Haines: So great to be with you. Let’s do it again soon. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Errin Haines, editor at large for the 19th. 

Josie Duffy Rice: We will get to some headlines in a moment. But if you like our show, make sure to subscribe and share with your friends. [music break] 

[AD BREAK] 

Jane Coaston: Now let’s get to some of today’s top stories. [music break]

[clip of Hillary Clinton] It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country. 

[clip of Donald Trump] Because you’d be in jail. 

[clip of unnamed interviewer] Secretary Clinton. 

Jane Coaston: Remember that? I wish I didn’t. But in an on brand yet uniquely unhinged social media rant over the weekend, former President Donald Trump threatened to jail anyone who he believes is involved in cheating in the 2024 el ection. Trump started his Truth Social post by saying in all caps, cease and desist. I guess because he knows that’s a legal term. He also falsely accused Democrats of engaging in, quote, “rampant cheating and skullduggery” in the 2020 election. The list of people who Trump says could face, quote, “long term prison sentences” if he’s reelected include political operatives, donors and corrupt election officials. All of this is, of course, extremely ironic, considering it was Trump himself who asked Georgia secretary of state to, quote, “find 11,780 votes” so he could overturn the election results in 2020, which is literally cheating. The commissioner of the New York Police Department is stepping down following allegations of corruption that have enmeshed both the commissioner, Edward Caban, and his twin brother, James, who runs a firm that offers security to nightclubs in New York. And all of this follows FBI raids on multiple officials with close ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is already dealing with investigations and indictments surrounding his 2021 campaign for mayor. Even The New York Post is mad at Eric Adams for his alleged corruption. And if there’s anything the New York Post is generally okay with, it’s corruption. During a church appearance on Sunday, Adams himself compared the situation to that of the biblical character, Job, who was beset by terrible disasters in order to force him to prove his faith. 

[clip of NYC Mayor Eric Adams] So I have my Job moments, and those Job moments are never going to go away. But I’ve learned to turn on my G.P.S., my God positioning satellite. Sometimes you’ve got to let go and let God. 

Jane Coaston: However, as I recall from Catholic school, Job did not get involved with Turkish straw donors and nightclub security guys. Some Republicans are sounding the alarm about the number of staffers on the ground in critical swing states, according to new reporting from The Guardian. With some GOP officials comparing the effort to that of a midterm election rather than a presidential race. The Harris campaign, which is flush with cash and probably putting a campaign volunteer in your kitchen right now, has more than 350 staffers in Pennsylvania alone. But the Trump campaign has been playing catch up, largely using superPACs to get canvassers and door knockers out to voters while reducing efforts in states like New Hampshire, Minnesota and Virginia. There are a couple of reasons for this. When the Trump campaign took over the Republican National Committee, a ton of people responsible for voter outreach, you know a thing that’s pretty good for campaigns that rely on voters to do, got fired. And Trump decided he really wanted to focus on finding mass voter fraud rather than voter outreach, because as you might know, he’s kind of convinced that’s why he lost in 2020. And finally, James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, winner of two Emmys, a Grammy, an honorary Oscar and two Tony Awards passed away yesterday at the age of 93. 

[clip from Star Wars Episode V] No. I am your father. 

[clip from Disney’s The Lion King] So whenever you feel alone, just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you. And so will I. 

[clip from Coming to America] From this day forth, anyone who throws roses at my son’s feet, will answer to me. 

[clip of James Earl Jones as an Alien on The Simpsons] Here you go earthlings. Take all you want. But eat all you take. 

[clip from Field of Dreams] America has rolled by like an army of steam rollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. 

Jane Coaston: From films like Field of Dreams and Coming to America to appearances on The Simpsons, Jones was one of the best known and best loved actors of his generation, and I’m legally required here to mention that he was a graduate of the University of Michigan, class of 1955. R.I.P. and Go Blue. Josie, there’s something that’s been on my mind. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Tell me. 

Jane Coaston: Semaphor reported that a mysterious group of paid right wing influencers organized on Zoom, aimed to push creepy sexual messages about Kamala Harris online. And even former representative and scandal lover George Santos thought the effort went too far. Saying on X, 24 hours after leaving the call, oh god, make it stop. That is almost exactly how I responded when I read the story Josie.

Josie Duffy Rice: Going after women has just worked so well for the Republican Party for a few years now, so why not just–

Jane Coaston: Famously. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Why not just keep it up? 

Jane Coaston: Really lean into it. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah, lean into it. 

Jane Coaston: What people really want to hear is that uh Kamala Harris is some sort of something that is creepy and sexual. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Right. 

Jane Coaston: You know, especially I would love to hear that from a 78 year old man. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Right. 

Jane Coaston: I always think that’s what I’m looking for out of a president. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah, that’s exactly what I’ve been missing. And I needed more of that. 

Jane Coaston: Not enough of that in my life. [music break] One more thing before we go. As we’ve mentioned, the first ever presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is set for tonight at 6 p.m. Pacific. Assuming someone doesn’t chicken out. Will we see a heated exchange of policy ideas? Or will it be a masterclass in dodging questions? Honestly, your guess is as good as ours. One thing’s for sure, you won’t want to miss it. Join our friends of the Pod Discord community for a subscriber live chat to process your debate feelings and anxieties with fellow Crooked listeners in real time. Head to Crooked .com/friends to sign up for access and other subscriber exclusive content. [music break]

Josie Duffy Rice: That is all for today. If you like the show. Make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Add election results denial to your debate bingo card and tell your friends to listen. 

Jane Coaston: And if you’re into reading and not just rewatching Return of the Jedi like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/Subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston. 

Josie Duffy Rice: I’m Josie Duffy Rice. 

Jane Coaston: Thanks for joining us. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded by Jerik Centeno and mixed by Bill Lancz. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production help today from Ethan Oberman, Tyler Hill, JoHannah Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Collin Gilliard and Kashaka.