Just ahead of the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, a new poll shows a neck-and-neck race between the two candidates.
Veteran journalist and political analyst John Heilemann told Charles Feldman and Margaret Carrero on Countdown 2024, KNX News’ daily election show, that Tuesday’s debate could be critical for Harris, whom many voters are still unfamiliar with.
Listen to the full episode here:
“Because Kamala Harris is as undefined as she is, and because many people, according to those polls, still think despite her moving to the middle that she's too liberal, or because they just don't know enough about her, her upside in this debate is huge and her downside is also huge,” Heilemann said. “She is not a known quantity. She could change the game tomorrow night, and she could change it in either direction for her.”
Heilemann said there’s less on the line for Trump, given that he’s “the most known quantity in American politics.” He also said that a big reason why the race is so close is because many people who don’t like Trump also aren’t big fans of President Joe Biden’s economic policies, particularly around inflation.
“I would say this is one of the failings of Joe Biden was to never kind of take that issue on and to try to pretend like it wasn't as bad as it was, or to try to talk about the accomplishments without saying, hey, I get it. The price of eggs is too high. The price of gas is too high,” he said. “And so one of the questions for Kamala Harris is, does she own that or not? Can she persuade people that that was Joe Biden's economy, not my economy?”
Does Harris even have time to get the message out? Heilemann said it’s hard to say.
“Again, we go back to, there's no precedent for this,” he said. “We've never in our lifetimes – and I would say in anybody's lifetime – had a nominee who came in as late as she did.”
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KNX News will carry ABC’s presidential debate live at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Tune in on 97.1 FM or on the Audacy app.
Listen to the full episode of Countdown 2024 above to hear more analysis from Molly Ball, Wall Street Journal senior political correspondent and host of the new podcast “Red, White … and WHO?”
Catch new episodes of Countdown 2024 live at 2:30 p.m. every weekday through Election Day.
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