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.

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