Doug Sosnik on Harris v. Trump: After the Convention and Before the Debate

Conversations with Bill Kristol

News, Society & Culture, Government, Politics

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2024

⏱️ 79 minutes

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Summary

Where do things stand in the race after the Democratic convention and before the presidential debate? When veteran political strategist Doug Sosnik joined us the day after Biden’s withdrawal from the race he explained why the next month could be decisive in the fight to define Harris. Reflecting on the first five weeks of the campaign, Sosnik argues that she has been successful: “so far Harris is winning the battle about the campaign being about change, and she is the change candidate—making the campaign about the future and not about the past.” However, he cautions that the race remains very close. As he puts it: “Harris is still running behind the Biden-Harris numbers in 2020, and measurably behind. So, she does have more ground she’s going to need to gain.” Sosnik shares his in-depth analysis of what the campaigns might do going forward, why the upcoming debate may be the most consequential in contemporary history, and the current dynamics in battleground states where the race will be decided.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Bill Crystal.
0:01.0	Hi, I'm Bill Crystal. Welcome back to Conversations. I'm very pleased to be joined again by Doug
0:17.9	Sosnick. This is our fourth conversation actually in a little over a year I think, but
0:22.2	they've all they all stand up well I went back and looked at them and I think have been elucidating for me and I trust for our viewers and listeners so thank you Doug for for joining me again.
0:32.0	Thank you Bill for having it.
0:34.0	I think it's four conversations and three different campaigns.
0:37.0	Isn't that it?
0:38.0	Well, okay, let's talk about that.
0:39.0	That's amazing.
0:40.0	So we spoke, and this was scheduled before Biden dropped out.
0:42.0	We spoke the day after President Biden And this was scheduled before Biden dropped out.
0:42.6	We spoke the day after President Biden stepped aside on,
0:46.5	so we spoke Monday, July 22nd, which is exactly,
0:49.4	it's now what, Tuesday, August 27th,
0:51.3	so five weeks ago.
0:53.3	And talk about the three campaigns,
0:55.8	but we also talk about you said,
0:57.2	I mean you stressed that conversation,
0:58.5	I found that very useful and a lot of other people did too.
1:02.2	How important the first four weeks or four weeks
1:04.9	plus the convention were going to be in terms of Harris launching, defining herself,
1:09.8	could the Trump people define her negatively, where would we end up after five weeks, which is now?
	...

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