The On the Move panel discuss what to expect during tomorrow nights debate.

Video Transcript

- Rick Newman, I know you have been anticipating this for months. What are you expecting? How do you think this plays out? I mean, it's such an unusual election season because we just haven't seen them go toe to toe because most of it has been really remote.

RICK NEWMAN: I can't wait for the debates. I watched almost all of the Democratic debates, and they were difficult to get through. I think this is going to be way more interesting. It's just two candidates, obviously, mano a mano. Everybody wants to know how hard is Trump going to attack and how hard is Joe Biden going to push back.

So people should know that the-- there actually are fixed topics for this debate. The moderator, Chris Wallace, has already set those. They are-- I'm just going to read these-- the Trump and Biden records, which I guess could mean almost anything, the Supreme Court, that's obviously a big deal, COVID-19 obviously a big deal, the economy obviously a big deal in a recession, race and violence in our cities, and then the integrity of the election. So plenty of topics there to provide some fireworks, which I think we're going to see.

A lot of analysts say, you know, Joe Biden, this is basically his race to lose, and it's also his debate to lose. By basically saying that Biden is a senile old socialist, Trump has set a very low bar for Joe Biden. All he needs to do is seem competent and look like he can finish a sentence, and he'll be fine. I think it's a little more important than that. I think, for as well-known as Joe Biden is, I think people really don't know what he would do as president, just how liberal is he. And it's Biden's chance to make that case.

- And responding to what Rick had just laid out there, I think that this debate actually presents a lot more headline risk than anything else. It seems interesting that the topics that have been fixed for this particular debate are things that likely might not matter as much after the election. We won't be hearing probably a lot of policy things on things like health care or immigration or economic policies, regardless of who's ever going to win this election.

I think that things like the Supreme Court vacancy, with Amy Coney Barrett facing nomination now, in addition to the Trump tax returns and the integrity of the election, three things that arguably could be closed up by the time the next president is installed in January of next year. I think that those will likely be things that take up air in this particular debate, which might leave more of those substantive policy decisions over the next four years for maybe another later debate. So something definitely worth watching as we do kind of see the amount of headlines file in here. Who knows what could even happen before the debate kicks off tomorrow night, but it definitely does seem like those things will be taking up a lot of air in that debate.

RICK NEWMAN: You know, we Leigh Carter on at the top of the hour, and she said, what are there, only-- something like only like 8% of voters haven't made up their mind yet. It could be even smaller than that. It could be 5%. But that's a big swing. I mean, you know, that is more than the likely margin in some of the swing states that could determine this election. So some analysts say debates really don't matter. If you go back in history, they have not really changed the nature of the campaign. But I'm not so sure about that when it's likely to be as close as it is in states like Pennsylvania and Florida. I mean, if this can swing 1% of the vote to one side or the other, that could be important.