It's Nightside with Dan Ray. I'm Debs Boston's news radio.
Thank you very much, Nicoll Dad News in the Red Sox tonight. Boy, I thought they were starting to roll last night. There's still a few winnings left there. May they maybe they could take tunor row from the Birds of Baltimore. We'll see. My name's Dan Ray, host of Nightside, and this is Debate Night in America. They talk about Hockey Night in Canada and Sunday Night football and of course all the great sporting events that all of us
have grown to love over the years. Well those of us who are into politics, this may be the Super Bowl of twenty twenty four. Rob Brooks is back in the control room tonight, and we are diverging from our normal schedule here in the first hour tonight, we're going to open up the phone lines, give you an opportunity to chime in as to what you will be looking for tonight. If you happen to be an undecided voter, with love love to hear from you as to what
you're looking for. If you're a Trump voter, or a Harris voter, or Republican or a Democrat, this is an opportunity for you to call and talk about the strength of your candidate, what your candidate will emphasize, or perhaps the weakness of your candidate's opponent. Either way gives you a chance here before the debate to put a stake in the ground and tell us how you think this
will go. We, then, of course, will carry the debate the ABC News debate ABC News twenty twenty four presidential debate, which, by the way, may be the last presidential debate of this year. For those of you who are debate junkies, this could be it. Both the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign have not committed to any subsequent debates, and I would suggest that if either one of these candidates have a good night tonight, I mean on the level of the night that Donald Trump had in June when
he debated President Joe Biden. Sometimes you have to remember Joe Biden is still president, and he is certainly in the background, but he will be part of this debate tonight. I'm sure there's going to be some references to him, but this could be it. This could be it. In the past, my recollection has been that the National Commission on Presidential Debates has run the program. They have generally designated three universities around the country to post one of
these debates. I was reminded tonight that the one of the two thousand debates between then Governor George Bush and who eventually became President, George Bush forty three and then Senator well then Vice President alb War, former senator from Tennessee, was held at UMass Boston, my alma mater, back in the year two thousand and of course that it's been it's been a variety of schools, but this year, for some reason, and it's a little unclear to me why
the Commission on Presidential Debates has taken a back seat now. I think they were kind of caught by surprise when President Biden, in I think it was late May or early June, challenged Donald Trump to a debate, which president former President Trump accepted, which of course we know was hosted by CNN. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash were the questioners, and we know how that turned out. It basically forced the Democratic Party to look for a different presidential candidate.
We can talk about that some other night. Tonight, what I want to talk about is what are you going to be looking for let me tell you what I'm going to be looking for, and maybe you will agree or disagree. I want to know what questions will be asked, what topics will be covered. This debate is only ninety minutes, and apparently there's no opening statement. There will be closing remarks, and just to set the scene a little bit for you, if you have not heard, President Vice President Harris is
bringing a couple of guests. Now apparely these guests and staff and some political leaders who basically go to the spin room after the debate splits. A spin room, Dan Well, A spin room is where all of the political reporters, whether they're video with camera crews or radio reporters with some form of recorder, or if they're ascribed for the important papers around the country New York Times, Boston Globe,
all the different you know, LA Times, Chicago Tribune. They're in a room and in walks of faelanx of people who are elected officials or officials of either party, and their job is to put as good as spin on the performance of their candidate as they possibly can. So the Republicans, no matter what are going to happen, is going to We'll be telling us Donald Trump had a
terrific night. He showed why he should be reelected, and the Democrats will be doing the same thing, telling all of the assembled media that Vice President Harris had a great night. Now a couple of pieces of information that might be helpful, Uh, the vice president President. Vice President Harris has a couple on her guest list.
Uh.
Donald Trump's former press secretary of ten days, Anthony Scaramucci, the mooch as he's called in New York. He was he campaigned to become the press secretary for the Trump administration, lasted ten days. Uh, and a security official. Not anyone whose name jumps out at me, Olivia, Troy Troye. Maybe it's TROYA. I don't know. There are other Republicans who have endorsed Vice President Harris. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, also known Darth Vader. I cannot imagine the Democrats even
accepting Dick Cheney's endorsement. But that's okay because along with Dick Cheney came Congresswoman Liz Cheney, former National security adviser John Bolton, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper. They will not be in, They will not be in Philadelphia. President as far as I know, but these are some significant Republicans who have who have endorsed the vice president. Vice President Pence didn't realize that the former Joint chiefs of Staff
Belmont Hill's own Mark Milly. He's certainly General Mark Milly. You would expect that. Adam king Zinger, the Republican. Other Republican member of Congress on the January sixth Committee, Stephanie Grissom, who was Milania Trump's press representative, media representative, and the Lieutenant Governor of the Great State of Georgia, a Republican
named Jeff Duncan. Despite all of those endorsements, the polls suggest that anywhere from ninety three to ninety five percent of registered Republicans around the country are sticking with Donald Trump, at least up until now. Under the ABC rules, tonight, no live audience, So this first time, by the way, that former President Trump and the current Vice president have never been in Bill have never met. I guess they've been in the same room maybe for a State of
the Union address. They each get two minutes to answer a question. There's a minute for a robutto I guess there's some opportunity then to follow up each gets two minutes for closing remarks, So now we're down to this ninety minute debate is already down to about eighty six minutes. I don't know how many subjects are going to cover, and the subjects and the questions that are chosen I
think are most important. The questions will be asked by the host of the ABC nightly newscast, David Muir and the weekend host of the I Guess World News Tonight, Lindsey Davis. There will be two commercial break, so there goes a few minutes out of the ninety minutes. No pre written notes, they count bring cheat sheets onto the stage, they compering any props onto the stage. There will be no questions or topics provided to either candidate in advance. Okay,
this is their first meeting. The question I would ask all of you, will or will they not be a handshake. I had predicted there would be a handshake between former President Trump and President Joe Biden June I was dead wrong on that. I hope these two candidates shake hands, maybe not at the beginning, but certainly at the end. If there is no handshake, I will be disappointed, and
I think the country will be disappointed. The debate is being held in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center, certainly historical location. When we get back, I'm going to talk about some of the issues that should be should should be raised by the moderators. I have never moderated a presidential debate of any sort. I have moderated congressional debates. I have moderated a gubernatorial debate in twenty ten between Devell Patrick and Charlie Baker, so I know a little
bit about moderating a debate. Also. Tim Cahill was involved in that, then the state treasurer of Massachusetts who had decided to run as a third party candidate that year. We'll get to all of this. I'd love to hear from you your thoughts pre debate. What are you looking for? What do you expect? Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty, six one seven, nine, three, one tenth thirty or triple eight nine to nine, ten thirty. Let's load them up quickly. I'll get to as many of you
as possible in the nine o'clock hour. We'll be cutting away at about eight fifty eight. We'll have the debate in its entirety right here on WBZ News radio. So if you're listening on the radio, stay with us. If you're in a caros somewhere, stay with us. We'll take you all the way, and then when the debate ends, we will go immediately to your reaction, what you feel is important, and perhaps if there was a moment in
this debate. I think the moment in the d in the debate from June was when President Biden was answering the question kind of the The answer went nowhere, and at some point one of the panelists asked Donald Trump to respond, and he said, I have no idea what he just said, and I don't think he does either. We'll see if there is a moment in time tonight on either side which will live on beyond the debate. Tonight. You have the numbers. My name's Dan Ray. This is
Night Side. I'm excited. I hope you're excited. Back on night Side right after this brief commercial break.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the window World night Side Studios. I'm WBZ, the news radio.
So as we head towards the nine o'clock hour, imagine the butterflies that both of these candidates must be feeling. I mean, they will probably be I'll bet seventy five million people who will watch this tonight. I don't think it will be as many as the Super Bowl, which is generally over one hundred million. But at night, a lot of people have to go to bed to work in the morning, so they'll catch it on the rebound.
They'll catch it on the replay. But if you're interested and want to tell me what you think is going to happen, give me a prediction, give me an idea. Feel free. That's what this show is all about. It's a talk show. You have an opportunity to express yourself and express your point of view literally to tens of thousands of people throughout New England and across the country. Let me go first to Joe in Belmont. Joe, you are first up to. I appreciate your patient. Let's start
it off. Joe, go right ahead.
Dan, like I like to say, you always hear this from me. It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
You have lit a lot of candles, Joe, There's no doubt about that.
But one of the moderateors, I would like to ask Trump a question about his twenty twenty five agenda and his isolation. No, I know it takes a smart man went to be a policeman in the world, and when it doesn't, when it does not take a policeman. And I'm hoping that his isolation policies will stop the New World Data from advancing. Another code word from the New World Daughter is globalization, and I think Trump is against that with his isolation policies. What do you think, Dan.
Well, I'm more interested in your point of view. I don't know if Trump is an isolationist. I think he's a businessman. I think he is more wary of getting involved in directly involved certainly or maybe even indirectly involved in military actions overseas. We'll have to see. I'm hoping that question is asked. It's gonna be interesting, Joe, to see what questions are chosen. I have a list of questions here or subjects that I hope will be covered
during this debate. It will be interesting to see how tough the questions are to each of the candidates, meaning meaning, if if they asked Trump questions about Jane or a sixth, that's going to give him an opportunity to go on and on and on about how unfair the election of twenty twenty was that's a mistake for Trump, because I don't think people want to hear about his complaints about
the election of twenty twenty. So if that question is rolled across the floor to him, sort of like a hand grenade without a pin, he should recognize that and he should move past it. On the other side of it, I'd be interested to know how much either of the moderators are going to press Vice President Harris on what would seem to be the Republicans would call her flip flops.
Her supporters would say her evolution on certain issues. The candidates will be on the spot, but so won't be the hosts, the questioners, the moderators, and it will be the question. The question will be how moderate are the moderators. Let's see what happens. I don't know quite what to expect tonight. Who do you think will carry the night? Joe? If you had to pick a winner in advance? I know you're a top supporter.
Right Dan? What do you think about the New World Daughter? I know you read Pat Robinson's book written in nineteen ninety by what he wrote still applies today, and I think I heard you.
I'm not someone from Joe in all honesty, In all honesty, I think a lot of that comes down to cliches and comments, and it means different things to different people. I want the United States to be the strongest both economically and militarily of any country in the world.
Well, I think globalization could hurt our country in the wrong way.
Well, globalization can help in some respects. I don't see. I mean, I don't want to see important industries shipped overseas, if that's what you're that's if that if that is what you mean about globalization. No, I want our industries
to stay at home. We learned that during the COVID crisis, when we had problems with our supply chain and we couldn't get boats into Los Angeles Harbor, and we found out that virtually all of the computer chips which are so important to our economy now are manufactured in Taiwan. What happens if China goes into Taiwan and basically takes over Taiwan and we can't do anything about it militarily. We got to get those computer chip manufacturers home home
to the United States of America. That's what I am concerned about. When you talk about globalization. Do I think I want to be able to export products from the United States to countries around the world to benefit our economy. That's the flip side of globalization that might help. So it's you can't reduce it just to one word, Joe, is what I'm trying to say it. You may disagree with me, but go ahead.
Dan, picture the world is going to get it strength when the answering Christ comes, and that might be ten years or one hundred years.
Okay, okay, fair enough. Well maybe maybe Putin's the anti Christ. I don't know, Joe. Yeah, okay, all right, Joe. I just want to stay away from you.
Know.
I know you have your point of view. I'm glad you called and you had a few minutes here to express it. Let's see if people want to react to it. I'm not singing from the same song page on that. Uh. You're my friend, uh and I and I respect you, but I think that we would disagree fundamentally on our concerns.
Here.
We can always disagree peacefully.
You got it. Absolutely reasonable people can disagree reasonably. Thanks Joe. We'll talk again. Appreciate people tonight. Thank you, Joe. Quite back at you back that gotcha six one seven, two four ten thirty six one seven, nine three ten thirty triple eight nine two nine ten thirty. I'd like to know what question you would like to ask either President Trump,
Home of President Trump or Vice President Harris. I've got a list of issues here and i'd like to see if you want to add to the list I got Steven rent them waiting, and again I would emphasize to you feel free to just listen to debate with us on radio, and as soon as it's over, let us know who you think. One We're coming back on Nightside right after the news break at the bottom of the hour.
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
I have a whole list of questions, but I prefer to hear yours. Okay, let's go to Steve and rent them. Steve, you were next on nights. I appreciate your calling in. Thanks for holding through the news. Go right ahead, Steve.
Yeah, good evening. My prediction is they won't shake hands.
Well.
I think Trump will come out on top if he sticks to her flip flop issues. But my question would be is on the border in the cost to the American people a year after year, So that right now you've used ten millions and saved the cost to have them per years anywhere from what sixty five to eighty thousand dollars per per person a unit.
You're looking at it, well, I would think that I would think that's pretty close to reality, particularly if you've got to house people in hotels. So that's a pretty good number. Never mind the kids that are going to be added to school systems. You're going to have to
hire a new teacher. That's tremendous cost. Look in Massachusetts alone, it's a billion dollars last year, and it's going to be in fiscal twenty four, and it's going to be a billion dollars this year in fiscal twenty five, So there's two billion dollars right off the top.
So if you just do rough math, you're looking anywhere from eight hundred billion to a trillion dollars for the ten million over the last four five years. But there's also a group that have been here longer than that, And if Ama got elected, what would that number go grow to? Twenty? And the idea is they're running out of time with the Medicare and social Security. If they put the trillion dollars that they're using for the ten million here now into those systems, we wouldn't be running dry.
And so that to me, all of everyone in America listening to this bait, if they could get a handle and that number could have been used for the homeless, vets and Social Security medicare, I think that would be the deciding factor.
I couldn't agree with you more and that would be one of the questions social Security cost medicare. There are a lot of families and individuals who have retired they're
depending upon Social Security medicare. When those we are in debt right now thirty five trillion dollars you obviously I know that question and that number, and our gross national product is only about twenty six or twenty seven trillion a year, and when your debt exceeds the amount of money that you have coming in, you start to drown
in that. If let's say you work and you make fifty thousand dollars a year, Okay, that's one thousand dollars a week, but you have a debt that you're paying interest on for a debt of one hundred thousand dollars you're gonna pay ten percent a year on that debt, whether it's on average credit card debt or whatever. So you're gonna be taking twenty percent of your salary. Just do the math to pay off your debt, which you'll never get out from underneath it. And I'm afraid we're
never gonna get out from underneath it. We'll have to devalue our currency or the dollar will no longer be the primary world currency. I know the Chinese are looking to take over and become the country of the nation of the twenty first century, and that would be a big step in the direction if all of a sudden we would start to deal with the yuan as and not the dollar as the currency of the world, the major currency of the world.
We're in trouble, yeah, we definitely are. And I think the younger crowd because they've been living by credit card and digital dollars and I don't know who's paying their bills, but somehow they the younger group has to realize that the debt that their parents and grandparents that are saddled them with is going to come out of their paycheck. And so if they keep voting in the Democratic Party with giving away free They want to give away the
tuitions and everything else some more. It's like you say, the dollar is going to get devalued, and we are in trouble. And I think if he sticks to these points or gets somehow gets to that, if they don't, you know that question, If they don't or try to skip it, I think you do that again.
It's going to be really interesting to see what the moderators of ABC, David Muir, Lindsay Davis have tremendous influence and power tonight. There have been moderators before which was shown to be biased and their questions. I thought Jake Tapper and Dana Bash were very fair in the Trump Biden face off in June. I think that Muir and David's have to live up to that standard tonight. And I will talk about that at ten thirty tonight because
I'm going to chart the questions. I'm going to chart the difficulty of the questions and who who the more difficult questions are directed to. I'm gonna i will give you my my read on this debate from not only of the of President former President Trump and Vice President Harris, but also of the ABC moderators Trust me on that.
Yeah, I agree with you. I liked the format of their last debate, and I hope that runs trued again tonight.
All right, Steve, I appreciate you call very much. Thank you so much.
Welcome, Thank you.
Please keep calling the program. You're a great call. Let me go next to Geronimo in Maine. Geronimo, welcome to Nightside.
How are you all right? Thank you, good evening. Vice President Harris as a follow up question to the previous According to Peter Sweitzer's book Profiles and Corruption, when you were district attorney and there was an illegal alien with a long criminal history of violent crimes, and he committed one, and he was thrown in jail, and you single handedly released him out on the street, whereupon he immediately committed a brutal rape and murder of a young woman, whose
mother asked, why did District Attorney Kamala Harris release him on the street. She knew he was an illegal alien. Why didn't she deport him? If she had deported him, our beloved daughter would still be alive today. So my question, Madame Vice President, is why did you release him? Why didn't you deport him? And what were you thinking?
Yeah, well, I'll tell you this, if even David Muir or Lindsay Davis, the two ABC anchor people who are hosting or moderating this debate.
That's a terrific question. I mean, they can be they can be tough questions asked fairly, both of both Harris and Trump. And that's what I hope we see tonight. I hope we don't see softball questions, and I hope that we don't see questions where I'd like to see them break into some areas that we really don't understand, we don't know, okay, And that is an area that that I think she needs to answer for, to be really honest with you, because.
All the key yes, that's not the only I'm not going to go into a long litany, but that is not the only example of Kambala Harris's prosecutorial misconduct as district attorney and as attorney general.
Yeah, well, there has been. I think at one point she's she supported gender a lot realignment surgery for prison inmates, even if they were illegals who had come here. So the idea is, we can't take care of our homeless terence, but we can provide gender alignment realignment surgery for someone who has come here illegally and who we have imprisoned.
I mean anything, anything twisted or questionably immoral at other taxpayers expense.
Yes, yeah, the ideas. You know, I'm fairly open minded. If if if you're somebody who wants to live a different lifestyle than that, maybe you live or I live. Who am I to to comment on on you know who you cohabitate with? Okay?
And why doesn't Obamacare pay for all that? Anyways?
Well, the people who pay the people that pay for Obamacare, Geronimo or you and me? Yes, you know, but we had this influx of district attorneys around the country who had a different point of view on criminal activity. Look, what's happened to Los Los Angeles is in tough shape right now. San Francisco is probably gone as a major city. Seattle, Washington, we know what happened out there. Portland, Oregon. They had
just now recriminalizing drugs. They've literally decriminalized drugs across the board in Oregon, and that turned out to be a disaster, a total disaster for Oregon.
Oh and by the way, if anybody's looking for a reason to decide whether to vote for Trump or Harris. This style of prosecutorial misconduct had a program title which at the Democrat National Convention was praised and touted by a district attorney in Maryland who's running for Senate now, who referred to Kamala Harris's program, which the example I
just gave precipitated. That person at the convention said, and that is now becoming a template, an example for the whole nation in terms of district attorneys and how to deal with violent criminals and illegal aliens. Just put them out back on the street.
Well, you see again the DA Fox in Chicago. Uh. You see Rachel Rollins here in Boston for the relatively brief period of time she was here. You see Alvin Bragg in New York City. You see Gascon in Los Angeles. It goes on, It goes on and on and on. Torontmo. I've had the pleasure of having you on my show.
Before, no several times.
Well, I want you to keep calling the program. Okay, call yes, certainly, thank you very much, thank you, sir. Okay, coming back on nights. I taking a break. I got Todd and Alex you're going to get in and I got room for you if you like to call right now, here's the number six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty or six one seven nine three. I will tell you that I'm assuming, and this is my lineup of questions that I think need to be asked in some
form of fashion. This is just the topics. January sixth, Immigration in the border, abortion, Joe Biden. What did Vice President Harris know about his condition and his diminution in capacity? Iran? What are we going to do about Iran inflation? What are we going to do about Israel? Are we going to support Israel? Fracking putin Ukraine? The federal debt, the cost of medicare, deportation policies that President Trump, former President Trump has talked about crime. What are we going to
do about crime nationally? The student loan forgiveness? The Minnesota Bail Fund, which Vice President Harris supported, social Security, the future of Social Security, Project twenty five. All of that, all of that in more needs to be discussed tonight. We'll be right back on Night's side. More phone calls, and we will be breaking away at about eight fifty eight. You'll hear the debate in its entirety broadcast tonight. Courtesy of ABC News. Right, you're on w BZ, Boston's news radio.
Now back to Dan Rady, Mine from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ the News Radio.
Next up, Todd in Onset, Massachusetts. Todd, Welcome to Nightside. What are you looking for tonight in the in the Big Debate?
Hi, Dan Gridine.
Then, one of the questions I would ask former President Trump is how would he continue to support NATO with our current obligations and pretty change things? I guess to say, yep, I feel like, you know he's got the inside edge on Russia. I believe that I heard from a reputable news media that he could uh stop the Ukraine war in twenty four hours after being elected. I don't off if that's something I got from misinformation.
That's that's what he claimed. That is what he said. I don't know if that's possible, because I think the level of enmity that exists between those two people, those two groups of people is deep and divided. I don't know how you do that, but that's what he said. He should be asked about that tonight. I think he should be asked to lay out a specific plan on that. Yeah, because mean one thing It's one thing to say, oh yeah,
I'm going to stop the war. It's it's it'd be like me saying, you know, put me up against the Baltimore Pictures tonight, I'll hit a home run. Well, you know you got to get up and do you gotta.
I mean he didn't exactly lay it a long timeline. I mean twenty four hours. I mean that's just short of a miracle.
But I mean it also leads to me. You know, he would.
Win the Nobel Peace Prize. He would win the Nobel Peace Price.
You know, yeah, absolutely, And again I'm not trying to like think that, you know, he's well theory like, you know, he he actually has personal connections with Putin. I think I think that could be easily demonstrated with how he talks about him and and even Dak you know, he he was even asked back in uh when the Ukraine invasion underwent that he said, what do you think about Putin and being in Ukraine? He said, brilliant? And that again is something that I heard.
Yeah, I don't I don't think that he I'd like to know what contact that was. I really I know that Putin stayed in his in his lair in his den the Russian bear stayed pretty quiet while Trump they invaded no country while Trump was president, he should be asked specifically, what are you talking about? How are you going to end this? I mean, you know, Nixon talked about ending the war in Vietnam and it took about five years longer. Yeah, and Nixon had long since left
the White House. Dodd, good question. Let's let me get one more in here before the break. Okay, that was an excellent question, and I will add it to the list that I will mention. Uh, if it's not asked tonight, that that that you asked a better question probably than some of the questions that will be asked. So that's a good one you were thinking tonight, and I'm I'm proud of you. Thank you, Todd, talk to you soon.
Good night, Alex and Millis. Alex, what would you like to know out of tonight's debate?
Well, I have a feeling it will be a dog and pony show. I'm not trying to be, you know, sarcastic, but I wish I had a better choice, and a lot of Americans feel the same way.
From that, Now, would you say, you know there are some third party candidates who are who are running out there. I think Jill Stein is still in the ballot. I believe in Massachusetts Professor Cornell West there are there's a libertarian candidate. So you do have some other choices. But you had a lot of choices in the Republican primary and Donald Trump Trump.
Tomall, well, I'll take the you know, the better of the two evils. But I was going to say, is both of these candidates, whoever wins, they're gonna they promise all these things now, and you mark my words. You know half the stuff's not going to happen.
You know.
Well, that's that's why we have elections every four years and elections for Congress every two years. So obviously, if Donald Trump has a good night and he gets elected or real life, uh, he's going to have to prove He's got four years to prove himself.
Yeah.
I was going to ask, because the world is burning, which one of these two candidates would put out the fire or you know, would you.
Say, I have no idea. I mean, I I think you can look at the record of each of them. One is a president, one is a vice president, and come to whatever conclusion you want. You know, did did the the depacal in Kabul basically encourage Putin to do something which was crazy, to invade Ukraine? That argument can be made. I wonder if but it was. Did it wasn't? It wasn't Joe Biden. I mean, we had a disastrous
with withdrawal from Kabul. We left eighty five billion dollars worth of military equipment which is now in the hands of the Taliban.
So real quick, Oh sorry.
I got ten seconds. If you want to do be quick. If not, I'm going to have to put you over.
You could you could do a topic on airline we went on our trip.
No, no, don't do me a favorite. Don't open that up on me, Alex I said ten seconds, okay, because we got to get the ABC News thanks to Carl, and I appreciate it. Well, we can deal with airlines at another time. We're about to break away to the ABC News coverage after a couple of commercial messages. The ABC News coverage of this year's first and potentially only presidential
debate will be heard live from Philadelphia. You can listen to it here and we'll have your reaction as soon as the debate is over.