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Another top story that we are watching the presidential debate. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump squaring off in Philadelphia Tuesday night, their first and possibly only debate ahead of election day. For 90 minutes, the candidates went head to head on a number of issues including the economy.

We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before, probably the worst in our nation's history. This has been a disaster for people for the middle class, but for every class.

His plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations which will result in $5 trillion dollars to America's deficit.

Joining us now, we want to bring in EJ Dion. He's Brookings Institution senior fellow in government Studies and government professor at Georgetown University. EJ, it it's good to see you. So let's unpack what we heard. There's lots to get into from last night, but let's start with that sound bite that we just heard on the economy on inflation. Obviously, just a fact check here, uh, former President Donald Trump claims that this is the highest inflation we've ever seen certainly is not true. Although we did see a big spike during Biden's administration up peaking around 9%, but I'm curious just first to get your reaction to last night, what your big takeaway was.

Well, I think she overwhelmed him is the bottom line, and I think that's the the overwhelming consensus this morning. I saw a focus group this morning where by 23 to two, the people in the focus group, these were undecided voters, uh, said that Harris won. And I think there were several things that happened. First, she put him on defense right from the beginning when she went and he just was just going to walk to the lectern. Uh, she extended her hand, he didn't want to shake her hand, but he had to and said, I'm Kamala Harris, pronouncing her name right. And that ended up setting the tone for the whole night. She was on offense all night, and we have never really seen this in quite the same way in a Trump debate. Trump was in the past master of all, uh, particularly in the Republican debates back in 2016 with his little nicknames, like little Marco and the like, in putting the other person on the defensive. Last night, she put him on the defensive, got under his skin, and there were just many moments where, most moments actually in the debate, he veered off the message. The clip you showed was really a rare point where, despite the fact that he overstated it to be gentle to him, uh, overstated what was happening with inflation. Um, that was one of the rare moments where he actually was on message last night. Um, he spread false stories about immigrants eating dogs and cats. Um, he exploded at various points, um, you know, and looked snarly all night, and she looked extraordinarily calm. Um, it's just hard, uh, to see that debate as anything else but an overwhelming victory for her. And again, I don't think, um, I don't think that's an odd view. I I I dissenting view. I think that's the overwhelming view this morning among Republicans and Democrats who watched that debate.