Trump’s campaign staffers are worried ‘angry Trump’ will show up to debate and self-sabotage
Staffers are speculating whether ‘happy Trump’ or ‘angry Trump’ will make an appearance at the debate against Kamala Harris
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Donald Trump’s campaign staffers are worried “angry Trump” will show up to Tuesday’s presidential debate and “self-sabotage,” according to reports.
Staffers believe that Trump’s performance will be heavily influenced by his mood that evening, and they’ve been speculating whether “happy Trump” or “angry Trump” will show up to the ABC News debate against Kamala Harris, The Guardian reports.
If it’s the latter, they fear it could be a repeat performance of the 2020 presidential debates, where Trump “self sabotaged” and put voters off because of his behavior, the newspaper reports.
In a chaotic debate against Joe Biden in 2020, Trump resorted to making personal attacks about Biden’s family and threw insults at his opponent. Biden kept his cool for the most part, but lost his temper with Trump at one point, telling him: “Will you shut up, man?”
Trump’s team, the paper reports, is “anxious” Trump will veer off message and get personal with Harris.
He has already falsely claimed the vice president just “happened to turn Black” — and his team is now “bracing” themselves, worried he’ll make similar remarks during the debate.
“I didn’t know she was Black,” he said while speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in July.
“She happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black? ... I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person.”
His comments sparked fury. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Trump’s comments were “repulsive” and “insulting.”
Other Republicans have also expressed concern about Trump’s behavior come debate day. One GOP operative with ties to the former president told The Hill he would advice Trump to“stay away from race.”
“Stay away from the idea that she is a promiscuous woman that’s slept her way to the top,” he added. “That does you no good. That’s a losing message. Policy is a winning message. If [Trump] has that discipline, he’ll win.”
Trump has already been telling his base that even if he does well in his debate with Harris, he’ll still be blasted by the media. “If I destroy her in the debate, they’ll say Trump suffered a humiliating debate tonight,” he told a crowd of MAGA faithful on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Harris has been hunkered down in a Pittsburgh hotel in preparation for Monday night and has taken part in a number of mock debates with her closest aides.
The candidates are running neck and neck ahead of the high-stakes debate, separated by just one point according to a new poll by The New York Times/Siena College.
The poll was taken between September 3 and September 6 and found that 47 percent of likely voters back Harris, while 48 percent support Trump.
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