Sources say campaign is concerned that Trump may engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in 2020
Sources say campaign is concerned that Trump may engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in 2020
Donald Trump’s campaign is most concerned going into the debate against Kamala Harris with the former president’s mood, afraid that the mercurial Trump could engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in the 2020 presidential election, according to people familiar with the situation.
The campaign’s internal refrain is whether they get “happy Trump” or “angry Trump”, the people said, as they count down the days to perhaps the final presidential debate this cycle.
Tuesday night’s televised debate is widely seen as a crux moment in the rebooted 2024 campaign. Since Joe Biden dropped out of the race after a campaign-killing debate performance crystalized fears over his age and mental acuity, Harris has turned the race on its head.
Honestly this is going to be the first bit of content including trump that I’m going to willingly watch for entertainment in YEARS. I anticipate Harris absolutely taking him apart.
I'm so torn on watching or just wait till the postmortem highlights. There's so many cons about watching live -- listening to the whole pointless charade, having to spend an extra amount of time thinking about Trump, and being bombarded by commercials... I fucking hate broadcast TV.
That’s usually my strategy, but this is the first debate in a long time that I think will be something other than a slow-motion car crash on both sides of the stage.
This time, it’s going to be a sprint race between a competently-assembled car and a dumpster full of used fry oil that someone lit on fire. I’m anticipating that it’s going to have a TON of absurdly hilarious and memeable moments.
Yeah, for sure. I sure hope she brings her A game and can bait him into being a psychopath, regardless of which Trump shows up. Isn't that right, other Barry?
I had not thought about it, but I didn't have any interest in the Biden/Trump debate. I knew what to expect, and Biden's disappointing showing just made me bored with the whole thing.
I'm actually excited to see Harris pick Trump apart tomorrow, and I hope she doesn't take her foot off his neck the whole time.
Yep, same. I knew precisely how the Biden/Trump debate was going to pan out - actually, it went worse than I thought it would, if I’m completely honest.
Seeing someone who is actually at/near the peak of their political game and mental aptitude just clinically disassemble the narcissistic psychopathic fascist is going to warm my heart tomorrow evening, because fascists should be given no quarter under any circumstances.
I think Trump is going to snort enough of whatever he snorts that he shows up energized. What he says will be rambling nonsense, as it always is, but he'll say it confidently. The story on the Trump side will be that he exceeded expectations, and that he's going to gain momentum again.
Harris is more of an X factor, but the buildup to the debate (felon vs. prosecutor) means that she has to win decisively in the eyes of both the left and the middle just to meet expectations. I hope she somehow exceeds them or has a few moments that steal the show, but it's more likely that Trump being able to speak semi-coherently will be the top story regardless of anything Harris does.
I've been wondering the same thing for a long time now. People seem so excited to see Harris "beat" Trump in a debate but it's obvious that will never happen in any meaningful sense. Trump's supporters are clearly not using any traditional (or rational) metric to evaluate his public speaking and people who don't support Trump will only find things to nitpick Harris on. I don't see the upside for Harris unless she knocks it out of the park and that's such a stupid situation to be in considering the obvious disparity in the quality of these two candidates.
I'm convinced our media is hell-bent on promoting Trump at any opportunity.
I feel like Trump could do anything on that stage and the story pushed out by the media will be some weird criticism about how disappointing Harris' performance was.
Like, Trump could answer every single question with a rant about how cheeseburgers just aren't as good as they used to be and no-one would bat an eye. Then the story for weeks will be about how "Harris just wasn't detailed enough about how her economic policies. She didn't even mention how the Distiller's Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS)/cash corn ratio would change per week over the next decade or two. Harris clearly is too light on the policy front."
I hope I'm wrong, but I've come to expect the worst from our media lately.
Yep. Im more worried than excited. I see very little opportunity that trump takes a hit and a lot of chances for Harris to falter. Of course that's double standards considering trump is most likely dementia addled, drugged up, and has no expectation of coherence but that's apparently just OK now to a disgustingly large amount of people.
Probably all she has to do is just have a moment where she emits a normal human female laugh directed at donnie.
That seems to put donnie (and a lot of his cult) into orbit on the triggered scale. They were crying when she "cackles" at nearly anything, imagine if it's clear that she is laughing at donnie.
Wait, there is a "happy trump"? I'm not sure I've ever seen him do a normal human laugh and he usually just gives that weird grimace that is supposed to be a smile usually the same time as that weird thumbs-up for photo ops.
I hope they argue about their golf games for like 10 minutes like Biden and Trump did. That made me really proud to be an American and confident about our electoral process.
I hope there are some savoy options traders that picked this week for some puts. Unless he brings Happy Trump and some miracles, NYSE:DJT gonna make Donnie throw mustard @8:30 est.