‘Pleading with him’: CNN sees Trump supporters in despair over ‘unorthodox’ debate prep
Former President Donald Trump’s team is in despair as he apparently shrugs off their concerns and pursues bizarre preparation for Tuesday’s debate, CNN reported Monday.
While his Democratic Party opponent Vice President Kamala Harris holes up in Pittsburgh for intense work to ready for the event, Trump is spouting “stream of consciousness” rants to his backers, wrote CNN’s Stephen Collinson.
“Trump’s debate prep is the most unorthodox of any modern presidential candidate,” the writer stated.
He went on, “Trump’s Republican supporters have been pleading with him for days to drill down on issues such as the economy, immigration and national security and to avoid petulant behavior that could play into Harris’ argument that it’s time for the country to move on from the bitterness and chaos he represents for many voters.
“... But Trump’s conduct heading into the debate explains the concern he will botch” what his team believes is his winning argument — that Harris is unprepared to lead.
Instead of preparing from the ABC News broadcast along those lines, “Donald Trump limbered up for his debate with Kamala Harris by showing the extremism that risks playing into the vice president’s claim that he’s an “unserious man” who is an “extremely serious” threat if he’s returned to the White House,” Collinson wrote.
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Among his latest outbursts was a warning over the weekend that he will jail election officials if he thinks they’ve helped commit fraud. He complained, without evidence, that cheating is already happening in Pennsylvania and he repeated promises to pardon Jan. 6 rioters.
“Trump is not staging mock debates — he’s just venting in public,” Collinson wrote.
He added, “ Tuesday’s debate — the first since June’s consequential clash on CNN that eventually ended Biden’s campaign — [is] the most critical scheduled event before Election Day.”
Yet, he said, Trump does not seem to be taking it as seriously as Harris.