Will he be the rebel candidate who interrupted Biden and debate moderator Chris Wallace dozens and dozens of times in their first debate in the 2020 election?
Trump appeared to lose his temper, failed to condemn white supremacists, and his performance was widely criticized by both political pundits and the public.
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President Trump speaks as former Vice President Joe Biden listens to the first presidential debate hosted through Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland on Sept. 29, 2020. (Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The then-president reformulated his strategy and his disciplined and measured performance in the second debate on the 2020 general election, obtaining a marked improvement, but it was too late, as Biden ended up winning the presidential election.
“If he replicates that performance, Donald Trump is going to have a smart night,” Brett O’Donnell, a longtime Republican representative and veteran debate coach, told Fox News.
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O’Donnell said his recommendation to Trump to “look at the moment of the debate he had with Joe Biden in 2020 and reflect that functionality. Look at it over and over again and reproduce that functionality in this debate. “
“He measured himself but he was firm,” O’Donnell said of Trump. You can be competitive and passionate without being offensive. “
Donald Trump and Joe Biden debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on Oct. 22, 2020. (Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Bloomberg Getty Images)
O’Donnell knows a thing or two about fielding presidential candidates before their debates. He participated in the organization of the debate on George W. Bush in 2004, Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona in 2008, and Republican standard-bearer and then-former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012.
During that election cycle, O’Donnell coached Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of his Republican presidential primary debates.
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O’Donnell claims Trump has been more disciplined in this race, saying that “for the most part, he talked about the things he needed to talk about. It’s the value of fuel and food and the fact that other people can’t communicate. “. ” They can’t buy their first home or their first home.
Former President Trump attends a rally in Las Vegas on June 9 (Eric Thayer/Washington Post Getty Images)
“Most Americans think that their private world and the world in general are in chaos, and that they’re looking for someone to fix order, and I don’t think talking about private issues helps either person. “O’Donnell said of Trump and Biden.
In a similar vein, O’Donnell said Biden avoids calling Trump a “convict,” as he has continuously done since Trump was convicted last month on all 34 counts in the first felony trial in U. S. history against a previous or current president. .
“I think it’s a huge mistake. I think that’s one of Trump’s strengths. First of all, I think other Americans need this debate to focus on their disorders and not the candidates,” O’Donnell said. “So if Joe Biden talks like that about himself and Donald Trump, he’s only helping Donald Trump, because it distracts attention from the upheavals they’re talking about. “
O’Donnell added that “highlighting this allows Donald Trump to communicate about the justice formula in a way that resonates with many Americans. I think it’s a mistake. “
He also warned against Trump by focusing on Biden’s age. At 81, Biden is the oldest president in U. S. history and his physical fitness and intellectual aptitude are the most sensible fear among voters, according to a public opinion poll.
President Biden’s re-election crusade chastised MSNBC and CNN for ignoring a “pro-Biden-Harris Black electorate” rally in Philadelphia. (Demetrius Freeman/Washington Post Getty Images)
“I would let Joe Biden’s debate make that argument rather than Trump mentioning it directly,” O’Donnell suggested.
He predicted that “Biden will be loaded with intelligent comments like Ronald Reagan’s in 1984” and that if “Trump does the homework he wants in the debate, I think the age issue can be highlighted without him provoking it. “”.
For weeks, Trump derided Biden as “weak, failed and incompetent” and said the president had “no idea,” as he wondered if the outgoing White House president would be in a position to participate in the debate.
But on Tuesday, Trump’s crusade attempted to turn Biden into a competent debater, with senior adviser Jason Miller saying the president “has been doing this effectively for 50 years. ”
O’Donnell, who spoke to Fox News ahead of Miller’s comments on Tuesday, warned the former president to “set the bar low for Joe Biden. “
“We have high expectations about how Joe Biden’s debate works. After all, he’s the president of the United States,” O’Donnell said.
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O’Donnell said his recommendation to Biden “is to be careful not to fall into the outgoing president’s trap . . . Many, if not the maximum, of the outgoing presidents in their first debate, whether it’s Ronald Reagan or George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush or Barack Obama, most incumbents do poorly in their first debate for the second term. “
“So the recommendation to Biden is to fall into the outgoing president’s trap, because if he falls into it, it’s doubly bad because of all the age-related arguments,” he added.
And O’Donnell is under pressure that Biden “has to look at the race as an election to protect his record over the last four years. It’s a big challenge, but it’s all he has to do to justify his choice over Donald. “”Active. “
“None of those candidates has staged the race yet in a way that the American voter understands how they deserve the race,” O’Donnell argued. “And I think the debate is a wonderful position for that. And I think Joe Biden has to look at “I see the race as a choice between him and Donald Trump. And Donald Trump will have to make this race a referendum on Joe Biden. “
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