It's okay to admit you thought the debate could have gone better. Yes, the moderators were unfair. Yes, it's hard to imagine ABC didn't give some information to Kamala Harris in advance. Was Harris wearing audio earrings? Maybe.
But the point is that Donald Trump agreed to the debate, and showed up less than perfectly prepared. He took the bait when Harris dangled it. He returned to polling nonstarters like the 2020 election.
Harris holed up in a hotel with a Trump impersonator and practiced for five days. She may be insipid, but she put the work in.
At the end of the day, it's not about being right, which Trump was. It's about conveying your message clearly despite any obstacles like moderators. And that didn't happen as well as any of us would have liked.
We all recall how masterful and presidential Trump was when facing Joe Biden in June. He maintained a serious expression for most of the debate, releasing zingers almost somberly, as if putting a dying animal out of its misery. The optics were phenomenal. We need that as a baseline. No smirking.
Independent voters need specifics. They need sources when seemingly wild accusations are leveled. Most Americans live in a mass media bubble. Most don't know what Trump is talking about when it comes to Haitian illegals in the Midwest. What could have been a nice fat W turned into a meme.
Further--and let's stick with Haiti for another moment, claims need to be sourced. As it turns out, the Springfield mayor, Rob Rue, was lying. There was a recorded call of citizens complaining about Haitian migrants killing local geese.
This is the kind of info that needs to be on Trump's tongue. He can mention Libs of TikTok, Chaya Raichik is a known figure. Give the curious somewhere to look. Saying "I saw it on TV" is not acceptable.
Some of it is just semantics. Why say "eating cats and dogs" when the most easily verifiable story is about a cat? Either stick with the specific cat story, or just say "animal sacrifice".
Yes, Trump fans had a good laugh at the line, it's vintage Trump. But to whoever is on the fence, it might have looked wildly speculative, inaccurate. Compound the problem with Mayor Rue's lies and it's an opportunity squandered. The sad truth is that Springfield is overrun with migrants. A young white boy was killed by Haitians, and Rue has admitted that the town is unable to function properly. But he knew to keep the pet eating story under wraps for the sake of his party.
The overriding issue in this election is the border, wide open under Biden-Harris. Harris was appointed the border czar in 2021. Easy to source that. Say it calmly, and tie everything to this central issue.
Question about the economy? Answer it calmly and then tie the economy to the influx of 20 million "migrants". Question about foreign policy? Migrants from bad places. Question about education? Discuss how migrants are stretching school resources. Question about Obamacare? Talk about how migrants are draining medical resources of Americans.
It's not that complex: be calm, be specific, don't exaggerate, and tie everything to Kamala's border failure.
Lastly, for our part as civilians: deliver the facts to the people! The 911 call to Springfield cops is real. The animal sacrifice is real. The ABC moderator fact-checking bias is real. In an excellent ZeroHedge article, QTR's Fringe Finance argues that the bias and lies will rise to the surface as more and more people are aware that mass media is an arm of the Democratic Party:
"After last night, when the average critically thinking, independent or moderate voter begins to emerge from the visceral reaction of who “won” the debate, the picture will start to come into focus. And it’ll be a picture of a news network that constantly tried to fact-check Donald Trump, despite Kamala Harris repeating multiple debunked conspiracy theories, like Trump’s Charlottesville comments, which were already debunked by Snopes, and his “bloodbath” comment, which was used in the context of talking about the auto industry."
