Presidential Debate Preview: How Kamala Should Respond to Trump

Recall Michelle Obama’s strategy when replying to personal attacks and insults…

Welcome to a special edition of "The Pulse of Politics - USA" newsletter previewing Tuesday night's presidential debate. Thank you for taking the time to read and engage with this newsletter. Your valuable feedback is very much appreciated!

We Go High

During the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama shared her strategy for responding to personal attacks and insults by Donald Trump:

“When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level,” she said. “No, our motto is when they go low, we go high.”

Obama explained this approach during a 2020 interview with Oprah Winfrey:

• “Going low is easy, which is why people go to it.”
• “It’s easy to lead by fear. It’s easy to be divisive. It’s easy to make people feel afraid…and it’s also the short-term thing.”
• “For me, what I learned from my husband, what I learned from eight years in the White House, this life, this world, our responsibility in it is so much bigger than us.”
• When I want to go low, it’s all about my own ego. It’s not about solving anything…. It’s about seeking revenge on the thing that happened to you.”

As a narcissist of the highest caliber, Trump knows a thing or two about an inflated ego and seeking revenge. Trump’s strategy is to bait his opponents into getting down and dirty in a political mud wrestling match on his terms.

This is a losing proposition.

Here’s a prediction: Trump will replay his same old political playbook of personally demeaning Harris with salacious smears, insidious insults and blatant lies.

Trump Knows No Bottom

Harris’ debate strategy should focus on telling her personal story and explaining her position on the main public policy issues which voters care about most.

She should correct Trump on his lies, misstatements, and half-truths on policy issues when necessary and appropriate. She should also expect Trump to promote his crazy conspiracy theories.

But Harris should refrain from falling into Trump’s trap of baiting her into arguments based on race, gender and other personal issues.

As everyone knows by now, Trump is a serial liar. He told over 30,000 lies during his presidency, according to The Washington Post. Moreover, Trump has likely told over 100,000 lies since his first presidential run in the 2016 election.

Put simply, Trump is immune to truth telling.

Trump knows no bottom. He fights dirty and hits below the belt. It’s a well calculated strategy to engage his opponent in a back-and-forth spiral into the abyss of political discourse.

Kamala should leverage her formidable prosecutorial skills in laying out the case of how a second Trump presidency would land America in a deep ditch.

She should also remind viewers that Trump is a convicted felon with three criminal trials pending.

Below are some of the anticipated verbal assaults Trump will level against Harris…

What Trump May Say

Expect the former president to say some or most of the following, based on his dubious discourse and reprehensible remarks at various times during the campaign…

Political Ideology

• “Kamala would be the most radical far left extremist to occupy the White House. There’s never been a lunatic like this in the White House.”
• Trump called Kamala so “radically liberal” that she makes Senator Bernie Sanders look like a moderate.
• Trump said she is “much worse” than Biden, whom Trump called “the worst president ever.”
• Trump said Kamala is “unfit to lead” and will “destroy our country” with a “crazy liberal record.”

Race

• Trump told a televised conference of Black journalists that Kamala "decided" one day to become Black for political advantage.
• Trump has mocked Kamala by continually calling her: “Kamabla” — which sounds like a racist dog whistle.

Intelligence

• Trump has called Kamala “incompetent” and “dumb as a rock” and “a low IQ person.”
• Trump said Kamala “couldn’t pass the bar exam…she couldn’t pass anything.”

Immigration

• Trump claimed Kamala “launched a colossal illegal alien invasion” and alleged that “hundreds of thousands of terrorists” are entering the USA from “all over the world” because she’s the “border czar.”
• Trump said she is responsible for “our communities being ravaged by migrant crime” from “illegal alien rapists, bloodthirsty killers and child predators” who will “go after our sons and daughters.”
• Trump said Harris is letting other countries empty their asylums and jails to flood America with deranged psychopaths.

Threat to Democracy

• Trump said Kamala will “destroy our country” with a “crazy liberal record.”
• Trump said Kamala is “a vote for incompetence, dishonesty, weakness and failure” and “a threat to democracy.”
• Trump called Kamala “unhinged” and said she will ruin America “just like she destroyed San Francisco.”

Healthcare

• Trump said Kamala will implement “a socialist takeover of the healthcare system” by “eliminating private insurance” and “bankrupt Social Security and Medicare.”

Guns

• Trump said Kamala would “rip firearms out of the people’s hands” by destroying the Second Amendment through mandatory gun confiscation.

Abortion

• Trump said Kamala is “a radical crazy person on abortion” who approves “the execution of babies.”

Religion

• Trump said Kamala is “militantly hostile toward people of faith”

Gender Identity

• Trump said Kamala “wants to compel nurses and doctors to give chemical castration drugs to young children without parental consent” to change their sex.
• Kamala “supports the policy of letting men into women’s and girls’ locker rooms.”

Supreme Court

• Trump said Kamala “will appoint hardcore Marxists to the Supreme Court.”

Hate, Chaos, Fear

It’s no secret that Trump has the political persona of a junkyard dog. His campaign is based on fear and retribution.

Hillary Clinton, at times, tried to stay above the fray with Trump during their presidential debates. But too often, she engaged with Trump’s mudslinging of personal insults and attacks.

Kamala should rely on her vast experience as a prosecutor to not only challenge Trump on policy issues, but also remind viewers of the points her campaign made in a July statement:

• “When Vice President Harris says this election is about freedom she means it. Our democracy is under assault by criminal Donald Trump: After the last election Trump lost, he sent a mob to overturn the results.”
• “This campaign, he has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the Constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America.”

“Donald Trump wants to take America backward, to a politics of hate, chaos, and fear.” — Harris campaign

The Takeaway

Kamala Harris should remind voters of Trump’s nefarious nature and ignominious intentions, while ignoring the slew of anticipated personal insults and attacks.

Kamala Harris must not step on the verbal landmines which Trump will lay for her during the presidential debate.

Rather, she should abide by Michelle Obama’s smart strategy: “When they go low, we go high.”

Put simply, Kamala should not take the bait.

__________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I’m an independent voter who is unaffiliated with any political campaign. My experience in government and politics spans 25 years, including work at The White House, the Presidential Transition Office, two winning presidential campaigns, the U.S. Congress, and two federal agencies.

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