Hillary Clinton is reportedly training for the upcoming presidential debates by practicing on two different versions of Donald Trump, more proof that the Democratic presidential candidate for isn’t cutting corners when it comes to preparing for her face-offs with the GOP nominee.
Clinton is trying her arguments on the version of Trump that voters saw during the GOP primary: Off-the-cuff, irreverent and saying whatever’s on his mind. The other version that Clinton is reportedly training with represents the more somber and composed Trump, the version where he sticks closely to prepared talking points and reads from a teleprompter.
Clinton and Trump will be asked to comment on three specific topics in the first presidential debate on Sept. 26.
The moderator, NBC News’ Lester Holt, will ask the presidential candidates about “America’s direction,” “achieving prosperity” and “securing America.” The topics, which Holt selected, are subject to change depending on major news developments.
Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, told reporters Wednesday that the candidate is “preparing,” not “practicing,” for the debate. Palmieri also suggested there is no stand-in for the GOP nominee, implying Clinton and her team haven’t been doing dry runs of the debate.
“We are not sure which Donald Trump is going to show up,” she said, noting Clinton’s prep is different from anything she has tried in the past.
Trump may be extra confrontational during Sept. 26’s debate, or he may play it cool, Palmieri said.
“This makes it hard to game out,” she said.
In preparation for her first big showdown with the GOP nominee, Clinton is using similar arguments on both debate prep versions, but she is tweaking her approach slightly depending on which Trump she is engaging, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“In mock debates and closed-door sessions that last hours, Mrs. Clinton and her top advisers are prepping ways to use Mr. Trump’s own words against him,” the Wall Street Journal reported. It said her team doesn’t anticipate that Trump will lose control and say something really damaging at the first debate.
Though her team maintains the preparation work is necessary, there’s no consensus on whether it’ll actually work against a candidate who seems to thrive on confrontation and being unconventional.
“Trump is very good at reading the public pulse and playing that against the media. Moderator Lester Holt is a very tempered person, but Trump could exploit anything that seems a little off and play it as Trump versus the media, which helped him a lot in the primaries,” Ben Voth, Southern Methodist University’s director of debate, told the Washington Examiner.
“Clinton’s strength is her experience; being a former secretary of state, being a senator, being more familiar with politics and being calmer and more presidential than Trump. That will be her wheelhouse and she’ll probably tap into it again and again,” Voth said.
His colleague, director of the SMU Center for Presidential History Jeffery Engel, sees major obstacles for Clinton, namely that expectations for the two candidates are totally disproportionate.
“We have set the bar historically low for Donald Trump. At this stage in the campaign, if he gives a speech without insulting a baby, a gold star mother, veterans or a disabled person, you consider it not only a success, but newsworthy. If he manages to get through the entire debate without causing a firestorm, he’ll be declared the victor by his party,” Engel said.
The Democratic nominee has an additional problem, he added.
“What Clinton needs to do to win is almost impossible. She needs to demonstrate a level of mastery that puts Trump to shame. The problem with Donald Trump is he has no sense of shame. Therefore, Clinton needs viewers to watch the debate and say, ‘Oh my goodness, he genuinely is not competent,’ but that requires him to participate,” Engel said.
News that Clinton is training with two different versions of Trump comes amid separate reports that she and her team have pulled out all the stops preparing for the presidential debates, including consulting with psychology experts and the ghostwriter for Trump’s The Art of the Deal.
The Democratic nominee and her team have also reportedly dedicated hours to digging into the GOP nominee’s past.
Clinton’s campaign is “undertaking a forensic-style analysis of Mr. Trump’s performances in the Republican primary debates, cataloging strengths and weaknesses as well as trigger points that caused him to lash out in less-than-presidential ways,” the New York Times reported in August.
In comparison, Trump’s approach has been fairly low energy, as the GOP nominee has reportedly adopted something of a “let’s cross that bridge when we get there” approach to the debates.
Trump has so far put in little effort looking for a sparring partner, and at one point floated the idea of having his daughter play the role of Clinton.
“Wouldn’t she be great at that?” Trump asked the Times. He is also reportedly uninterested in staging mock debates.
“I believe you can prep too much for those things,” he explained in an interview with the newspaper. “It can be dangerous. You can sound scripted or phony — like you’re trying to be someone you’re not.”
For Clinton, though, debate preparation is a serious business, and it requires hours of work and concentration. Former President Bill Clinton reportedly drops in on the candidate’s debate preparations from to time to offer some advice, the Journal reported.
“I just go and listen, and if I think they can make a point better, I’ll say it,” he said. “I think she’s done real well in these debates.”
