Trump's best path during the first presidential debate is to avoid the personal, in-your-face aggression for which he’s so well known, says Brett O'Donnell.
“He should be aggressive but not offensive,” said O'Donnell, who has helped John McCain, George Bush, and Mitt Romney prepare for high-stakes presidential debates.
If Trump can be aggressive on policy matters and expose Biden as a liberal extremist – not the moderate Democrat he claims to be – he will have a good night, O’Donnell told the Washington Watch program
Then-candidate Trump famously went after against Hillary Clinton in their 2016 debate. That is the night he delivered a memorable jab after Clinton, famous for her anger and outbursts when she was First Lady, questioned his "temperament" as the next U.S. president.
"It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country," Clinton smugly said of her opponent.
"Because you'd be in jail," her opponent quickly replied.
The snap response created wild laughter and loud applause from the audience, which will not be there for tonight's debate.
In the same debate, O'Donnell recalls Trump blasting Clinton for her position on late-term abortion.
“It’s terrible if you go with what Hillary is saying," Trump said, "that in the ninth month you can take the baby, and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother, just prior to birth. You can say that’s okay, and Hillary can say that’s okay, but that’s not okay with me."
That message won Trump the support of pro-lifers, O’Donnell told show host Tony Perkins.
“A lot of folks had question marks about just how friendly Donald Trump would be to the pro-life movement,” O’Donnell said.
For Trump, O'Donnell says the key is to hammer on policies not personalities. That means talking about inflation and gas prices, for example, but avoiding discussing the Biden family's corruption allegations or President Biden's gaffes and mental fitness.
“If it becomes personal, and they are attacking each other," O'Donnell explained, "voters at home are going to say, ‘You’re more concerned about each other than you are about me. I have a lot of problems that I’m facing, and I need solutions.’ Donald Trump needs to make this debate about them.”
Gary Bauer, of the Campaign for Working Families, tells AFN he predicts CNN will ask more than one question related to abortion but stay away from the issues of illegal immigration and the U.S. border.
"I'm deeply concerned about the debate," says Bauer, who doesn't trust CNN and its biased coverage. "I think they will be on the debate team with Biden. So when President Trump says it's going to be one against three, he's not exaggerating."
What Democrats want to talk about: Abortion
Hoping to win over suburban women, Democrats have made abortion access one of their chief points of any campaign for the last two years since the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1972 case that legalized abortion nationwide.
On Monday, Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and Reproductive Freedom for All pledged to spend $100 million to not only restore federal protections for abortion but to make abortion more accessible than it’s ever been.
What would abortion look like in a second Trump term?
“He remains committed to making sure that Democrats don’t federalize abortion on demand at taxpayer expense. The landscape has changed some. This is definitely an issue that’s going to be debated because Democrats feel like they have a good deal of offense they can generate,” O’Donnell said.
Trump would do well to contrast his abortion position with Democrats’ passion for late-term abortion, O’Donnell said.
“Virtually no Democrats voted against the bill legalizing abortion – at taxpayer expense – up until the minute before a baby’s born,” O’Donnell said.
That includes professing Catholic Joe Biden, the cross-signing abortion supporter who was portrayed as a moderate in much of 2020’s pre-election coverage.
“Joe Biden isn't a moderate. There aren't any moderate Democrats," O'Donnell said. "Joe Biden is a liberal to the point where he is radically extreme, whether it's on the transgender rights issue, boys playing girls sports, the redefinition of Title IX, an open border or taxpayer funding of abortion."
Gallup data released last summer shows that 65% of Americans oppose abortion with zero restrictions.
O’Donnell says he’s seen data that shows 90% of Americans oppose late-term abortion.
Abortion is far from the only subject on which Trump could hammer Biden in the debate. There’s a plethora from which to choose. The economy, energy, social engineering, the border, crime, and more.
“There are so many different things where the public en masse believes Joe Biden has been a complete failure,” O’Donnell said.
Reed: Debate will lay 'foundation'
In a separate Washington Watch interview, Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told Perkins there’s a lot riding for Trump on this debate.
Trump gained 25 million votes from evangelicals in 2016 and increased that number to more than 36 million in 2020.
Faith leaders say that support was galvanized in part when Trump picked a known conservative running mate in Mike Pence. He also embraced a conservative GOP platform then, on Election Day, released a list of conservative names from which he would select Supreme Court justices when openings occurred.
“I think we absolutely need a repeat of that,” Reed said. “We’re at an inflection point in this campaign. The foundation is going to be laid in the next three weeks. How well Trump does, how well Biden does, is going to determine a lot. It will be a key moment.”
