Thursday’s town hall event in Sandown, New Hampshire was in no way intended as preparation for the second, town hall-style presidential debate on Sunday, according to Donald Trump.
“They were saying this is practice for Sunday. This isn’t practice; this has nothing to do with Sunday,” the Republican nominee told the crowd. “We’re just here because we just wanted to be here.”
That may be a good thing for Trump, given that the cozy event with his avowed supporters bore little resemblance to what the real estate mogul will face on Sunday.
Though the campaign did provide a countdown clock to cut the Republican nominee off after his allotted two minutes, Trump repeatedly exceeded the time limit as he fielded softball questions about his favorite childhood memory and decision to “hold back” during the first debate against Hillary Clinton. Moderator Howie Carr, a conservative radio host, asked what the Los Angeles Times reported were pre-vetted questions from audience members. He also encouraged Trump throughout and ended the event by declaring the Republican nominee “the next president.”
“I like this audience,” Trump said. “I like this audience.”
At Sunday’s event in St. Louis, which will be moderated by ABC’s Martha Raddatz and CNN’s Anderson Cooper, half of the questions will be asked by undecided voters themselves, Politico reported.
Trump has hosted few town halls on the campaign trail, opting instead for arena-style rallies in which he alternately reads from a teleprompter or breaks off into tangents on whatever is occupying him on any given day.
Still, he brushed off any suggestion that he was preparing for the next presidential debate, even after most political commentators and almost every reliable poll found that Clinton came out ahead in their first matchup.
“I said forget debate prep. I mean, give me a break,” Trump said. “Do you really think that Hillary Clinton is debate-prepping for three or four days. Hillary Clinton is resting, okay?”
“This has nothing to do with Sunday,” Trump claimed at one point. “It’s like they make you into a child.”
You are a child!
At this point, I wonder how many folks will just wait until SNL to get the recap.
From my understanding, this did not go particularly well.
He blew through the “2 minute rule” anyway, and didn’t even bother answering a number of the softball questions that were pre screened.
But quite obviously his campaign is worried. Trump hasn’t really done a town hall debate, and his propensity to talk about himself instead of connecting with the questioner was on display. And that’s going to be a big problem on Sunday.
Even his childhood story, a question that was put in the mix to attempt to make him seem semi human, is horrible. Because it comes directly from his book, and it wasn’t he played with blocks at the feet of his father, it was that he stole all his brother’s blocks and then glued them all together so he couldn’t have them back. And in the book he brags about how awesome that made him.
Yeah, why would you want to practice for one of the most important events to become President that’s watched by 80 million people? You did so good the first time.
Yes, we think that Clinton is preparing for the debate – and will again bury you.
This is so like watching the class valedictorian go up against the popular-but-inept, showboating sports star who has delusions of playing pro but won’t even make the college team, much less get that scholarship he mistakenly believes he deserves.
Folks, the Dunning-Krueger effect is in play.