At the Democratic National Convention last week, Harris supporters and the presidential candidate herself leaned in to what is proving to be a successful attack on the former president: ridiculing him.
Its a phenomenon TPM noted repeatedly in our coverage last week. While Donald Trump still stands as a dire threat to the nation, immigrants and democracy itself, he’s also, repeatedly, embarrassing himself, Democrats pointed out — campaigning on grievances, showcasing his small-minded ambitions, stroking his ego while revealing himself to be an “unserious” man. Harris closed out her speech accepting the nomination by saying just that. The rhetoric has been a hit among Democrats’ base voters, but it has also appeared to catch on more broadly; polls show Harris’ lead over Trump holding strong in the days since the convention.
A key aspect of this line of attack has been baiting Trump into more foolish behavior. And the Harris campaign’s expert baiting of Trump continues this week. Trump insinuated in a post over the weekend that the Harris campaign’s effort to keep the microphones on for the duration of the Sept. 10 debate — meaning mics wouldn’t be cut off after each candidate’s allotted speaking time, like they were during the Biden-Trump debate — might affect his participation. That Truth Social of his set off a news cycle, suggesting that the Harris campaign was trying to change the rules, rules that were only established, essentially, to keep Trump from talking out of turn.
But then Trump told reporters on Monday that while both campaigns had agreed to keep the CNN debate rules for the ABC News debate, it “doesn’t matter” to him. “I’d rather have it probably on,” he said.
Harris’ communications director Micheal Tyler went on MSNBC later on Monday to address the situation. Anchor José Díaz-Balart initially framed up the debate tension as a problem created by the Harris campaign, which Tyler shut down. But he also suggested that Trump’s own campaign team doesn’t trust him. Emphasis mine:
“I think her position is the same as Donald Trump’s position on this, because he went on to say, in that same interaction, that he doesn’t care,” Tyler said. “It doesn’t matter to him whether or not the mics are hot and, frankly, that he would prefer if they were hot. So I think this issue is resolved unless Donald Trump allows his handlers to overrule him. We’ll have a fulsome debate between the two candidates, with live microphones, where both candidates will be able to lay out their vision for where they want to take this country.”
It’s just another example of the difference it makes when campaign staff are able to be candid about lessons they’ve learned, lessons we’ve all learned, from watching Trump, a man who cannot avoid saying the quiet part loud, on the national stage for the better part of a decade.
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Even if the mics are hot, I think the moderators should have the ability to turn them off if he starts blabbing loud and long. Or at least lower the volume
It’s a trap.
The Harris campaign is setting up a moment where Trump will try to talk over her and she’ll turn to him and say “Mr. Trump, I’m speaking, wait your turn like a responsible adult” or something like that. It’s in the same vein as when she shut some protestors off a couple weeks ago…there was a media moment about how strong she was on the stage. Doing that to Trump is going to make her look strong, and Trump will look weak if he shuts up or if he tries to get even more aggressive to her…the second will make him look like he’s bullying a woman, and that’s going to piss a lot of people off.
It’s good strategy to get inside his head, make fun of him, and get him angry, he’ll make more mistakes that way. It really does seem like the Harris campaign has his number…no surprise because Biden had his number in 2020 and that knowledge would have transferred over to her and the campaign staff.
EDIT: Oh, I should have noted that this also sells the “felon vs prosecutor” angle, as a prosecutor in the movies is always cool, in control, and looking to trick the felon into admitting something, while the felon rambles on and acts angry and aggrieved. It will feed right into that, and when she shuts him down at the debate he’ll look small. Pretty smart strategy, especially if you want to demoralize his followers even more…making Trump into a chump and loser totally cuts into his image.
Yes! :Mock him. Ridicule him. Make him crazy.
The Harris campaign must read Josh Marshall. They seem to understand how to always be on offense, always be making the move to keep their opponent off guard. Nobody at the Harris campaign really cares about the microphones. They just don’t. But making it an issue allows them to have the initiative. The other side can’t decide if it’s concession or a demand.