Republicans are worried that Donald Trump might blow his one chance to turn the presidential race around by being himself.
On Tuesday night, Trump will face Vice-President Kamala Harris in their first debate hosted by ABC News in Pennsylvania.
Several Republican strategists, pundits and lawmakers believe this is Trump’s best shot of regaining his footing in the presidential race since Harris replaced Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
They are urging the former president to focus on critiquing Harris’ policy record during the debate and to avoid lobbing personal attacks at the vice-president.
But, a Republican strategist told Politico that approach will fail when Trump comes face-to-face with Harris for the first time on the debate stage.
“Harris will want to make personality the issue, which is hard for him to resist, but it will be a bad night for him if he falls back on hurling absurd insults at Harris.” Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican consultant who was an adviser for Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign said.
“She can deliver a set piece in a debate,” Stutzman added. “Will he be able to resist taking the bait? Doubt it. He’ll more likely be like a lab rat hitting the cocaine pan instead of the food pan.”
Several Republicans and close allies of Trump’s have been begging him for weeks to lay off the personal attacks on Harris and focus on policy instead. Their pleas have so far landed on deaf ears.
Trump doubled down on trying to come up with a new nickname for his opponent. So far he has tried “Laughing Kamala,” “Crazy Kamala,” “Lyin’ Kamala,” “Dumb as a Rock Kamala,” “Kamabla” and “Comrade Kamala.”
None of those names landed and Trump has signaled that he’s not interested in backing down from personal attacks.
“As far as the personal attacks, I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country,” Trump said at a press conference last month. “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks. I don’t have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president.”
“And I think it’s very important that we win,” Trump continued. “And whether the personal attacks are good, bad. She certainly attacks me personally. She actually called me weird.”
