Donald Trump spent most of his week off the campaign trail, except for a rally Friday night in Ruby Red, Montana, and a press conference that had a little bit of everything. Most dangerous period of time I've ever seen for our country. Dire warnings from Donald Trump to kick off an hour-long press conference that included attacks on Kamala Harris. The least admired, least respected, and the worst vice president. A focus on issues like the border crisis.
Millions of people coming in. and our country cannot sustain it. And talk of crowd sizes, including comparing his January 6 rally to Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. Same number of people, if not, we had more. And although Trump claimed.
I'm leading by a lot. The latest CNN poll of polls showed a statistically tied race with Harris, whom Trump spent most of the week bashing on social media, including misspelling her name several times. Obviously, he loves to give people nicknames, and I think that he's gonna keep on doing that.
Yeah. But that's not what some fellow Republicans want. I would encourage President Trump to prosecute the case against Kamala Harris's bad judgment.
A case he hopes to make on the debate stage after changing his mind and agreeing to three debates with the vice president. But I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight. So, John, what can Trump do to regain the momentum? I think the first thing he could do is stop digging.
Last weekend, he went to Georgia and decided to attack the very popular governor, Brian Kemp, as a very disloyal guy. When Brian Kemp has been completely loyal except for on one issue, which was saying that the 2020 election wasn't stolen, or rather not trying to do anything to overturn that election. The week before that, he questioned whether Kamala Harris had always identified as authentically African-American. Just very stupid things. You've got a quizzical look on your face.
Yeah. Are most Republicans going, why? He should not be doing that. So I'd say stop digging.
I do think that the press conference, despite some of the, again, wacky things that happened in that, it did serve his purpose of at least getting everyone talking about why isn't Kamala Harris doing these press events. Right. But Kamala, do you think how do you get the momentum?
Because it's a lot of it is the hand waving old hits he's trying over and over again. The the only way I think Trump could reestablish momentum is by establishing a like a real campaign pace, like actually doing the kinds of things that benefit him, especially in 20. 2016 and 2020, you know, being an active campaigner. And I think what the press conference demonstrated is that he is much diminished from four years ago or even eight years ago.
And in being much diminished, I think it's just more difficult for him to maintain that pace of campaigning. Right. Kristen, he has no other public campaign events scheduled this week.
That felt that press conference felt a little like one of those pandemic ones. It felt like it. I was like, oh, that again. Normally, somebody who is running for president of the United States, who spends a week with less than 100 days to Election Day, just doing nothing in any of the battleground states, raising some money in Montana, and that's it.
You'd say that's political malpractice. What's going on? But let's consider the rest of the year Donald Trump has had a Republican primary that he largely sat out.
And went in his favor, even though he really didn't participate in it. And then a presidential race against John Biden that he also barely participated in. And that worked out very well for him.
I think right now what you are seeing is a campaign that's kind of flailing a little bit. because the sit back and do nothing, let Donald Trump campaign from his basement effectively strategy was very successful for him up until the moment that Kamala Harris became Democrats'presumptive nominee. And now he seems to not be able to retool that strategy.
To not wake up. To get back out there. Let me give you an easy one.
I mean, presidenting is hard, right? Or becoming a presidential candidate is hard. What should he do?
I'm not sure I'm going to give former President Trump any advice. But you must because you're wearing those fine shoes. I want to say, first of all, yes, I'm wearing sneakers in your honor. But no, what I would say is this.
He is much diminished. You cannot but look at this press conference and see that he cannot keep focus anymore. He cannot.
prosecute the case, as has been the demand of Republicans. He made up an entire story about being on a helicopter that crashed and that there was some conversation. It's like fan fiction.
Almost crashed. Almost crashed. It was like fan fiction. I mean, this, I think what we're seeing is fatigue. The more voters that I talk to, there is this sense that we've seen all this before, and there is a desire to turn the page.
I mean, in my family, I have People who support Trump, my stepfather, voted for Trump twice. He's going to vote for Kamala Harris this time. And so it is a small...
story, but it is something where you are starting to see people look at Donald Trump and wonder, is this man actually capable? In the same way that they were looking at Biden and wondering, is this man really capable? They're looking at Trump. But the fact is, he's an excellent politician when he wants to be, right?
I mean, sure. When it's more fun, though, when he's like kind of freewheeling and seems like he's into it and he's quote unquote playing the hits, that's different than what I feel like we've seen this last week. He does not seem to be someone who's out there.
enjoying it. I think because he knows his lead has started to evaporate. I think he has much more fun when he's ahead than when he's behind.
And he's not disciplined and never has been. He's never been someone who can actually execute a plan. At the very most, at the very best, he can sometimes lay low when he's ahead.
When he's ahead, he can kind of be like, okay, I'm going to back off. But this situation of being behind. and needing to make up ground and do so in a disciplined and coordinated manner, that, by all indication, is beyond his capacity. Right, so you're seeing the old is his. So, John, can he stick to policy issues?
Do you see him capable of it? He's never... Lots of issues. He's never been able to. I mean, I think it's really going to come down to how he can handle the debates.
I think that despite the, again, the crazy mix in with the policy arguments, his debate performances in 2020 and 2016 were wildly disparate. And I think if he can put in solid debate performances, that could help him turn things around. So what should he do?
Go ahead. What should he do? I have a prediction, though.
I actually think that the next debate is going to be another one of these very defining debates. And I think he's going to lose. And I think he's going to lose badly. And I... And I think simply because of the comparison. All right.
But to talk about the debates, Christian, what is it? What do both of them need to do and what do both of them need to avoid? Well, what Trump needs to do is stay on policy.
Again, easier said than done. Understanding this is Donald Trump we're talking about. But the economy is still an issue where when you ask voters, which party do you trust more? They still say Republicans on the economy.
They still say Republicans on issues like immigration. There are a lot of issues that Trump, if he can stay focused on them. He could put some points on the board, and especially if he presses Harris on, look, I've always been in the same place on immigration and you haven't.
He could mix it up and score some points, but that's a really big if. What about her? This is going to be very different. What about Vice President Harris?
So what I think she needs to do is not let Donald Trump rattle her. I think she needs to, for those voters who are saying, I've heard that you're very progressive. I've heard that you are way outside the mainstream. I've heard that you hold some views that seem like I just can't go there with you.
I think she needs to speak to those voters because she's clearly, she has locked up the Democratic base. She does not need to speak to progressives and rally them anymore. She's going to have to speak to that middle in the debate.
What about, what do you think she needs to do? I think that's exactly right. I think that the debate is an opportunity for her to.
not introduce herself to the national team, but really say, you know, this is who I am. Here's why you should not be afraid of me being president. I think it's an opportunity to lean into her background and persona as a prosecutor. I would say on sort of a tactical level, don't get bogged down in whatever Trump is saying.
I think Democrats habitually make this mistake in debates of trying to, like, answer when the goal is to attack and. Present yourself. And also Funt Ant is working for her, Funtt. You know, that was, of course, in SNL.
What do you think she needs? Very quickly, Lulu. Yeah, I think she needs to really stay on message.
I think she needs to try and address exactly that, the sort of median voter. And I also think she does need to show some joy and some personality. She's working. And to lean in to her gender, you know, because that's a place where Donald Trump is very weak. All right.