Alyssa Farah Griffin Busts Trump’s ‘Terrible’ Debate Move: ‘Entirely The Wrong Tact’
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former communications director in Donald Trump’s White House, suggested that the former president’s taunting of President Joe Biden over their newly announced presidential debates was a bad move.
On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” anchor Wolf Blitzer said the presumptive GOP nominee is “setting very low expectations” ahead of the June and September debates with his baseless claim that Biden “can’t put two sentences together.”
Griffin said, “That’s a terrible strategy.”
She recalled Trump’s similar tactic before Biden’s State of the Union address when his campaign “essentially said, ‘If he doesn’t keel over at the podium.’ That was the bar that they set.”
When Biden “outperformed expectations” at the SOTU, he “got a bump,” said Griffin. Trump’s attacks were “entirely the wrong tact.”
The 2024 election debates will be different because they’ll be “for those sort of double-haters, those swing voters who aren’t necessarily happy with either candidate but we know are going to decide this election,” said Griffin.
But which of the candidates benefits the most remains to be seen, she added.
Prez debates don’t historically move the needle in a big way. BUT these debates cd be significant for either candidate to win over the “double haters.”
The # of voters who are legitimately undecided in this rematch is historically small - but they’ll decide the race.— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) May 15, 2024
Hard to say who the format helps/hurts. Trump thrives in front of a crowd but not having one may help him be less bombastic. Biden’s a creature of the Senate & used to speaking to no audience. But this format could also make him appear less energetic than feeding off a crowd.
— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) May 15, 2024
Biden is “good when he’s not in front of a big audience,” Griffin noted. “Donald Trump loves a big audience, but at the same time, Donald Trump actually might be a bit more scaled back in a more intimate setting.”
Griffin expanded on that theme on X, formerly Twitter, where she said the debates could “be significant for either candidate” because the number of voters “who are legitimately undecided in this rematch is historically small.”
CNN will host its debate on June 27. ABC’s debate will take place on Sept. 10.
Trump’s suggestion of a Fox News-hosted debate has so far been ignored by the Biden campaign.
