Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Hillary Clinton Gets Shoutout For Her Advice To Harris On How To 'Rattle' Trump During Debate

Hillary Clinton; Screenshots of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris
Theo Wargo/WireImage; ABC

Prior to the debate, Clinton spoke with 'The New York Times' about how Harris should approach Trump during the debate, saying, 'She should bait him'—and Harris did just that on Tuesday night.

Ahead of Tuesday night's presidential debate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Vice President Kamala Harris advice on how to "rattle" former President Donald Trump—and her words paid off given how much Harris succeeded.

On Saturday, three days before the highly anticipated event, Clinton said in a New York Times interview that Trump would employ "a scorched-earth approach and will just try to tear her [Harris] down, which is his usual go-to strategy.”


Then she pointed out exactly what Harris should do to throw Trump off his game:

“She just should not be baited. She should bait him. He can be rattled. He doesn’t know how to respond to substantive, direct attacks.”

Clinton is well aware of this, given Trump’s tendency to interrupt his political opponents during debates. When she ran against him in 2016, the election cycle was partly defined by the moderators' struggles to manage Trump's confrontational style.

In a September 2016 debate against Clinton, Vox found that Trump interrupted her 51 times, including 25 interruptions in the first 26 minutes. Clinton interrupted Trump 17 times during the same debate.

And four years later, according to The Washington Post’s The FixThe Fix, Trump was responsible for over three-fourths of the interruptions during a 2020 debate, while Biden accounted for the remaining interruptions.

Clinton even pointed out in a 2016 tweet in which she quoted herself how easy it is to "bait" Trump.

To illustrate her point, Clinton referenced an October 2016 debate moment when she labeled Trump a “puppet” for Russian President Vladimir Putin, using it as an example of how to highlight Trump’s vulnerabilities:

“I mean, when I said he was a Russian puppet and he just sputtered onstage. I think that’s an example of how you get out a fact about him that really unnerves him.”

Harris clearly took Clinton's advice.

Early on, Trump did indeed "sputter" after Harris suggested his rallies are so boring that his own supporters are leaving them, which of course miffed a man with a historic obsession with crowd sizes who as recently as last week said it's "virtually impossible" to speak at rallies so long without anyone leaving.

Rather than talk about policy—which his GOP allies have begged him to do for weeks—Trump spent minutes of valuable airtime defending the entertainment value of his rallies.

And things only unraveled further from there as Trump jumped from one angry, outlandish claim to the next.

At one point, Trump even claimed that Harris believes in abortion "after the ninth month," repeating the outrageous claims that blue states allow an abortion to be performed after the baby is born—which would be murder. There is no state, nor has there ever been, anywhere in this country that allows babies to be killed after they're born.

And perhaps most egregiously, Trump promoted the unfounded allegation that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were consuming dogs and other household pets in response to a question about immigration:

"They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame."

All of these statements—and more—served as crystal clear examples of Trump's willingness to traffic in misinformation, especially as it pertains to a nation he once infamously described as a "s**thole country."

So it paid off—and many were willing to give Clinton credit where credit is due.



According to a CNN poll of debate watchers conducted by SSRS, registered voters broadly agree that Harris outperformed Trump. The poll also indicated that she exceeded both debate watchers’ expectations for her performance and those for Biden’s earlier debate against Trump.

Debate watchers favored Harris over Trump by a margin of 63% to 37% in terms of performance during the debate. Before the debate, voters were evenly split, with 50% predicting Harris would perform better and 50% predicting Trump would.

After the debate, 96% of Harris supporters felt their candidate performed better, while 69% of Trump’s supporters believed he had a stronger performance.

More from News/2024-election

Billy McFarland
Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Billy McFarland Just Auctioned Off The Fyre Festival Brand On eBay—And McFarland's Reaction Says It All

You know Billy McFarland, the supposed impresario who went to jail when his tropical Fyre Festival music bash went up in flames and stranded hundreds of people on a completely deserted Caribbean island?

Well, the ultimate grifter is out of jail, and after yet another failed attempt at scamming people with a reborn Fyre Festival in 2024, he's now conned someone into buying the fest's brand—by auctioning it off on eBay.

Keep ReadingShow less
Barack Obama; Michelle Obama
IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson/YouTube

Barack And Michelle Obama Shoot Down Divorce Rumors: 'Don't Make Me Cry Now'

On Wednesday, former Democratic President Barack Obama appeared on the IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson podcast. In the almost one and a half hour episode, the former POTUS, FLOTUS, and Mrs. Obama's elder brother covered a number of topics.

But one that drew considerable attention was when the former first couple addressed rumors of a possible divorce in their future.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nick Offerman
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO

Nick Offerman Explains Why Ron Swanson Would Have 'Despised Trump' In Response To 'Dumb' Fan Theory

Speaking to IndieWire, actor Nick Offerman, best known for playing Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, put to rest "dumb" fan theories that the iconic character, a proud libertarian, would have backed President Donald Trump and his administration.

Offerman portrayed Ron on all seven seasons of the NBC sitcom, which aired 126 episodes from 2009 to 2015. He is protective of the character and has pushed back against efforts to co-opt Ron Swanson for causes the character would not endorse.

Keep ReadingShow less

Disturbing Facts People Wish They Could Unlearn

Why are humans gluttons for punishment?

Maybe it's just me.

Keep ReadingShow less
A young, pretty red-haired girl hides her mouth and looks sheepishly into the camera. She stands in front of a dark green background.
Photo by JJ Jordan on Unsplash

People Who Slept With Their Friend's Parent Explain How It All Went Down

The taboos of sex are often too tempting to resist.

One of the greatest pulls is the option to sleep with one (or more) of your friend's hot parents.

Keep ReadingShow less