Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:15 pm
The Trump campaign is trying to get Donald Trump to pay attention by privately telling the media that his debate performance was a disaster.
Katy Tur of NBC News tweeted:
Mood in Trump world is darker than unusual. 1 source says debate was a "disaster." 2nd: might hire debate coaches. 3rd: He's a fast learner.
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— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) September 28, 2016
No one on team Trump is counting him out. They just acknowledge that he wasn't ready the other night.
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) September 28, 2016
Then the inevitable, “everything’s fine” pushback from the campaign:
Different campaign sources push back on dark mood characterization. They say "it's never been better." And fam is very happy w leadership.
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) September 28, 2016
Donald Trump doesn’t listen to his campaign, but he is obsessively devoted to cable news, so it makes perfect sense that his own campaign would try to get a message to him through leaking it to the press.
When sources inside Trump’s own campaign are admitting that the debate was a disaster for them, it was a horrible night. Nobody outside of the most loyal Trump supporters believed the bogus spin that Trump won the debate because he won the rigged online polls.
Trump was so bad in the first debate that if he doesn’t improve in the town hall format, he can probably kiss his chances of winning goodbye. It doesn’t get much worse than the candidate’s own campaign calling the debate a disaster.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association