Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:18 pm
At Donald Trump’s town hall practice session in New Hampshire on Thursday, the Republican nominee devoted a large chunk of time at the top of the event touting junk poll numbers and complaining about his microphone at the first debate before even mentioning the pending hurricane off the coast of Florida.
While most reputable polling firms show the race clearly shifting in Hillary Clinton’s direction with a month until Election Day, Trump cited junk pollsters like Rasmussen and UPI, which have been heavily favorable to Trump, even during his worst moments in the campaign.
He also touted leads in states that shouldn’t even be questionable, like South Carolina and Georgia – two places that weren’t even in question for Republicans until they nominated an unstable candidate like Trump.
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In true Trump form, he also took shots at the press. The handpicked audience loved it.
Tonight feels like a Trump primary throwback. Lots of interrupting himself to call members of the press liars and tout the polls.
— Sara Murray (@SaraMurray) September 27, 2016
The Republican nominee also complimented the microphone he was given during the town hall and once again complained that the reason he didn’t do well in the first debate was because of a faulty device.
Though everybody in and out of the room knows the event was clearly practice for Sunday night’s faceoff against Clinton, Trump denied it. He claimed he was just holding this town hall to be close to the American people.
“This has nothing to do with Sunday,” Trump insisted, not fooling anyone.
The event, though, was as choreographed as possible, even using a two-minute clock to help Trump with the timing of his answers.
“I said ‘forget debate prep!'” – Trump, at his town hall-style event that comes w/a clock for his responses.
— Sara Murray (@SaraMurray) October 7, 2016
Ultimately, Trump’s public debate preparation turned out to be very similar to the Republican nominee’s normal campaign events – bragging about polls, attacking the media, and talking about he will make things “beautiful” as president.
The only thing that was missing was Trump’s teleprompter and his podium.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
