Report: Trump Advisers Fear He Will Launch Racial, Misogynistic, Out-of-Control Attacks on Harris at Debate (i.e. Be Yourself)

Donald Trump And Kamala Harris will face off tomorrow night in Philadelphia for the only scheduled debate between the two candidates before the 2024 election. Neither can make a statement, as he did before the debate. Joe Biden, that his opponent would use performance-enhancing drugs, Trump spent the days leading up to the event complaining that the event was rigged against him. But within the Trump campaign, there was clearly a much bigger fear: that the former president would spend his allotted time attacking Harris with misogynistic, racially based, personal attacks. Or, in other words, that he would be himself.

Guardian Team Trump was reportedly “most concerned about entering the debate against Kamala Harris with the former president in a bad mood, fearing that the erratic Trump might engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in the 2020 presidential election, according to people familiar with the situation.” Worried that Trump would become frustrated and angry, the former president’s advisers reportedly feared that “his worst instincts, to hurling personal insults in the manner in which recent attacks on Harris have become increasingly personal and extreme,” would be exposed. Trump, Guardian notes, has “historically struggled with black women in positions of power, and the campaign is preparing for him not to repeat recent comments questioning Harris’s race or overtly misogynistic comments, and more broadly, if he delivers the long and rambling criticisms that have become a hallmark of his campaigns.”

It’s not hard to see why those around Trump are worried about what he might say on the debate stage. Since Harris became the Democratic nominee, he has:

• She claims that she only recently became black.
• Repeatedly insulting Harris’ intelligence, calling her “barely competent,” saying she “can’t hold a press conference” because “she’s not smart enough,” and claiming she’s “not as smart” as Joe Biden
• Falsely claiming that Harris “could not pass the bar exam” (she passed, on her second try, and was admitted to the California bar a year after graduating from law school)
• Shared another Truth Social user’s post with a photo of Harris. Hillary Clinton and a caption that reads, “Funny how oral sex has had such different effects on both of our careers…”
• Shared a parody video Alanis Morissette song “Ironic” and calls Harris a “fool.” Another lyric says Harris “spent his whole fucking life on his knees,” an image of the former San Francisco mayor. Willie Brown, whom Harris dated in the 90s, appeared on screen

Trump’s only advantage? The two candidates’ mics will be muted when it’s not their turn to speak, potentially limiting some of the worst things he could say.