Why Trump 'still thinks he’s facing Biden': ex-Clinton adviser

This Tuesday night, September 10 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, ABC News will host the first presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

This isn't the first time Trump has participated in a presidential debate in 2024. Although the former president never took part in any of the GOP primary debates, he debated President Joe Biden in late June — and Biden's performance drew so much criticism that Biden eventually ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris for president.

When Democrats rallied around Harris as their 2024 presidential nominee, it changed the dynamics of the race. But former Bill Clinton/Hillary Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal, in an op-ed published by The Guardian on September 10, argues that "subconsciously," Trump "still thinks he's facing Biden" as he goes into the debate in Philly.

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Blumenthal stresses, "Trump didn't want, much less imagine, a debate with Harris…. Trump confuses the faded Biden with the looming Harris. Either he feels Biden is his real opponent or he must make her into Biden to return to the race he expected. His template can't be altered. Make Harris Biden again."

Treating Harris like Biden, according to Blumenthal, is a disadvantage for Trump. And the ex-Clintons adviser argues that another disadvantage for Trump is a tendency to aggressively play to his hardcore MAGA base when he needs to be winning over swing voters and independents.

"This election, like all elections for him, is a turnout base election," Blumenthal explains. "He must scrape up every possible low-information voter from every cave with an appeal to grievance. He will never reach the lofty level of a 50 percent majority. He will certainly lose the popular vote by millions as he did in 2016 and 2020."

The former Clintons adviser continues, "His fundraising is half that of Kamala Harris'. He has outsourced his ground game to political action committees with no experience at getting out the vote, headed by the conspiracist chatterbox Charlie Kirk — who called George Floyd 'a scumbag' — and the Nazi-fascinated space cadet Elon Musk."

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Sidney Blumenthal's full Guardian op-ed is available at this link.