According to Republican Party strategist Scott Jennings, for Donald Trump to be successful in his debate with Joe Biden on June 27, he needs to rein himself in, "stay over the target" — and let the president talk.
Sitting on a panel with Democratic strategist David Axelrod and CNN's John Berman, Jennings stated Trump's worst enemy too often is himself and he should let Biden take the lead — and possibly expose himself to new concerns about his age.
After saying Trump needs to "avoid the disaster" of the 2020 debate, Jennings added that, this time, "The biggest risk is being overly aggressive, getting bogged down in things that aren't what is on the minds of the American people. And the reason he's winning is because of inflation. The reason he's winning is because of immigration and the reason he's winning is because people have grave doubts about Joe Biden's ability to serve another term."
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"So you have to keep the debate on those grounds," he advised. "If you willingly wander off into some other area, it could be a bad night for you and give Biden what he needs, which is a change in the trajectory of this campaign."
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With Democrat Axelrod warning the former president that being "self-absorbed and nasty in this debate ... will be a problem for him," Jennings added that Biden didn't need to achieve a lot to be successful in the debate.
"I think people have already sort of decided he's not up to this, so he does have a chance to jump over that bar. And so if you're Trump, how do you him along at not jumping over the bar? That's by letting him talk."
"I mean, the problem with Biden in a lot of his public appearances is the more he talks, the worse it gets," he elaborated before advising Trump to be disciplined and see if "Biden can unspool in a way that would lead people to believe, 'Yep. I've been thinking he's not up to it and that was confirmed tonight for Trump,'"
As for Trump he suggested, "You just don't want to misspeak constantly and let the narrative of the night be something like, 'Oh, Trump misspoke more than Biden' or 'Trump mixed up names' in the same way he says Biden does. You don't want the narrative to be they both had problems."
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