Trump making crucial error – again – heading into debate: ex-president's White House aide

One of Donald Trump's former White House aides cautioned that he was setting up Kamala Harris to make a positive impression at their first debate.

The former president has frustrated his campaign team and other Republicans by personally attacking Harris as unintelligent and unable to talk off the cuff, and his former White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah Griffin told CNN that Trump was setting expectations too low for voters who may not know much about her.

"Ahead of the debate, they're going to pivot to, suddenly, 'Kamala Harris is such an accomplished federal prosecutor and she's likely going to be a very formidable debate opponent,' because they've learned this before," Griffin said. "You don't set expectations low by insulting someone's intelligence. This is a former attorney general, former, you know, United States senator, somebody who is a good communicator, I would argue, is actually a more apt communicator than Donald Trump is. He has struggled in debates when he makes things personal and when he leans into grievance."

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"We forget his performance against [president Joe] Biden was hardly stellar," Griffin added. "He just happened to be up against Biden, who really floundered in that debate, so I think she's a formidable opponent. He needs to be actually preparing and he's always struggled to stay on message in debates."

Trump's not even able to stay on message at his rallies, speeches and press conferences, where he's not facing an opponent who might knock him off balance, Griffin said.

"We've seen much, much more of him just going back to Trump being Trump, and not being able to stay on message, [in] this cycle," Griffin said. "I mean, even the speeches that he gives, 90-minute press conferences, where he briefly mentioned the economy and then starts pivoting into name calling, birds being killed by windmills, and whatever – he's really struggling to, frankly, like, stick with a coherent thought."

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