Trump may walk into debate 'trap' as allies fail to prepare him: Conservative analyst

Former President Donald Trump could be headed for disaster in the presidential debates against Vice President Kamala Harris, a conservative National Review commentator said Monday.

A big problem for Trump, Ramesh Ponnuru told CNN's Phil Mattingly, is that while President Joe Biden fumbled on the debate stage earlier in the summer, ultimately leading to his withdrawal from the race, Trump himself didn't have a good performance there either — and his own shortcomings as a candidate will shine through much more clearly if he is debating a higher-energy candidate.

This comes as the campaigns continue to argue over how to set up the debate, with a particular point of disagreement on whether the candidates' mics will be muted while the other is talking — something the Biden campaign had initially agreed to, but that may ultimately have been a boost to Trump.

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"I think people sometimes get too much stuff crammed into their head during the break, but it's that last line that stuck out to me of does he really know his subject here in terms of, he has a new opponent, and there's been a lot of questions about how he would actually address her in a debate setting," said Mattingly.

"Well, I do think it's true that he is not prepping too extensively," said Ponnuru. "I think we can take him at his word on that. And I think that, you know, as you were alluding to some candidates do overprepare. I don't think that would really work for him. I don't think it's anything that's likely to happen."

"I think, though, one thing that people might forget is how poorly he debated, not just in 2020, but even earlier this year against Biden," said Ponnuru. "If Biden's debate performance hadn't been so catastrophically bad, Trump's would have looked pretty bad itself. And so I do wonder whether they are maybe walking into a little bit of a trap here with Harris?"

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