What Was Trump’s Masterstroke? Believe It or Not, It Wasn’t Debating Biden; Trump Stays Relatively Quiet, Unseen as Biden Struggles to Save Political Future: “We’re trying something new and shutting up,” One Source Said of the Strategy

What Was Trump’s Masterstroke? Believe It or Not, It Wasn’t Debating Biden:

Last month’s debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump will likely go down in history as the most consequential debate in presidential politics. I’m still surprised that Biden showed up. Trump had been calling on Biden to debate for months, eventually prompting Biden to issue his own challenge. But shaming Biden into showing up for the debate was not Trump’s masterstroke.

Biden had been facing questions about his competence for a long time, and refusing to debate simply wasn’t an option. It would be a de facto admission that he couldn’t handle it. So the Biden campaign attempted to turn the tables on Trump and accepted the debate, complete with a laundry list of rules to follow, including muting mics and only letting pro-Biden networks host. The terms so ridiculously favored Biden that it would have been well within reason for Trump to refuse or to negotiate different terms. He didn’t. He accepted immediately.

Believe it or not, there were plenty of voices on the right who believed that Trump had nothing to gain by debating Biden. Conventional wisdom held that expectations were so low that all Biden had to do was demonstrate a modicum of competence to regain traction in the election. He didn’t, and now the campaign is in chaos as Biden is fending off calls from within the party to drop out.

Again, debating Biden wasn’t the genius move from Trump — it’s his relative silence since. You may have noticed that we’ve heard little from Trump since the debate. In a move completely uncharacteristic of Trump, he’s been largely staying out of the public. Instead, he’s letting the national conversation about Biden’s mental fitness carry on without any distraction from him. —>READ MORE HERE (or HERE)

Trump stays relatively quiet, unseen as Biden struggles to save political future:

“We’re trying something new and shutting up,” one source said of the strategy.

Feeling confident after last week’s debate, former President Donald Trump is uncharacteristically staying out of the public eye while questions swirl about President Joe Biden’s mental fitness and status of his reelection campaign.

“We’re trying something new and shutting up,” is how one source described the Trump team’s strategy.

Multiple sources close to Trump tell ABC News they’re watching and waiting to see how Biden and his campaign answer tough questions about his political future.

Biden will have a critical opportunity to do so when he has a sit-down interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday. The first excerpts will air on “World News Tonight” and then the interview will be broadcast in its entirety in a prime-time ABC network special on Friday evening at 8 p.m. ET.

The White House has repeated this week that Biden is not considering stepping down.

Trump and his campaign have publicly contended that Biden will end up being the Democratic nominee, while at the same time arguing he’s not competent enough to survive through November.

However sources say the campaign is preparing for all scenarios, going on to tout Trump’s debate performance and polling they feel is tracking in their direction.

As an example of that, the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee have spent the week highlighting what it said were Vice President Kamala Harris’ gaffes and slamming her record. It comes as buzz has built around Harris as a possible Biden replacement should he withdraw.

“Joe Biden is weak, failed, dishonest, and not fit for the White House,” senior campaign advisers Chris Lacivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a statement. “Every one of them has lied about Joe Biden’s cognitive state and supported his disastrous policies over the past four years, especially Cackling Copilot Kamala Harris.” —>READ MORE HERE

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