Hillary Clinton gives advice to Joe Biden ahead of presidential debate where she says Trump will exceed expectations if he doesn’t ‘literally light himself on fire’

It is a “waste of time” to try to refute Donald Trump’s arguments on stage in a live presidential debate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton advises in a new op-ed days before President Biden is due to meet his rival in Atlanta.

Clinton faced Trump during the 2016 election. beat him according to snap polls, even as he repeatedly interrupted her, snuck up behind her on stage and criticized her for her email scandal.

Eight years after the riots in which Trump tried to get in her head by bringing Bill Clinton accusers to a debate, Clinton assesses the state of play as Biden, 81, prepares to face Trump, 77, on CNN on Thursday .

“Yet expectations for him are so low that if he doesn’t literally set himself on fire Thursday night, some will say he was being downright presidential,” Clinton wrote in the New York Times.

Trump and his team have worked to deliver on those expectations, with Trump pivoting to highlight some of Biden’s strengths even as he claimed without evidence that Biden will rely on drugs to get “psyched up” for the debate .

“During our three debates in 2016, he unleashed a blizzard of interruptions, insults and lies that overwhelmed the moderators and did a disservice to the voters who tuned in to learn about our visions for the country – including a record 84 million viewers for our first debates. debate.’

“It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments, as in a normal debate. It’s almost impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then descends into barking,” Clinton wrote.

“He interrupts and bullies — even stalks me across the stage at one point — because he wants to appear dominant and throw his opponent off balance,” Clinton wrote. During Thursday’s debate, microphones will be muted for two minutes while each candidate speaks.

(Clinton wrote in a book that her “skin crawled” when Trump followed her across the stage during their second meeting in St. Louis in 2016).

Trump also interrupted her repeatedly during her answers, sometimes grimacing as she spoke. “That makes me smart,” Trump interjected when Clinton said during the 2016 NBC debate that he paid no federal income taxes during the few years his returns were available.

“These ploys will fail if President Biden is as direct and forceful as he was when he railed against Republican insurgents during his State of the Union address in March,” Clinton advises.

“It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments, as in a normal debate,” wrote Clinton, who was regularly interrupted by Trump

Clinton, who later served as Barack Obama’s secretary of state, notes that she debated both Biden and Trump.

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Clinton also mentions what she did to prepare for the election, saying that she “prepared intensely for the debates because I knew I had to find a way to cut through Trump’s antics and help the American people understand what was really at stake.’

‘In ninety-minute mock debates on an identical stage, I practiced maintaining my composure in the face of tough questions and outright lies about my record and character. A longtime advisor played Mr. Trump and did everything he could to provoke, rattle and enrage me. It worked,” she wrote, referring to her longtime assistant Philippe Reines.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Biden is starting from a disadvantage because he cannot possibly spend as much time preparing as I did eight years ago,” Clinton wrote — though Biden booked a week at Camp David for strategy sessions to prepare for the contest.

In a prime-time event that will draw millions, Clinton advises, “As viewers, we should try not to get hung up on the theatrics,” at an event where media analysts will not only be keeping score on points and rebuttals, but also on what kind of endurance Biden shows and whether Trump can keep a cool head.

She urges viewers to use the debates to see the contest as a “choice” — something Biden advisers have pushed for amid concerns that Biden won’t fare well if the race goes to referendum is about the term of office of the unpopular president.

“When you see these two men side by side, think about the real choice in this election. It is between chaos and competence,” writes Clinton, who ultimately lost to Trump even though he defeated him in the popular vote.

‘Mr. Trump has been convicted of 34 crimes and found liable for sexual assault and financial fraud. He has put himself first for a lifetime. If he returns to the White House, we will have more inflation and less freedom,” she wrote.

If her own article is any guide, Clinton is also hinting that Biden should step up the attacks. “This election is between a convicted criminal seeking revenge and a president delivering results for the American people. Whatever happens in the debate, that’s an easy choice,” she concludes.