President Donald Trump discussed his strategy in the upcoming presidential debate during a Tuesday morning back and forth with the hosts of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
Though Trump defended his performance during last month’s first debate with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, it was roundly panned by media who pointed to the president repeatedly interrupting both the former vice president and moderator Chris Wallace.
“What’s gonna change for your strategy?” asked co-host Brian Kilmeade. “Regardless of moderator, format, mic, what’s your strategy? … Are you gonna interrupt less?”
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“Well, Joe lies, and he lies a lot, and he’ll say things that are crazy, and he’ll think people are supposed to believe him,” Trump responded. “And they take ads and they put ads in on things that never happened. Far worse than Hillary. Hillary was a much smarter person than him, but they play a much dirtier game, and she was dirty.”
After some back and forth, Kilmeade pressed on to ask the president if he would take some of his “time and answer the previous question like Mike Pence did and then answer their question?”
“Well, look, I do my own debating,” said Trump. “I do fine, and I do my own debating, and a lot of people said I won.”
“A lot of people thought ‘look, when somebody stands there and he lies, lies, lies,’ I like to challenge it at the time because you don’t have time to go back,” he continued.
Pointing to debate advice from former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer to “interrupt less,” co-host Will Cain asked the president about allowing Biden to “share his ideas” because “America might not be too keen on those ideas.”
“Will you change your strategy in this last debate from your first debate?” asked Cain.
“Well, I may do that,” Trump responded. “Actually, the interesting thing, they said if you let him talk, he’ll lose his chain of thought because he’s gonzo, and I understand that. But I also understand that as he’s going down the line and issuing lies, you know, generally it’s okay to, you know, really attack that. But there is a chain of thought that, you know, there were a lot of people that say let him talk because he loses his train, he loses his train. He loses his mind, frankly.” (RELATED: Donald Trump, Joe Biden Mics Will Be Muted For Portions Of Final Debate)
The final presidential debate will occur on Thursday night, October 22, at Nashville’s Belmont University. Topics announced by moderator Kristen Welker include race in America, climate change, national security, and fighting COVID-19.