Debate night is finally here. Tonight on ABC News, the first and quite possibly only presidential debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. What an evening it is probably going to be at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. There are no current other plans, at least currently set in stone for another debate to be held. So it is entirely possible. In fact, if I can go out on a limb, I think it is actually going to be outright likely that this is going to be the only presidential debate of this current cycle. Just as a reminder, this is the first presidential cycle in decades, in four to five decades, where the commission that normally organizes the presidential debate is actually not having a role because both of the political parties and both of the campaigns essentially stuck their middle finger to the commission on presidential debates. Therefore, this is being organized just independently via coordination and communication from the campaigns directly with the networks and so forth. So what can we expect tonight? Well, the media and Kamala Harris, they have a very clear agenda and that agenda is to talk about the only two issues or frankly largely non-issues as the case may be. These are the only two issues that currently pull well for them and then meditate in their favor when the question is tossed out of the public. Those two issues, or again, non-issues as the case may be, are so-called democracy and abortion. Those are currently the two issues where most public polling shows that a plurality or majority of those polled agree with the Harris-Walls ticket on those issues to the exclusion of the Trump Vans ticket. Let's just take each of these issues just briefly one by one and then talk about what Donald Trump should make sure to talk about this evening. So-called democracy, I mean, this is just utterly ludicrous, but you know that what the media's narrative is of the 2020 election, they say that Donald Trump tried to prevent a free and fair transfer of power that he tried to thwart democracy, that he is a unique historical threat to our constitutional order, all of this garbage. And as I've been saying for many months now, there is one very, very simple thing that Donald Trump is going to have to say tonight on ABC News when this talking point inevitably comes off, whether the point is raised by the moderators, world news tonight, David Muir and ABC News Live Prime Anchor, Lindsey Davis, whether or not the question is raised from Muir and Davis, or it comes from the mouth of Kathleen Kamala Harris herself, when that question inevitably gets raised, Donald Trump is going to have a very simple and straightforward response that he can and ought to say. And that response is as follows. It is, look, there is one candidate on this stage who is currently the vice president of the United States, presiding over a department of justice that is actively, that is actively prosecuting and trying to throw in jail bankrupt and incarcerate the political opposition. And guess what, folks, my fellow Americans, it's not me, it's her. If the Biden Harris administration that has there on the spot, street level assassin, so-called special counsel, Jack Smith, who is trying to incarcerate Donald Trump by any means necessary. He's still pursuing his case ludicrously, as the case may be, in Washington, D.C. If Donald Trump can look straight into the camera and deliver that particular line convincingly, there's no coming back from that. They'll try their other talking points. Oh, no one is above the law. You tried to steal an election. No. At the end of the day, there is one candidate there whose DOJ is prosecuting the other. And you cannot possibly question that. You cannot call into question. You cannot possibly criticize that because it's literally just empirically true. So that is, frankly, all that Donald Trump has to be ready to say on that. What you do not do when the question of democracy comes up, what you definitely do not do is get into the nitty gritty details of trying to relitigate the 2020 election. Do not talk about ballot harvesting. Do not talk about the drop boxes. Do not talk about the fact how there was a 4 a.m. ballot dump in a county in Wisconsin or Michigan and how Fox News called Arizona too early. No, do not talk about any of that. You shouldn't be talking about that all along. That is not what the people tuned in tomorrow and I want to hear. So when so-called democracy comes up, that's all you have to say. When the question of abortion comes up, because we know that it's going to, this is the really one substantive issue that current polling suggests is largely favored by the American people for the Democratic ticket and the Democratic Party in general right now. As a pro lifer, I wish that that were not the case to be clear. And it saddens me that America is a country right now that on an up or down referendum when it comes to the abortion question is seemingly more in the camp of a radical, radical abortion up until birth or God forbid, even after birth platform and ticket rather than the party of prudential regulations and limitations on the snuffing out of an unborn human life that saddens me greatly. But nonetheless, this is straightforward to advice 101. I quote, Sun Su here all the time. Sun Su is the ancient Chinese military strategist. He famously said a very long time ago that a battle is won before it is fought and it is won by choosing the terrain on which it is fought. What that means is that the media, the moderators tonight on ABC News and Kamala Harris herself, they are going to be trying really, really, really hard. To follow Sun Su's advice and to get this conversation. To get this conversation focused on the abortion question. Donald Trump do not let them do it. Maybe you have one line, one line saying that the Democrats radical position is that they want to murder unborn children in the womb who have fully formed hearts and lungs and brains and are moving and kicking in the womb. That actually is their position. In fact, they want to have taxpayer support it. So maybe you can have one line to that effect. Other than that, all Trump has to do is reiterate his stance that this is a state question that the fellow government's not going to have anything to do with it. We can agree or disagree on that particular stance. I've had a number of episodes on this show, fleshing that out. It's somewhat of a complicated subject, but he has staked out that clear territory and that's all he has to do tomorrow night. Again, you have the one line talking about the Democrats unambiguous abortion radicalism when it comes to taxpayer funded abortions well into the second and third trimesters of a woman's presidency. And then you say that it's not a federal question. It is a state question. You have stipulated that position time and time again, and then immediately pivot to other issues. That's all you have to do. Those are literally the only two issues that Democrats are going to try to talk about in this debate that Democrats in the media, but I repeat myself, aren't going to try talk about the goal. The goal for Donald Trump is to talk about the issues where the people actually agree with you. Fortunately for Donald Trump, that is the overwhelming majority of the issues out there right now. Frankly, it is all, all from what I can tell of the most important issues. Above all, that is immigration, the economy, inflation, and crime. Those are the issues. All you have to do, Donald Trump, all you have to do is just focus time and time again on those issues. Focus on your own record on those issues, on the border, on immigration, on crime, on the economy, on inflation, and talk about the failures of the Biden administration. If you stick to that, if you stick to that, then you will be in good shape. You want to talk about crime? How about the fact that Kamala Harris, as recently as just a few days go seemingly, supported defunding the police, literally tried to bail out the BLM rioters? And when it comes to immigration, she supported abolishing ICE, trying to decriminalize illegal immigration, make it not even a misdemeanor. She's compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan, supports free healthcare for illegal aliens. I mean, her record is astoundingly radical. How about the fact that when she was Attorney General of California, when she was DA of San Francisco prior to that, how the Bay Area in California as a whole under her, not so vigilant watch? Crime just utterly exploded all over. As San Francisco DA Kamala Harris released illegal aliens, many of whom went on to commit heinous crimes, at least one triple homicide that we've been able to flag, Kamala Harris refused to pursue the death penalty even for cop killers when she was California Attorney General. She has repeatedly, repeatedly said she supports defunding the police. Now she may be claimed that she's flipped on a dime. Look, it doesn't matter that Kamala Harris can't explain the fact that she has flip-flopped on virtually every issue under the sun. When it comes to a fracking ban, to electric vehicle mandates, to BLM, you name it, she has flipped and all that. It's not what it says to actually flip them. It's the fact that she is lying to you. Okay? The viewer of the ABC News debate, the American, the rare American who perhaps is not made up his or her mind when it comes to how they're going to vote at the polls. That American probably cares that one of the two candidates on that debate stage is actively lying to you. Talk about that. Talk about how she is not just a radical, but a lying through her teeth radical. So just focus on the issues. Okay? Look, Donald Trump, we know that he can get into his own head and you're never going to be able to control the guy. That's why he's had a lot of lawyers over the years who have not necessarily considered him their favorite client because he is a very, very, very difficult person for a lawyer, a debate coach, anyone to try to control. He is his own being. But for your own political success, Donald Trump, if nothing else, tonight on ABC News and what quite possibly is going to be the only, quite possibly the only. The woman who on immigration crime, the economy inflation, all the major issues has had a horrific track record, a track record that the American people consistently tell pollsters that they hate and reject if you stick to those four issues, Donald Trump, you are going to have a successful debate tonight. On the other hand, if you let yourself get sucked in to relive again the 2020 election, the ballot harvesting, the mailboxes, the overnight ballot dumps in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, if you let yourself get sucked into that. And if you let yourself get sucked into a debate over the Supreme Court's courageous overturning of Roe v. Wade in the Dobs opinion and the abortion issue more generally, if you let yourself get sucked into that, you are going to set yourself up for failure. So stick to your strong issues, stick to the four issues that we've just named here, immigration crime, economy inflation, stick to that. Talk about how your track record on those four issues was excellent, how the Biden-Harris track record is terrible. And pivot repeatedly when need be back to those issues. You do that, Donald Trump, you're going to win this debate. And after winning that debate, you'll only be in further great shape for victory this November.
