September 7, 2024

Hillary Clinton can't talk straight about whether Kamala Harris has sought out her advice on how to debate Donald Trump.

I'm reading "Hillary Clinton Has Advice on Debating Trump: ‘He Can Be Rattled’/The 2016 Democratic nominee fell short to Donald Trump, but she had strong debate moments against him. In an interview, she offered some thoughts for Kamala Harris" (NYT).
"The consensus was that I won all three debates and that I was well prepared," Mrs. Clinton said.
That rather suggests that she doesn't have the secret to besting Trump in a debate. Everyone around her told her she was winning, so she knows what it means to win. Obviously not.

And this was funny:
Have you talked with Harris about this debate?

He doesn’t answer the questions. He doesn’t come with any specifics. It appears from the reporting that he is going with a scorched-earth approach and will just try to tear her down, which is his usual go-to strategy.

She didn't answer the question when she answered a question by saying "He doesn’t answer the questions." The question was "Have you talked with Harris about this debate?" I'm going to infer that the answer is no. I can also infer that one piece of advice she would give KH if she were asked is: Any question you don't want to have to answer can be reimagined as a question you do feel comfortable answering.

Let me say that, as a law professor, going into every exam, I told students that they may feel tempted to do that, but if they do, they will not get credit. I'm asking the question because it is sufficiently difficult, and you'll need to demonstrate some skill and depth of knowledge to answer it, and you need to face up to my question, not substitute a question of your own that my question reminds you of and that you can easily see how to answer. 

The NYT interviewer, Reid J. Epstein, repeats the question Clinton evaded. 

He says: "Have you talked with Harris about how to approach the debate?" Hillary finds a different way to be evasive! How funny! She begins: "I talked with her about a number of things."

It might seem easy to use language to avoid either lying or telling the truth, but just as the law professors know when students do that on exams, I think the people know when you're not giving them straight talk. And I think the more you do that — however elegantly fluent you think your speech is — the more you repel people, even if they don't know exactly why they don't like you. 

So you "talked with her about a number of things." Did you talk to her about the debate? That's the question. As she did when asked the question the first time, Hillary proceeds to offer the advice she purportedly would give if she were asked:

She just should not be baited. She should bait him. He can be rattled. He doesn’t know how to respond to substantive, direct attacks....

"He doesn't know how to respond," she says, not responding to the question asked.

By the way, what do you think of the advice bait and don't be baited? Is that good advice to Kamala Harris facing Donald Trump? I'm sure it will be easy for her advisers to prepare bait for her to be ready to dangle, but Trump comes up with fresh bait spontaneously. 

52 comments:

Achilles said...

If Hillary had won the debates she would have won the election going away. She was given so much free press during the general it should have been a walk.

But Hillary was a terrible politician and she did not realize that Trump was not another Bush clone GOPe failure.

She and other stupid people pretend it was the Russians fault after drinking a bunch of wine.

Narayanan said...

Neither allowed people to look into their face

Deep State Reformer said...

"After the election" ? This farce of an election is never going to be over. For whoever prevails it will be by means other than legitimate ballots.

Whiskeybum said...

She didn't answer the question when she answered a question by saying "He doesn’t answer the questions."

Spot on

Michael said...

I'm so old I remember when the Clintons were the future of the Democratic Party. Then Hillary blew the '08 primary and the '16 general shortly followed by Bill getting sidelined by #metoo. Hillary dodging that question highlights how impotent and irrelevant the Clintons have become in Democratic circles.

narciso said...

A perpetual corrupt liar walks into a bar...

gilbar said...

Maybe, the Democrat Party should be looking Ahead.. NOT Behind?
They've made themselves the Affluent White Female Urban Liberal (awful) party.
Maybe, that's not a winning strategy?
The Future BELONGS to Those Who SHOW UP

Temujin said...

That was 2016, when Trump was new. And he still did quite well against the 'seasoned veteran' politico. Not only did he do well, but he had the line of the election season when he quipped that we should call the Russians to get Hillary's missing emails- referring of course to her deleted 30,000 emails. I found that hilarious. Democrats were appalled and claimed that it showed DJT was in cahoots with the Russians, which led to the an impeachment. And some people think Democrats have no sense of humor.

Kamala is terrified of this debate. There is nothing Hillary could say to her to tamp down the terror.

Dixcus said...

"It appears from the reporting that has already been written that the narrative will be that he just went scorched Earth on her and beat up on her record and tried to tear her down ... you know, like an abusive husband. He's abusive ... just like a husband." - Hillary Clinton

It should be noted that her husband, Bill Clinton, was best pals with Jeffrey Epstein and Epstein had a painting of him wearing the infamous blue dress that a White House intern preserved with his sperm on it after she blew him in the Oval Office.

Epstein was arrested for arranging underage girls to have sex with powerful men. None of the powerful men have been arrested. Epstein was murdered in his jail cell after authorities turned off all the cameras and blamed two black guards.

Christopher B said...

Slightly tinfoil hat theory (though I think in line with the Professor's prediction) ... Harris hasn't asked Hillary for advice because she isn't doing any prep and is going to duck out of the debate.

More realistically, why would Harris need to ask? As detailed in a previous thread by another commenter, Trump's done at least fifteen debates between the 2016 primary, the 2016 and 2020 general elections, as well as the one against Biden earlier this year, all on tape. What's Hillary going to add to that, especially if she really thinks she 'won' all the debates (and I suspect she's delusional enough to think she did.)

Dave Begley said...

Yeah, Hillary maybe according to your people you won all three debates but you lost the election and that’s the only thing that matters.

What a loser she is. The intern gave her husband blow jobs in their house and Hillary stayed married to Bill because she wanted political power and she ultimately failed at that. Hillary Clinton: Failed Feminist Icon.

gilbar said...

Maybe a rapist pedophile and his alcoholic wife AREN'T the roll models They THINK They are?

gspencer said...

"Any question you don't want to have to answer can be reimagined as a question you do feel comfortable answering."

Makes sense coming from a "leader" of a political party which says that pretending to be something that you are not is finding the truth.

Yeah Right Sure said...

So one wonders how much wine is required for HRC to fall asleep at night, knowing she is a pariah and a laughingstock to her party. The sole reason to ask her "What do you suggest?" is to affirm that doing the opposite is the correct strategy.

Dixcus said...

People remember ONE THING from the Hillary Clinton debate with Donald Trump and that was Trump saying:

"Yeah, because you'd be in jail." He was threatening to put Clinton in jail if elected, and he should have. I bet he definitely regrets not doing that. She went on to poison his Presidency by creating the fake "Russian Collusion" hoax that the FBI used as a pretext to spy on a sitting President.

Dixcus said...

What's coming after this farce of an election is a Civil War waged against the Democrats in power.

Ralph L said...

Lex Fridman asked Trump some pertinent questions for possible voters, and he also evaded answering for what he wanted to talk about. I could think of strong answers, so someone in Trump's posse should have.

My favorite imaginary image of 2017 was Hillary nodding sagely at her daily intelligence briefing.

tim maguire said...

The press kept rescuing her, but she couldn’t stay rescued. Whether it was health (her collapse on the way to her car) or her legal problems, she was the rock to the press’ Sisyphus.

tim maguire said...

The press kept rescuing her, but she couldn’t stay rescued. Whether it was health (her collapse on the way to her car) or her legal problems, she was the rock to the press’ Sisyphus.

Bob Boyd said...

Putin helped Trump defeat Hillery. He diddled the election...I meant meddled. He meddled in our election. Not believing Hillary won is gender-based violence or GBV, as it's called...by people who talk about it like, knowingly. Incidentally, diddling can also be called GBV sometimes, but not always. It just depends.
Anyway, if I was in a position to ask Hillary questions, I wouldn't. I'd just leave and go somewhere else.

Gerda Sprinchorn said...

"you need to face up to my question, not substitute a question of your own"

In court, you face a severe downside from not answering a question because the other side can then say "it is undisputed that ...." and then you lose on that point. If you don't deny a point, you are deemed to admit it.

In debate, you can't be held accountable that way because there is no judge passing judgment. In debate, you do, however, frustrate the listener. I know I was always frustrated by Hillary's evasiveness. Remember "What does it matter now"? Trump does this all the time too, and it makes him sound pompous.

tcrosse said...

All her life people told Hillary how smart she was, and she as stupid enough to believe them.

Breezy said...

Hillary lost to Trump. Why would Harris want advice from her?

Hillary is simply posing as a relevant player, but she’s not one.

Randomizer said...

"Any question you don't want to have to answer can be reimagined as a question you do feel comfortable answering."

Isn't that Interview Tactic #1? The high school where I taught, had a Senior Interview Day. Each senior had a mock interview/reflection with a panel of teachers and community members. I taught them to specifically do that. If you have a good answer for something close to what was asked, then redirect.

"Let me say that, as a law professor, going into every exam, I told students that they may feel tempted to do that, but if they do, they will not get credit."

As an AP Physics teacher, my advice was the opposite. The College Board tended to put a few questions on the AP test that were convoluted, obscure or vague.

If you can't solve the question asked, re-imagine it as something similar that you can answer. Not answering guarantees zero points. If the re-imagined problem is similar, the student may write some equations or concepts that are relevant. Partial credit is better than no credit.

mccullough said...

Hillary lost. No one seeks her advice

Aggie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aggie said...

Trump won all of the debates with Hillary when he said "....because you'd be in jail". It was a sore blow because everyone knew it was probably a reasonable assessment of her character. It was perfect gamesmanship in a non-contact sport, and the expression on her face afterwards acknowledged that he could think on his feet better than she could, and she knew it.

Narayanan said...

did not know guards were black ! are tehy alive and well? or 'alphabet-a'cides

doctrev said...

Hillary Clinton is no longer the presidential nominee whose career was most decisively ended by a debate with Donald Trump. But the Harris campaign is quite right to keep her far away from this. Liberals have never forgiven Clinton for losing, besides her rabid partisans.

Narayanan said...

could Hillary have reposte'd with I would come out alive ? or would she?

Leland said...

I guess those that didn't get credit on the exam became politicians because counterfactual to the exam, they proved apt at spinning. And if they could spin and say nothing at all, they became Democrats.

Butkus51 said...

She even lied about her favorite baseball team. If you asked her what color is her favorite, she would lie.

Liars lie

Dogma and Pony Show said...

The claim that Trump isn't "specific" in discussing policy shows that Hillary still clueless about how politics has changed since her husband was president. Trump's campaign in 2016 was about one simple thing: It was the idea that America's government should stop running the country as if it were a charity set up for the benefit of the rest of the world. This notion was and is 180 degrees opposed to the globalist mentality of both the dems and the GOP establishment. If the presidential contest were between a dem and a GOP-e type republican, then "specifics" would be an important way of differentiating one candidate from the other. But Trump's America-first message makes the "3-point plan" specifics that Al Gore and his generation used to try to sell themselves seem ridiculously out of touch. The choice now is between two radically different visions of what the government should be doing. It's not a choice between two basically like-minded candidates who have somewhat different priorities and competencies in terms of achieving their shared policy goals.

RMc said...

Hillary doesn't particularly want Kamala as president; after all, it was *she* who should've been the first woman president, not her. (Hell, she probably thinks she should be this year's nominee: at 76, she's still younger than Trump!)

Howard said...

It's good news for the Democrats chances if Kamala Harris is not getting any debate advice from Hillary Clinton.

Just an old country lawyer said...

If the debate consisted of the candidates cross examining each other, deflection and redirection would be much more difficult to get get away with. Even better would be a retired trial judge who hates everybody (I can supply a few names) acting as moderator ready to utter those sweet words: "The witness is directed to answer the question."

Lazarus said...

The first suggestion is good. No candidates would accept the second, and with good reason. Moderators are too full of themselves as it is.

tolkein said...

I had thought Harris would avoid the debate. but just read that the Alvin Bragg case sentencing has been postponed until after the election. I had thought Trump was sure to be jailed on 18th September. I was wrong. Maybe there will be a debate, after all.

Peachy said...

Hillary Clinton is an election denier.
Hillary Clinton set up and used a Private Server - to serve her dark financial needs.
Dark international lobbying money goes to Clinton Foundation coffers... especially during Corrupt Democrat administrations..

That reason alone why Hillary is pro-Kamala.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Did Shrillary give this interview from her oval office in an Italian mall? What a smug, dumb cunt she is.

Lazarus said...

In June, before the Trump-Biden debate, Allan Lichtman (the '13 Keys to the Presidency' guy) was saying that debates don't matter. He was also saying that Hillary Clinton won all three debates in 2016. I don't remember her coming out of them with decisive wins and cloaked in glory. The real verdict comes from people outside the candidate's bubble. Clinton may have irritated and turned off voters she needed to win.

The unasked question is "What about 2008?" Does Clinton think she bested Barack Obama? Does she think that he beat her fairly and squarely? Did it help when Donna Brazile sent her the CNN debate questions? Does she advise that Kamala Harris try to get similar help?

BothSidesNow said...

On Hillary speak, the New York Times Book Review runs a feature every week where they ask well-known folks to write about who they are reading. In the runup to her run against Trump, Hillary was featured. Her entry could be taught in a rhetoric class on the day where the subject was "inauthentic speech." If she had read even 10% of what she claimed to have read, she would have had very little time to do anything else. One small, trivial, but telling example of Hillary speak.

tcrosse said...

I would not have liked to be the one to tell Hillary she lost a debate.

JK Brown said...

I think Trump should look for the opportunity that he took with Biden

"I don't what she was talking about and I don't think she does either"

Earnest Prole said...

Hillary Clinton is electoral poison; the idea she can be of assistance to Kamala Harris is naive to the point of political malpractice.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

On the 2016 debates, Hillary Clinton won the first debate against Donald Trump, lost the second, and tied the third. Joe Biden won his two debates against Donald Trump in 2020, and they both lost the June 2024 debate.

phantommut said...

Possibly off target but I'd still bet against the debate happening at all. Harris is going to find any excuse to avoid the risk of failure.

She got Tulsi'd once. Ain't gonna happen again.

Deep State Reformer said...

The Dems are the party of the "new Americans" and they can and will show up on election day too or at least their ballots will . IYKYK. The remnant of American WP is less and less a factor these days.

Michael K said...

How about telling her she lost the election ? A TV set went to Heaven that night.

rehajm said...

There were all those embedded reporters with Hillary on election night documenting history in photo and video and word. The Clintons must have had them all killed…

rehajm said...

Is the SNL line ‘I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy!’ part of her strategy?

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

If Hilary is like Trump, it must be Trump's fault.