Tonight marks the final presidential debate before the election and after bombing the first and skipping the second, Donald Trump desperately needs it go well. Unfortunately for the president’s handlers and those hoping he can pull off a second term, as of Wednesday, Trump had reportedly done little debate prep and famously listens to no one, and therefore would be unlikely to listen to advice like, “Try not to come off as such a horrible person.” But according to new reports, Trump does have one trick up his sleeve:
According to the New York Post, whose Joe Biden coverage of late has been panned by New York Post employees, Tony Bobulinski received a May 2017 email that supposedly came from a business associate of Hunter Biden outlining “renumeration [sic] packages” for a Chinese venture. The email laid out how equity would be divided, with “10” going to “H” for “the big guy,” which Bobulinski claims referred to Joe Biden. Naturally his claim has not been substantiated.
While Trump’s 2016 debate stunt featuring Bill Clinton accusers Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, and Paula Jones as guests made an impact for being outrageous and gross, it seems unlikely tonight’s gambit will have the same effect, given that (1) Trump and company have been pushing the baseless Biden family-corruption plotline for sometime and it appears to have made no difference to voters and (2) no one has ever heard of this guy and won’t have any idea who the camera may or may not pan to at the debate. But Trump, whose brain just plays a continuous loop of Fox News and QAnon conspiracy theories, apparently thinks this is his ticket to a second term. Per the New York Times:
“The president, in order to have a successful debate, has to go on offense without being offensive,” Brett O’Donnell, a Republican strategist, told the Times. “The American people care more about their own family than they do about the family of Hunter Biden. Especially during the pandemic.” That point, of course, is entirely lost on the president and is unlikely to be found in the hours prior to the debate:
Trump won Kansas by 20.5 points in 2016