‘Somebody’s Gotta Be the A**hole’: Ex-Harris Aide Gives Her Debate Prep Team Advice for Tangling with Trump
The former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris gave his former boss and her campaign some colorful advice regarding debate preparations.
Harris will square off against former President Donald Trump in November’s general election. The vice president became the Democratic nominee after Biden ended his reelection bid in July after a horrendous debate performance that prompted even more questions about his advanced age and mental acuity. The ascension of Harris has enthused the Democratic base and center-left voters, as the vice president is performing markedly better against Trump in the polls than Biden was.
During Tuesday’s installment of The Source on CNN, host Kaitlan Collins asked Jamal Simmons how much Harris should mention the fact that Trump is a convicted felon who has been indicted in three other jurisdictions.
“Is that something that you think she’s gonna bring up a lot?” Collins asked Simmons, the former Harris staffer.
“It depends on what their core argument is,” he replied. “They might decide that people know enough about that. It may also be that there’s only one of them they really want to go at. There’s only one when the proof point they need to make to make sure the voters they’re trying to target really understand it.”
Simmons went on to say that Harris should not get into a “policy point/counterpoint because that’s not gonna convince anybody of anything.”
He added that his former boss needs to have a “core argument” for why she should be president before offering one last piece of advice.
“And somebody’s job also has to be in the debate prep– can you say this word, a-hole on national TV,” he asked Collins.
“Your kids might not like it, but you can say it,” she replied.
“But somebody’s gotta be the asshole here,” he continued. “Somebody’s got to sit there and really pepper her and get her to get annoyed and aggravated because that’s probably what Trump’s gonna do. And what you want her to do is work out that aggravation in prep and not do it when she’s on stage.”
Watch above via CNN.
