Presidential debate prep teams, 2016

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2016 general election debates
Read more about Presidential debates (2015-2016): •Presidential debate prep teams, 2016 •Commission on Presidential Debates •Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016 •Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016

See also: Presidential debates (2015-2016)

On September 26, 2016, the first of three presidential debates was held. In 2008, about 67 percent of those who voted said that the presidential debates between presidential nominees Barack Obama (D) and John McCain (R) were helpful in helping them choose which candidate to vote for. That same year, 80 percent of Americans watched at least some portion of the debates, while 41 percent watched them all. Thus, the debates can play a significant role in a candidate's bid for the office of President of the United States.

This page looks at who helped prepare Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for the 2016 general election debates.

Background

See also: Commission on Presidential Debates

The presidential debates are coordinated by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which began organizing the debates during the 1988 election. However, prior to the 1988 debate, infrequently organized presidential debates had taken place between candidates, such as the debate in 1960 between John F. Kennedy (D) and Richard Nixon (R), in 1976 between Jimmy Carter (D) and Gerald Ford (R), and both the 1980 and 1984 debates with Ronald Reagan (R) and his respective challengers Carter and Walter Mondale (D).

Hillary Clinton

See also: Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016

Politico noted in August that Hillary Clinton needed to prepare for her debate by addressing significant issues from the past, including her emails, the suicide of Vincent Foster and Bill Clinton's relationships to Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers. Former White House counsel Greg Craig, who acted as George W. Bush in John Kerry’s 2004 debate preparation and was John McCain for Barack Obama's debate preparation in 2008, stated that "You can't put it beyond Trump that Monica Lewinsky will play a role in this debate. She's got to be prepared to deal with the Foundation and Wall Street and super PACs and all of that. They need to be less focused on dealing with his policy proposals and more on dealing with the unexpected. He’s going to be in attack mode, probably the whole time."

Trump stand-ins

According to former Al Gore (D) and John Kerry (D) debate strategist Bob Shrum, Clinton needed a debate partner who was "naturally smart, glib and utterly irreverent" and who would have been willing to bring up the issues of the past. Likely candidates for playing Trump in debate preparation, according to Politico included Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), James Carville, Sen. Al Franken (Minn.), and Ron Klain, who was guiding Clinton's debate preparation. Klain was Vice President Joe Biden's former chief of staff and executive vice president and general counsel for Revolution, an investment firm. However, the campaign chose longtime Hillary Clinton aide Philippe Reines.

On September 23, The New York Times confirmed that the Clinton campaign had chosen Philippe Reines, a former Hillary Clinton aide, to stand-in for Trump in the mock debates. Reines worked under Clinton while she was Senator and secretary of state. The Times noted that the choice of Reines meant that Clinton "wants an opponent in her mock debates who knows her flaws and how to exploit them and who is fearless about getting under her skin the way that Mr. Trump might at their first debate on Monday night."

Additions to the team

In addition to Klain, Clinton's senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan helped the debate preparation, and attorney Karen Dunn, Clinton's former Senate communications director and senior advisor, acted as an outside advisor. Robert Barnett, attorney for the Clintons, was also a part of the team.

In late August, The Washington Post noted that Clinton advisors were predicting that, in contrast to Donald Trump, Clinton would "showcase her experience, judgment, gravitas and command of policy" during the debates. The Post also stated that many from Clinton's campaign—media advisors, Mandy Grunwald and Jim Margolis along with John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, strategist Joel Benenson, and Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director—were all assisting in Clinton's preparation.

Gathering information on Trump

The New York Times reported on August 29, 2016, that Clinton's prep team had talked with Donald Trump's ghostwriter Tony Schwartz, who wrote Trump's book The Art of the Deal. The Times reported that the prep team was hoping to gather information on Trump's weaknesses and insecurities. Schwartz described Trump as having "severe attention problems and simply cannot take in complex information — he will be unable to practice for these debates. Trump will bring nothing but his bluster to the debates. He’ll use sixth-grade language, he will repeat himself many times, he won’t complete sentences, and he won’t say anything of substance." The debate prep team had also hired psychologists to create a profile on Trump to predict his reactions on the debate stage.

Strategies

On September 1, Politico reported that the Clinton prep team had focused on a strategy to "turn any Trump attacks on the foundation and its finances into a counterattack — blasting Trump for his own lack of charitable giving and leveraged business deals that have left him in debt to Wall Street banks and Chinese financiers." The strategy was a response to what some consider to be Trump's probable attacks on the Clinton Foundation and her emails.

The Hill reported on September 23 that Clinton's strategy included in-depth intensive analyses of policy briefs in a four-day period. Moreover, Clinton memorized answers to possible questions. She also used mock debates as a part of her prep. With regard Clinton's approach in dealing with Trump The Hill said "she wants to prosecute the case that he’s [Trump] temperamentally unfit for office and unhinged."

After the first debate and in advance of the second debate, Clinton withdrew from the campaign trail to prepare for the October 9 town-hall debate. According to CNN, Clinton "will hunker down with a select group of aides later this week to refine her attacks on Trump and prepare for the added level of difficulty created by a live audience that asks questions." The news outlet also noted that Clinton planed to hold a mock town-hall debate before the October 9 debate.

Clinton's debate prep team

Hillary Clinton's debate prep team consisted of:

Ron Klain: Klain was a senior aide to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden's former chief of staff. He is part of Clinton's "inner circle" and was leading the debate prep for Clinton. He is the executive vice president and general counsel at Revolution LLC, an investment firm. In 2000, Klain was the general counsel for the Gore Recount Committee. He has also served as chief of staff to for Vice President Al Gore and Attorney General Janet Reno. He led the debate prep teams for both Democratic presidential nominees Al Gore and John Kerry

Jake Sullivan: Sullivan was Clinton's senior policy advisor, especially foreign policy. In 2008, Sullivan joined Clinton's presidential campaign as her deputy policy director. After Obama's election, Sullivan followed Secretary Clinton to the State Department, beginning as deputy chief of staff, and later serving as director of policy planning. Sullivan also served as a national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden.

Karen Dunn: Dunn, an attorney, is a partner with the law firm Boies, Schiller and Flexner LLP. She served as associate counsel to President Obama and communications director and a senior advisor to Clinton while she served in the U.S. Senate. She also served as a law clerk for Judge Merrick Garland of the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

Robert Barnett: Barnett is a partner with the law firm Williams and Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C. Barnett represents a large number of politicians and writers, including Barack Obama, George W. Bush and James Carville. He has also represented television news correspondents and major corporate executives. The National Law Journal ranked Barnett as one of "The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America."

Mandy Grunwald: Grunwald is a Clinton veteran having worked on Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign. She has worked for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). She was Clinton's senior media consultant.

Jim Margolis: Clinton's 2016 campaign media advisor, Margolis was a media consultant for President Barack Obama in 2008 and again in 2012. He also worked on John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and, in 1992, he worked on Bill Clinton's campaign.

John Podesta: Podesta was Clinton's campaign chairman. In 1993, Podesta joined former President Bill Clinton's White House staff, first as staff secretary, then as deputy chief of staff, and finally as chief of staff. In 2003, Podesta founded the Center for American Progress (CAP), which The Washington Post has called "the preeminent liberal think tank in Washington." Upon the election of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in 2008, Podesta was appointed by Obama to act as co-chair of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, which was meant to create a smooth transition from former President George W. Bush's (R) administration to Obama's. In January 2014, Podesta returned to the White House to serve under President Obama as a senior advisor.

Joel Benenson: In the 1996 election cycle, Benenson conducted polls for former President Bill Clinton's (D) presidential campaign. In 2000, Benenson co-founded the Benenson Strategy Group and in 2008, Benenson was hired by Barack Obama's presidential campaign as a pollster. He also worked on Obama's 2012 campaign.

Jennifer Palmieri: Palmieri was Clinton's 2016 campaign communications director. She spent five years in the White House as Bill Clinton's deputy director of scheduling and advance. She was promoted to the role of deputy press secretary for the last three years of Clinton's presidency. Palmieri became senior vice president of the Center for American Progress (CAP) and president of the CAP Action Fund. Palmieri continued her role at CAP and the CAP Fund until 2011, when she joined the Obama administration's communication team.

Philippe Reines: Reines worked with Clinton while she served in the U.S. Senate and at the U.S. Department of State. At the State Department, Reines was Clinton's personal spokesman and senior communications advisor. In her memoir, "Hard Choices," Clinton described Reines as "passionate, loyal, and shrewd," adding that she "always trust[s] him to speak his mind." According to The New York Times, Reines had been serving as an unofficial campaign advisor for the Clinton campaign. He is the founder and managing director of Beacon Global Strategies, a political consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.

Tim Kaine

According to Politico, Robert Barnett played the role of Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence in Tim Kaine's debate practice sessions. Barnett had earlier filled the role of Sen. Bernie Sanders while Clinton had prepped for the primary debates.

Donald Trump

See also: Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016

According to CNN, Donald Trump needed to focus on the issues in order "to discuss them adeptly." Elsewhere, CNN's Lanhee J. Chen—who helped 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney in his debate prep—argued that Trump needed to focus on Clinton's character by portraying her "as untrustworthy and out-of-touch" and he needed to develop talking points based on her political record. He also noted that Trump needed to elaborate on his own policies, which had been vague.

In an interview in mid-September with Bob Costa of The Washington Post, Trump told Costa his understanding of and how he might approach the debates. He said, "Debate skills are either something you either have or don’t have. You have to prep. You have to have knowledge. But when people say you have to be nice or not nice, well, I won’t really know until it begins. Because if she treats me with respect, I’ll treat her with respect. If she doesn’t, I’ll reciprocate. If she’s respectful of me, I’ll be that way with her."

In the same Post interview, Trump criticized Anderson Cooper, one of the debate moderators, saying "I don’t think Anderson Cooper should be a moderator, because Anderson Cooper works for CNN and over the last couple of days, I’ve seen how Anderson Cooper behaves. He’ll be very biased, very biased. I don’t think he should be a moderator. I’ll participate, but I don’t think he should be a moderator. CNN is the Clinton News Network and Anderson Cooper, I don’t think he can be fair."

Key figures

Politico reported that Roger Stone likely assisted in Trump's debate prep; Stone was Trump's informal advisor. Stone had helped Trump prepare for the primary debates. He crafted policy statements on issues and guided Trump in "the art of the televised political debate."

Politico and other news outlets reported on August 16, 2016, that former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, a close friend to Trump, had been taken on by Trump and his campaign as an advisor. Politico later confirmed that Ailes was helping Trump prepare for the first presidential debate on September 26, 2016, against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The Trump campaign had initially denied that Ailes was helping, though Ailes has experience in debate prep, having helped prepare Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.

Prep meetings and strategy

On August 22, 2016, The New York Times reported that Trump had begun his debate prep in earnest on August 21. According to Times, Ailes was advising and Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was organizing the preparation. The Times also noted that Trump was using "briefing binders" and going over Clinton's previous debates, rather than using the lectern model, which candidates usually use to prepare for debates.

The Hill described Trump's strategy as "eschewing full-length debate prep in favor of focusing on finding Clinton’s weak spots by watching old debate footage." The news outlet noted that Trump did not focus on policy in any pointed way because Trump, according to The Hill, "doesn’t believe that voters prioritize the nitty-gritty of policy." Trump's aides have voiced concern that Trump underestimated the difficulty in maintaining focus in a 90-minute debate. Trump's prep team sought to get Trump to not engage in debates with the moderators, avoid defensive responses when attacked, and redirect tough questions "back onto safe ground."

On October 6, Trump held a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire. According to Politico, some had hoped the meeting would act as preparation for Trump's October 9 town-hall debate with Hillary Clinton, however, Trump told his New Hampshire audience "They were saying this is practice for Sunday. This isn’t practice. This has nothing to do with Sunday." Politico noted that while questions were submitted by the attendees, those attendees were picked by the Trump campaign and their questions were read aloud by conservative radio host Howie Carr, and therefore was not similar to the October 9 debate format. During the meeting Trump stated "I said forget debate prep. I mean, give me a break."

Additions to the team

The Washington Post reported on August 27 that Trump had assembled members of his debate prep team at a Trump-owned golf course in New Jersey. The team included Rudy Giuliani, Laura Ingraham, a talk-radio host, and Roger Ailes. According to the Post, Trump was not holding any mock debates, rejecting his prep team's suggestions to do so, nor was he reading through binders of information prepared by his staff. Conway stated "Donald Trump is the unpredictable X-factor and Hillary Clinton is the scripted statist. I fully understand why Team Clinton feels the need to drown her in briefing books and Hollywood consulting." The Post suggested that Ingraham may stand in as Clinton during the prep. Others who were present at the debate prep meeting included Conway, Stephen Bannon, Trump's campaign chief executive, and Jason Miller, Trump's communications advisor. Army generals Michael Flynn and Joseph “Keith” Kellogg were advising Trump in national security while Chris Christie, who was acting as the chair of Trump's transition team, and Stephen Miller, Trump's policy advisor, have been assisting in various policy areas. According to The New York Times, member's of his campaign stated anonymously that "relatively little had been accomplished" in the prep meetings.

On August 31, 2016, Heat Street, a Dow Jones media outlet, reported that Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, had returned to Trump's campaign and was "unofficially" helping in debate prep, according to sources within the campaign.

Trump's debate prep team

Donald Trump's debate prep team consisted of:

Roger Ailes: Ailes, the former Fox News CEO and chairman, after his dismissal from the news network, joined Trump's debate team. He has debate prep experience having helped prepare Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon in their debate prep.

Kellyanne Conway: Conway, Trump's 2016 campaign manager, was reportedly leading Trump's prep for the debate. As president of the Robert Mercer-backed Keep the Promise I super PAC, Conway supported former 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

Rudy Giuliani: Giuliani, the former New York mayor, had endorsed Trump in April 2016. He was acting as Trump's representative to the debate commission and was helping to guide Trump's debate strategies.

Laura Ingraham: Ingraham hosts the radio talk show The Laura Ingraham Show, which is broadcast over 225 stations around the U.S. She co-founded and serves as the editor-in-chief of LifeZette.com, "a cultural and political web destination for conservatives and independents." Ingraham is a Fox News contributor and a fill-in host on The O'Reilly Factor. She has also served as a defense attorney.

Stephen Bannon: Bannon was the CEO of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and executive chairman of Breitbart News, a conservative news organization founded by the late Andrew Breitbart. He is also the executive chairman and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute, a group that aims to expose government corruption.

Jason Miller: Miller formerly acted as the senior communications director for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in 2016, but, in June 2016, Miller took up the position of senior communications advisor for Trump's campaign. He worked on Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign..

Mike Pence

On August 31, 2016, Politico reported that Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, in an interview on Fox News Radio, was preparing for his debate against Tim Kaine. Unlike Trump, Pence stated that his prep team was "starting to put together the briefing books and I’m starting to bone up on my years in Congress and a lot of the national issues" and that he would "have a few mock debates." Pence's prep partner and the man who played Kaine in the mock debates was Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R). Pence also added that he would be comparing "Donald Trump’s vision and Hillary Clinton’s record. That’s gonna be my focus."

Historical influence of the debates

About 67 percent of those who voted in 2008 said that the presidential debates between Barack Obama (D) and John McCain (R) helped them choose which candidate to vote for. Nearly 80 percent of Americans watched at least some portion of the debates, and 41 percent watched them all. Only the 1988 and 1996 debates were found to be less helpful in the decision-making process than helpful. Between 2000 and 2008, an average of 64 percent of voters found the debates helpful.

Since 1988, the number of American's who found the presidential debates helpful in the decision-making process has fluctuated from 70 percent in 1992 to 41 percent in 1996. According to the Pew Research Center, several factors have proven to make a debate significant in past elections. One is when the candidates are polling very closely. Another is when voters have "unresolved questions about the personal character of one, or both, of the candidates." In the 2016 debates between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, both of these factors could come into play.

President Barack Obama prepares for his debate with Mitt Romney, October 2, 2012, in Henderson, Nevada

Even when debates have affected voter preferences in past elections, they have only impacted polling numbers by a few points. Looking at the numbers for the 1988 debate between George H.W. Bush (R) and Michael Dukakis (D), prior to the first debate, Bush was at 50 percent. After the debate, he dropped to 47 percent. His lead increased from 49 percent, prior to the second debate, to 50 percent after the debate. There have been some exceptions to this trend, however. In 1992, for example, Bill Clinton's (D) numbers dropped by 6 percent between the first debate and after the third debate. Ross Perot, the Independent Party candidate, gained 8 percent during the 1992 debates. In 1972, Jimmy Carter entered the debates with about a 10 percent lead but lost that lead after the debates.

Bill Clinton, in 1992, is the only candidate since 1988, who went into the debates with higher numbers than after the final debate. Clinton went from 50 percent to 44 percent. In contrast, only three winning candidates seem to have been unaffected by the debates: Clinton in 1996, George W. Bush in 1988, and Reagan in 1984, though their numbers fluctuated during the debates.

A study of campaign debates from 2000 to 2012 found that after a presidential debate 86.3 percent of voters from a nationwide sample remained unchanged in their preference for a presidential candidate, while 3.5 percent switched candidates, 268 went from undecided to decided, and 131 went from decided to undecided.

Recent news

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Presidential debate prep teams, 2016 - Google News

See also

• Commission on Presidential Debates
• Hillary Clinton
• Donald Trump
• Presidential debates (2015-2016)
• Presidential debate at Hofstra University (September 26, 2016)