“If you want Donald Trump to win, you’re going to have to do it yourself.”
That’s the assessment of Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak, who appeared with Jennifer Horn and Grant Stinchfield on AM 870 in Los Angeles on Wednesday to offer his thoughts on the presidential debate in Philadelphia the night before.
“As great as Donald Trump wins — he gets up from a bullet wound to the head, and all of that — his supporters are going to have to drag him across the finish line, because he was not prepared for the debate that happened last night.
“I’m not saying he wasn’t prepared in general. But I have been saying … for weeks that he should not try to beat her in the debate, but rather try to use the debate platform to communicate to his own supporters. He did not do that. He did not make the case for himself last night. And [Kamala Harris] did what she came there to do, which was to show her supporters that she could be strong.”
Pollak thought Harris fell short in a number of ways: “I don’t think she convinced anybody to switch. I don’t think her economic policies were convincing. I thought her facial expressions were off-putting. And I think the fact that the moderators were basically on her side makes this debate less credible for most people.
“But when you are at a debate, and you have the opportunity to talk to your voters — never mind the moderators — and the people who might be in the middle, you have to take that opportunity to deliver your message, and to tell people why the world is going to be better when you win.”
As for the moderators, Pollak said, “If the moderators are a problem, you do what Newt Gingrich did twelve years ago in a Republican debate. And you pause the debate, and you look at the moderators, squarely in the eye, and you say, ‘This is why the American people don’t like you.’ And then you move on to what you were going to say.”
He continued: “Trump did not make the case. And it’s not any knock on him as a president or a leader to say that. Sometimes you are just prepared for the wrong battle. It’s hard for people to understand.
“We don’t have elections anymore; we have two elections. And Kamala Harris is running her election, and Donald Trump has to run his election. And his election is not about beating her, it’s about turning out his own people, and inspiring them to believe that they can overcome the rigging.
“Last night reinforced the idea that these contests are rigged. So in that sense it was a missed opportunity for him, and he has a much tougher hill to climb.
“He can still win — and again, I don’t think she moved the needle on the big issues — but he missed an opportunity. And if you want Trump to win, you’re going to have to do it yourself.”
Pollak also said that people should not rely on black voters to move toward Trump, saying that minority voters rarely moved.
“Trump’s not going to pull this dramatic turnaround with these voting groups,” Pollak said.
“Trump has to go for the core Republican voter. And I’m sorry to put it in these terms. It’s the white, working-class, Christian American. And they need to understand that he’s there for them, and he can pull them out of the morass of high interest rates and inflation and cultural destruction, and he’s got to show them a better world. And if does that, they will come. If he gets up from the bullet wound, they will come. That moment has to guide the campaign.”
The debate “was not a disaster,” Pollak said, but Trump had to use the next two months to make his case.
“If you need Trump to be president, you’re going to have to drag him across the finish line. And you’re going to have to go out there and believe. You’re going to have to believe that this country can still save itself from what is happening. Because I don’t think we can continue like this.”
Asked whether Trump should debate again if there was an opportunity, Pollak replied: “Absolutely! But this time, focus on your voters. Don’t focus on her — she’s not important.”