COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Unmoved by harsh debate reviews, a defiant Donald Trump showed no sign Wednesday of embracing any big changes before his second faceoff with Hillary Clinton, pressing ahead with a strategy focused on speaking directly to his white working-class loyalists across the Midwest.
Democrat Clinton, meanwhile, pushed to improve her standing among younger voters with the help of the president, Sen. Bernie Sanders and other key allies, 48 hours after her debate performance that seemed to spark badly needed enthusiasm.
Those closest to Trump insisted the Republican presidential nominee was satisfied with Monday night’s debate, even as prominent voices within his own party called for more serious preparation following an opening confrontation marked by missed opportunities and missteps.
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“Why would we change if we won the debate?” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a key Trump ally and travelling partner this week, told The Associated Press. “Donald Trump is going to prepare for debates the way Donald Trump prepares for debates.”
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The next debate is 11 days away.
Unlike Clinton, Trump is not planning to participate in any mock debates, although he is likely to incorporate what one person described as “tweaks” to his strategy.
Specifically, Trump is likely to spend more time working on specific answers and sharpen his attacks after spending much of the first meeting on defence, said that person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal campaign strategy.
That may not be enough to satisfy concerned Republicans.
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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Trump should have been better prepared and he recommended that the candidate work harder with skilled coaches. He said,
“What you need is people who are professional debaters.”
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said simply: “The only advice I could give him, and take it for what it’s worth, prepare better.”
The New York businessman struggled to attack Clinton consistently on the debate stage Monday night, but he has lashed out at her aggressively in the days since. He attacked her record as the nation’s chief diplomat during a Wednesday appearance in Chicago. He was expected to go further in later rallies in Iowa and Wisconsin.
Throughout his outsider presidential bid, Trump has refused to deviate from a strategy hinged on an ambitious travel schedule packed with massive rallies that draw overwhelmingly white crowds.
Clinton, meanwhile, sought Wednesday to parlay her widely praised debate performance into stronger support from women, young Americans and other critical voter groups. She got help from her party’s biggest stars.
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President Barack Obama hammered the billionaire over his business practices and treatment of women in an interview aired on Steve Harvey’s radio show, which is particularly popular among black audiences. The Democratic president said his own legacy was “on the ballot” in November. He also suggested that Clinton wasn’t getting enough credit, possibly because she’s a woman.
READ MORE: Donald Trump praises his ‘winning’ first debate performance
And his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, accused Trump of trying to undermine her husband’s presidency for years by questioning his birthplace. Trump publicly admitted the president was born in America for the first time earlier in the month after spending years raising questions about the authenticity of Obama’s birth certificate.
“Trust me, a candidate is not going to suddenly change” once in office, Mrs. Obama said at a rally for Clinton in Pennsylvania. In a dig at Trump’s reality TV show background, she added:
“It is not an apprenticeship.”
Hoping to broaden her appeal among “millennials,” Clinton joined her primary rival, Vermont Sen. Sanders, on the trail for the first time since they held a “unity” rally in July in an attempt to heal divisions within the Democratic Party. Since then, Clinton has struggled to win over young Americans who formed a critical pillar of the coalition that twice elected Obama.
The 2016 election marks in the first in which millennials are the largest generation among U.S. adults, having surpassed baby boomers during the past four years. In August, a GenForward poll suggested that Clinton’s biggest hurdle to attracting young people isn’t necessarily Trump but young adults’ widespread dissatisfaction with both of the major parties.
Trump’s team on Wednesday was hoping to regain its footing after he veered into problematic territory the day before, when he revived his decades-old criticism of a former beauty pageant winner for gaining “a massive amount of weight.”
The president and other Democrats were hoping voters wouldn’t forget.
“You had somebody who basically insulted women, and then doubled-down,” Obama said.
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