Donald Trump "came in unprepared and kind of fell apart" toward the end of Monday night's presidential debate, after he "tried to bully his way through" the event, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairperson John Podesta said Tuesday.
"We'll see what the real polls looked like and what the American people say," Podesta told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "They saw someone who is strong, who could take on the job of commander in chief."
Meanwhile, Podesta told the program, Trump "has a history of saying really terrible things about women and she called him out. One of things she's done, she's never attacked him except with his own words. I think there's a natural credibility to that."
If Trump is being called out on things he's said, Podesta continued, and "I know he likes to pretend that he doesn't say them . . . I think people naturally believe, okay, that's a fair charge."
The morning program noted moderator Lester Holt interrupted Trump more than Clinton, and didn't talk about Clinton's email issues, or about the Clinton Foundation or the Benghazi attacks, but Podesta said her campaign does not complain about debate moderators.
"Look, we have a kind of rule in our campaign, and you are complaining about the moderator, you are losing, so even when Matt Lauer did the commander in chief interview and we felt internally that was unfair, we never said anything about it," Podesta said. "I think what people saw – and Holt I think put them on notice – that if he tried to rewrite history on his early support for the Iraq war, if he tried to rewrite history on his support for birtherism, when it gave him his political boost in public life, that he would call him out, and he did.
"And I think it was, I think on balance, it was fair."
Earlier on the program, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would advise Trump not to participate in the next two debates, and Podesta said the Clinton campaign is worried about that.
"We're thinking they are up in Trump Tower saying given the performance he turned in last night and particularly given the next one is a town hall, in which he never really answers citizens' questions, maybe they are giving a second thought to why they actually agreed to do these debates," Podesta said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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