Former Bush official suggests how Donald Trump can win the debate

Former President Donald Trump must try to portray himself as a candidate of “change” if he wants to win the upcoming debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, said Scott Jennings, a former official in the George W. Bush administration.

Harris and Trump will meet in person for the first time on Tuesday during the debate moderated by ABC News in PhiladelphiaThe event represents a potentially crucial opportunity for both candidates to win over the small number of voters in the swing states who could determine the outcome of the election but are still undecided.

Jennings, who served as special assistant to the president and deputy director for political affairs in the Bush administration, said on CNN on Monday that the former president should avoid personal attacks during the debate and instead call himself a candidate of “change” and link the vice president to the track record of President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race and endorsed her on July 21.

“I would simply advise him to focus all questions on one key point: 'If you want change, I am the change,'” the commentator said. “'If you want change in the economy, I am the change. If you want change on the border, I am the change… The only change she is is that she is changing all her positions in a cowardly attempt to make you believe that she is not some kind of radical liberal.'”

“That's how he wins,” he continued. “People are not happy with the current government. It's in the current government. It's a continuation of the same old thing. So anything you do to deviate from that course is really a lost minute or 10 minutes or however long it takes you. So my advice is: stick with the change and you'll be fine.”

In an email to NewsweekJason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said Harris will face “high expectations” at the debate as she pursues a strategy of “hiding from the press” and avoiding Biden's approach while promising that Trump will “educate” voters on her policy positions on Tuesday.

“Harris needs to explain the damage she did to our economy as the sitting vice president, and also why she has not implemented any of these new plans in the last three and a half years,” Miller said. “To make matters worse, Harris' new Obama campaign advisers have told her to stay away from the press for two months, raising voters' expectations even further.”

“The one thing we do know, however, is that Kamala Harris' values ​​have not changed, and we will educate the American public in detail about what that means politically,” he added.

Newsweek reached out to the Harris team via email on Monday evening for comment.

While it is unclear whether Jennings' message would be a successful strategy for Trump, polls suggest the former president is actually ahead on economic and immigration issues.

According to a Pew Research Center poll released Monday, Trump has a seven-percentage-point lead over Harris among registered voters asked which candidate would “make smart decisions on immigration policy.”

When voters were asked who would “make good economic decisions,” Trump was 10 percentage points ahead of Harris. Harris had an 11 percentage point lead in the “make good abortion decisions” category and 19 percentage points in the “be a good role model” category.

In the November election, Harris and Trump were tied at 49 percent each in the Pew poll, while the overall poll a day before the debate showed a neck-and-neck race between the candidates.

An average of recent polls from FiveThirtyEight showed Harris with a narrow 2.9 percent lead over Trump nationally as of Monday night. Averages of recent polls in swing states also showed a neck-and-neck race less than two months before Election Day.