Hillary Clinton's Debate Advice To Kamala Harris: Trump 'Can Be Rattled,' 'Bait Him'

Hillary Clinton offered Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris straightforward advice for taking on GOP rival Donald Trump at the upcoming presidential debate: Bait him.

Clinton, who lost the 2016 White House race to Trump, said in a New York Times interview published Saturday that the Republican “is going with a scorched-earth approach and will just try to tear her [Harris] down, which is his usual go-to strategy.”

To combat Trump, Clinton suggested that Harris go on the offensive, arguing that this would hit directly at Trump’s weaknesses.

“She just should not be baited. She should bait him. He can be rattled,” Clinton told the Times. “He doesn’t know how to respond to substantive, direct attacks.”

Earlier this week, Harris reluctantly agreed to ABC News’ debate rules, which state that candidates’ microphones will only be turned on when it is their turn to speak. That rule had also been implemented in Trump’s June debate against President Joe Biden, who was the presumptive Democratic nominee before his disastrous debate performance led him to drop his reelection bid.

In a letter to ABC News, Harris’ campaign said that the vice president would be “fundamentally disadvantaged” by the format of the debate, “which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with [Harris].”

Her camp further said that it agreed to the format because Trump “is a risk to skip the debate altogether,” adding, “We do not want to jeopardize the debate.”

The Trump campaign, for its part, said in a statement that “We are thrilled that Kamala Harris and her team of Biden campaign leftovers… have finally accepted the already agreed upon rules of the debate,” nodding to Biden’s earlier preference for muted microphones.

During the 2016 and