Clinton seeks millennials; Trump in attack mode
Next presidential debate 11 days away
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Unmoved by harsh debate reviews, a defiant Donald Trump showed no sign Wednesday of embracing any big changes before his second match with Hillary Clinton, pressing ahead with a strategy focused on speaking directly to his 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 next time following an opening confrontation marked by missed opportunities and missteps.
“Why would we change if we won the debate?” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a key Trump ally and traveling partner this week, asked. “Donald Trump is going to prepare for debates the way Donald Trump prepares for debates.”
The next debate is 11 days away.
That may not be enough to satisfy concerned Republicans.
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 went further at a later rally in Iowa.
“If she ever got the chance, she would put the Oval Office up for sale,” Trump told hundreds gathered in a Council Bluffs convention hall the day before early voting begins in the battleground state.
Clinton, meanwhile, sought Wednesday to parlay her debate performance into stronger support from women, young Americans and other critical voter groups. She got help from her party’s biggest stars.
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.
Sanders and Clinton touted a plan they developed to make college debt-free for students from middle class and lowincome families.