Clinton, Trump prepare for debate

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s next major opportunity to motivate supporters and sway a narrow band of undecided voters will come in Monday’s 90-minute, primetime debate.

Both campaigns expect a record-setting television audience for the high-stakes showdown, which could help tip the balance in a tight White House race.

Six weeks from Election Day, and with early voting already underway, the opening debate, at Hofstra University in suburban New York, has both candidates hard at work making preparations, aides from both campaigns said.

Clinton, the Democratic nominee, has taken full days away from campaign travel to pore over briefing books, practicing to pounce if Trump makes false statements and steeling herself for the possibility that he levels personal attacks, campaign aides said. She’s been preparing for the debate at her home in Westchester, N.Y., and a nearby hotel, where she was spotted with aides Saturday afternoon.

Longtime Clinton aide Philippe Reines is playing Trump in mock debates, according to a person familiar with the preparations who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity. And former President Bill Clinton has sat in on some sessions, offering advice from his own White House debates.

Trump, the Republican nominee, has eschewed traditional debate preparations but has held midflight policy discussions with a rotating cast of advisers, campaign officials said. He’s also spent numerous Sundays batting around ideas with aides.

Advisers contend he will compensate for lacking in policy expertise by being quick on his feet, and that he will point to his experience with performing under pressure.

“Imagine the practice and the training of 13 years of reality television on The Apprentice and then imagine Hillary’s experience reading hundreds of papers,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and a Trump adviser who has been talking through policy with the candidate in recent days.

Clinton aides have expressed fear that Trump will be judged more for his performance than his grasp of the challenges that pass across a president’s desk. They’ve been flummoxed by Trump’s ability to sail through the campaign without fleshing out many policy positions and glossing over past statements that he no longer views as politically palatable.

“Even if he meets some kind of lowered bar of being semicoherent and not having any outbursts, it’s hard to imagine he’ll avoid his own propensity for lying,” said Brian Fallon, Clinton’s campaign spokesman.

Asked whether Clinton planned to call Trump out in the debate if he tries to lie about his past statements, Fallon said, “I don’t think she would let anything like that pass.”

People familiar with Clinton’s preparations say she has been working through answers to questions that hit at her lack of trustworthiness in the eyes of many Americans, a problem that has dogged her throughout the campaign.