Hillary Clinton Has Some Debate Predictions

Hillary Clinton is in a unique position to preview Thursday's presidential debate—as she points out in a New York Times essay, she's the only person who has debated both President Biden and former President Trump. Framed with a here's-what-I'll-be-watching-for premise, Clinton's op-ed is mainly a criticism of Trump as both a debater and candidate.

• "It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump's arguments like in a normal debate," Clinton writes. "It's nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather."

• She predicts Trump will blame Biden for inflation without offering specifics about his own economic plans, which she argues would be disastrous. She also predicts Trump will try to sound moderate on abortion by saying it should be left up to the states. That "really means he's endorsing the most extreme abortion bans already imposed by many states and all the extreme restrictions to come." By contrast, listen to how Biden talks about the actual women affected, she writes.
• Clinton encourages viewers to try to ignore the "bluster" and "theatrics," as well as the inevitable spin to follow. For Trump, expectations "are so low that if he doesn't literally light himself on fire on Thursday evening, some will say he was downright presidential."

Read the full op-ed. (Things already are turning nasty between host CNN and the Trump camp.)