McCaskill: Trump Has to ‘Make Up Sh*t — Stuff, Sorry’

Heilemann: “Claire, we have a different kind of debate setup here. There’s a lot of things unprecedented about this debate, including the presence of a felon on stage. But these debate rules that both sides agreed to, we have a debate that’s going to be 90 minutes long, two commercial breaks, no studio audience. Microphones will be muted when it’s not the candidate’s turn. That will be run from the control room, I’m told, not by the moderators. No campaign staff interactions in breaks. Closing statements, Biden’s going to go first and then Donald Trump. No opening statements. Tell me what you think of the efficacy or the likely efficacy — we’re getting speculative here, but do you think that this is going to create a better experience for the American people and for, respectively, for the candidates, because of these rules?”

McCaskill: “Yeah, I think [inaudible] probably help by and large. [inaudible] the audience reaction. I really think that what Joe Biden says is not as important as how he says it. And by the way, Trump has set expectations for this in a way that really helped Biden. Trump has spent the last six months convincing Americans that Joe Biden can’t walk and talk. He has spent the last six months convincing America that this is an addled brain. And so, Joe Biden is going to show a command of the issues. He’s going to show that he’s not afraid of this guy. He’s going to look strong. He’s going to come after him, just like, you know, stop your yapping and shut up, man. Joe Biden is going to do that. And I honestly think it will be harder for Trump this time, frankly, cutting off the microphones. You can argue that maybe it helps Biden that the microphones keep going, but in this instance, and I just think it’s really important for us to keep pointing out, John, and we got to point this out over and over again. Trump’s lawyers helped pick the jury that convicted him, and Trump agreed to these rules. Trump agreed to these rules. So he cannot say this is a rigged rule deal. He agreed to them just like he helped pick the jury. So I think it’s important that we keep reminding everybody of that. He’ll try after he loses this debate to say oh, it was rigged against me because you know, he can’t ever lose anything. He has to make up sh*t — oh, stuff. Sorry.”

Heilemann: “Oh! Here we go. Who would — who had it on the bingo card that it would be Claire, not me, who would drop profanity on air here?”