There was "no way" Donald Trump was happy after Monday night's presidential debate, or even during it, Republican strategist Karl Rove said Tuesday.
"You saw him afterwards," Rove, the former deputy chief of staff to ex-President George W. Bush, told Fox News' Martha MacCallum on the "America's Newsroom" program. "He was unhappy. You know, in fact, that was the problem for him last night, as was the nonverbal gestures."
At the beginning of the debate, the GOP nominee was "using open-handed gestures, but as the evening went on the gestures got more closed and pointing at [Hillary Clinton]," Rove continued. "The question is, when they show up at the second debate, is he just going to go straight at her or understand that it's better done lightly and pivot to what it is that he's doing to do."
Trump's job on the debate stage is not to "simply prosecute the case against her," but instead, to say "'okay, let me remind you gently of really bad things over there, and then let me tell you what I'm going to do that's something,'" said Rove.
The GOP nominee also did not present a convincing argument that showed himself as the candidate of change, said Rove, and "he needs to prosecute that more in the next debate."
He also criticized NBC News anchor Lester Holt, the debate moderator, who had opportunities to open up several questions, mainly on Democratic nominee Clinton's use of a private email server, after she reminded him that she'd testified for several hours to a House subcommittee investigating Benghazi.
And now, the question remains about what will happen at the Oct. 9 debate, a town hall-style event planned in St. Louis, Rove said, and their debate styles will need to change.
"You really are having a conversation with an individual and it looks bizarre if they answer a question and you take the opportunity to slap at the other person," Rove said. "She was better at this last night because even when she went after him, she tended, she didn't look at him, it wasn't about him. It was her conversation with the moderator, so he's got to figure out how to do that. It concentrates your ability to attack."
In addition, he noted that Clinton kept her cool while Trump interrupted her repeatedly.
"He interrupts her 51 times and she 17," Rove said. "She came [back with] fewer interruptions because hers were gentle. His tended to be like he would lean in the microphone and say,that's not true . . . he looks like he is angry and a lot of this is nonverbal."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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