They told him to shut up.....

Trump pleases campaign aides by not brawling with the Dem field

The president tried to cast himself as presidential and above the fray of the crowded debate stage.

By NANCY COOK

President Donald Trump pleased many of his top campaign officials when he showed a rare characteristic during the Democratic debate — relative restraint on Twitter.

Instead, Trump tried to cast himself as presidential and above the fray of the crowded debate stage, with its five moderators, 10 candidates and technical difficulties. “Sorry, I’m on Air Force One, off to save the Free World!” he tweeted before the candidates even took the stage.

Trump watched the debate from his private office on Air Force One en route to the G-20 summit in Japan, according to one White House official. He took a break early on when the plane stopped to refuel at an air force base in Anchorage, Alaska, stepping off his aircraft to greet military and their families and catch up with the Alaska governor. He acknowledged to the troops that the Democratic debate had started but said, “I had my choice between you and them, and I chose you.”

“I think they all are going to do very poorly,” he said when asked for predictions about the Democrats’ performance.

For a president so adept at dominating hourly news cycles, Trump was noticeably absent from the debates. The Democrats barely mentioned him in their discussions on health care, climate change, abortion and immigration. And Trump only inserted himself into the mix on Twitter to call the debate “BORING” and to snark about NBC’s audio difficulties.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar was one of the few Democrats to attack Trump head-on. During an answer about Iran, she said that foreign policy should not be made at 5 a.m. in one’s bathrobe — a dig at Trump’s penchant for taking extensive “executive time” in the White House residence.

Earlier in the day, Trump campaign officials sought to broadly cast the Democrats as liberal socialists who could turn America into the next Venezuela. “These first two Dem debates will be the first time millions of Americans can see for themselves how far left the entire Democrat field has gone. Government-run health care that eliminates private insurance, taxpayer funding of health care for illegal immigrants,” said Tim Murtaugh, director of communications for the Trump campaign.

During the debate, campaign officials called out Democrats’ individual responses to getting rid of private health care or dealing with the border or abortion. “Amy Klobuchar -- the so-called "moderate" (there are none) -- wants to look at Castro's proposal to DECRIMINALIZE BORDER CROSSINGS. As we told you -- there are no moderates at the #DemDebate!” tweeted Kayleigh McEnany, the campaign national press secretary.

Trump officials, the campaign war room and the Republican National Committee did far more pushback during the debate than Trump, who often likes to think of himself as his own best political strategist and messenger. Campaign officials have long wanted him to save his best barbs and insults for 2020, when the Democratic field has narrowed.

Indeed, while Trump was quiet after the debate ended, his campaign put out a six-paragraph statement.

“The far-left, socialist policies Democrats embraced tonight were akin to a mutual suicide pact,” it said, in part.

Still, the restrained president may not be able to hold his fire for Thursday night’s debate, which will feature Joe Biden. Trump and his campaign officials see the former vice president as Trump’s main nemesis at this point, given internal campaign polling that shows Biden beating Trump in key Rust Belt states that helped him win the 2016 election.

Only Biden got the Trump shout-out on the first of two debate nights, even though he never made an appearance on stage.

“Ever since the passage of the Super Predator Crime Bill, pushed hard by @JoeBiden, together with Bill and Crooked Hillary Clinton, which inflicted great pain on many, but especially the African American Community, Democrats have tried and failed to pass Criminal Justice Reform...” Trump wrote on Twitter.