Donald Trump's campaign manager slammed Hillary Clinton's past debate performances. | AP Photo Trump campaign manager knocks Clinton as too 'lawyerly' for debates

In preparing for Donald Trump's rumble with Hillary Clinton on Monday night, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Wednesday that her team is "well acquainted" with footage of its adversary's past bouts on the debate stage, assessing the former secretary of state's approach as "so lengthy" and "so lawyerly."

Clinton "got tripped up quite a bit" in the primary debates against Bernie Sanders, Conway remarked on Fox News Radio's "Kilmeade & Friends," suggesting that the former secretary of state was " trying to be a little bit more of a centrist, a little bit more of a moderate like her husband was, his winning formula in 1992, not realizing that the modern Democratic Party … would never welcome Bill Clinton 1992 now."


"It’s considerably to the left, so she was easily tripped up by Bernie Sanders on foreign policy, on her record of failures. We’re very aware of that," Conway said. "And of course, we’re very aware of Mr. Trump’s both style and his substance in these debates against these other Republicans. He started out at the Fox News debate on Aug. 6, 2015, dead center in the middle because he was leading in the polls, Brian, and he never left that place."

Addressing people who "are questioning" Trump's preparation, Conway remarked that the candidates set to appear on stage at Hofstra University are "two very different people," pointing to the Commander in Chief Forum earlier this month as an example. After that event, Conway said, "all of the polls" said Trump beat Clinton.

"Why? Well, her answers are so lengthy, they’re so lawyerly," Conway continued, noting that Clinton only received "six or seven questions ... that night because she just takes forever. She’s apologizing, she’s dissembling, she’s deflecting. Donald Trump’s answers are concise and they’re confident, and they’re pointed the way a leader, the way a leader answers questions, frankly."

Asked whether upon reviewing the tapes she could ascertain a difference between Clinton's debate performances in the 2008 cycle and those eight years later, Conway said, "Clearly."

"The 2008 Hillary Clinton had the confidence of a frontrunner. This was her race to lose. She was talking more about, remember, she was against same-sex marriage, she had been for closed borders in her career," she continued. "She was, I think at the time even for safe, legal and rare abortions the way her husband tried to pretend he was in the early ‘90s. In 2016, she tried to out-Sanders Sanders, and part of it is because again, how leftward her party has gone, away from the mainstream."

Where Clinton had confidence against Barack Obama and other Democrats on stage in the 2008 cycle, the Clinton of 2016 was "easily flummoxed by Bernie Sanders," Conway said.

The Clinton campaign, meanwhile, is concerned that moderators might hold the candidates to different standards of scrutiny.

"I think that, my biggest concern is not a view of any moderator but just that people accommodate their questions and lower the bar of their questions to suit the candidate in front of them," communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters, going on to say that Trump has been asked easier questions "because he has not put forward detailed material, which you can … question him on."

Thus, Palmieri continued, Trump "ends up getting much more one-dimensional, simple questions, and that is not what should be expected of somebody" participating in a debate for president of the United States.

"And I think the moderators need to ask substantive questions, factual questions, and to keep them on even playing field even though he has failed to put forward the kinds of detailed or multi-tiered policy positions as she has," Palmieri added.