Nobody questioned whether Donald Trump is capable of restraining himself for 90 minutes.

Fox News’ flagship news show, Special Report, discussed next week’s Biden/Trump debate the Fox way: offering helpful tips to Donald Trump and taking digs at President Joe Biden. Cheering on their (presumably) favorite p***y grabber and convicted felon were American Enterprise Institute fellow and Republican Matthew Continetti, Politico reporter Olivia Beavers, who focuses on House Republicans and GOP leadership and seeming like she was going along to get along, Outkick columnist Mary Katharine Ham (a former O’Reilly regular). Chiming in with some pro-Trump comments now and then was anchor Bret Baier.

Continetti kicked things off by acknowledging that Trump has had “kind of a rocky news cycle with the conviction in New York” which is “starting to show up in polls, like the new Fox poll.”

Continetti’s advice was for Trump to “reframe the election once more about Joe Biden and Joe Biden's performance in office. Because when you look at the internals of our poll here at Fox, you see that Trump continues to win on the issues, especially the economy, especially immigration. If he can reset things at the debate, make it about the issues rather than about the conviction, I think we'll have a successful night."

As he tossed to Ham, Baier made sure to diminish Biden’s improvement in Fox’s poll. Baier said there was “a slight shift in independents” but that RealClearPolitics’ averages in the swing states show Trump “leading in the states that he needs to lead in, some of them significantly.”

Ham agreed that was “a huge deal.” But she also noted that it was hard to know if the shift was a blip or a pattern and that “realistically,” it’s a tied race. Trump should take the debate seriously, she said, “because he didn’t do well against Biden last time because he was too punchy, because he wasn’t maybe taking it as seriously as he should.” However, she reassured MAGA viewers, “There's reports that his debate prep has been pretty extensive this time around, having policy briefings, if not mock debates,” Ham added.

Beavers did her part. “I've been thinking about how Donald Trump was on Capitol Hill not too long ago and he got a ton of praise from the Senate and from the House because he had kind of pulled back what Republicans would say would maybe be his worst instincts. And they're hoping that they see him doing exactly what he did on the Hill on the debate stage, which is being himself but not going out and creating sort of a scandalous moment. I would say that moment that he came out and gave a little spiel after his meeting on the Hill, hit all the right notes. He talked about the economy. He talked about inflation. He talked about the border, he talked about crime, and then he was like, I'm out of here.” She said pointedly, “That tone will help him immensely.”

Beavers “forgot” to mention that Trump hit a lot of wrong notes in his meeting with CEOs that same day. Several CEOs “said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,” CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin reported.

Baier pointed out that Biden will “try to stoke” Trump “a number of ways, including calling him a convicted felon.”

Continetti agreed but if Trump didn’t take the bait, he argued, Biden’s tactic would backfire. The debate will mute the microphones when the other candidate is talking, Continetti said. “That does offer Trump an opportunity to just kind of sit back. I think that the longer Biden talks, usually the worse it gets for Biden. And so, the danger there is that Trump steps on Biden right before Biden begins to unravel. And that's a place where again, some restraint on Trump's part could pay off big at the end of the debate.”

Good luck with that, guys!

I plan to write about the debate advice Fox prime time hosts offer up to their (presumably) fave p***y grabber and insurrectionist in a subsequent post.

Meanwhile, you can watch the non-firebreathing Foxies advise Trump to – well, not be Trump below, from the June 20, 2024 Special Report.