Who is 'Trump Whisperer'? Democrats bring in impersonator to prepare Kamala Harris for debate

WASHINGTON, DC: Philippe Reines, a former deputy assistant secretary of state and senior advisor to Hillary Clinton has been brought in by the Democrats as 'Trump Whisperer' to stand in mock debates and help prepare Vice President Kamala Harris for the face-off on September 10.

Reines had earlier described Donald Trump as a "malevolent George Costanza" and a "malfunctioning appliance" and acted as the GOP Presidential candidate in Clinton’s preparations in September 2016, per The Independent.

Philippe Reines' experience working as Trump impersonator

During an episode of 'The Michael Smerconish Program' on Sirius in 2020, Philippe Reines talked about his experience working as a Trump impersonator.

He said, "I dressed up like him, but I didn’t put on an orange face or a wig. Although one day I put self-tanner on one half of my face and no one noticed, so I didn’t bother again."

Moreover, Reines worked on Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign before he joined Hillary Clinton for her first failed run for the White House in 2008. During that time, Vogue magazine described him as Clinton’s "Michael Clayton-esque image man and fixer."

Clinton described Reines in her memoir 'Hard Choices' as "passionate, loyal, and shrewd" and added that she could "always trust him to speak his mind."

Notably, he worked for Clinton for 17 years and was a senior advisor when she became secretary of state and was at the center of her second campaign for the presidency. It was at this point in time when he became her "Trump whisperer." 

Reines joined a team of around 10 advisors in a ballroom at the Doral Arrowwood Hotel in Westchester in September 2016 to prepare Clinton. He described the experience as "kinda like batting practice."

He said during the Sirius interview, "In the case of Donald Trump, a lot of it is learning how to filter out the noise and expect the unexpected."

Philippe Reines says he tried his best to get under Hillary Clinton’s skin during debate prep

Philippe Reines revealed that he rarely completely behaved like Trump in their mock debates but tried his best to get under Clinton’s skin. He said, "I didn’t stand there all the time yelling ‘crooked Hillary!’ or ‘email email email!’ That’s not helpful. The balance that I brought was knowing enough about Trump and studying enough about Trump, but also knowing Hillary."

Reines once stated that to beat Trump requires fighting dirty. He wrote in a 2019 Politico article, "Democrats need to be able to communicate and attack in the same kind of blunt language that has until now been inappropriate in national politics."

He added, "So forget the ‘glass houses’ rule and get out your slingshot."

Reines believes Clinton won both of her clashes with Trump and may seek to pursue a similar strategy as before going ahead with Harris for the upcoming debate. 

Philippe Reines would have more traps to set for Donald Trump

Donald Trump was an unknown quantity on the debate stage in 2016 and his match-up against Hillary Clinton was the first time he’d been in a head-to-head match.

However, eight years later, there are several pieces of footage of Trump's debates and speeches available online which can be studied by Reines to set some traps for the GOP candidate come September 10.

Moreover, Harris believes her experience as a courtroom prosecutor, district attorney of San Francisco, and attorney general of California, gives her an added advantage over Trump.

She mentioned in her speech at campaign events, "In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain."