Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, recently predicted a major stock market crash if Donald Trump wins the election. Today, in an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, he had more to say about how Hillary Clinton could defeat Trump at the debates. Here is an edited transcript of that interview.
On this crazy election:
It’s not about Donald Trump anymore. When I talk to people, no one’s excited about Donald; It’s more about how they feel about Secretary Clinton. When you look at Secretary Clinton’s negatives, that’s what’s driving the election, and I like the fact that now she has the press on her plane. That will allow her to drive the media topics a lot more strongly because Donald has been dominating up until now.
This really has nothing to do with Donald Trump. It’s 100 percent about whether or not Secretary Clinton can connect to voters and whether or not she can get her ground game going and get voters to the polls.
On headline porn:
You learn this in the sport industry where you say, I love this player, I love him, and then you trade him the next day…. You drive the topic so that you don’t deal with the real issues. And Donald is a master of that. He knows that … as long as he gives you topics, things to discuss – headline porn – you don’t get to address the real issues. So we’ve got a situation where we’ve got a presidential candidate that really has “presidential Tourette’s” and I say that with all respect to this disorder, but the reality is...this uncertainty that’s coming from him is crazy, but it drives the media attention.
On how Trump will attack Clinton at the debates:
He’s going to throw jabs and try to keep her on the defensive, and she’d got to smile, literally, every time he says something stupid—because that’s what will drive him crazy. He goes nuts when someone doesn’t think he’s smart. There’s a reason why he always mentions where he went to school; there’s a reason why he needs to have his ego stroked. He doesn’t have confidence in his own intellectual ability, apparently. And so when you question that—even with a smile, a little giggle, shake your head—he will go nuts. That’s what I would tell her to do.
Related: Mark Cuban: Stocks Will Crash if Trump Wins
On how the media questions him:
The voters might want Trump, but I think it’s more what they don’t want Hillary. Hillary Clinton is not giving them enough reasons for them to want her. That’s really what’s at play here.
If I was interviewing Trump, what I would say to him is, ‘You don’t understand the question, do you?’ I would just get to the heart of the matter. Then I would ask the follow-up question: ‘Do you know where Aleppo is?’ ‘Do you know what the issues are?’ ‘Do you know the history of the city and conflict?’
If you stay with it, he will crumble. But it gets to the point where you have a schedule to follow and that makes it difficult for you to keep banging on him, but that’s what it’s going to take.
On how Clinton should handle Trump at the debates:
I would tell her to smirk a lot at his answers. I know they tell them not to react at all, but in Donald’s case, he’s going to notice if she’s shaking her head…. He’s like a schoolboy. And if she’s smiling at his answers, rolling her eyes (not a lot, because that would be over the top) that will get to him. If you question his intellectual ability, that drives him nuts. When you throw these types of punches; when you roll your eyes at something that should have some gravitas to it, should have some foundation in the answer—that’s how you hit him.
