As she prepares for the first presidential debate next month, Hillary Clinton told donors Monday that the face-off will be a crucial moment in the fall campaign and that Donald Trump is an unpredictable adversary.
"I'm running against someone who will say or do anything. And who knows what that might be?" Clinton said. "I do not know which Donald Trump will show up. Maybe he'll try to be presidential. ... Or maybe he'll try to come in and try to ... score some points."
Clinton was speaking at a fundraiser in New York state, at the Hamptons home of Charles Phillips, chief executive of the software company Infor, and his wife Karen.
Clinton does not allow reporters into her campaign fundraisers, unlike recent presidential nominees in both parties who let the press in for parts of the events. But reporters traveling with Clinton were able to hear her from the basement room they were stationed in for the fundraiser.
Clinton said someone had told her that 100 million people would watch the first debate Sept. 26. Of that figure, more than half will be tuning into the election for the first time, "so don't assume they have followed everything," Clinton said.
She asked the audience for advice on how to debate Trump.
"We have 71 days left in the campaign and I'm not taking anything or anyone any place for granted," Clinton said. "This is the most unpredictable election season that I certainly can remember."
