Who is Philippe Reines, stand-in for Trump in Harris debate prep

Philippe Reines, the longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is reprising his role as former President Trump while Vice President Harris prepares to spar with her Republican rival on the debate stage Tuesday.

Reines, a 54-year-old New York City native, previously played Trump as Clinton prepared to face him in the 2016 debate cycle.

A Columbia University grad and political consultant, Reines spent nearly two decades at Clinton’s side and has been a loyal confidant of the former Democratic presidential candidate.

In the years since Clinton lost to Trump, he’s occasionally reflected on the process of channeling Trump’s larger-than-life persona.

“To prepare myself for her grueling debate prep, I watched the 15 Republican primary debates and forums in which Trump participated three times each: once the whole way through; a second time focusing entirely on the exchanges he was part of; a third time with the sound off to watch his mannerisms and body language,” Reines wrote in a 2019 Politico piece. “I might know his debating style — if you want to call it that — better than anyone on the planet (aside from Hillary Clinton, of course).”

Harris is hunkering down in Pittsburgh for several days as she prepares to face Trump in their first and possibly only debate — a moment that could prove pivotal in the tight race.

The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s latest polling analysis has Harris leading trump 49.4 percent to 46.1 percent, but neither candidate has a firm hold on the 270 electoral college votes needed to win and the outcome likely will come down to Pennsylvania and a handful of other battleground states.

As Clinton did with her preparations to debate Trump in 2016, Harris is facing off against Reines while acting out 90-minute debate scenarios — Reines in full Trump cosplay, mirroring the former president’s clothing and attitude, on a replica debate stage.

Democratic strategist Karen Dunn, who also assisted with Clinton’s debate prep, and Harris’s former Senate chief of staff Rohini Kosoglu are leading the hours-long debate prep sessions, a source familiar told The Hill.

Reines started working for then-Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2002, was an aide on her 2008 presidential campaign, and joined the State Department as a senior adviser after Clinton became President Obama’s top diplomat in 2009.

Before that, he worked on Vice President Gore’s campaign for president in 2002.

He has called Trump “possibly the worst debater in presidential history” and compared Trump to “a malevolent George Costanza” — a nod to Jason Alexander’s iconic “Seinfeld” character.

Reines said on a podcast with former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) in 2020 that learning to speak seemingly without a filter as Trump was difficult.

“When you remove that, which is very hard to do, and the hardest thing that I had to learn,” he said. “If you remove that, because there are no consequences to what you say, it’s almost like George Costanza, you know, doing everything backwards.”

“What I noticed more than anything was how different his speaking style is” compared to typical politicians, he added.

He dressed the part in a baggy dark blue suit and long red tie during more than a dozen hours of debate prep before Clinton and Trump took the stage.

Reines said on the Franken podcast that he went to his tailor and said, “I need to look like Donald Trump but not for Halloween,” to get the look right. He even got lifts for his shoes to be taller like the over six-foot Trump, he said, but he didn’t bother wearing a wig or bronzer.

In a separate interview on The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM radio in 2020, Reines described debate prep with Clinton as “a pretty structured setting.”

“It’s hard with Trump, because he has so many different positions. You’ve just got a lot more to absorb,” he said.

Reines said that growing up in New York, he was already familiar with the city’s high-profile celebrity businessman.

“I had a very specific view of him, that is an accurate view,” he told Franken.

He characterized Trump in debate mode as being dependent on “bluster, vulgarity, innuendo and refusal to admit he’s wrong.”

“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 wrote. “Forget the ‘glass houses’ rule and get out your slingshot.”

He said his approach during the prep process was to give constructive feedback to Clinton but not to the detriment of the candidate’s confidence.

“You don’t want to constantly be telling your candidate they are terrible,” he said.

Reines previously shared behind-the-scenes footage of “a favorite moment” standing in as Trump against Clinton.

“Not easy to avoid the unwanted Trump hug, sometimes it even takes practice…,” he wrote on the social media platform then-known as Twitter in 2017.

In the video, Reines, dressed as Trump, approaches Clinton for the traditional pre-debate handshake between the candidates’ podiums but instead pivots to an attempted hug as others in the room laugh, including Clinton.

He later called the moment “half-joking.”