Trump lashes out at 'fabricated' report on campaign turmoil: 'Your sources' were probably 'fired long ago'
NBC News reporter Katy Tur tweeted Wednesday that the "mood in Trump world is darker than usual."
"1 source says debate was a 'disaster,'" Tur tweeted. "2nd: might hire debate coaches. 3rd: He's a fast learner."
She continued in a subsequent tweet: "No one on team Trump is counting him out. They just acknowledge that he wasn't ready the other night."
Other sources, however, told Tur that the mood within the campaign of the Republican presidential nominee has "never been better" and that the Trump family is happy with the campaign's leadership.
Trump blasted Tur's reporting shortly after Tur sent the tweets.
"Your sources, if they even exist, are probably sources that have been fired long ago and have no knowledge of what is happening in the campaign," Trump said in a statement provided to Tur. "Hard to be unhappy when we are doing so well."
Both the CNN/ORC instant poll immediately after the debate and the NBC News poll released Wednesday showed that voters thought Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won the first debate Monday.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that campaign advisers plan to prepare Trump better for the second debate on October 9.
But the prep doesn't seem to be going so well.
Campaign advisers told the Times that there's concern Trump isn't willing to adequately prepare. And while people have been training Trump on how to appropriately respond to Clinton's attacks, he reportedly wasn't able to execute them in practice.
Seven campaign aides and advisers who talked to the Times anonymously expressed disappointment in Trump's debate performance.
Voters who participated in a focus group with Republican pollster Frank Luntz described Clinton as confident, well-spoken, and calm and criticized Trump for going off-message and making too many offensive personal attacks.
Advisers are now reportedly training Trump to resist getting baited by Clinton and focus more on a coherent strategy.
But it remains to be seen whether Trump will listen to this advice.