“They will make up a bombshell with no time to refute. All need to be ready.”
Yes, they will try this. The best way to deal with this is to recurrently accuse them of doing this, publicly, up front, to discredit their efforts when they do happen (e.g. “See, this is exactly what we told you they were going to try to do. Dirty tricks! Highly unethical, but we predicted it”). Tell people way ahead of time what the DNC and the media are going to do.
Yes he should.
He is good at this, and has done it before. (The Oracle of the Tower)