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As Trump and Biden enter a key weekend of preparation for their showdown in Cleveland on Tuesday, both campaigns have been silent on how the candidates are preparing.
The early preparations for the Biden debate focused on reading informational books and holding smaller preparation sessions with policy aides, people familiar with his preparations said. He generally prefers to have helpers peppered him with questions quickly rather than conducting full mock discussions, those people said.
Ron Klain, a former Biden chief of staff who also led the presidential debate work of former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, is helping to oversee the preparations for the Biden debate before Tuesday night, those sources said. Other close longtime Biden advisers who have been involved in recent debate prep sessions include Anita Dunn, Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon.
Trump, according to a source familiar with the preparations for his debate, is studying the expected attacks from Biden. The focus of the preparations is a series of note cards that the president is reviewing: the front shows an expected attack from Biden, while the back of the card has vignettes of what Trump has done on the subject, what he will do. in a second term and how to strike back at the former vice president. Christie, who played Clinton in the Trump debate in 2016, is also helping with preparations for the Trump debate, the source added.
The first debate will last 90 minutes and will focus on six topics: “The Trump and Biden records”, “The Supreme Court”, “Covid-19”, “The economy”, “Race and violence in our cities” and “The Election integrity “. It will be moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News.
The concern and expectation of the Biden campaign is that Trump will be unpredictable on stage and persistently make false claims. His campaign does not believe it is wise, or even possible, for Biden to try to verify all of Trump’s falsehoods in real time, rather than leaving some of that responsibility to the moderator.
“Our hope is that (Fox News moderator Chris Wallace) will hold Donald Trump accountable for things that he says are simply lies and untruths, but that will be up to the moderator, and we will see what he chooses to do,” he told reporters the Thursday Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield. “But I can tell you that Joe Biden will take the opportunity to speak directly to the American people about what he will do as president.”
Trump and his top advisers have had a somewhat inconsistent message before the first debate, especially when it comes to how they think Biden will perform in the closely watched contest.
Trump and his team routinely lowered the bar on Biden’s ability to speak before his speech to the Democratic National Committee in August, so when Biden came out and delivered a coherent speech, the comments seemed more prominent in the eyes of voters. due to that poor expectation. adjustment.
The same has happened in the run-up to the first debate.
Trump, during an event in Pennsylvania this month, tried to raise expectations for Biden, saying the former vice president “should be able to beat me” in a debate because he “has a lot more experience. Trump even said that Biden was” great “at debating.
But keeping that message focused has been a struggle for Trump. Minutes after those comments, Trump again attacked Biden’s verbal skills and mental acuity, saying that the former vice president is “shot” and “the worst presidential candidate in the history of politics” and that “he cannot speak without the teleprompter. “.
Trump, in another sign that he can’t help but demote Biden even if it hurts the expectations that surround him, has also advanced a totally unproven theory that the former vice president does well in debates because he uses performance-enhancing drugs.
Even Trump’s advisers have publicly admitted that Republicans had previously lowered Biden’s expectations too much.
“I think it’s going to be a lot better than I think many of my Republicans and fellow Trump supporters believe,” Trump’s top adviser Jason Miller recently told the Washington Post. “And that’s why I’m trying to say (to Trump supporters), ‘Hey guys, don’t go and set the bar so low for Joe Biden, because it’s actually going to be pretty good.’
There is a feeling among Biden’s aides and leading Democrats outside the campaign that little in a debate could fundamentally change the contours of what has been a remarkably stable race for months. Many point to how Clinton fared well in her debates against Trump four years ago and still lost the election.
The reason the debate is unlikely to change the trajectory of the race, leading Democrats said, is that Trump’s handling of the pandemic is not going away and that little of what he or Biden can say in the scenario will change your realities.
“If debates matter, Joe Biden would not be the Democratic candidate,” said Jen Psaki, White House communications director at the Obama-Biden White House. “It’s an opportunity to speak directly to the American public. So, of course, it’s important for that reason. But Joe Biden is not the nominee because of his prowess in the debate and clearly the Democratic electorate thought that didn’t matter.”
There are differences among veteran Democratic operatives and officials on how Biden should respond to Trump.
Psaki said debating Trump remains “complicated,” but that the best strategy for Biden is to “ignore Trump, play his own game, and not get dragged into the Trump game.”
“Ultimately, a successful debate is not about who examined the person or cut the other,” he said. “It may feel like that in the moment, but it’s really about talking directly to people at home.”
However, other Democrats said they would like the former vice president to offer strong responses to Trump’s attacks.
“I think the president will go on the attack and my advice is that whenever the president attacks Joe should respond, he should take his time initially to respond and respond harshly, firmly and in no uncertain terms and then turn to his response from what I would, “said former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. “He shouldn’t let any attack go unanswered. Joe is strong, he’s a fighter, so this should come naturally to him.”
Tim Murtaugh, one of Trump’s top campaign aides, told reporters this month that the president hopes to differentiate himself from Biden by highlighting his early years in office and using the same criticisms he does on the election campaign.
“I think the way he sets himself apart from Joe Biden is by talking about his track record,” he said. “It will be a very clear contrast, the same contrast that we have drawn throughout this campaign.”
CNN’s Donald Judd, Sarah Mucha, and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.
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