A lot of people have been clamoring for it. There were rumors that Biden would not do it. But after much time, AP News reports that it appears that Biden and Trump are going to finally debate.
Ahead of the first debate-stage matchup between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, each campaign is promising a stark contrast in policy, personality and preparation.
Trump has decided to skip any formal preparation. And while Biden’s team believes the significance of the debate may be exaggerated, the Democratic nominee has been aggressively preparing to take on the president.
Biden’s campaign has been holding mock debate sessions featuring Bob Bauer, a senior Biden adviser and former White House general counsel, playing the role of Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the preparations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy. Bauer has not actually donned a Trump costume in line with Trump stand-ins from previous years, but he is representing his style and expected strategy. (source)
It is only fair to say that in any debate, anything can theoretically. Happen. however, the reality is that barring a colossal failure by Trump or an almost miracle from Biden, any debate between Biden and Trump is going to turn into a slaughterhouse visit for Biden and a pushover for Trump.
Love or hate +Biden, the fact of Biden is that the man’s mind clearly is on its way out. Call it phyiological, psychological, old age, or something else, it is not an exaggeration to say that something is wrong with Biden in that his brain is not functioning the way a mind of a normal person should. The proof of this is obvious through his statements and actions, which many websites including Shoebat.com have reported on such as his comments about “corn pop”, his comments about children, his calling a person a “lying dog-faced pony soldier”, a challenge of one questioner to a pushup context, taking about beating up President Trump, smelling women and small girls on live television, and reading the narration markings on a teleprompter.
President George W. Bush was a machine producing regular gaffes, but Biden is far more entertaining.
One can only imagine what he may or may not say at the debate. At this point, all it would really take for Trump to win is just to gently troll Biden to get him to say or so something insane and Trump can simply avoid all political talk or even planning, but just focus on antagonizing Biden, because in the political reality show, that will get more attention than trying to explain his massive failures, plus will also have a better chance of securing him votes.
This is most likely why Trump has said he is not preparing, because even if he is going to do this, there is a likely chance the debate will NOT be about issues, but an entertainment festival exploiting Biden’s decline for his benefit.
“I’m sure the president will throw everything he can at (Biden). My guess is that they’re preparing for that — bombarding him with insults and weird digressions,” said Jay Carney, a former aide to Biden and President Barack Obama.
This is what seems to be most likely. Indeed, if Biden has any mistakes, errors, or statements that cause him to appear even in the least to seem like something is wrong more than what he has already expressed, the election will most likely swing to Trump’s favor. Trump has already shown a strong talent for insulting and harassing people, and this likely may be exploited in a debate scenario.
For some, the debates represent the most important moments in the 2020 campaign’s closing days, a rare opportunity for millions of voters to compare the candidates’ policies and personalities side-by-side on prime-time television. Trump has been trailing Biden in the polls for the entire year, a reality that gives the president an urgent incentive to change the direction of the contest on national television if he can.
Others, including those close to Biden’s campaign, do not expect the debates to fundamentally change the race no matter what happens, given voters’ daily struggles with the pandemic and the economy. They also point to high-profile debates in past elections thought to be game-changing moments at the time but that ultimately had little lasting effect.
This does not really matter any more except in select cases. One could argue that for Trump’s considerations, he only needs to be concerned about Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He needs to win most of these states, especially Florida, in the electoral college for a victory. Even in these states, he is not playing to the whole state, but to specific municipalities or urban regions. The debate is about getting those in such areas to support him, and to make them look away from Biden.
Most people will not be convinced because their minds are already made up. Thus a Trump vote in Kansas or a Biden vote in Massachusetts is meaningless because those states are going to go respectively with their own red and blue affiliations.
“I’m prepared to go out and make my case as to why I think he’s failed and why I think the answers I have to proceed will help the American people, the American economy and make us safer internationally,” Biden said, arguing that Trump won’t persuade voters with broadsides because “the people know the president is a liar.”
He also compared Trump to Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, saying, “He’s sort of like Goebbels. You say the lie long enough, keep repeating, repeating, repeating, it becomes common knowledge.”
While Biden has said he will try to be a fact checker of sorts on stage, the Democrat is being advised to avoid direct confrontations and instead redirect the conversation to more familiar campaign themes of unity and issues that matter most to voters: the economy, health care and the pandemic.
“Arguing over facts, litigating whether what he’s saying is accurate, that is not winning to Biden,” said Jen Psaki, a former Obama aide who is close to Biden’s team. “This is an opportunity to speak directly to the American people. His objective should be to speak directly to them, but not be pulled in by Trump. That is hard.”
Statements like this are not going to convince anybody. In fact, they may cause Trump to gain in support if he makes them. The real test will be Biden’s mental performance while live on the stand during the debate.