When President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump face off in Thursday’s presidential debate, millions around the world will be watching. While debates involving other presidential candidates might not have garnered as much interest in the past, Trump has captivated the world with his unique leadership style and controversial comments. A debate against Biden will be nothing less than incredible television.
The debate, hosted by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash in Atlanta, Ga., is scheduled to extend for 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.
The debate tensions are already off to a good start. CNN abruptly cut off Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt from the air Monday morning after she accused CNN’s analysts over their biased coverage of Trump in the past and said the debate would be held in a hostile environment partially because of their views.
There are some new rules for this debate. There will be no live studio audience – a major change from previous debates, and microphones will be muted during the other candidate’s turn.
According to CNN’s rules, Biden and Trump won’t be allowed to use any props or pre-written notes, but will be given paper, a pen and water. Their campaign staffs will not be allowed to interact with them during the debate.
While millions of Trump’s supporters are worried about the debate format, much of which has been built to Biden’s advantage, there are ways for Trump to gain the upper hand.
Biden’s biggest problem now, and which has been captivating news audiences, is his age and performance in public. At 81, Biden is showing signs of ageing, acting confused at times and shuffling his feet instead of walking normally.
Biden’s other problem is his policies. Whether it’s the economy or open borders, Biden is failing with several important demographics and in several crucial battleground states.
It seems that Trump just needs to rely on common sense. If he focuses on these two main issues – Biden’s frailty and his weak policies – he should be able to demonstrate why Biden is not up to the job.
It’s fairly obvious to most Trump supporters that the Left will try to twist the debate and declare the outcome in favor of Biden no matter the performance.
For this reason, Trump needs to knock it out of the ballpark. He needs to come into the debate with the gloves off and engage Biden in verbal pugilism with a winning verbal knock-out argument.
The world will be watching whether Biden can carry on a debate without teleprompters and whether he can counter Trump’s arguments with cogent counterarguments.
Biden will be sure to bring up the 34 felonies Trump was convicted of, and Trump will no doubt counter with Biden’s own involvement with his son Hunter’s shady business dealings.
Trump should attack Biden’s job approval rating with about 56% disapproving as of June 20, according to 538’s polling average.
Trump should focus on blaming Biden for allowing a surge of migrants at the southern border and mention some names of victims who have been murdered by migrants, such as Kayla Marie Hamilton, Laken Riley, and Jocelyn Nungaray. Biden will be sure not to know any of them, making himself look bad.
Trump should also highlight how Biden has caused inflation and mismanaged foreign conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Biden will try and paint Trump in as bad a light as possible using his past comments against him, but that’s all Biden has. Sure, he will use the usual Jan. 6 argument or Roe vs. Wade, but Trump can counter those easily.
Millions of people are looking forward to this debate and Trump will no doubt do a terrific job if he says the right things and allows Biden to be the one to say all the wrong things.
