WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is preparing to face a number of different Donald Trumps on Thursday’s debate stage: the more bombastic and “unhinged” version known for his grievance-filled, vote-twisting rallies, and a fairly disciplined version that largely refrains from rants and sticks to policy.
If Trump is more sedate than outraged, the goal for Biden will be to provoke what his aides see as “the true Trump,” according to three people familiar with the president’s debate preparations.
Biden’s advisers have been scrutinizing and sifting through all of Trump’s recent comments, these people said, in an effort to best identify what could get under his skin and what could most “trigger” him if he shows some self-control shows.
As president, Trump at times showed some restraint, a prospect that has led some outside observers to speculate about whether debate rules such as muting microphones could ultimately prevent him from saying anything too outrageous.
“If I were advising Biden, I would try to make fun of Trump,” former Vice President Dan Quayle, a Republican, told NBC News in an interview. ‘Try to make fun of him. That will make him angry.”
Trump seemed to acknowledge the dynamic at a rally in Philadelphia this weekend, asking the crowd: “Should I be tough and mean and just say, ‘You’re the worst president in history’? Or should I be nice and calm and let him talk?
The entire debate could hinge on one candidate’s ability to take the other off his game, said a fourth person familiar with Biden’s preparation. The goal is to get “Trump rally” in full view, one of the sources said.
One way Biden could try to do that is by pointing out that Trump lost the 2020 election and then arguing that Trump then “snapped” and incited an insurrection on Jan. 6, these people said. If there’s a sense that Trump feels like he’s being called a “loser,” that could make him angry enough to lash out. That potential is being included in Biden’s preparations, the sources said.
But the Biden campaign believes that whatever version of Trump emerges is largely irrelevant.
“It doesn’t really matter how Donald Trump appears. If he comes in unhinged, as is usually the case, or if he sits there quietly, people will know that he is a convicted felon who has been impeached twice and has been found to have defamed someone, sexually assaulted someone and gone bankrupt . six times,” campaign chairman Mitch Landrieu said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Attacking Trump for his actions after the 2020 election could help Biden win over independent voters, said the sources familiar with Biden’s preparation, who suspect that Americans who may be on the fence between the two candidates would be put off by the idea that Trump continues to falsely claim he has won.
The Biden team believes there is a “fine line” because it still wants viewers to get the impression that Biden is the “adult in the room,” a Biden campaign official said. The official also emphasized that Biden does not need to “goad” Trump into saying certain things because the contrast between their two views will be completely clear if he doesn’t, the official said.
Even if Trump doesn’t delve into the “more extreme rhetoric” during Thursday’s debate, Biden campaign officials are betting that the difference between the two candidates on issues like reproductive rights, democracy, Social Security and Medicare will be so wide that it won’t matter out, this official said.
“On Thursday, the American people will see two different visions of the future on stage in Atlanta: President Biden’s vision, where freedoms are protected and all Americans have a fair shot, and Donald Trump’s dark ‘vision,’ in which he will serve as a dictator on day one, give tax cuts to the ultra-rich on the backs of the middle class, and strip away women’s rights,” Michael Tyler, Biden’s campaign communications director, wrote in a strategy memo on Sunday.
While this is all part of what Biden and his closest advisers are discussing at Camp David this week, a lot of time and energy is also being spent on approaching the broader policy content of the debate and not just the style in which Biden can deliver certain answers.
“People want to hear what each candidate will do for their families and their rights, not just a game of politics and mudslinging,” said a former Biden aide.
One way Biden can do that is by focusing on the argument that Trump only cares about himself and his legal challenges, while Biden believes his first term is dedicated to helping lower costs for Americans and expanding certain freedoms and rights that the president wants. argument could be in jeopardy if Trump wins back the White House.
Biden has tried to push a positive economic message that is making inroads, even as many voters say they still aren’t feeling the effects of his policies in their daily lives when it comes to the costs of basic groceries and gasoline.
He also plans to bring up abortion access and, in particular, Trump taking credit for the overturn of Roe v. Wade after appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices during his term.
If Trump says something untrue, Biden is willing to point it out, but there is also a realization that the president should not spend the entire debate fact-checking his opponent, rather than describing his own vision for a second term.
The Biden team hopes the moderators will step in and do so when necessary, but they are preparing the president to bring up specific lies if Trump brings them up, sources familiar with Biden’s preparation said.
On the policy front, Biden aides have been poring over thick binders, organized by topic, on “what we’ve done, what we want to do,” according to a White House official briefed on the preparation.
The process, which began intensively several days ago, is going “well” so far, the official said, and is expected to continue until Thursday, when the president will leave Camp David for Atlanta.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
