Tuesday's agenda?
(Apologies for large cut and paste from the article but I know WaPo is behind a paywall for some)
Trump readies a debate onslaught — and Biden allies worry
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-trump-debate-attacks/2020/09/25/f2565f36-fd91-11ea-9ceb-061d646d9c67_story.html
President Trump is gearing up to launch blistering personal attacks on Joe Biden and his family in the first presidential debate on Tuesday, while Biden is bracing for an onslaught and worried allies are warning the Democratic nominee not to lose his temper and lash out, according to people with knowledge of the strategies in both camps.
Trump has told associates he wants to talk specifically about his opponent’s son Hunter Biden and mused that the debates are when “people will finally realize Biden is just not there,” according to one adviser. The president is so eager to lay into his rival that he has called aides to test out various attacks, focusing on attacks that cast Biden as a longtime Washington insider with a limited record of accomplishment, said another adviser, who like many interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe private talks.
Biden and his advisers are anticipating a venomous barrage, according to a person with knowledge of their thinking, and they are preparing to counter with an affirmative case for a Biden presidency. The Democrat wants to stay focused on how he would address the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s economic problems, which he blames Trump for worsening.
The prospect of a cage match between a president for whom no subject is off-limits and a challenger who can be openly emotional is making some Biden advisers nervous. They see a fine line between Biden’s passion and empathy, which can appeal to voters, and the raw anger that sometimes gets him in trouble and could undercut his pitch as a calming alternative to a president who thrives on chaos.
"When you go at his family, he becomes hotter than hell, which is part of the thing I worry about,” said John Morgan, a Florida trial lawyer and major Biden donor. “I think what Biden has to be careful about is not letting his Irish temper blow when that happens.”
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Trump’s deficit in the polls arguably means there is more pressure on him than Biden to score a big win, and his supporters are voicing their own worries. The president’s repeated mocking of Biden as incoherent could make it easy for the challenger to exceed expectations, Trump’s allies say, and they concede the president is always capable of sabotaging his own message.
Trump has shown little interest in studious preparation, but he is expected to meet with advisers this weekend to talk about the debate. “The president’s view is: He’s been president for four years, he’s been in training every day,” one ally said. “He thinks he doesn’t need any prep.
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Biden’s friends and advisers are urging him not to get dragged into ugly exchanges. “There is an old saying in debate circles: When you get down in the mud and wrestle with a pig, the pig has fun and you get covered in mud,” said Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden confidant. “And the word that is typically used is not ‘mud.’ ”
Biden himself has expressed a similar concern. “I hope I don’t get baited into getting into a brawl with this guy,” he said at a virtual fundraiser this month. He added, “It’s going to be hard, because I predict he’s going to be shouting” and interrupting.
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Biden and his aides are expected to hunker down in preparation for the debate in coming days, according to a person with knowledge of the plans.
For all their emphasis on telling their own story, there is no doubt Trump is squarely on the minds of Biden’s aides and allies. Philippe Reines, who portrayed Trump in Hillary Clinton’s mock debates four years ago, said he recently gave Ron Klain, who is playing a leading role in Biden’s preparation, his “Trump uniform” — the baggy blue suit, cuff links and lift dress shoes he wore to get in character.
“He laughed,” Reines said of Klain’s reaction, adding that Klain told him, “We’ll make good use of it.” (Klain said he was joking and the team is not using the outfit.)
But the lessons from Clinton’s experience four years ago are murky. She was widely considered the winner of all three debates with Trump, yet in the end it was not enough to avoid defeat.
And Trump has shown he considers few tactics off-limits. In one 2016 primary debate, he boasted about the size of his genitalia. In a debate with Clinton, he brought a group of women who had accused her husband of sexual misconduct, though he was not allowed to seat them in the gallery.
Tuesday’s debate — the first of three between Trump and Biden — will culminate weeks of vitriol. Trump has accused Biden of taking performance-enhancing drugs and questioned his mental acuity, without any evidence. Biden has mocked Trump for walking unsteadily down a ramp, flashed visible anger over his opponent reportedly insulting fallen soldiers and argued that Trump’s response to the pandemic disqualifies him from the presidency.
Adding to the tension is a heated battle over the Supreme Court, with Trump moving swiftly to fill the vacancy created by the death of liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The three debates — along with one between Harris and Vice President Pence — will probably unfold at the same time as a ferociously bitter confirmation process that could determine the court’s leaning for decades.
It all kicks off over 90 minutes on Tuesday night on the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic. Trump and Biden will be at podiums a safe distance apart, as specified by health guidelines, according to Frank Fahrenkopf, co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates. From the start, the candidates will confront unprecedented decisions, such as how or even whether to greet each other at a time when medical experts are warning Americans not to shake hands.
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Some of Trump’s advisers say he has not been as focused on the debate as they would like. The process at times reminds them of 2016, when they would try to prepare Trump and he would get distracted and tell stories, according to one adviser.
Trump is not undergoing traditional debate preparation with someone playing Biden, according to officials with knowledge of his strategy; rather, he’s relying on a familiar coterie of friends and strategists. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has taken on a prominent role in advising Trump on the debate, while senior campaign adviser Jason Miller has watched old clips of Biden and analyzed them.
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Aides have sought to persuade Trump for weeks to stop lowering expectations for Biden’s performance. “We take Joe Biden very seriously,” said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh. “He’s had decades in the Senate where all he does is debate.”
Yet Trump routinely seeks to cast the former vice president as frail, ineffective and captive to his party’s left wing. “Biden doesn’t know he’s alive,” the president said this month.
That worries some of the president’s allies. “The bar for Biden is very low. The expectations are low. So he doesn’t have to do much to come out looking good,” said Newsmax Chairman Christopher Ruddy, a close friend of Trump’s. “The president just goes out there and says whatever is on his mind. It could get pretty wild.”