Marathon rehearsals, small group consultations, campaign rallies: each in their own way, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are accelerating preparations for their debate next Thursday, the first major meeting between the two candidates at the White House.
The president is heading to Camp David, a country residence of American leaders near Washington, on Thursday to discuss this upcoming confrontation.
Few details have filtered out about the preparation of the 81-year-old Democrat, other than his former chief of staff (“ chief of staff “) at the White House, Ron Klain, will participate, and that there will be many rehearsals during which a participant — whose identity is not known — will play the role of Donald Trump.
In the Trump camp, no dress rehearsal session, we assure, not without a certain contempt for the opposing camp.
“Unlike Joe Biden, (Donald Trump) does not need to be prepared by his collaborators, nor to be doped with chemicals,” criticized Jason Miller, advisor to the Republican billionaire.
And to affirm that Donald Trump, although only three years Joe Biden’s junior, shows “extraordinary endurance”.
“A great evening”
In the absence of these classic training sessions, the former president has surrounded himself in recent days with influential senators and vice-presidential candidates to discuss issues likely to be discussed, such as foreign policy or the immigration, according to media reports.
The Republican, convicted criminally in New York at the end of May, must also outline a robust strategy in the event that his legal troubles come to light.
The June 27 debate, scheduled for 9 p.m. in Atlanta, is the third meeting of this type between the two men.
“This is going to be a great evening,” assured Donald Trump during a rally with his supporters, predicting audience scores similar to those of the ultra-popular final of the American football championship, the Super Bowl.
Anxious to avoid the cacophony of the first debate of 2020 – during which the two candidates spent an hour and a half insulting and interrupting each other – the CNN channel adopted a series of rules supposed to regulate their exchanges.
Abortion, democracy
Joe Biden outlined his debate strategy during a recent interview with ABC.
He intends to “let him say what he thinks” and “push him in a direction such that he will speak, for example, of suspending the Constitution”.
“All I have to do is listen to what he says – remind people what he says, what I believe and what he believes. »
The Biden camp is therefore betting on restraint in the face of the excesses and outbursts of the Republican billionaire, whom the Democratic president presents as a danger to democracy.
If Joe Biden wanted a debate much earlier than usual – these big duels generally take place in the fall – it is because he is betting that the Americans have somehow forgotten Donald Trump and that it would be enough to refresh their memory.
The president of his campaign team, Jen O’Malley Dillon, had indicated at the end of May that the American president would attack Donald Trump on the right to abortion, the defense of democracy, and on his plans for “reductions in taxes for billionaires. »
Endurance test
But beyond the substance, it is also, perhaps above all, the form that Joe Biden must convince, whom Donald Trump’s supporters accuse of being senile.
It has been a long time since the American president, whose cautious gait and sometimes difficult speech betray his age, has not appeared live, standing, for a broadcast of an hour and a half.
His supporters hope to find the same level of energy as during his State of the Union speech, it is true particularly lively, delivered in March before Congress.
Donald Trump then insinuated, without the slightest proof, that the Democrat could then have taken cocaine.
As if to anticipate that Joe Biden would be, once again, in great shape, the Republican repeated these allegations on Tuesday, regarding the debate.
“They’re going to completely dope him!” »