How Biden and Trump are approaching preparations for the CNN Presidential Debate

Geoff Bennett:

It is the biggest night of the 2024 presidential campaign so far. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will square off in Atlanta for their first debate of the year.

We have got a full table here in the studio — hello to everybody — for reporting on how the candidates are preparing and analysis of what's at stake.

Laura Barron-Lopez covers the Biden campaign and Lisa Desjardins covers the Trump campaign for us.

Amna Nawaz:

And, of course, our panel of political analysts, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report, Democratic strategist Guy Cecil, and Republican strategist Kevin Madden.

Geoff Bennett:

But let's start with you first, Lisa and Laura.

Laura, how has President Biden been preparing for this debate tonight? What is his campaign telling you?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

President Biden has been at Camp David for most of the week, preparing in a very traditional manner. He has a lot of his close aides, senior aides, around him. They have held mock debates. Some of them have played Donald Trump.

And he has been trying — they have been trying to prepare him for whatever version of Donald Trump may show up at the debate, whether it's a calm one or a more aggressive one. They really feel, the campaign does, is that this is a big moment for the president and that they will get a larger audience than they typically would.

The president really wants to strike a strong contrast with Donald Trump and really prove the point that, unlike in 2020, when they didn't pick Donald Trump that time, there's even more reason to. Namely, he's going to focus on the January 6 insurrection and Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

And he really wants to get across to voters that January 6 was a seismic event and that it was something that left a collective scar on the country and that it's something that they should reject Donald Trump over.

Geoff Bennett:

And, Lisa, how does the Trump approach compare to the Biden approach to tonight's event?

Lisa Desjardins:

The debate hasn't started yet, and already we have a stark contrast.

The Trump campaign says he did not do any traditional preparation, there were not mock debates.

Geoff Bennett:

That's what they say.

Lisa Desjardins:

That's what they say. It is opaque, however. We're not exactly clear what he's done. Trump himself has said his preparation is his rallies, talk radio, interviews like that. Really isn't clear.

We do know they are taking this seriously. They're not blowing this off. There is also an issue that they know he has to contend with, that he did not do well in the first debate against Biden in 2020. He interrupted Biden more than 130 times.

If you talk to Trump campaigners and you also talk to his allies, they like that among the rules tonight is that his mic will be cut off when Biden is speaking. They think that helps Trump, even if he doesn't like it, because they want the calm Trump that Laura was talking about. They think that will help him more with voters.

We expect him to talk about issues, inflation, immigration. And also one thing they're doing is, they're launching some ads attacking Biden. This is one about issues.

Narrator:

Are you financially better off since he became president? Are you and your family safer since he became president? Is our country more secure since he became president? After four years of failure under Joe Biden, it's time to make America prosperous and strong again.

Lisa Desjardins:

I'm told that's playing in some swing states and in D.C.

One other thing. The Trump campaign is trying to set expectations. As much as they try to say that Joe Biden is someone who can't actually be capable of being president, they say he's a great debater. So, they don't — they want to set that expectation. And they are already attacking the moderators, setting up a possible, if it doesn't do well, he's going to blame it on them.

Geoff Bennett:

So the Trump campaign is focused on immigration and crime.

Laura, what is the Biden campaign focused on in terms of policy?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Abortion is going to be a big one for President Biden.

And the campaign launched a number of ads this week marking the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, including one today that is going to run during the debate. It features Dr. Lauren Miller, who is a high-risk pregnancy physician. And she left Idaho because of their near-total abortion ban.

Lauren Miller, Forced to Flee Texas to Get Emergency Abortion Care: These laws are truly barbaric. They are putting us back decades, if not centuries. Donald Trump did this. He put women's lives in danger. This election is the most important election of my generation and my daughter's generation.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

President Biden's campaign is going to be featuring a lot of voices like that, including some women who had to travel out of their state to get abortions, ones who felt as though they really almost died because they had trouble getting abortions since the fall of Roe.

And then, also, President Biden is expected to try to get out ahead of Donald Trump and counter his attacks that he may have on the economy, specifically pointing to leading economists, including some 16 Nobel laureates this week who had a warning about Donald Trump's second term. They said that they believe that a second Trump term would have a negative impact on the U.S.' economic standing in the world, as well as a negative impact on the domestic economy.

And so President Biden is essentially going to warn that a second Trump term would actually increase inflation. And then, of course, on immigration, he is going to try to beat back some of Donald Trump's attacks and really remind voters about the family separation policy under Trump's administration and point out the recent actions that he has taken, specifically, the crackdown on asylum seekers at the border, as well as his relief to undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens.

Geoff Bennett:

You both have been speaking to voters across the country.

Lisa, what's your sense of whether or not people will tune in tonight and whether it really matters in terms of how they're going to cast their vote? There has never been a debate this early in a presidential election cycle.

Lisa Desjardins:

Right.

Americans are planning to watch. They are not happy about this election, but they're taking it very seriously. We know this from polling about the planning to watch. We also know this from talking to voters. Laura and I have, dozens of voters over the past couple of weeks that we have been talking to as part of this project to contact discontented voters who really aren't comfortable with either candidate.

And when we talk to them, we wanted to pull a couple of sound bites from interviews we have been doing. This is from one Republican and one Democrat about what they're wanting — what they want to watch for tonight.

Jess, Utah Biden Voter:

I want him to come across as the powerful leader that he is. And I want him to overcome this feebleness narrative. You look back at his State of the Union address and how moving that was, and I hope that he can tap into that again and move people to be excited about their government again, instead of annoyed or exhausted.

I think I have watched every presidential debate up until this point. I'm not learning anything new about either of the candidates. They have long since told us exactly who they are.

Zach, Pennsylvania Undecided Voter We get like debate parties together and our families get together and we actually watch that. And, like, this is the first year where I'm just not as excited as I would have been in the past.

For Trump, what I'm looking for is probably going to be just like a command of the issues. Can he offer the specific policy proposals to say, OK, I see you have a command of this now? If I see Biden be successful in standing up to Trump, and he can show me that he has the energy to go out there and fight, that might make a difference.

Lisa Desjardins:

Zach is exactly the kind of voter that Trump needs, someone who's not so sure.

No one thinks that this debate will determine the winner, but it could tell a pertinent question for people. Which of these two men is going to be more stable in the future?

One other note for this potentially very weird debate. Moderators are not doing fact-checking. So folks who want to watch tonight, now is a good time to go online. There are a lot of stories about things that we expect to come up, things that we know have been distorted in the past, and facts that are good to arm yourself with now as — before the debate begins.

Geoff Bennett:

Lisa Desjardins, Laura Barron-Lopez, our thanks to you both