President Joe Biden plans to be very aggressive during the debate with former President Donald Trump, according to a Biden campaign official.
Biden’s most important task will be “to show that he is not diminished and is capable of carrying out presidential duties in a second term,” Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, told the Financial Times on Friday.
“[Biden] needs to shake things up,” political analyst Charlie Cook said. “Debates usually don’t, but certainly could. There are not many known potential inflection points in presidential races, but debates are certainly a possibility.”
A whopping 67 percent of voters believe Biden is too old to serve a second term, Quinnipiac polling recently found.
The White House would neither confirm nor deny in May whether Biden intends to use performance-enhancing drugs in preparation for the presidential debates. Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff who is going on vacation to help Biden prepare for the debates, did not respond to Playbook’s request for comment about “whether any illegal substances are used as part of Klain’s debate prep.”
The Biden campaign official said Biden will deliver “punchier” comments in the debate to project himself as “steady” and “wise.”
“The president has gotten increasingly punchier in recent remarks about Trump and plans to carry that theme through to the debate, while still projecting himself as the wise and steady leader in contrast to Trump’s chaos and division,” the official told the Times.
Biden’s attacks will reportedly focus on how Trump is an alleged threat to democracy, an accusation that many believe does not address the issues facing the nation, such as soaring inflation, depressed wages, open borders, and migrant crime.
His “ripping away reproductive rights, promoting political violence and undermining our democratic institutions, and doing the bidding of his billionaire donors to fund tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy and corporations by hurting seniors and the middle class,” will be included, the official added.
Many independent voters will watch the presidential debate next week for answers on Biden’s health, inflation, and open borders, according to a recent Reuters focus group.
The focus group included seven men and eight women from battleground states. Their age, party affiliation, and race varied. Nine of the individuals “were previous Biden voters” who are not satisfied with his leadership, Reuters reported. Three of those interviewed were not thrilled with Trump but did not consider Biden a legitimate alternative choice.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
