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President Biden and former president Donald Trump will face off Thursday in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, offering a rare chance for viewers to watch the two candidates contrast their vision for the future.

No question, this is a high-stakes moment for both candidates, said Kate Bedingfield, a former White House communications director for Biden who helped him prepare for his 2020 debates, and who now works as a political commentator for CNN.

The debate will probably be the first time many voters tune into what they have to say, so their performances could shape the rest of this very close race. When the two last debated in 2020, Trump constantly interrupted Biden, which some strategists said damaged his campaign. This time, the mics will be muted when its not a candidates turn to speak, and there wont be a live audience.

Heres what strategists on both sides say needs to happen for each candidate to have a successful debate.

Democratic strategists say Biden is expected to steer many conversations back to his bread and butter on the campaign trail: talking about issues around protecting Americans freedoms whether thats voting access, reproductive care or democratic norms. Polls show that a vast majority of Americans support abortion rights and that stopping threats to democracy is a top issue for Americans on both sides of the aisle.

Bidens goal is to remind voters this is not a referendum on Biden; its a choice between him and Trump, said Democratic strategist Tim Hogan, who worked for Hillary Clintons presidential campaign in 2016 and Amy Klobuchars in 2020.

But voters who say democracy is a top issue arent necessarily Biden voters. In six swing states, key voters who could decide the election trust Trump more than Biden on democracy issues, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll.

On immigration, Biden may be on the defensive. Record levels of migrants have been crossing the southern border since he took office. Leading up to this debate, he has upset both sides of the aisle: He made moves to close the border when migrant crossings hit a certain number per day, enraging civil rights groups. And he just made it easier for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to get a path to citizenship, which many in his base support.

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But partly because of his overall unpopularity, Biden should spend less time defending his record and more time pitching what hed do in his second term, Democratic strategists said.

President Joe Biden is participating in the CNN debate set for June 27. Washington Post White House reporter Matt Viser breaks down what to expect. (Video: The Washington Post)

Even though both men would be the oldest president ever if they win in November, voters say theyre more concerned about Bidens age, 81, than Trumps, 78. So Biden may be under more of a microscope than Trump if he commits any verbal stumbles an unfair measure, perhaps, given he has a stutter or gives a lackluster performance. Rather than scripted speeches, hell have to compete in real time with Trumps showmanship.

Democratic strategists expect Biden to come across as fiery and passionate. They point to Bidens performance at the State of the Union in March, where he slammed Republicans and challenged them in real time to a debate as an example of a strong public performance.

Democrats anxious about Bidens performances shouldnt be, Bedingfield said. He really is a game day player, she said. And he certainly knows the stakes of this debate. So I think we can expect a really energized, engaged and aggressive Joe Biden is going to show up.

Republican strategists say Trump should avoid the tones of grievance he strikes on the campaign trail, where he frequently claims without evidence that he won the 2020 election and complains that hes being unfairly prosecuted by the Justice Department. In his ideal debate, he wont call those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, patriots or talk about pardoning them, and hell stay focused on pocketbook issues.

Trump talking about retribution is unnecessary, said strategist Jesse Hunt, who has run communications for Republican candidates across the country. It distracts from the real differences he has with Biden, and that is what independents care about.

When it comes to issues voters care deeply about, Trump does well with voters. Right now, polls show voters give him better marks than Biden on handling the economy, crime and immigration. Trumps advisers have urged him to talk about the differences between his presidency and Bidens when it comes to inflation and immigration, The Washington Posts Michael Scherer and Marianne LeVine report.

The main question for Trump allies is whether he can stay on message.

When Trump speaks, he speaks with such conviction that it gives people confidence he knows what hes talking about, Hunt said.

Donald Trump is participating in the CNN debate on June 27. Washington Post political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf dissects what he'll be keeping an eye on. (Video: The Washington Post)

Strategists on both sides say Trump needs to give a clear answer on where he stands on abortion bans and medication abortion. This is one of the few major issues that play strongly for Biden, and Trump has tried to avoid taking hard-and-fast positions on how and when abortions should be allowed.

For example: After paving the way for the court to overturn Roe v. Wade with his three Supreme Court nominees, he says bans should be left up to the states. But when an 1860s abortion ban was revived in Arizona, Trump said it went too far. (The governor signed a repeal in May.)

Hes also ducked saying what he thinks should happen with a pill commonly used in medication abortion that the Supreme Court recently protected.

The Biden campaign has been working hard to cast Trump as unhinged, more so than the last time he was president. If Trump performs at this debate like he does at his rallies last weekend he suggested migrants fight for sport he could play right into that narrative.

Voters know a lot about these guys, said Sarah Longwell, the publisher of the anti-Trump, conservative Bulwark media franchise, and the question for them is: Am I more worried about Biden being older, or am I more worried about Trump being a crazy lunatic?

The Biden and Trump campaigns have negotiated new rules for the 2024 presidential debates. Here's what we know. (Video: Blair Guild/The Washington Post)

Read more:
Analysis | What Biden, Trump need to do to win Thursday's presidential debate - The Washington Post

Donald Trump may be standing across from Joe Biden during Thursdays presidential debate on CNNbut itll be Jake Tapper who will be his true enemy.

The moderator will likely be the target of repeated jabs from Trump which one network executive who organized previous debates involving the ex-president told the Beast would be impossible for Tapper and his co-moderator Dana Bash to stop.

Trump and his allies have spent weeks signaling that they will go after CNN and particularly Jake Tapper, long a target of MAGA vituperationand stepped up the rhetoric in the last few days.

He made the point clear to influencer and boxer Logan Paul in a June 13 interview, chiding Tapper as Fake Tapper with a caveat: I used to get along with Jake Tapper.

Look, CNN is the enemy, Trump added. They thought I was gonna turn CNN and Tapper [down.]

He told a rally in Philadelphia on Saturday that the debate was being moderated by Fake Tapper, who really hates Trump. Tapper was brought up in the city.

And again, in an interview with the Washington Examiner, Trump repeatedly referred to the CNN anchor as Fake Tapper throughout the conversation.

The breadcrumbs left extend to his family and closest retainers. Eric Trump complained to Foxs Maria Bartiromo that Tapper has compared my father to Hitler before on Sunday. A day later, CNN host Kasie Hunt shut down an interview with Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt after she claimed Tapper was a biased anchor.

No silver bullet for that.

Well, first of all, it would take someone five minutes to Google Jake Tapper Donald Trump to see Jake Tapper has consistently Leavitt began saying, prompting an intervention from Hunt.

Maam, were going to stop this interview if youre going to keep attacking my colleagues, Hunt said before abruptly ending the interview.

CNN will have spent weeks preparing Tapper for an onslaught from Trump. The network has more power on its side than previous debates. There is no audience for Trump to interact with. The presence of a loudly pro-Trump crowd was blamed in part for the disastrous town hall the network held with the candidate in New Hampshire in May last year. And when Trump and Biden meet, the rules tonight will allow Tapper and Bash to mute their microphones if they try to speak over each other.

But the former network executive whos produced some of Trumps 16 previous debates said all that might not matter.

You can control a candidate via production mechanisms and try to enforce the rules that way, the executive said.

The far trickier piece is: How do you try to corral the conversation when candidates are not complying with the rules? And honestly, there's really no silver bullet for that, and there's no preparation really that can account for it. You just have to get the moderator used to those kinds of confrontations and those kinds of interactions.

The expected onslaught against Fake Tapper is the latest example of Trump working the refs, the network executive saidand it works for his base.

Criticizing an institution like the mainstream media has been a plank of the MAGA movement from the beginning, the executive said. It obviously appeals to those voters, and so there's no reason not to repeat a winning attack line. I also think that, you know, spinning the outcome of the debate has always been part of that process.

President Trump should cancel this.

Trumps last debate moderated by the CNN anchor was in March 2016, a debate Tapper said he was surprised was much more civil than he expected. We were preparing for a much more feisty and more interrupting crowd, Tapper told the Los Angeles Times. Instead we got to ask every question we wanted to ask.

Trump acolytes have used Tapper as a figurehead for their CNN ire. Axios reported as far back 2017 that GOP operatives tried to get a conservative-friendly site to write a hit piece on Tapper after a contentious interview between him and Kellyanne Conway, and MAGA media outlets have tried to frame Thursdays debate as a three-on-one attack on Trump.

CNN owes you an apology today, Steve Bannon told Leavitt in a War Room episode on Monday. And if we dont get that apology to Karoline Leavitt and to the Trump campaign and to MAGA today, President Trump should cancel this.

Trumps attacks toward debate moderators isnt new. He sparred with Foxs Chris Wallace during the first presidential debate in 2020, lamenting that he was debating you, not [Biden], and he complained on Twitter about NBCs Kristen Welker prior to the second debate, claiming she had always been terrible and unfair. (Trump did not chastise her directly during the debate, and he eventually did a one-on-one interview with Welker to launch her run as Meet the Press moderator.)

Tapper hasnt responded directly to Trumps pre-debate comments, though CNN released a statement praising him and Bash, saying there are no two people better equipped to co-moderate a substantial and fact-based discussion.

Read more here:
Donald Trump Will Try to Annihilate Jake Tapper at the Debate - The Daily Beast

Tomorrow night, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN have a big job: asking two unpopular men who have been president what they would do with a second term.

The stakes could not be higher. President Biden and former President Donald Trump have starkly different visions for the presidency and the future of the country. This will be their first meeting since 2020, and they dont have another planned until September.

I dont know if well get the debate we want, or just the debate we deserve, but I do know that the questions Tapper and Bash choose to ask really matter. So we at On Politics would humbly and helpfully like to offer some ideas. Your ideas.

Last week, I asked readers to tell me the questions you hope to hear at the debate, and I received hundreds of insightful and occasionally trollish responses. Its clear you are hungry for a debate about issues that arent getting a lot of attention on the campaign trail. Youre also looking for Biden and Trump to convince you why, in their second go-round, you should get excited about them. And you want both of them to address their own ages, and not just each others.

Below, Ive laid out some of the questions that stood out to me most, with some small edits for clarity and style. Hope youre reading, Jake and Dana. No need to thank us!

The 2024 election is a contest between two men who have a cold, hard record of being president, which many of you hope the moderators will dig into. James Hall, an independent voter from Colorado, offered a question I liked for its directness.

What have you done that makes you think you deserve to be the president of the United States again?

Anne McKelvey, a lifelong Pennsylvanian, wants to know about both mens regrets.

What do you feel was your biggest mistake during your presidency?

Many of you want the stakes for democracy to be clearly spelled out onstage especially when it comes to Trumps plans for a second term. You want him to be asked directly about his promise to be a dictator on Day 1, and about my colleagues reporting that he plans to use the government to seek revenge on his political opponents.

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Original post:
Heres the Biden-Trump Debate We Want on Thursday - The New York Times

Listen to and follow The Run-Up Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

We dont know exactly what will happen when President Biden and former president Donald J. Trump take the debate stage in Atlanta tonight.

We do know, however, that the first debate between the major party candidates is happening earlier in the election season than usual. And we also know that weve seen a version of this show before.

Their past matchups have featured bitter insults, constant interruptions and were political spectacles judged more on optics than on substance.

This year, considering that the candidates are offering radically different visions for the country, its hard to imagine an election in which the substance would matter more.

So, today, at least on The Run-Up, theres no buzzer, no microphone muting and no debate-stage theatrics.

Instead, we call four Times colleagues to talk about what the candidates are actually promising for a second term on four key issues: the economy, immigration, abortion and foreign policy.

The Run-Up is your guide to understanding the 2024 election. Through on-the-ground reporting and conversations with colleagues from The Times, newsmakers and voters across the country, our host, Astead W. Herndon, takes us beyond the horse race to explore how we came to this moment in American politics. New episodes on Thursdays.

The Run-Up is hosted by Astead W. Herndon and produced by Elisa Gutierrez, Caitlin OKeefe and Anna Foley . The show is edited by Rachel Dry and Lisa Tobin. Engineering by Sophia Lanman and original music by Dan Powell , Marion Lozano, Pat McCusker , Sophia Lanman,Diane Wong and Elisheba Ittoop . Fact-checking by Caitlin Love.

Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Sam Dolnick, Larissa Anderson, David Halbfinger, Mahima Chablani, Jeffrey Miranda and Maddy Masiello.

Read more:
Ahead of the CNN Debate, Trump vs. Biden on the Issues - The New York Times

President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump will be alone in the CNN studio, standing eight feet and an ideological world apart in the bright lights on Thursday.

But a host of advisers will be camped nearby inside green rooms that have been prepared for their teams, where the first lady, Jill Biden, is also expected to watch the high-stakes debate. Dr. Biden is expected to be the only Biden family member in attendance, according to people familiar with the plans who were not authorized to detail them.

It is not clear who, if anyone, from Mr. Trumps immediate family will attend in support of him. Mr. Trumps most politically active son, Donald Trump Jr., could not be there because of a previous family commitment with his oldest daughter, according to a person familiar with his plans.

But there will be at least one Trump family member there spinning for Mr. Biden.

Mary Trump, Mr. Trumps estranged niece, is among the half-dozen representatives that the Biden campaign is deploying to the spin room on Thursday.

We cannot afford to allow Donald Trump anywhere near the levers of power again, Ms. Trump said in a statement before the debate. Other Biden surrogates include Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas.

The debate will have two three-and-a-half minute commercial breaks, but neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Biden will be permitted to huddle with their nearby campaign teams during those interludes.

Mr. Biden flew to Atlanta on Thursday afternoon after a week sequestered at Camp David to rehearse, joined by political and government advisers. Mr. Trump was flying in from Florida with his team.

The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about who will be in the spin room on his behalf. But a number of high-profile campaign surrogates are set to attend a fund-raiser and watch party hosted by Kelly Loeffler, a former senator from Georgia. Among them are three people thought to be the top contenders for a running mate pick: Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.

Other Republicans who traveled to Atlanta and will attend the watch party are Representatives Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, who held an event on Wednesday night geared toward Black outreach in support of the Trump campaign; Ben Carson, who is another potential running mate contender and served as Mr. Trumps secretary of housing and urban development; and Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the No. 4 House Republican, who has also been mentioned as a potential running mate.

Excerpt from:
A Trump Will Be in the Debate Spin Room (for Biden) - The New York Times