Ahead of the November elections neither Joe Biden nor the Democrat National Committee (DNC) can afford a sorry spectacle like again witnessing him fall off a stationary bicycle for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Accordingly, the incumbent has been hunkered down for a week in the presidential Camp David bunker preparing for a rough June 27 debate ride along a rocky campaign trail where he lags Trump in most polls including all six swing states.
Led by his former Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Biden’s White House prep team also including Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, Deputy of Staff Bruce Reed, campaign advisors Anita Dunn and Mike Donilon, and counselor Steve Ricchetti, have their hands full readying Joe for 90 minutes of unchaperoned, non-tele prompted solo exchanges with a highly seasoned media pro.
Mutually agreed rules for the event mandate that opponents will remain standing at uniform podiums.
This means live audiences won’t be present; no prewritten notes or props will be allowed on stage; no interactions with others during two scheduled commercial intermission breaks; and muted microphones will ensure each candidate has uninterrupted speaking times.
Whereas Joe Biden’s gaffe control managers have made little secret about limiting and shortening White House Press appearances and other public forums, Donald Trump thrives on huge rally events where he is clearly the only one in charge.
And although Trump immediately agreed to debate terms that would seem to be stacked against him – staging it on left-leaning CNN with liberal hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash – in reality, it provides an opportunity to highlight triumph over media bias that has plagued him from the time he first announced 2016 presidential candidacy.
Tapper has previously suggested that, if re-elected, Trump will try to "kill democracy."
Bash has argued that "unfortunately for America," the U.S. Supreme Court decided to keep Trump on the Colorado ballot and that the former president incited "war" domestically during his first term.
As for feeding Biden advance notice of questions that will be asked as occurred when CNN commentator Donna Brazile briefed Hillary Clinton prior to the 2016 debates, it would be more surprising to see the hosts depart from hot button talking points that
Democrats have been pounding throughout and following Trump’s presidency.
For example, blaming the former president for provoking the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots when we now know his offer of sending up to 10,000 precautionary National Guard troops was declined by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser as bad optics.
Regarding any host disclaimers of 2020 "rigged election" claims, fully expect Trump to point out that the FBI sat on evidence of Biden family corruption including expansive foreign influence peddling contained on Hunter’s "laptop from hell" which, if publicly released, likely would have changed the results.
CNN host Kaitlan Collins had meanwhile then allowed Biden to assert in a debate over Trump’s dispute that such damaging material was Russian disinformation based upon a factually unsupportable letter signed by 51 former intel officials engineered by his lead campaign advisor — now secretary of state — Antony Blinken.
Biden will assuredly use the debate stage to spotlight a raft of criminal charges against Trump including salacious Manhattan convictions for sexual assault against E. Jean Carroll which purportedly occurred some time in the 1990s (the plaintiff couldn’t recall when), and so-called "hush money" payments involving porn actress Stormy Daniels nearly two decades ago which violated no law even if true.
Such blatantly political lawfare is proving to be a losing Democratic strategy with broad public backlash which has greatly enriched Trump campaign coffers.
Biden, according to aides, also plans use the debate to hold Trump accountable for his role in helping to overturn Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), which allowed late-term abortions, an enormously complex and sensitive issue that Democrats believe favors their position.
Trump will counter by repeating support for state voters and legislatures to determine such decisions while also expressing personal advocacy for certain limitations — including a 16-week abortion ban with exceptions — which generally tends to fall in line with prevalent opinions.
Trump, in turn, will also tout his recent presidential record against Biden and fellow Democrat policy failures.
Included are: raging inflation along with rising food and housing costs; warfare against fossil-fueled energy independence; an open southern border, which has distributed more than 10 million unvetted illegal migrants including hundreds of suspected terrorists throughout the country.
Also included are epidemic death rates from Chinese and Mexican narcotics; and escalating violent and property crimes attributed to lax law enforcement and prosecution practices.
Add to this weak and confused Biden administration foreign policies which directly produced the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle and arguably emboldened Russia to savagely invade Ukraine and Tehran-funded Hamas to launch Oct. 7, 2023 atrocities, killing1,200 Israeli citizens.
Ultimately, while peddling these disasters as talking point achievements to a painfully impacted public will be an enormous uphill challenge.
This is especially true since Biden’s handlers won’t be able to rely on his director of message planning dressed in a bunny costume to lead him away from responding to a reporter’s question about Afghanistan, or other sensitive matters as occurred during a 2022 White House Easter egg roll.
At the end of the day, Joe’s most consequential debate audience may be leading members of his own party who determine whether to take away his campaign training wheels and topple him from going forward as their 2024 candidate.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
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