Trump Tries to Set Expectations, and Floats Excuses, for His Debate With Biden

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/us/politics/trump-biden-debate-expectations.html

32 comments

  1. Archive copy: https://archive.is/8LEtT

    “_If that should happen, it’s only because Mr. Biden will be “pumped up,” he told his followers, suggesting that the president would hoover up a pile of cocaine beforehand, since the narcotic was recently found in the White House by the Secret Service, …_”

    Cough, bs, cough.

  2. Anyone that has heard someone hopped up on speed ramble knows that “water vs magnets” and “sharks vs batteries” are the standard kind of things one would expect.

  3. Quote from a Trump supporter talking about his making fun of Biden:

    >“We’re elderly, so we don’t like that,” she said. “I don’t want to make fun of him. I *are* him.”

    LOL

  4. Standard operating procedure pre-debate is to downplay your own skill while talking up your opponents. This lets you spin it as a win even if your opponent does better than you and it makes it hopefully holds them to a higher standard.

    Trump’s standard attack on Biden is the whole sleepy Joe schtick, playing up how old and decrepit Biden is. That only makes it easier for Biden to surpass those expectations, just like he did with the State of the Union where the right tried to claim he was on drugs for it, like the [old song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ5_SyvxDXE).

    Trump’s narcissism makes it hard for him to downplay his own skill. He has to blame others for his own shortcomings, like claiming the moderators are in the tank for Biden or even saying he might lose the debate on purpose, which his cult will eat up as an excuse but everyone else will laugh at.

    I am still not sure the debate will happen. Biden is not going to back out but I wouldn’t put it past trump to skip it if he can come up with a good enough excuse. The rules are just not in Trump’s favor at all. Cutting the mics when it isn’t his turn and the lack of audience will hurt him. Dude feeds off the energy of an audience and in previous debates, he constantly talked over his opponents. He will probably still try, just a ranting fucking baby in the background as Biden speaks. It is not going to be a good look, even if Biden shits the bed.

  5. Translation: If I suck, it’s Biden’s fault but please give more money to pay my legal bills

  6. Trump demanded on Friday that Joe Biden be drug tested ahead of the presidential debate.

    The dramatic irony is on full display with this guy.

  8. Trump better wear his depends and hold off on the McDs. Its not gonna be one of his rallies where he can do his freestyle brain diarrhea. Gotta bring the REAL facts/policies/accomplishments. Dont got any? Keep your fat lying ass at home.

  10. “i was going to debate very better but some marxist shit my pants”

  11. The Office of the President of the United States deserves the highest of our expectations. It’s not even debatable that this is true.

  13. Anybody who has dealt long term with a family member with dementia knows there is no drug (pill/powder/shot/cocktail) you can give a family member to suddenly make them lucid and recover their lost memory, speech, abilities and understanding…… It doesn’t exist and the fact that this nonsense is perpetuated by the media as a question to debate as if it is something other than pure medical fantasy is disgraceful.
    The GOP doesn’t say Biden has sympthoms of aging they say he is fully demented and that is a complete lie that makes their on drugs accusation absolute nonsense.

  14. It’s interesting how they always have an excuse for losing even before said event takes place. It really makes you wonder.

  15. I hope the last question is “What was the second question in this debate?”

  18. I’m very interested in seeing the reaction of the right after the debate. There’s a very low bar for Biden. He just has to prove he’s not senile. If he can’t do that, he’s fucked and so are the rest of us. But if he can, the main talking point for the Trump campaign should be gone. That’s after the Hunter Biden case should have taken out the second talking point for the Trump campaign, “the weaponization of government.” Now, both these narratives certainly will persist, but I have to imagine this 1-2 punch will do some damage. If Trump drops in the polls, he’s gonna have to come up with another talking point, and I think he’ll struggle with that for another reason…

    Trump can’t talk policy. And the debates are gonna make that clear. He’s resting on his “laurels.” “These problems didn’t exist when I was president, so I can fix them,” sounds like a rational argument until you’re actually forced into a situation where you have to explain what you actually did right before. And how you actually plan to fix things this time.

  19. You know what kind of people do this sort of thing? Losers.

  20. It wouldn’t surprise me if Trump chickened out like he did for the primaries.

  21. Trump won’t show. He will whine and complain and make up something “unfair”.

    He will puss out, I guarantee it.

  22. He isn’t going to debate,he’s not going to testify, he’s not going to show us his taxes, he’s not going to show us the Epstein files….

  23. He should never have let his campaign agree to this or vice versa.

    Refusing to debate would have been status quo.

    But now he will be exposed and likely will try to persuade his base to not watch so he can spin the surreality afterward.

  25. He won’t debate he will have another rally at a place and time that suits his, let’s call it style.

  26. >Mr. Moes saw Mr. Trump’s verbal mistakes as the foreseeable gaffes of a garrulous candidate, not as signs of aging. And as he looked ahead at the debate next week, he echoed Mr. Trump’s skepticism that the two candidates would be judged fairly.

    Making excuses rather than acknowledging the truth.

    >As long as Mr. Biden “stands up there and doesn’t pass out and doesn’t stop talking for two minutes, the liberal media is going to paint him as a winner, no matter what happens, which is the scary part,” he said

    Both candidates are senior citizens so attacking on age is pretty asinine.

    >Mr. Trump also told his followers to be suspicious of the whole debate enterprise, although his campaign negotiated the terms of his participation. They should keep in mind, he said, that he’ll be up against multiple adversaries at once — not just Mr. Biden but both of CNN’s moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who, Mr. Trump added, were constitutionally incapable of treating him fairly. “I’ll be debating three people instead of one half of a person,” he said.

    Just another example of his incompetence. Of course, his supporters will eat that up. He really doesn’t care what he says.

  27. Trump has never won a debate. They have to pre narrative this to hide that fact.

  28. Biden is old and like an old man he moves slow and may speak deliberately. That’s not anything other than being 80 freaking years old. Biden should be ok. He can speak in depth about policy positions and stick to a script if it is a good response to debate questions

    Trump is old too. Trump speaks quickly but he has weird presentation habits. He rambles. He has vocal spasms. He gets cotton mouth badly. He has a bad temper. He cannot speak about governing policies or ideas off the cuff.

    If Biden just shows up and remains calm and articulates past policy he wins. The economy is solid. He made changes to immigration. He’s not a convicted felon

  29. If Trump doesn’t fall over, he will declare victory. If Biden stutters just a little, there will be calls for him to drop out of the race.

  30. Well, you can’t just say that Biden’s biggest fault is that he’s a feeble, senile old man 10 million times and then spend one week trying to change the narrative to Biden is a wily trickster.

    There is a better than 50% chance trump backs out of this debate.

  31. He will chicken out, just like he did with the Junior Varsity league of Republicans.

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