After saying for months that President Joe Biden was unable to articulate two sentences, Donald Trump has changed his tone days before his first debate.
“I assume he will be someone worth debating,” the former president and presumptive Republican presidential candidate said in an appearance on “The All-In” podcast last week.
“I don’t want to underestimate him,” he added.
The change in rhetoric marks a drastic shift from how Trump typically describes the man he will face again at the polls in November. In his rallies and speeches, Trump often describes the current Democratic president as a “person of low intelligence” and as “the worst, most incompetent and most corrupt president” in the history of the country, and often imitates Biden, who appears lost on stage.
The attempt to adjust expectations ahead of Thursday’s matchup in Atlanta comes amid concern among some members of his party that Trump has set the bar so low for Biden that he will surely surpass it. And he underlines what is at stake for both men in a race that has seemed largely static for months.
Millions of people are expected to follow the debate on Thursday, offering a unique opportunity for both sides to try to gain momentum in a race that will likely be decided by a small fraction of voters in a handful of battleground states.
Trump — who has never admitted that he lost cleanly to Biden in 2020 and continues to spread false and unproven theories about voter fraud — may also be preparing a series of excuses in case he is outdone by Biden.
“Maybe I’d better lose the debate,” Trump joked in an interview with Real America’s Voice earlier this month. “I’ll make sure he stays. I will lose the debate on purpose, maybe I will do something like that.”
The disqualification of the independent presidential candidate leaves the CNN debate open only to the two leading candidates: Biden and Trump.
ATTACKS EVEN AGAINST MODERATORS
Not only Trump has spoken well of Biden. On Sunday, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a leading contender for the vice presidential nomination, highlighted the president’s experience on the debate stage.
“This guy has skill,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We’ve seen it in this year’s State of the Union, that when he needs it, he can step up.”
At the same time, Trump and his campaign team have intensified their attacks on the debate moderators, insisting that CNN, which will host the meeting, will not give the former president fair treatment. Both campaign teams accepted CNN’s invitation after deciding to dispense with the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has organized debates for decades.
Former President Trump once again attacked undocumented immigrants and Biden’s immigration policy. To see more from Telemundo, visit https://www.nbc.com/networks/telemundo
“I’ll debate three people instead of half one person,” Trump said at a rally in Racine, Wisconsin, last week.
In a statement, CNN called Jake Tapper and Dana Bash “well-respected veteran journalists” with “extensive experience moderating major political debates.”
“No two people are better suited to co-moderate a substantive, fact-based debate, and we look forward to the June 27 debate in Atlanta,” the network said in the statement.
){kind=link}