Biden campaign gears up for presidential debate
President Biden’s campaign is planning a full week of events and promotions leading up to the first presidential debate of 2024 on Thursday.
Biden is slated to go head-to-head with former President Trump on the debate stage, which will mark the first time either of the front-runners has debated since the 2020 campaign.
The Biden-Harris campaign sent out a memo Sunday detailing what events and advertising voters can expect from the campaign in the upcoming days.
“Now, with the debate just days away, Team Biden-Harris is putting a magnifying glass on the choice this week as Democrats in Atlanta and across the country organize around this moment,” Michael Tyler, communications director for the Biden-Harris campaign, said in the memo.
The debate will be hosted by CNN in Atlanta, and moderated by the network’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper. It will start at 9 p.m. and will be 90 minutes long.
The campaign is planning more than 1,600 events, including community events, trainings and canvassing, across battleground states this week, according to the memo. It will also host more than 300 debate watch parties Thursday night.
The campaign is also rolling out new television, digital and radio advertisements leading up to the debate. The ads are “focusing on the threat that Trump poses to reproductive care, to an economy that works for the middle class, and to our democracy,” according to the memo.
They are also setting up hubs in Atlanta and Wilmington, Del., "to lift key moments and push back on Donald Trump’s lies in real time” on debate night.
Biden has been hunkering down at Camp David in recent days to prepare for the debate, while Trump has taken a less-traditional approach to debate prep. Instead of hosting mock debates, Trump has been prepping for the debate by meeting with lawmakers to discuss what policy issues may come up.
Trump and his allies are also readying efforts to dismiss a potentially strong debate performance by Biden as a charade. They are suggesting, without evidence, that if Biden does well in the debate, it’s because of some unnamed substance the president has taken.