WASHINGTON — After successive trips to Europe, President Joe Biden plans to go to Camp David next week to prepare for his first debate of 2024 with former president Donald Trumpcrouched in the wooded shelter in Maryland where many similar cram sessions have taken place in the past.
Biden spent most of last week In France marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day. He goes to Italy on Wednesday for a summit Group of seven industrialized countries and then straight to Los Angeles for a weekend fundraiser with Hollywood superstars George Clooney and Julia Roberts.
All that traveling has left Biden little time to prepare for the June 27 debate. A second confrontation is scheduled for September 10.
A person with knowledge of the president’s plans, who insisted on anonymity to discuss them more freely, suggested Biden could spend the better part of a week at Camp David preparing for the first debate.
But others involved in the planning said Monday that details were still being worked out, including how many days Biden would spend preparing. They said the exact location where he would do that, at Camp David or elsewhere, had not yet been determined.
Camp David, located in the Catoctin Mountains northwest of Washington, is no stranger to presidents preparing for the debate stage. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan went there to prepare for debates during their re-election campaigns, as did George HW Bush before a 1992 debate.
President Barack Obama visited Camp David before his final debate with Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. Biden himself used the presidential retreat to prepare for his State of the Union address in February.
In a memo coinciding with a month ahead of the debate, Jen O’Malley Dillon, chairman of Biden’s reelection campaign, wrote that the president will look to go on the offensive and push Trump to talk about how his three appointees at the Supreme Court helped overturn Roe v. Wade, and how he could further undermine abortion rights in a second term.
Biden also wants Trump to discuss his “attacks” on American democracy and the promotion of political violence and an economic agenda that Biden’s team says will provide tax cuts to the wealthy while jeopardizing Social Security funding, wrote O’Malley Dillon.
Trump, meanwhile, was eager to debate Biden and challenge him to a confrontation “anytime, anywhere.”
At one point, Trump suggested that the president join him for a debate outside the lower Manhattan courthouse where the presumptive Republican nominee was located. is on trial for 34 crimes in a case involving the payment of hush money to a porn actor. Trump’s campaign placed an empty lectern at several of his rallies to underscore the message.
While in previous races, Trump participated in more traditional debate prep — with his former friend turned critic Chris Christie who played Hillary Clinton in 2016 – his team insists he will eschew the kind of formal preparation expected of Biden this time around.
“President Trump conducts countless tough interviews and delivers long standing speeches every week, demonstrating elite endurance,” said Jason Miller, Trump’s senior adviser.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report from New York.