- Trump and his allies set the bar very low for Joe Biden during the first debate next week
- But they are now changing course and talking about his debating skills
- READ MORE: Democratic Strategist Gives Brutal Assessment of Biden’s Chances
After weeks of setting the bar low for President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate, Donald Trump and his allies are changing course.
Gone are the jokes that simply staying upright would be a victory for the 81-year-old Biden.
Instead, they now talk about his debating skills or hint that a strong performance could be down to chemical help.
“He’ll be so excited. He’s going to be pumped up,” Trump, 78, told supporters at a rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday, before hinting that cocaine would be the secret to an energetic performance.
“You know all that stuff that was missing from the White House about a month ago? What happened?
Next week, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will face off in the first presidential debate. Trump has started talking about Biden’s debate prowess after weeks of taking him on
“Somebody didn’t pick up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine. I wonder who that could be. Don’t know. Actually, I think it was Joe.”
Biden and Trump will face off in Atlanta next week.
In the meantime, Biden is holed up in the Camp David presidential retreat, immersed in debate preparation, while Trump is taking a less targeted approach, stepping up his attacks on rallies and calling advisers.
Until this week, the former president had underestimated Biden’s chances of defeating him.
During a recent speech before the National Rifle Association in Dallas, he spoke about his own meandering speaking style before turning to what he called the “low IQ person” he will face in the debate.
“If this horrible person ends the debate, which I think he will… if he stands, if he stands, they will say it was a brilliant performance,” Trump said, before imagining the reviews.
‘It was a brilliant performance. They’ve never seen anything like this…reminiscent of the days of FDR.”
Biden and Trump with their wives after the first presidential debate of 2020
JL Partners surveyed 500 likely voters between June 10 and 11 and asked them what they expected would happen if Joe Biden and Donald Trump faced off in their first presidential debate
The narrative that Biden is a weak man with a diminished ability to hold public attention during speeches has gripped the voting public.
A JL Partners survey found that 49 percent of respondents think he will forget where he is during the debate, and 41 percent said they expect him to walk off the wrong side of the stage.
About 50 percent said they expected Trump to win the debate, compared to just 39 percent who think Biden will emerge victorious.
But that comes with a risk for Trump. What if Biden exceeds such low expectations?
This week, Trump used an appearance on the “All In” podcast to up the ante for Biden.
“And he beat Paul Ryan, so I don’t underestimate him,” Trump said of the 2012 VP matchup
“All I can say is this: I watched him with Paul Ryan, and he destroyed Paul Ryan,” Trump said, referring to the 2012 vice presidential debate.
Later in the interview he brought up that debate again. “And he beat Paul Ryan, so I don’t underestimate him.”
Allies have also floated the idea that caffeine pills, energy drinks or something else could be key to Biden’s performance.
“Whatever Joe drank, ate, took before the State of the Union – maybe it was just Red Bull and caffeine pills,” Fox News host Sean Hannity said recently.
‘Don’t know. Whatever it was, it wasn’t normal Joe.
‘We’ve never seen it before, and we haven’t seen it since. But we’ll see before the debate.’