Top Democrats are already setting the bar low for President Joe Biden in the upcoming debate and are even predicting a loss for the president in the historic contest with President Donald Trump.
Biden plans to spend most of the week at the presidential retreat at Camp David, resting and preparing for the debate, which may be the most important debate of his career.
David Axelrod, President Barack Obama’s former campaign chief, warned the Biden team to be aware of the history of challengers facing a first-term president.
“The history of sitting presidents in the early debates is pretty bleak,” Axelrod said in a recent podcast discussion. “Because those presidents haven’t controlled anyone for a long time and their impulse is to defend every aspect of their record.”
“The sitting president always loses the first debate,” former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer said during a debate event with former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
President Joe Biden chuckles as reporters shout questions at him at the White House
Pfeiffer recalled President Barack Obama’s disastrous first debate against Mitt Romney, President George W. Bush’s loss to John Kerry, and even President Bill Clinton’s struggles in his first debate with Bob Dole.
Other strategists agree, setting the bar extraordinarily low for Biden or raising alarms among those preparing him for the debate.
“Sometimes sitting presidents get a little rusty,” former Obama adviser Tommy Vietor said in an interview, echoing his former cohorts.
Meanwhile, Trump allies are floating around the idea that if Biden is actually performing well, it’s because he’s on cocaine or other performance-enhancing drugs.
And earlier this week, Trump suggested at a rally in Racine, Wisconsin, that Biden was going to use cocaine to “get pumped up” for next week’s debate.
“He’ll be so excited, he’ll be so excited,” Trump said of Biden. “You know all that stuff that was missing from the White House about a month ago? What happened?’ Trump asked.
“Somebody didn’t pick up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine,” the former president continued. ‘I wonder who that could have been. Don’t know. Actually, I think it was Joe.”
Former President Donald Trump, left, and Joe Biden, right, with moderator Chris Wallace, center, of Fox News during the first presidential debate on September 29, 2020
Democrats are comforted by the fact that former White House chief of staff Ron Klain has confirmed he will return to help the aging president with debate preparations.
Klain was already involved with Al Gore in the preparations for the presidential debate during the 2000 campaign. He helped Obama prepare for his debates with Mitt Romney during the 2012 re-election campaign, and for Hillary Clinton’s debates with Trump in 2016.
Democrats tell DailyMail.com that former White House counsel Bob Bauer will also prepare Biden to face Trump. Bauer played Trump in Biden’s preparations for the 2020 debates and was also involved in debate preparations for Obama.
“I hope they’ve discussed how to avoid looking rusty,” one strategist told DailyMail.com
Psaki, now an MSNBC host, admitted the debate would be a high-stakes showdown between the two candidates, but Biden couldn’t avoid it.
FILE: Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential debate
The Biden team was wary of whether or not to debate Trump after the infamous first debate of 2020 descended into a shouting and interrupting match moderated by a protesting Chris Wallace.
For months, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the Biden campaign refused to confirm a debate, despite Trump’s repeated assertion that he would be willing to debate “anytime, anywhere.”
But when broadcaster Howard Stern asked the president in April if he wanted to debate, Biden confirmed he was willing to do so.
“I’m somewhere,” Biden replied. ‘I do not know when. I’m happy to debate with him.’
Joe Biden ultimately confirmed his intention to debate Trump during his interview with Howard Stern
Former President Donald Trump is eagerly awaiting a new debate and has low expectations for the president
Psaki said Biden couldn’t avoid the debate but agreed it was “smart” that they got Trump to agree to his terms and get them on CNN.
Democrats were outraged by the first debate of 2020, accusing the Commission on Presidential Debates for allowing Trump to walk all over Wallace and talk about Biden.
A Democratic strategist told DailyMail.com to expect a “few zingers” from Biden but suggested he and his team focus on his agenda.
“I think voters want to see President Biden discuss his achievements and present a positive, forward-looking agenda to define his vision for a second term,” he said.
Others believe Biden should focus intently on provoking Trump by reminding him (and the public) that he is a convicted felon.
Psaki advised that Democrats must find a way to get Biden to “need” Trump in a way that provokes Trump without cutting off viewers.
“They have to figure out how to do that the right way,” she said.
The challenge for Biden, she said, was to highlight the contrast between him and the former president to remind viewers what he represented.
“I think the challenge for him is to let go of the laundry list of achievements of which he has many, and the data points that prove those achievements, because that doesn’t win any debate,” she said.