Be prepared for two different trump cards

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is preparing to face a few different Donald Trumps on Thursday’s debate stage: the more bombastic and “unhinged” one, known for his grievance-filled and single-minded rallies, and a fairly disciplined version who largely refrains from tirades and follow the policy.

If Trump is more calm than furious, Biden’s goal will be to extract what his aides consider “the real Trump,” according to three people familiar with the president’s debate preparation.

Biden’s advisers have been meticulously studying and analyzing all of Trump’s recent comments, these people said, in an effort to better identify what might anger him and what else might “trigger” him if he demonstrated some self-restraint.

As president, Trump has at times shown some self-restraint, an outlook that has caused some outside observers to speculate whether debate rules such as microphone muting might ultimately prevent him from saying something too outrageous.

“If I were advising Biden, I would try to mock Trump,” former Vice President Dan Quayle, a Republican, said in an interview with NBC News. “Try to ridicule him. This will make him furious.

Trump appeared to acknowledge the dynamic during a rally in Philadelphia this weekend, asking the crowd: “Should I be tough and nasty and just say, ‘You’re the worst president in history’? Or should I be gentle and calm and let him talk?”

The entire debate could hinge on one candidate’s ability to knock the other off their game, said a fourth person familiar with Biden’s preparation. The goal is to fully display the “Trump rally,” one of the sources said.

One way Biden is trying to do this is to point out that Trump lost the 2020 election and then argue that Trump “snapped” afterward and incited an insurrection on Jan. 6, these people said. If there is a sense that Trump feels he is being called a “loser,” it could anger him enough to lash out. That potential is being incorporated into Biden’s preparations, the sources said.

But the Biden campaign believes that whatever version of Trump emerges is largely irrelevant.

“It really doesn’t matter how Donald Trump appears. If he comes in unhinged, as he does most of the time, or sits there and is quiet, people will know that he is a twice-impeached criminal who has been found to have defamed someone, sexually assaulted someone, and gone bankrupt. six times,” campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Attacking Trump for his actions after the 2020 election could help Biden with independent voters, said sources familiar with Biden’s preparation, who suspect that Americans who might be on the fence between the two candidates would be put off by the idea that Trump remains to falsely claim that he won.

Biden’s team believes there is a “fine line to walk” because they still want viewers to get the impression that Biden is the “adult in the room,” a Biden campaign official said. The official also stressed that Biden does not need to “incite” Trump to say certain things because the contrast between his two views will be completely clear without that, the official said.

Even if Trump doesn’t delve into some of the “more extreme rhetoric” in Thursday’s debate, Biden campaign officials are betting that the difference between the two candidates on issues like reproductive rights, democracy, Social Security and Medicare will be so sharp that it doesn’t matter, said this official.

“On Thursday, the American people will see two distinct visions for the future on stage in Atlanta: President Biden’s vision, where freedoms are protected and all Americans have a fair chance, and Donald Trump’s ‘dark vision’ , where he will serve as a dictator from day one, hand out tax cuts to the ultra-rich on the backs of the middle class, and destroy women’s rights,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler wrote in a strategy memo on Sunday.

While this is all part of what Biden and his closest advisers are discussing this week at Camp David, a lot of time and energy is also spent on how to address the broader political substance of the debate and not just the style in which Biden can provide certain answers.

“People want to hear what each candidate will do for their families, for their rights, and not just play politics and smear,” said a former Biden aide.

One way for Biden to do this is to focus on the argument that Trump only cares about himself and his legal challenges, while Biden believes his first term was dedicated to helping reduce costs for Americans and expanding certain freedoms and rights that the president will argue could be in danger if Trump regains the White House.

Biden has tried to hone in on a positive economic message, although many voters say they still don’t feel the effects of his policies in their daily lives when it comes to the cost of basic foods and gas.

He also plans to bring up abortion access and specifically Trump taking credit for the downfall of Roe v. Wade. Wade, after appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices to the court during his tenure.

If Trump says something false, Biden is prepared to point it out, but there is also an awareness that the president should not spend the entire debate fact-checking his opponent rather than outlining his own vision for a second term.

Biden’s team expects moderators to step in and do so when necessary, but they are preparing the president to call out specific lies if Trump raises them, sources familiar with Biden’s preparation said.

In terms of policy, Biden aides have been poring over thick binders, organized by topic, on “what we’ve done, what we want to do,” according to a White House official briefed on the preparation.

The process, which began intensely several days ago, is “going well” so far, said the official, and should continue until Thursday, when the president will leave Camp David for Atlanta.

This article was originally published in NBCNews. with