The Biden campaign knows the president has no actual positive accomplishments they can point to so it's looking like the White House's debate plan is to -- *yawn* -- portray Trump as a "threat to democracy" as angrily as possible:
But, for that reason, the Biden team is also preparing for the debate to be deeply personal and potentially angry, too. Biden makes no secret of his distaste for Trump, whom he refers to as a “sick f**k” in private and believes is a stain on the White House. And aides are preparing for Trump to attack Biden’s son Hunter, who was convicted on a gun charge this month, urging the president to flash a little anger that could resonate with Americans whose own families have struggled with addiction.
In short, the debate will provide Biden with an unparalleled chance to “drag Trump into Americans living rooms,” as one of the officials said, and force voters to accept that he stands a chance of winning again. The downside is: Voters may leave the night comfortable with that outcome.
If Biden's plan is to act angry (the "unity president" gets plenty of practice at that whenever he calls half the country horrible, racist and unpatriotic), these new polls that just dropped are going to make him even more furious:
3 polls released in the last 24 hours all show a sizable
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) June 27, 2024
gap between Trump's and Biden's favorable/unfavorable ratings -- a shift from most polls this year (and even the last few weeks), which have found little to no difference: pic.twitter.com/RSmmRlmGF6
The Quinnipiac and NYT/Siena polls were both conducted over the last week; Gallup's was conducted from June 3-23.
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) June 27, 2024
The amazing and consistent disconnect with the Biden campaign is that they keep doubling down on the kinds of things that have made Biden's approval even worse. Examples of that include insulting voters by insisting the economy is great and they must be mistaken if they think the cost of living has spiked since Biden took office or ramping up the "convicted felon" rhetoric about Trump even though the lawfare has backfired on the Democrats.
Donald Trump currently has a higher net favorability rating (-7) than Joe Biden (-19).
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) June 27, 2024
The muted mics at tonight’s presidential debate may end up helping Trump avoid the interruptions and outbursts that tanked his likability during the first debate in 2020. https://t.co/tjkwcfvFpY
And that was a demand of the Biden campaign, but since every other "strategy" they've implemented has backfired, why shouldn't this one? Stay tuned!
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