Trump bets debating Biden will help him, no matter what – Washington Examiner

Former President Donald Trump has long agreed with P.T. Barnum that there is no such thing as bad publicity, a belief that served him well as a real estate developer and reality TV star, with more mixed results as a politician.

Trump is betting that there is no such thing as a bad debate with President Joe Biden at this stage in the 81-year-old’s career, taking a calculated risk as he nurses a 1-point lead in the national RealClearPolitics polling average.

That’s why Trump accepted two debates largely on Biden’s terms, including Thursday night’s showdown that comes before either man is his party’s presidential nominee.

“Crooked Joe Biden is the WORST debater I have ever faced — He can’t put two sentences together!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in May. He often cast doubt on Biden’s willingness to debate him at all. “He can’t talk,” he told Minnesota Republicans. “He can’t walk. Can’t find his way off a stage. Can’t put two sentences together.”

ELECTION 2024: FOLLOW LATEST COVERAGE

Trump had challenged Biden to debate “anytime, anywhere, anyplace.” He couldn’t be seen as backing down from that if the White House made him an offer — even one he might want to refuse.

“What they did, I’m pretty sure, is that they approached me with a debate that I couldn’t take,” Trump told the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. “Dana Bash, Jake Tapper, no audience, sitting down, originally sitting down, a dead debate, turn off the mics when you’re not speaking so I can’t interrupt him. … They knew I wouldn’t accept that.”

And yet Trump did, in part because of his confidence that any contrast with Biden on age, acuity, and stamina will redound to the former president’s benefit. Though, Trump did concede in his interview with York that he interrupted Biden too much in their first debate in 2020.

Biden has been under increased scrutiny over his age. The White House has dismissed viral clips of the president wandering around or appearing infirm as “cheap fakes.” Already the oldest commander in chief in history, Biden would be 86 by the end of a second term. But at 78, Trump would also reenter the Oval Office older than Ronald Reagan, the previous age record-holder at the position, left it.

Yet most of Biden’s most memorable flubs have come in routine day-to-day events. He has generally performed acceptably in big moments, including exceeding expectations with his State of the Union address. Biden delivered a fairly energetic speech after a special counsel report painted an unflattering picture of his memory.

Trump is normally a stickler for debate ground rules. He has frequently used audience feedback and strategically timed interjections to his advantage in the past. After coming in too hot at the first debate with Biden, Trump skipped the next debate because he would not participate in a virtual event. The two did end up debating live a second time.

With a commanding lead in the polls, Trump refused to debate his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. “People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate?” he wrote on Truth Social. “I’M YOUR MAN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump won the nomination with relative ease, with only former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, the one candidate who clearly benefited from the Republican National Committee debates, putting up a semblance of resistance.

Team Trump has spent the week leading up to the debate sparring with CNN, the network that is hosting it. Roughing up the debate moderators has been a proven strategy for Republicans stretching from Reagan’s “I paid for this microphone” moment in New Hampshire in 1980 to Newt Gingrich winning the 2012 South Carolina primary on the heels of a tough exchange with CNN’s John King.

It’s possible Trump doesn’t need a big debate moment now that he is a known commodity and could benefit from the discipline the agreed-upon format imposes on him.

“Trump can win the debate if he just lets Biden ramble. His best tactic would be to not interrupt Biden,” Republican pollster Brent Buchanan wrote in a memo on Wednesday. “I’m not sure he can do that, but he’d advance his cause greatly if he would.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Trump has more recently been talking up Biden as a debater. “He beat Paul Ryan pretty badly,” he told the All-In podcast in an interview that came out last week, referring to the 2012 vice presidential debate. “And I assume he’s going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater. I would say I don’t want to underestimate him.” (It doesn’t hurt that this doubles as a shot at Ryan, who has become an intraparty rival of Trump’s.)

But there is no question Trump is taking the stage with the expectation of beating Biden, testing another Barnum adage: “I don’t care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.”