CNN
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The historic rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is something however a rerun, with their first presidential debate subsequent week set to showcase a vastly completely different set of points driving their bitter duel for the White Home.
It looks like an upside-down lifetime in the past for the reason that pair last appeared together on a debate stage. The coronavirus pandemic was raging within the fall of 2020 and Trump’s chaotic presidency was on the heart of all of it. Now, Biden’s report is underneath the microscope in equal measure, at the same time as he nonetheless presents himself as a safer various.
Within the Biden-Trump sequel, a wholly new set of fights have been brewing on the marketing campaign path and in TV adverts that supply a glimpse into not less than a few of the arguments more likely to be aired when the 2 come face-to-face Thursday on the CNN debate in Atlanta.
To voters in Wisconsin this week, Trump delivered a stark warning about an unstable world and, in his view, an unstable Biden presidency, saying: “We’re going to finish up in World Conflict III with this individual. He’s the worst president ever.”
A new Biden ad minces no phrases about Trump’s Could conviction on 34 felony counts: “This election is between a convicted legal who’s out for under himself and a president who’s combating for your loved ones,” the narrator declares within the spot, which is a part of a $50 million promoting marketing campaign.
The competing messages not solely crystallize the speculation of the case for the 2 rivals, however underscore simply how a lot the nation, the world and, sure, the candidates themselves have modified up to now 4 years.
From a violent riot and the lingering fallout over election integrity, to a brand new battle over abortion rights after the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade, to Russia’s conflict with Ukraine and boiling turmoil within the Center East, to the very stark query of America’s position on this planet, the 2024 marketing campaign is about very various things regardless of the identical candidates’ names on the poll.
For all these distinct points and extra, the economic system and immigration constantly rank among the many chief issues of voters. And inflation, a problem that has sophisticated Biden’s financial argument, is bound to be on the heart of all of it.
Towards that backdrop, Republicans and Democrats have each requested voters main into the primary debate: Are People higher off now than they had been 4 years in the past? The query has turn out to be a Rorschach check for partisans, with either side hoping their candidate could make a profitable argument Thursday.
Rep. Mike Waltz, a Florida Republican, stated Thursday that with the Center East “on fireplace,” Trump could make the case that he left workplace with higher international safety.
“That’s the factor you’re going to see popping out on this debate: What was the world like underneath Trump?” Waltz stated on CNN. “And what’s it like now with chaos underneath Joe Biden.”
Democrats have countered by reminding voters of the dysfunction that engulfed the Trump White Home, significantly through the closing yr of his presidency. A brand new Biden marketing campaign advert, which is airing in English and Spanish through the Copa América soccer tournament, begins with photos of vacant arenas and closed companies.
“4 years in the past, we had been shut down. Stadiums had been empty. Trump failed us,” a narrator says. “However then, Joe Biden took over.”
Whether or not it’s Trump, 78, or Biden, 81, the winner would be the oldest president to be sworn in on Inauguration Day – leaving age and fitness for office among the many defining questions within the race.
Greater than half of US adults say each are too outdated to serve one other time period, based on an April ABC News/Ipsos survey, 10 factors greater than a yr in the past, although surveys persistently present there are extra reservations about Biden’s skills.
Whereas Trump and his allies have spent months depicting Biden as a listless and dithering govt, they’ve currently engaged in a resetting of expectations heading into subsequent week’s showdown.
Trump prompt Biden could be “pumped up” for the controversy, earlier than insinuating, with none proof, that the president makes use of cocaine. (Trump cited the invention final yr of a small bag of cocaine on the White Home – although he erroneously stated it occurred final month. The Secret Service investigated the matter and was unable to identify a suspect.)
And in an interview on the “All-In” podcast that aired Thursday, Trump stated that Biden could be a “worthy debater” and that he didn’t need to underestimate him.
The shift in method comes amid issues amongst some Trump advisers that Republicans have set an extremely low bar for Biden’s efficiency, simply as they did main into this yr’s State of the Union tackle.
“Trump will need to place himself because the alpha and the extra lively, energetic, in-control candidate,” stated Brian Bartlett, a Republican strategist who labored on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential marketing campaign. “Anyone who’s wholesome and has vigor. We’ll need to see if that side-by-side matches actuality. If Trump is making these factors however Biden is having a superb evening, that gained’t land properly.”
Biden and his surrogates have addressed the candidate’s perceived weak point head on.
“Joe and that different man are primarily the identical age,” first girl Jill Biden instructed a Inexperienced Bay, Wisconsin, viewers final week. “Let’s not be fooled. However what this election is about, it’s in regards to the character of the individual main our nation.”
For incumbents, public opinion might be punishing. Biden’s favorability has fallen 11 factors in 4 years, with practically 6 in 10 People now holding an unfavorable view, based on CNN polls from September 2020 and April 2024. Perceptions of Trump have modified far much less, with greater than half of respondents nonetheless viewing him unfavorably.
Televised debates – and their potential for history-making moments – have been a storied a part of fashionable presidential campaigns.
But this showdown is with out parallel because the forty fifth and forty sixth presidents search to outline their rival in what’s the earliest common election debate in reminiscence.
“That’s the problem for President Trump – to remain out of his method and drive Biden to defend the report of his final 4 years,” stated Brett O’Donnell, a Republican strategist who has spent years getting ready candidates, together with Trump rivals, for debates.
“The problem for Biden,” O’Donnell instructed CNN, “is to truly get underneath Trump’s pores and skin and to make him interrupt and remind of us of a few of the qualities that they discover much less endearing.”
CNN’s Betsy Klein and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.