Biden and Trump sharpen their weapons a week before a crucial debate

Photo: Mandel Ngan Agence France-Presse US Democratic President Joe Biden alongside his Vice President Kamala Harris during a campaign event in Philadelphia on May 29

Aurélia End – Agence France-Presse and Camille Camdessus – Agence France-Presse in Washington

Posted at 3:43 p.m.

• United States

Marathon rehearsals, small group consultations, campaign rallies: each in their own way, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are accelerating preparations for their debate next Thursday, the first major meeting between the two candidates at the House -Blanche.

The president is heading to Camp David on Thursday, a country residence of American leaders near Washington, to discuss this coming confrontation.< /p>

Few details have leaked about the 81-year-old Democrat's preparation, other than his former chief of staff (“chief of staff“) at the House -Blanche, Ron Klain, will participate, and that there will be many rehearsals during which a participant — whose identity is not known — will play the role of Donald Trump.

In the Trump camp, no dress rehearsal session, we assure, not without a certain contempt for the opposing camp.

« Contrary to Joe Biden, (Donald Trump) does not need to be prepared by his collaborators, nor doped with chemicals,” criticized Jason Miller, advisor to the Republican billionaire.

And to affirm that Donald Trump, although only three years Joe Biden's junior, shows “extraordinary endurance”.

“A great evening”

In the absence of these classic training sessions, the former president has surrounded himself in recent days with influential senators and candidates for office. vice-presidency to discuss issues likely to be discussed, such as foreign policy or immigration, according to media reports.

The Republican, criminally convicted in New York at the end of May, must also outline a robust strategy in the event that its legal troubles come to light.

The debate on June 27, scheduled for 9 p.m. in Atlanta, is the third meeting of this type between the two men.

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“It’s going to be a great evening,” assured Donald Trump during a rally with his supporters, predicting audience scores similar to those of the ultra-popular American football championship final , the Super Bowl.

Eager to avoid the cacophony of the first debate of 2020 – during which the two candidates spent an hour and a half insulting each other and 'interrupt – the CNN channel has adopted a series of rules supposed to govern their exchanges.

Abortion, democracy

Joe Biden outlined his debate strategy during a recent interview with ABC.

He intends to “let him say what he thinks” and “push him in a direction such that he will talk, for example, about suspending the Constitution”.

« All I have to do is listen to what he says – remind people what he says, what I believe and what he believes. »

The Biden camp is therefore betting on restraint in the face of the excesses and outbursts of the Republican billionaire, whom the Democratic president presents as a danger to democracy.

If Joe Biden wanted a debate much earlier than usual – these major duels generally take place in the fall – it is because he is betting that the Americans have in some way kind of forgotten Donald Trump and that it would be enough to refresh their memory.

The president of his campaign team, Jen O'Malley Dillon, had indicated at the end of May that the American president would attack Donald Trump on the right to abortion, the defense of democracy, and on his plans for “reductions in taxes for billionaires. »

Endurance test

But beyond the bottom, it It's also, perhaps above all, about the form that Joe Biden must convince, he whom Donald Trump's supporters accuse of being senile.

It's been a long time since the American president, whose cautious gait and sometimes difficult speech betray his age, did not appear live, standing, for a broadcast lasting an hour and a half.

< p>His supporters hope to find the same level of energy as during his State of the Union speech, it is true particularly lively, delivered in March before Congress.

Donald Trump then insinuated, without the slightest proof, that the Democrat could then have taken cocaine.

As if to anticipate that Joe Biden would be, again, in great form, the Republican repeated these allegations Tuesday, about the debate.

“They are going to completely drug him! »