:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2024/y/Z/nbM9kcSDOZ1gBWBxIFGQ/biden-trump-bbc-1.png?w=760&resize=760,456&ssl=1 "Trump and Biden’s strategies for the first debate of the US election | US Elections 2024")
US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump spent the weekend preparing for the first debate of the 2024 US elections – in very different ways.
Biden stayed with advisers at Camp David, the US presidential country house, and took part in a mock debate.
Trump spent Saturday on the campaign trail, publicly practicing attack strategy and tactics.
This Thursday’s debate (27/6), organized by the American network CNN, will be the third confrontation between the two candidates on stage – the first of this electoral cycle.
They faced each other in the 2020 elections and participated in two debates that year.
The Democratic president is preparing with his former chief of staff Ron Klain, who also helped him craft the State of the Union address — the head of state’s annual message to Congress — in March.
Bob Bauer, who served as a White House adviser under former President Barack Obama, is playing the role of Donald Trump in the mock debate with Biden, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported.
On Sunday, Biden’s campaign also said it plans to host hundreds of parties and events across US states to broadcast the upcoming debate.
In addition to holding 1,600 events, the campaign said it would air a new package of television and digital ads in an effort to connect with voters.
The events will target groups seen as crucial to Biden’s re-election, including members of the LGBT community and college students.
As far as the debate is concerned, Biden campaign co-chairman Mitch Landrieu indicated on Sunday that attacking the Republican rival over his problems with justice and character would be a strategy.
“It doesn’t really matter what Donald Trump looks like, whether he’s going to come in angry, as he does most of the time, or whether he’s going to sit there and be calm,” Mitch Landrieu told NBC on Sunday.
According to Landrieu, people will know that he is a “convicted felon” — referring to Trump’s recent conviction in a New York bribery trial — who “defamed somebody, sexually exploited somebody,” a reference to Trump’s conviction in a defamation lawsuit brought against him by author E. Jean Carroll.
US elections: Survey says Trump leads Biden in 5 of 6 crucial states
But Republicans have abandoned traditional preparations for the debate and instead held a series of meetings with senators and aides in recent weeks.
Trump is with them at his estate in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, reviewing the political issues he wants to address during Thursday’s confrontation.
“He’s thinking about how to translate these important themes into a message that works,” Republican Senator J.D. Vance said in an interview with Fox News last week.
Vance is one of the senators who have met with Trump in recent days, along with Marco Rubio and Eric Schmidt.
According to The Hill newspaper, Trump is also discussing how to address issues such as the January 6, 2021 invasion of the Capitol, which Biden called an assault on American democracy.
On Saturday, the former president held a rally in Philadelphia where he attacked and mocked Biden for his debate preparation at Camp David.
At one point, he asked the crowd if they should be “tough and nasty” with his opponent during the debate, or “nice and cool.”
The former president also dismissed the standard of his opponent, claiming he is the “worst debater ever” and “can’t put two sentences together”.
Trump also suggested the situation wasn’t in his favor, as he said the media would treat him unfairly.
Also on Saturday, Trump announced he had decided who would run for vice president on his ticket, though he did not reveal the name.
In an interview with NBC after the rally in Philadelphia, Trump said his running mate would “very likely” be at the debate, which will take place in Atlanta.
He said no one knows who he chose, adding:
“I think a lot of people will go (to the debate).”
The presumptive Republican nominee said he would reveal his choice for vice president at the party’s convention next month.
Both Vance and Rubio are considered strong candidates, as is North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
Recent polls indicate that the presidential race remains very close by now.
The YouGov survey, conducted between June 17 and 21 for CBS News Network among about 2,000 likely voters, shows Trump is slightly ahead with a one percentage point advantage.
