President Biden and former President Trump have had "vastly different approaches" when it comes to preparing for Thursday's historic presidential debate, per Fox News. The president has spent the last five days prepping with aides at Camp David, where a mock debate stage has been set up, per the New York Times. Biden's personal attorney, Bob Bauer, has reportedly been posing as Trump for the exercise, while "Biden's advisers have been meticulously studying and combing through all of Trump's recent comments," per NBC News. Trump, on the other hand, has held "policy discussions" with allies but is "relying heavily on his campaign experience," Fox reports, apparently meaning he doesn't feel the need for much official prep.
"How should I handle him?" Trump asked the crowd at a rally on Saturday. "Should I be tough and nasty, and just say, 'You're the worst president in history'? Or should I be nice and calm and let him speak?" CNN predicts he'll go with the former, aiming to "portray Biden's America in dystopian terms, beset by uncontrolled immigration, rampant crime, and searing economic pain." Biden, meanwhile, hopes to trigger Trump with talk of his 2020 election loss and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that followed.
That could prompt Trump to repeat his unfounded claims of election fraud, alienating independent voters, per Fox. And "if there's a sense that Trump feels he is being called a 'loser,' that may anger him enough to lash out," feeding into the view that he lacks self-control, per NBC. Biden is also preparing "to call out specific lies if Trump raises them," the outlet reports. But even with all of Biden's preparations, "he will forget it within about an hour after preparing," Trump told Fox. "So, we'll see what happens." (More presidential debate stories.)