President Joe Biden is hoping to get under Donald Trump's skin during their first debate and induce him to reveal the unhinged version of himself he shows to fans at rallies, in hopes of horrifying viewers who haven't seen much of him since his presidency ended.
The president's advisers are combing through Trump's recent remarks to help identify potential triggers that might knock him off balance and send him into an off-topic tirade, and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that should be relatively easy to do.
"They might be very surprised to hear Trump 2024 who is obsessed with sharks," Robinson said. "If Biden wants to trigger him, just say shark and boat and let him go off. I mean, or say water, he has this other rap about water and dishwashers, and it's very confusing. To get him into that rally Trump mode in which he is all over the map, he can't complete a sentence or a thought and he is just riffing in the most bizarre way, I think that would be kind of an ideal situation for Biden."
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"But I basically agree with the analysis that President Biden needs to remain upright and make sense, do what he did at the State of the Union," Robinson added, "and given where expectations have been set by the Republicans, that is a massive victory for Biden, because, you know, they have essentially conditioned the Trump base to expect Biden to fall over at the debate or to fall asleep or simply not having an idea where he is. This was a huge mistake."
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Biden has retaken the lead in polling in recent weeks, after Trump's felony convictions, and he has a chance to pull even further ahead if he can reassure voters who are concerned about his age and mental fitness, said MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire.
"I'll note about the Republicans. with attacks about Joe Biden potentially being on drugs, attacks on the CNN moderators, those are not the kind of things you do if you're confident about your guy in the debate," said Lemire, who's also the Politico White House bureau chief. "That is because we know, look, Donald Trump for minutes at a time can appear disciplined and on the ball. But we know that usually doesn't last. We know that the Biden campaign is going to try to provoke rambling monologues about sharks."
"We know that the stakes are high for Joe Biden, that he has to look like he is up for the job but so does Donald Trump, and for a lot of Americans, Thursday night will be the first time they really hear Donald Trump in four years," Lemire added. "They might be surprised what they find."
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