As President Joe Biden prepares to debate former President Donald Trump in the first presidential debate of 2024, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed concerns about the potential difficulties Biden may face. In an opinion piece, Clinton highlighted the unique challenges of being an incumbent president during debate preparations.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Biden starts from a disadvantage because there’s no way he can spend as much time preparing as I did eight years ago. Being president isn’t just a day job; it’s an everything-everywhere-all-at-once job. Historically, that has led to weaker first debate performances for the incumbent,” Clinton wrote.
Clinton noted that Trump’s debate performance expectations are notably low. “Expectations for Trump’s debate performance are so low that if he doesn’t literally light himself on fire on Thursday evening, some will say he was downright presidential,” she remarked.
Reflecting on her own experience, Clinton recalled Trump’s debate tactics in 2016. She described his style as chaotic, marked by frequent interruptions and insults. “He unleashed a blizzard of interruptions, insults, and lies,” Clinton stated. “It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments like in a normal debate. It’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather. This has gotten only worse in the years since we debated.”
Clinton contrasted Biden and Trump, praising Biden as “a wise and decent man,” while describing Trump as having become “angrier and more unhinged” since losing the last election.
The highly anticipated debate between Trump and Biden is scheduled for Thursday night in Atlanta, Georgia, with CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderating.
Clinton also used the occasion to promote her upcoming book, “Something Lost, Something Gained.” She described the book as exploring themes of friendship, aging, marriage, politics, democracy, and the collective efforts required to shape a promising future.
