With time running out, Trump to go on offensive at debate in bid to catch Biden

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With time running out, Trump to go on offensive at debate in bid to catch Biden

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jeff Mason

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participate in their first 2020 presidential campaign debate in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., September 29, 2020. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

 

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to come out swinging in Thursday's final presidential debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden to try to close a gap in opinion polls before an election 12 days away.

 

Trump needs to score some hits in the televised encounter to steady a campaign that is struggling, in part due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 222,000 people in the United States.

 

Trump, a Republican, trails former vice president Biden significantly in national polls ahead of Election Day, Nov. 3, though the contest is much tighter in some battleground states where the election will likely be decided.

 

Biden leads Trump by eight percentage points in the latest Reuters/Ipsos national poll, conducted Oct. 20-22. His lead has slipped by a couple of points over the past few weeks and is back to where it was in September, before Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19.

 

Relatively few voters have yet to make up their minds, and Trump's window to influence the outcome may be closing. A record 47 million Americans already have cast ballots, eclipsing total early voting from the 2016 election, ahead of the debate in Nashville, Tennessee.

 

Trump's campaign signaled that the often pugnacious president would attack Biden for not accomplishing more during his nearly half-century in public service and zero in on what Trump, 74, alleges were corrupt practices by the Biden family.

 

Thursday night's face-off may be one of Republican President Donald Trump's last opportunities to sway voters ahead of an election in which polls show him trailing Democratic challenger Joe Biden. This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

 

Aides of Biden, 77, said he needs to deliver a disciplined performance to appeal to the undecided voters and not to allow Trump to get under his skin with attacks on his family, especially his son Hunter.

 

One Biden adviser said aides want him to counter Trump without seeming un-presidential. He is expected to again bash Trump's handling of the pandemic, arguing that it has had a disproportionate economic impact on low-wage workers.

 

Several states, including the election swing state of Ohio, reported record single-day increases in COVID-19 infections on Thursday, evidence that the pandemic is accelerating anew.

 

September's contentious first debate between the pair was watched by at least 73 million viewers. Trump passed up another planned debate last week after it was switched to a virtual format following his COVID-19 diagnosis.

 

'ROPE-A-DOPE'

Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the president would bring up Biden's long record in politics, as well as his family's business dealings.

 

"The clear message is that President Trump has accomplished more in 47 months than Joe Biden has in 47 years. The president built the world's best economy once and is already doing it a second time. Trump is still the political outsider, while Biden is the ultimate insider," Murtaugh said.

 

In the first face-off, Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden, attacked him personally, and showed little respect for the moderator. Swing voters, especially women, were turned off by his actions, post-debate polls and focus groups showed.

 

Michael Steel, a Republican who served as a top aide to former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, said Trump needs to take a step back and give space for Biden to make mistakes.

 

"There is probably nothing President Trump can do in terms of attacking Biden that he didn't already try in the first debate," Steel said. "He now needs to rope-a-dope, laying back and acting presidential while needling Biden to flub - and flub badly."

 

After the first debate was marred by disruptions from both candidates, each of their microphones will be switched off while his opponent makes his two-minute introductory statement on a topic, so as to give uninterrupted speaking time. Both microphones will then be active for the discussion period that follows.

 

Debate topics will include the pandemic, race relations, climate change and national security. The Trump campaign argued that the entire debate should be focused on foreign policy.

 

Trump is expected to return to a line of attack that surfaced in the first debate, accusing Biden and his son Hunter of unethical practices in China and Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the corruption allegations by Trump and his aides, and Biden in the first debate called them false and discredited.

 

Biden campaign deputy manager Kate Bedingfield said Trump's personal attacks would backfire.

 

"We expect that Trump will attack Biden and his family, and every time he does that all he's doing is reinforcing what we have said all along: he is acknowledging that he has no case for a second term. He has no answers to the failures of the last four years and no plans or vision for the next four," she told reporters.

 

Biden has been under pressure to explain his position on a push by some within his party to "pack" the Supreme Court to counter its rightward drift, by expanding the number of justices from the current nine.

 

He said on Thursday that if elected he would put together a bipartisan commission of scholars to examine reforming a federal judiciary that he called "out of whack." He said there were alternatives to consider besides expanding the Supreme Court.

 

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicut and Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Joseph Ax, James Oliphant and Chris Kahn; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Ross Colvin, Rosalba O'Brien and Howard Goller)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-10-23

 

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[Fat is a type of crazy 1,123]

The 60 minutes interview that Trump just released made him look pretty bad.  He still seems a bit shocked when people don't suck up to him like Fox News and his inner circle.

 

Hopefully he'll do similar today and keep whinging about how everything's unfair, rabbit on about Hunter Biden, say that coronavirus and climate change will just go away, talk about his health care plan that is the best health care plan ever that doesn't exist, and go down in a ball of flames.

 

Biden was once a great debater so hopefully he can pull out a good one. I'm sure he's got a few good zingers ready to go.

 

 

[Tug 21,439]

Imo trump won’t be able to contain himself he will attack Biden’s surviving son that’s not going to sit well for several reasons #1 his own kids are really sketchy they almost got indicted for fraud (before trump was president) ivankas Chinese trademark deals when working for the government her use of personnel email #2 we all know Joe has lost 1 daughter auto accident and a son to cancer not to mention his first wife no sir it’s not going to sit well and trumps desperation smear campaign coming from the most corrupt president in our history no sir don’t think so plus I’m sure joe is ready for that smear

[TopDeadSenter 10,842]

32 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

Hopefully he'll do similar today and keep whinging about how everything's unfair, rabbit on about Hunter Biden,

I suspect you are right. Trump only has one job to do in this debate. Bring the Biden's uncomfortable dealings to the fore and wipe the moderators face in the coverup. He has played an ace card already, by inviting the corroborating witness in the email scandal. Biden will not be laughing about this-

 

Mr Bobulinski claims that he was CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, a firm that he alleged was “a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family", Fox News reported.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/trump-final-debate-hunter-binder-tony-bobulinski-who-is-b1233172.html

 

The Independant did not bother to report that Mr Bobulinski is one of the participants in the damning emails, and he has confirmed Biden seniors involvement. This will be very intimidating for Mr Biden IMO. Hope he can keep his stuff together.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by TopDeadSenter

[thaibeachlovers 32,967]

5 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Mr Bobulinski claims that he was CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, a firm that he alleged was “a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family"

Should be pretty easy to verify.

If he is what he says, it's not looking good for Biden, IMO.

The main stream media has tried to censor the entire story, IMO, but truth will out one way or another.

[Sujo 16,896]

A third of voters have already voted. People have already made up their mind so i dont see much coming from this or rallies now.

[thaibeachlovers 32,967]

39 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

The 60 minutes interview that Trump just released made him look pretty bad.  He still seems a bit shocked when people don't suck up to him like Fox News and his inner circle.

 

Hopefully he'll do similar today and keep whinging about how everything's unfair, rabbit on about Hunter Biden, say that coronavirus and climate change will just go away, talk about his health care plan that is the best health care plan ever that doesn't exist, and go down in a ball of flames.

 

Biden was once a great debater so hopefully he can pull out a good one. I'm sure he's got a few good zingers ready to go.

 

 

Trump has released the entire 60 minutes interview already, so ABC can't selectively edit it to make him look bad. Plenty about that on internet.

[Fat is a type of crazy 1,123]

3 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

I suspect you are right. Trump only has one job to do in this debate. Bring the Biden's uncomfortable dealings to the fore and wipe the moderators face in the coverup. He has played an ace card already, Biden will not be laughing about this-

 

Mr Bobulinski claims that he was CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, a firm that he alleged was “a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family", Fox News reported.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/trump-final-debate-hunter-binder-tony-bobulinski-who-is-b1233172.html

 

The Independant did not bother to report that Mr Bobulinski is one of the participants in the damning emails, and he has confirmed Biden seniors involvement. This will be very intimidating for Mr Biden IMO. Hope he can keep his stuff together.

 

I don't know a lot about it, but a key point is that the time that Mr Bobulinki is talking about,  was when Biden was no longer Vice President. That's an important point.

Then they have to show that Joe Biden actually did something wrong which I think they have failed to do in this and other examples e.g. Ukraine. In the Ukraine case Biden helped remove a prosecutor that was widely regarded as corrupt in the US and Europe.

The problem for the Republicans is it's like the boy who cried wolf - Trump, Giuliani and Bannon have told so many lies and have so little credibility that many have stopped listening. Look at Giuliani with his hands down his pants just yesterday. So far it's just Murdoch media and right wing sites paying much attention but I guess we'll see if it becomes something bigger.

[Credo 10,189]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Trump has released the entire 60 minutes interview already, so ABC can't selectively edit it to make him look bad. Plenty about that on internet.

You might be in for a big surprise on that one.  

[Fat is a type of crazy 1,123]

4 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Trump has released the entire 60 minutes interview already, so ABC can't selectively edit it to make him look bad. Plenty about that on internet.

I think Trump's video of the 60 minutes interview doesn't make him look good. Constant whining. Embarrassing on health care - she pushed him and he just keeps saying he has a plan but doesn't have a plan. Bad answers on the virus and rallies. The best Trump has come up with is that she's biased and for a few minutes she had her mask off.

[Jeffr2 7,996]

19 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

I suspect you are right. Trump only has one job to do in this debate. Bring the Biden's uncomfortable dealings to the fore and wipe the moderators face in the coverup. He has played an ace card already, by inviting the corroborating witness in the email scandal. Biden will not be laughing about this-

 

Mr Bobulinski claims that he was CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, a firm that he alleged was “a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family", Fox News reported.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/trump-final-debate-hunter-binder-tony-bobulinski-who-is-b1233172.html

 

The Independant did not bother to report that Mr Bobulinski is one of the participants in the damning emails, and he has confirmed Biden seniors involvement. This will be very intimidating for Mr Biden IMO. Hope he can keep his stuff together.

 

Most know this Hunter email scandal is bogus.  Only Trump's hard core supporters believe in it.  He'll do himself no good attacking in this manner.  For the majority, it will just make him look more stupid.  If that's even possible.

 

Here's what Biden is going to focus on.  And he should.  Another lie by Trump that's going to hurt millions (more) Americans.  Horrible president.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/22/politics/trump-biden-final-debate-2020/index.html

 

"I hope that they end it," Trump told Lesley Stahl of "60 Minutes" about the Supreme Court's consideration of the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act next month. "It'll be so good if they end it."

 

Asked by Stahl what would happen if that happened, Trump responded that he has a replacement plan ready to go. "It's fully developed," he insisted. "It's going to be announced very soon, when we see what happens with Obamacare." (Fact check: There is no plan.)

 

[JohnOFphon 358]

Pat Paulson  for President in 2020.

 

[bendejo 7,560]

28 minutes ago, JohnOFphon said:

Pat Paulson  for President in 2020.

 

 

Greatest presidential candidate ever!  Probably the only laughable political humor in 1968.

"If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve."

Gotta love him. 

 

 

[Jeffr2 7,996]

Like listening to fingernails scratching a blackboard.  Amazing he can tell so many lies and keep a straight face.  If this is what tonight may look like, I'll pass.

 

 

[englishoak 9,571]

Still two weeks to go, Can Biden survive his sons vices ? can Trump survive the media ? ... can they both survive covid ? stay tuned .....