President Joe Biden‘s campaign detailed several lines of attack to be lobbed against former President Donald Trump when the two candidates face off for the first general election debate of the 2024 cycle.
Biden is set to “hold Donald Trump accountable” on the debate stage, according to campaign Chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon’s “The Road to Atlanta” memo released Friday.
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“In the month leading up to that first debate, the Biden-Harris campaign will zero in on Trump’s dangerous campaign promises and unhinged rhetoric,” O’Malley Dillon wrote. “We will make sure that the voters who will decide this election are reminded of the chaos and harm Trump caused as president – and why they booted him out four years ago.”
The campaign is singling out three lines of attack against Trump, from his efforts that led to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade to his false allegations that the 2020 election was “stolen” and his support for economic policies that allegedly benefit the billionaire class at the expense of the middle class.
“Trump and his lagging campaign will be left to explain to voters why he embraces political violence, brags about abortion bans, threatens to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut Social Security and Medicare, and puts greedy corporations and himself over American workers again and again,” O’Malley Dillon continued.
Biden and Trump will debate for the first time since the 2020 election cycle on June 27 in Atlanta. CNN will host the first debate, and ABC News will host the second, scheduled for Sept. 10.
In the lead-up to the June debate, O’Malley Dillon cited a new 30-second “Snapped” ad from the campaign, narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro, blasting Trump for being “out of control” when he lost the 2020 election.
“If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath,” Trump says in a clip from a campaign rally.
De Niro’s efforts on the ad come as the campaign is tapping celebrities to boost its fundraising efforts. Next month, Academy Award winners George Clooney and Julia Roberts, along with former President Barack Obama, will host a major fundraising event in Los Angeles.
The debate will have outsize expectations for Biden as his poll numbers continue to fall, concerns about his ability to govern for four more years have not abated, and more vocal calls for him to step aside from the nomination grow louder.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday showed Biden at his lowest approval rating since July 2022 with just 36% of people approving of his job as president.
“If Biden is still struggling in August he needs to consider stepping aside,” polling guru Nate Silver said Thursday in a post on X.
“It’s not a great situation for Ds either way, but you have to do due diligence on the question,” Silver continued. “It’s an important election, obviously. It shouldn’t be taboo to talk about.”
It is unclear whether Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will heed the calls after easily defeating the few Democrats who challenged Biden for the party’s presidential nomination.
Trump has long taunted and mocked Biden over his stumbles in public while on the campaign stump. During a Thursday rally in the Bronx, New York, he said he and the president should stand for the June 27 debate.
The former president alleges debate organizers approached him about being seated for the event. “Today they said, ‘We’d like to set up tables so you sit down,’” Trump said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to sit down for a debate. Let’s go.’ So we’re not sitting down. We’re going to be standing up for the debate.”
The Biden campaign did not respond to requests from the Washington Examiner for comment.
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Trump also acknowledged that with public approval with Biden at a record low, the president only has to survive their debate without major blunders.
“If crooked Joe Biden makes it through the debate, which I think he will, [the media are] going to say it was one of the great debate performances in history,” Trump said.