Ramping up to his one-on-one with Trump on Thursday, Biden’s campaign team is strategizing thousands of events
Published June 23, 2024 11:11AM (EDT)
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at an event marking the 12th anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 18, 2024. (DREW ANGERER/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden campaign and its allies have a plan for the first scheduled debate against Donald Trump — set for Thursday, June 27 at 9 pm EST. Along with running a new slate of TV and digital advertisements which they called “one of the first moments … where a larger slice of the American electorate” will tune into the campaign, they will also hold 1,600 events, according to a new memo first obtained by NBC News.
In an effort to mobilize surrogates, events will target voter groups the campaign views as important to its alliance. This includes college students, members of the LGBTQ community, and 300 debate night watch parties. Some of these watch parties will be hosted by social media content creators whom the campaign will grant special access to a place usually reserved for credentialed media, the post-debate spin room.
Per NBC News’ reporting, Biden is spending several days at Camp David preparing for Thursday’s debate, including going toe-to-toe with his personal lawyer Bob Bauer, who is role-playing as Trump. The Biden campaign highlights a few key issues they are focusing on where Trump “continues to pose the most extreme threat,” such as the economy, attacks on democracy and abortion rights.
The Biden campaign’s goal is to emphasize the debate as “two distinct visions for the future,” to further widen the sea of differences between the candidates.
It will all start on Monday — the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — when the campaign and its allies will host 16 events across a dozen states, including Maryland and Arizona, which will feature Vice President Kamala Harris.
At this first debate, voters will see “President Biden, who is fighting for the American people, and Donald Trump, who will walk on stage as a convicted felon fighting for himself no matter how much harm he inflicts on the American people,” said Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler in the memo.