Study finds few Biden jokes on late night
Of the jokes Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon told about the candidates in September, 97% targeted Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump shunned formal debate practice Tuesday and was heading instead for another of his big rallies, two days ahead of the final presidential debate that may be his last, best chance to alter the trajectory of the 2020 campaign. Democrat Joe Biden took the opposite approach, holing up for debate prep.
In the leadup to Thursday’s faceoff in Nashville, Trump is trailing in polls in most battleground states as he works to pull off a repeat of his comefrom-behind victory of 2016. Also trailing in fundraising for campaign ads, Trump is increasingly relying on his signature campaign rallies to deliver a closing message to voters and maximize turnout among his GOP base.
Three weeks of wrangling over the debate format and structure appeared to have subsided Tuesday after the Commission on Presidential Debates unveiled a rules change meant to reduce the chaotic interruptions that plagued the first TrumpBiden encounter last month.
This time, Trump and Biden will each have his microphone cut off while his rival delivers an opening two-minute answer to each of the six debate topics, the commission announced. The mute button won’t figure in the open discussion portion of the debate.
Trump’s team is calling for a more in-depth focus on foreign policy in the debate, believing it to be a strong suit for the incumbent, but there is not expected to be any shift away from the announced topics, which include a segment devoted to national security.
Trump was holding a rally Tuesday evening in Erie, a part of Pennsylvania instrumental in his victory four years ago, when he was the first GOP candidate since Ronald Reagan to carry the county.
Erie County, which includes the aging industrial city in the state’s northwest corner, went for President Barack Obama by five points in 2012 but broke for Trump by two in 2016. That swing, fueled by Trump’s success with white, working class, noncollege-educated voters, was replicated in small cities and towns and rural areas and helped him overcome Hillary Clinton’s victories in the state’s big cities.
But Trump will likely need to run up the score by more this time around as his prospects have slipped since 2016 in vote-rich suburban Philadelphia, where he underperformed by past Republican measures. This
raises the stakes for his campaign’s more aggressive outreach to new rural and small-town voters across the industrial north.
His aides worry that his opponent is uniquely situated to prevent that, as
Biden not only hails from Scranton, but has built his political persona as a representative of the middle and working class.
As Trump was on the road, Biden was huddling at his lakeside home in Wilmington, Delaware, with senior adviser Ron Klain, who is in charge of debate preparation. Also on hand: a group of aides that the campaign has purposely kept small to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Biden had no public events Tuesday or today and wasn’t scheduled to travel except to the debate itself Thursday. His running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris was out campaigning, and he was expected to receive a late boost from former President Obama, who was to host an event today in Philadelphia.