Donald Trump Trying to ‘Lower Expectations’ Ahead of Debate: Professor

Former President Donald Trump is trying to “lower expectations” about his upcoming performance in his first debate against President Joe Biden, analyst and professor Heather Cox Richardson wrote on Sunday.

On June 27, Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is due to debate the incumbent president, in their first such meeting this election cycle, at CNN’s studio in Georgia, a critical battleground state.

Ahead of the debate, political commentators have weighed in with their predictions regarding the two politician’s conduct. One such commentator, Richardson, a history professor at Boston College, claimed Trump performed badly in a recent rally to reduce people’s expectations of him so he will appear more impressive during the debate on Thursday.

The former president held a rally at Temple University’s Liacouras Center in Philadelphia on Saturday as part of his reelection campaign. There, he called the city “egregious.”

Writing in her Substack blog “Letters from an American,” Richardson wrote: “Trump’s team is trying to lower expectations for his performance. He became so incoherent in Philadelphia that the Fox News Channel actually cut away while he was talking. The Biden-Harris team has taken simply to posting Trump’s comments.”

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, claimed Richardson is a Democratic and Biden donor when asked by Newsweek for comment.

With days to go until Biden and Trump face each other, other figures have analyzed what might take place on the debate stage.

Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s former White House communications director, recently said during a podcast that Trump “hates” preparing for debates and used to remove debate preparation time from his schedule.

While David Axelrod, a senior political commentator at CNN and former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, said last week that Biden needs to be “on the offense” to make his case against Trump during the debate.

Meanwhile, while polls for the presidential election are tight, a “supercomputer” earlier this month predicted a 64.6 percent chance for Biden to win against Trump in the first debate.

At Thursday’s debate in Georgia, each candidate’s microphones will be muted except when it’s their turn to answer questions in order to avoid Trump and Biden talking over the top of each other. There will be no studio audience present at the debate in Atlanta and Trump will have the final word at the end of the debate after winning a coin toss, CNN announced Thursday.

A second debate between the two candidates is scheduled for September 10. Then, on November 5, voters are set to cast their ballots for the next president.