Donald Trump’s campaign praised Joe Biden’s debating skills ahead of the president’s face-off against his challenger next week, Fox News reported.
During an interview with Fox News Monday , Trump campaign Communications Director Tim Murtaugh pointed to Biden’s 47-year political career in Washington, which included national debates as vice president and decades of debating in the Senate.
“In the Democrat primaries, he debated a whole crowd of opponents, 11 times, and he won. He bested two dozen Democrat challengers.”
Murtaugh said that Biden “knows his way around the debate stage” before continuing to raise expectations for his forthcoming performance.
“He knows how to do it. He’s actually quite good. That’s the Joe Biden we expect to see on debate night. We have to be prepared for the tuned-in Joe Biden.”
Murtaugh also addressed Trump’s recent claim that Biden uses performance-enhancing drugs and suggested that there “has to be some explanation” for the peaks and lows that purportedly define his public performances.
Trump himself spoke to the network on Monday and also appeared to be raising expectations for the former vice president’s performance.
“I don’t know if he’s all there, but I think he’s a professional,” he said. “I have to assume that he is a professional and that he can debate.”
Trump later said he expects Biden to “do great” and pointed to his lifelong political career.
The comments come after months of Trump and his team attacking Biden’s alleged cognitive decline. As reported by Business Insider , an ad from last month spotlighted clips of the Democrat seemingly losing his train of thought or stumbling through words and compared them with clips of his public speaking from his time in Barack Obama’s administration. In addition, conservative commentator and Trump ally Dan Bongino previously claimed that sources told him Biden’s purported cognitive issues are growing worse and becoming difficult to hide from the public.
As The Inquisitr reported, Republican strategist Rick Wilson previously speculated that the debating tactics Trump used against Hillary Clinton in 2016 wouldn’t fare well against Biden. Wilson’s comment came amid reports that Trump was preparing for his debates against his opponent — a shift from 2016 when he blew off the first round of preparation. According to Politico , Trump’s campaign is taking a close look at his opponent’s weakness and possible ways to make him slip up.
The first debate between the two candidates is set for September 29 in Cleveland and will be moderated by Fox News ‘ Chris Wallace.
