Former President Trump speculated about how the CNN presidential debate will go down as he prepares to face off against President Biden for their first time on stage in four years next week.
“There’s two [of] us and two of them -- it's like death,” Trump said while holding a rally in Philadelphia on Saturday, referring to the debate format of two anchors and two candidates without an audience. “This could be the most boring or it could be quite exciting, who knows?”
Trump dubbed the news network “CNN fake news” and took tabs at the two moderators of the first presidential debate. He dubbed CNN anchor Jake Tapper as “fake Tapper” and he mocked the pronunciation of CNN anchor Dana Bash’s first name.
Trump is set to take on Biden in their first debate since 2020 in Atlanta on Thursday. It will be the first time that voters get to see the two men side by side during this presidential cycle.
Some of the debate rules that have been agreed upon include muting a candidate’s microphone when the other one is speaking and holding two commercial breaks, though the candidates won’t be able to huddle with their campaigns during those breaks.
Biden is at Camp David where he’s been doing debate prep with his staff while Trump has instead been holding policy discussions instead of formal debate prep.
Trump quipped that Biden had “gone to a log cabin to study” and reiterated the baseless claim that Biden is using performance enhancers.
"A little before debate time, [Biden] gets a shot in the ass, and that's -- they want to strengthen him up,” Trump said.
The Hill has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.
