Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton framed the upcoming election as "between chaos and competence" in a New York Times op-ed, but some on the left have low expectations for President Joe Biden's performance in Thursday's debate.
Clinton's op-ed was published Tuesday morning. She says she's the only person to have debated both Biden and former President Donald Trump, so she knows each candidate's debating style.
When it comes to Trump, she says that he "starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather." Clinton cited the moments in the second debate when Trump "stalked" her, following her around on the debate stage, as an example of how he "bullies."
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Clinton said that Trump's "ploys will fall flat" if Biden is able to be "as directed and forceful as he was when engaging Republican hecklers" at this year's State of the Union. But she also seems to have low expectations for Biden at the debate.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Biden starts from a disadvantage because there’s no way he can spend as much time preparing as I did eight years ago. Being president isn’t just a day job; it’s an everything-everywhere-all-at-once job. Historically, that has led to weaker first debate performances for the incumbent," she wrote.
Clinton isn't the only person to speculate that Biden's debate performance may not be up to par. The Breakfast Club host Charlamagne tha God appeared on the left-leaning news program The Young Turks Tuesday morning, and criticized the Democratic party and Biden. He called the Democrats the "party that cried wolf," and said they weren't taking Trump seriously.
He also said that if Biden doesn't do well in Thursday's debate, the party should replace him.
“If he does flop so hard that even the media can’t deny it, should they pull him?” Young Turks host Cenk Uygur asked.
“I would say yes. The reason I would say 'yes' is: you know the base is going to show up, but it’s about those independents and those hypothetical swing voters, those people who may be undecided, it’s about them,” Charlamagne replied.
He later added, "I think you would probably have no choice but to pull him if you really, truly care about democracy," he said.
However, the debate question may end up being moot. Some pundits are expecting Trump to pull out of the debate at the last minute. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon said Trump should back out of the debate on Monday, after Trump's National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was cut off during a CNN interview.
Trump himself may be laying the groundwork for giving himself an out. On Truth Social Monday, he backed former White House doctor Ronny Jackson's call for Biden to take a drug test before the debate.
"DRUG TEST FOR CROOKED JOE BIDEN??? I WOULD, ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AGREE TO ONE!!!" Trump posted on Truth Social.
