Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Francesca Chambers of USA Today join Geoff Bennett to discuss the latest political news, including a look ahead to this week’s presidential debate between President Biden and Donald Trump.
GEOFF BENNETT, PBS NEWSHOUR: Let’s shift our focus to the big political event of the week. That’s the debate.
President Biden, former President Trump are set to face off in Thursday’s presidential debate hosted by CNN. This is a real opportunity for both men to highlight their competing visions for the country.
Amy, the campaign tells me that President Biden intends to focus on a couple of things, three things, in fact. Roe v. Wade, the overturning of that, attacks on democracy, and both candidates’ economic plans.
What does that tell us, big picture, about his strategy?
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AMY WALTER, COOK POLITICAL REPORT: These are the issues that he’s been wanting to talk about for a while now, because they are some of the places where he actually is the strongest, especially when it comes to the debate over abortion. It’s one of the few places where he has an advantage in terms of trust of voters over Donald Trump.
The other thing I think will be key for Biden in this debate — look, it’s early. We have never had a debate this early. I think a lot of people who are checked out of the election right now are not going to necessarily check in, in June. They may do so as we get closer to the election.
I think the group of people he’s really trying to move right now are those voters who voted for Biden in 2020, but are now sitting on the fence or saying maybe they’re voting for third party. We did some polling in battleground states. About 18 percent of Biden voters in those battleground states are not supporting Biden this time around.
Those are people that theoretically should be the easiest for him to get back into his camp. So I think talking about the issues that would appeal to those voters, many of them are younger, voters of color, who will agree with his positions on issues like democracy and on abortion rights, and even on the economy, talking to them, not so much about what the economy is like now, but what it will look like in four years from now and who’s fighting for those voters.
LifeNews Note: This column originally appeared at Real Clear Politics.
