Inside Joe Biden's secret debate rehearsals ahead of next week's showdown with Donald Trump - and the biggest mistakes he could make
By Nic White and Emily Goodin For Dailymail.Com
Published: 12:43 EDT, 22 June 2024 | Updated: 14:26 EDT, 22 June 2024
Joe Biden is locked in an intense five-day debate camp as he prepares to take on his hated rival Donald Trump in Thursday's televised brawl.
Trump is expected to goad, insult, interrupt, and heckle the president - and the man playing him in practice sessions won't take it any easier on Biden.
Bob Bauer, the president's longtime personal lawyer, is expected to stand in for Trump as he did before the successful 2020 debates.
Biden left for Camp David on Thursday night and will use the favorite presidential retreat for the ultra-secret debate preparation.
Such is the code of silence around debate camps that Bauer wouldn't even confirm he would reprise his role as the villain this time.
But he did share some behind-the-scenes details from the 2020 preparations, and a few of the mistakes he and Biden must avoid both in practice and on Thursday.
Bauer said he had to immerse himself in what the opposing candidate said, along with their tone and style of argument, to recreate the experience of debating them.
'I as Donald Trump, played my part lying and blustering and bullying my way through the mock sessions,' he wrote in his book, The Unraveling.
'To prepare, I watched hours of tapes of the 45th president, as a businessman, 2016 candidate, and then in office.
'We set aside special sessions during which I was expected to be at my Trump-worst - as personally insulting and unhinged as Trump can be.'
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