How Biden is getting ready for his high-stakes debate with Trump

President Biden and former President Donald Trump are set to meet on the debate stage on Thursday in Atlanta, a high-stakes moment for the presidential race, given that it is the first time and one of the only times the two candidates will appear side by side during the race.

The 2024 election is a rematch between the two oldest presidential candidates in American history. But that reality has been slow to sink in for many voters.The Biden campaign is hoping that the debate gives them the opportunity to reach people who haven’t made up their mind yet about how or if they will vote in November.

“I think the president’s primary goal with this debate is for Americans to see that the choice in this election is between him and Donald Trump,” said Kate Berner, former deputy communications director in the Biden White House.

“He really needs people to zero in on the fact that one of the two of them will be president in 2025.”

Biden has said that his aim with the debate is to draw a contrast with Trump. “Say what I think. Let him say what he thinks,” Biden told ABC News anchor David Muir in a recent interview. “Remind people what he says, and what I believe and what he believes.”

Biden is at Camp David getting ready

On Thursday, the president arrived at the presidential retreat in the woods of Maryland, known as Camp David, to prepare for the debate. It’s a secluded site other recent presidents have also used to get ready during their reelection campaigns.

“Biden’s a really big homework guy,” said Jim Messina, who ran former President Barack Obama’s reelection bid in 2012.

But one big challenge for Biden is that he has had less time to do the homework than he did four years ago.

This month alone, he has made two diplomatic trips