The debate night contrast Biden hopes will win the 2024 election

CNN —

The Almighty won’t be standing on stage alongside Joe Biden on Thursday night. But Donald Trump will.

Biden’s team is seizing on the most critical presidential debate in years to spell out a contrast on character and policy that it believes will decide the 2024 election, if only voters will finally perceive it.

Banners hang outside of CNN’s Atlanta headquarters ahead of CNN’s Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Monday, June 24.

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It’s the embodiment of one of Biden’s own, rather defensive jokes — the idea that he doesn’t need to be universally popular, just more acceptable than the other guy, who, happily for him, happens to be the most extreme ex-president of modern times. “My dad used to say, ‘Joey, don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative,’” the president has said for years at rallies. The argument is a safety net for a president with the kind of low approval ratings that would normally condemn him to a single term and who has struggled to sell his achievements to voters.

Biden’s team is setting up Trump as an “unhinged” and criminal agent of vengeance unfit for a return to the presidency who will only look after himself, rich friends, and anti-abortion zealots. Biden is reflected in this conceit as a bulwark of stability and a guardian of the country’s democratic values who is tirelessly striving to improve workers’ lives.

Biden’s campaign laid the groundwork for the Atlanta showdown hosted by CNN in a weekend memo. “Thursday’s debate will be one of the first moments in this presidential campaign where a larger slice of the American electorate will have the opportunity