CNN
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As Joe Biden and Donald Trump prepare for the most significant presidential debate in years, tensions are running high between them over race and the future of the Supreme Court.
The 2024 presidential campaign made an unusual shift from court arguments over the weekend to more traditional battlegrounds: big fundraisers, key voting blocs and swing states that could decide the election.
The Biden and Trump campaigns have battled for the votes of Black Americans, a traditional Democratic base that the former president has been tainted by on racial issues, and are trying to make inroads with. Republicans have backed presumptive nominee Biden, despite his conviction and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and are betting all-in on Trump to retake the White House and the Senate and keep the House of Representatives.
The Biden campaign on Monday released a hardline new ad highlighting the jury verdict in the hush-money lawsuit and Trump’s loss in a massive civil fraud trial, which it argues contrasts with the president’s efforts to reduce health care costs and improve the middle-class economy. As a photo of the former president appears on screen, a narrator says, “This election is between a convicted felon who only cares about his own interests, and a president who’s fighting for your families.” The ad is the Biden campaign’s clearest strategic use yet of Trump’s legal troubles in its campaign messaging.
Biden, who returned from his second European trip in less than a week to a glitzy Hollywood fundraiser in Los Angeles on Saturday, argued that one of the “most frightening” things about a second term for Trump is the possibility that his rival will appoint even more hardline conservative Supreme Court justices. Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama, who appeared with the former vice president at the fundraiser, lamented that Republicans are trying to nominate a candidate who “has been convicted by a jury on 34 charges.”
Candidates prepare for first presidential debate
The race is heating up ahead of the first 2024 presidential debate, to be broadcast on CNN on June 27, a potentially defining moment in a race in which a former president could defeat a sitting president for only the second time in history. The showdown in Atlanta comes amid widespread voter concerns about his age, and with the 81-year-old Biden under extreme pressure to show he can handle another four years in office amid Trump’s constant mockery of the visibly aging president’s mental capacity and physical condition.
But former President Trump’s constant ridicule of Biden’s abilities may have lowered expectations for Biden’s performance, raising the prospect that the president’s energetic performance could have a similar impact to this year’s State of the Union address, which temporarily calmed concerns about his age. Former President Trump’s erratic behavior in recent days, including after his 78th birthday on Friday, has prompted Biden’s campaign to argue that Trump’s mental state, and his actions four years ago to try to shatter American democracy, mean he is unfit to return to the presidency. Last week, the campaign called Trump “crazier than ever” as he returned to the U.S. Capitol for the first time since the January 6, 2021, mob attack, a move that was supported by Republicans in the House and Senate.
The unusually early start of the first presidential debate of the season could provide a chance for the president to jolt a tight race for the White House that has been largely stable for months. Trump is favored in key battleground states. Biden seems to be clinging to a narrowing path on the national electoral map to get the 270 votes needed to win the presidency. The president is hampered by the pain felt by many Americans from rising prices and interest rates, making it difficult to buy new homes and auto loans. That gives Trump an opportunity to evoke nostalgia for the pre-pandemic economy during his time in office.
CNN released new details about the debate agreed upon by both campaigns on Saturday: The debate will take place in a television studio, not live; there will be two commercial breaks, during which campaign staff will not be able to interact with the candidates; both men have agreed to share a podium, with positions to be determined by a coin toss; and microphones will be muted except when the candidates are speaking.
Biden is expected to take part in a series of debates at Camp David later this week, including those with his former chief of staff Ron Klain, who has coached Democratic candidates before debates for decades. During his visit to Washington last week, Trump held a policy forum with his advisors and Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Eric Schmitt of Missouri. Aides stressed that the former president will not necessarily follow traditional debate preparation, but will hone his approach in interviews and rallies. However, Trump’s interviews have mostly been with conservative media, and he has been asked simple questions. He also missed all of the Republican primary debates, so Biden may not be fully prepared when he gets to the debates.
In a race that could be decided by just a few thousand votes in several battleground states, it could be crucial how much votes either candidate can take away from the other’s core base. That’s why Trump spent Saturday in Michigan, trying to capitalize on signs that enthusiasm for Biden is waning among black voters. The former president announced a “Black Americans for Trump” coalition, which has the backing of prominent black Republicans such as Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Rep. Byron Donald of Florida. In an interview with Semaphore on Friday, Trump clarified, “I’m not a racist.” He added, “I have a lot of black friends, so if I was a racist, they wouldn’t be my friends and they would know it before anyone else.”
Trump spoke at a predominantly black church in Detroit on Saturday, falsely claiming that black workers were treated much better during his first term than under Biden, trying to use immigration, a mainstay of his campaign, to appeal to minorities who say they are losing their jobs to illegal immigrants. He also highlighted Biden’s role as a senator in passing a 1990s crime bill that led to high incarceration rates for black citizens. According to CNN exit polls in 2020, Trump won the support of about one in 10 black voters. But a recent New York Times/Siena College poll found the former president won more than 20% of black voters in battleground states. If Trump can weaken Biden’s lead in key demographics in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee, Trump could improve his chances of winning Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, states that offer Biden his best path to retaining the White House.
The Biden campaign has pushed back against Trump’s appeal to the reliable core supporters that propelled Biden to the presidency, highlighting controversies such as his demand for the death penalty for five young men wrongly convicted of assault and rape in Central Park in the 1980s and his racist campaign against Obama’s birthplace. “We have not forgotten how Trump has repeatedly courted white supremacists and demonized the black community for political gain, because that’s exactly what he will do if he wins a second term,” said Jasmine Harris, the Biden campaign’s black media director. Obama also criticized the presumptive Republican nominee when asked by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel at a Los Angeles fundraiser what he thought about Trump’s claim that he has done more for black people than any president in history. The former commander in chief responded, “For example, one of the things he did was make us feel even better about the first black president.”
Political fundraisers are often held behind closed doors, but Biden’s campaign seemed keen to show the president looking at home with stars including Barack Obama, Julia Roberts and George Clooney. Prior to the event, the president had only stopped in Washington to refuel Air Force One on his way back from the G7 summit in Italy. Days before the event, Biden’s surviving son, Hunter Biden, was convicted of firearms-related charges in a Delaware trial.
His campaign released a fundraising video on Sunday in which Biden addressed the controversy over the flag flown by the wife of Justice Samuel Alito, which critics have warned is politically provocative. “If I’m re-elected, I’ll be flying two more flags upside down,” Biden said.
Asked by Kimmel if he thought this was the most frightening part of Trump’s second term, Biden replied, “It’s one of the most frightening parts.” The president added, “The Supreme Court has never been more hung in the balance than it is today, never really.”
Years before the conservative Supreme Court majority built by President Trump overturned constitutional abortion rights, Republicans made the fate of the nation’s highest court the centerpiece of their presidential campaigns, and this weekend Biden signaled most clearly yet that Democrats are now desperate to play on that same playing field.
