Mother Jones; Julio Cortez/AP; Getty
Like many Americans, I am dreading the first presidential debate of the 2024 election, an event that’s all but certain to feature a litany of vile lies by one candidate and awkward, if not painful stumbles by another.
But Thursday’s high-stakes 90-minute encounter will also see an exceedingly rare moment: Donald Trump onstage with a mic muted—at least when it’s President Biden’s turn to respond—after the two candidates agreed to CNN’s rules. An audience won’t be present for the event either, another key departure from previous presidential debates.
The new rules appear to be an attempt to avoid the incoherent mess American voters witnessed during the 2020 debates, with Trump spewing toxic rhetoric, lies, and vicious personal attacks at a relentless clip. But will guardrails prove to be enough to shut up a man who, during countless moments, seems genuinely incapable of even the slightest restraint?
“I was surprised that Trump’s people let them agree to the muting of the microphone issue,” Will Baker, director of New York University’s Debate Fund, told me. “It’s going to be interesting to see how that actually plays out.”
For decades, Baker has coached some of the country’s top college debaters and I reached out to hear his thoughts ahead of Thursday’s rematch. He offered some insight into what strategies Biden could employ to win over a serial liar, what he about those absurd cocaine insinuations, and what Trump could do to circumvent the mic-muting.
Let’s start by reflecting on the 2020 debates. What was your reaction at the time?
It was disappointing. It fell apart so dramatically and voters were ultimately deprived of any debate on real issues. It sadly felt much more like watching a couple of teenagers that I needed to discipline than an actual presidential debate.
Going into tonight, who would you say has the advantage?
It’s fascinating because the advantage really comes down more to the performance of the night, rather than innate skills. It’s going to be about momentum tonight. On policy though, I think Biden has the advantage because that’s always where he’s most comfortable. He’s got the track record of the past few years and also a chance to correct any misperceptions.
As for Trump, his biggest advantages are connection and charisma. Again, very surprised he agreed not to have an audience there because that’s always been shown to be a huge benefit for him. If Biden has any type of slip-up on the policy front, getting a date or event wrong, Trump can pounce on those things in the moment.
“He might take the opportunity to literally walk over to Biden’s face and talk through Biden’s mic.”
Do you think Trump is going to stick to the mic rules? Because I can totally see this man just shouting anyway.
I have been wondering about that. He might take the opportunity to literally walk over to Biden’s face and talk through Biden’s mic. Trump could even say at the outset, “Hey, yeah, don’t cut off my mic when I start telling the truth about Biden.” There are lots of ways that [Trump’s team] could play that, so I’m fascinated to see how it goes. My assumption is that they agreed to it because [Trump’s team] has a strategy. So I’ll be interested to see that play out.
Wow, that’s both fascinating and horrifying. What about Trump’s record of lying? How do you debate someone known to straight up lie on stage?
In some forms of debate, you have protection because the judges are looking at evidence. But in an environment like the one Biden will be in, the lying is already baked into the calculus, right? So Biden’s strategy has to be to identify overarching themes where the lies don’t change things. For example, if Trump says, “Look, you’ve broken far more laws than I have, or, you know, your son’s done XYZ,” Biden needs to have a compelling, quick, catchy phrase. Not a long explanation of all the felonies. Like, I hope his team won’t have a listing of these charges because that’s going to bore the audience.
He should prepared to say something like, “Only one of us has a sentencing hearing in two weeks for 34 felonies.” Or, “You can lie to the American public but the courts don’t lie.” That would change the pace. It’s all about rhythm. Everyone knows that Trump is going to lie. What they don’t know is, how will Biden handle it and demonstrate that he’s presidential and has leadership.
A few weeks ago, Trump was mocking Joe Biden’s debate skills. Now he’s claiming, without evidence of course, that Biden is going to be getting a “shot in the ass” to enhance his debate performance. What are we to make of that?
I was stunned that they went back to performance-enhancing drugs because they did that both in 2020 and 2016 against Hillary Clinton. This is just an old trick that he’s that he’s bringing back up. Seeing it come up again was sad to me because it’s a sign of desperation, rather than something new or innovative around that. It’s also an indication that Trump is trying to lower expectations. If your strategy is that your opponent can’t remember anything, that they can’t function in public and those types of things, you’ve already lowered that bar and you have to raise it if you want your guy to have a shot at winning the debates.
Is there a drug of choice among college debaters?
Not to my knowledge. But as directors, our students would hopefully keep that away from us over plausible deniability concerns. I’ve never had a student come and say, “Hey, what do I need to take that’s illegal? Stay awake?” A lot of them instead have had way too much coffee or Red Bull. But I don’t know of any kind of amphetamines or drug of choice in the college circuit.
Not even beta blockers?
No. I’m going to be in five different debate director meetings over the next week and we’re not having a drug epidemic conversation.
Trump seemed to imply that Biden would be using cocaine during the debate. From a professional perspective, would the use of cocaine even be a good strategy?
That is a horrible idea. Cocaine creates hyped-up reactions, right? The whole thing about a debate is that you don’t have a list of the questions beforehand. So if you get ahead of yourself, that’s how people often make the most mistakes.
So being coked-up for a presidential debate is probably the worst idea ever.
Aside from drugs then, what is your best advice for debate prep?
Sleep is a weapon. Most of the time, when people make mistakes during debates, they’re tired or not focused. I tell my debaters that when they are getting ready for a debate, they should do things that help them stay focused and relaxed. For some people that might be coffee, for others, it might be a 20-minute walk. For some people that might be meditation. There isn’t one magic elixir.
