Diplomats in Washington are eagerly planning to tune into the first debate between President Biden and former President Donald Trump tonight as they expect to send back reports to their capitols focused on what Trump says and how Biden presents himself, multiple diplomats told CNN.
“We will be looking at Trump’s comments, the words and the substance. And in Biden’s instance we will be looking at the performance,” said one western diplomat.
Diplomats recognize that the presidential election is still more than four months away – and some are curious about this potentially being the only debate, despite a second one on the calendar for September – but they believe that the debate could impact the perception of American voters in a very real way, they told CNN.
“We will send back our reports in the morning to the Capitol. We have an expert political team working on it. And it won’t only include the debate take-aways, but also summaries of the press coverage,” said a second Western diplomat.
For both candidates, there is a thirst to see what they have to offer in terms of vitality.
“We will watch to see who has stronger performance and potential vigor to go through and lead the last miles of this campaign, and of course their policy elaborations,” a separate diplomat told CNN.
But specifically for Trump, they are eager to hear what he says about a whole host of issues including: NATO, trade wars, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, and competition with China, multiple diplomats said.
“There is some hopefulness that Trump is going to focus on continuing to urge countries to pay more to NATO, without threatening the existence of the defense alliance,” said a European diplomat. “But we will have to see.”
When it comes to Biden most diplomats are not expecting to glean new policy insights given he has been enacting his policies for almost four years, instead, they will be tuned into his performance.
“We know Biden’s positions but the most interesting aspect is if he performs well. Is he energetic, or is he flat on his feet and gets smashed around?,” said the first western diplomat.
Source link : https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/cnn-debate-trump-biden-06-27-24/index.html
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Publish date : 2024-06-27 13:02:00
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