A progressive group has five recommendations to help President Joe Biden in the first presidential debate against former President Donald Trump on Thursday.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee released a memo to the White House urging Biden to challenge Trump onstage with high-drama clashes on economic issues that are top-of-mind for voters.
“We’re living in a vibes political world, and therefore the best way to communicate policy to voters is to create a high-drama clash over policy during the debate,” PCCC co-founder Adam Green told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “So that’s what goes viral and spreads online afterward.”
Green also urged Biden to present Trump with his past comments on matters such as cutting Social Security “and basically ask him if he disagrees with himself, to kind of flummox him and create a suspenseful moment where he’s on defense.”
Trump received scrutiny for telling CNBC in March that “there is a lot you can do” on entitlements, mentioning the possibility of cuts, but has long held that Medicare and Social Security should be preserved. He quickly clarified he would not “jeopardize” the programs.
Relatedly, PCCC’s memo advises Biden to pit Trump against the views of his possible vice presidential nominees, mentioning Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and his comments on credit card overdraft fees. The former president is reportedly weighing announcing his running mate as soon as this week, though he has largely teased the decision will be revealed at or shortly ahead of the Republican National Convention next month. Scott and other top contenders to join Trump’s ticket will all be in Atlanta, where the debate will take place, in support of Trump.
The third recommendation focuses on Biden articulating a forward-looking vision that starts with contrasting the actions his administration has taken, such as its efforts to curb junk fees, to those of the Trump administration.
An emphasis on taxing the wealthy is another recommendation, particularly in the context of Social Security. Biden has repeatedly slammed Trump over his support for lower tax rates to make a populist pitch.
“It’s time to raise the corporate tax, minimum tax, to at least 21% so every big corporation finally has to pay their fair share,” Biden said during a campaign stop in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in April. “But, you know, Trump and his MAGA friends want to get rid of the corporate minimum tax.”
Recent polling from the PCCC and Data Progress showed that Biden is “breaking through” with voters on protecting Social Security, citing a 10-point shift from September 2023 to May.
“Our extra recommendation is to always tie Social Security to taxing rich people,” Green said. “And the formulation that we recommended, and the White House adopted in the State of the Union, was ‘Donald Trump and Republicans want to cut Social Security in order to give tax cuts to billionaires. We will ask the wealthy to pay their fair share and protect Social Security.’ And what that does is it actually gives Donald Trump no way of even pretending to match the Democratic position, because he will never support raising even one penny of taxes on billionaires.”
The last recommendation advises Biden to discuss issues on a micro level, rather than citing high-level statistics.
“Black voters, Latino voters, young voters, a lot of them at their core are just not happy with the system in general and are willing to take it out on the incumbent president, specifically, one who has been there for a while,” Green said. “All that changes if Trump is positioned as being in the pocket of billionaires and big corporations that want to rip people off.”
The debate is expected to cover the economy, abortion, Trump’s New York conviction, Hunter Biden’s conviction, the Israel-Hamas war, and Ukraine’s fight against Russia. All of these topics will be a chance for both candidates to draw a contrast to the other.
The Trump campaign has sought to raise expectations for Biden ahead of the debate, fearing a repeat of his State of the Union speech, in which he received praise for an energetic performance. Campaign advisers also alleged that CNN, which is hosting the debate, could possibly influence and boost Biden.
The PCCC memo was first reported Wednesday morning.
