Screenshot of Zoom call with FDP Chair Nikki Fried on June 26, 2024.
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As the country prepares for Thursday night’s CNN presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried set the bar high for the president on Wednesday, telling reporters on a Zoom conference call: “On the debate stage, President Biden will make Donald Trump answer for his extreme agenda. And President Biden will win the debate, just like he did in 2020.”
Political analysts have speculated about how much time and energy Biden will spend during the 90-minute debate in Atlanta talking about his own policy achievements during his three-and-a-half years in office, and how much he will go on the attack against Trump.
Fried expects the president to tout his accomplishments but also discuss the “the existential threat to democracy” if the former president wins another four years in office in November.
“I believe that the president will continue to make that case on the debate stage tomorrow night, and we’ll make sure that the American people see that there is a clear distinction between these two individuals: chaos vs. democracy.”
As you would expect, Fried’s counterpart, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power, disagrees.
“The only chaos that exists has been because of the failed leadership of Joe Biden, who has left the border open, made us less safe as a country, and let the world descend into violence,” Power told the Phoenix in a text message. “Compare that to the leadership of President Trump, who secured the border, led America to prosperity, and the world was at peace.”
Based on polls, it might make more sense for Biden to excite his base by going after the former president and minimizing his record in office. A CBS News/You Gov poll released earlier this month shows that only 27% of Biden supporters are backing him because they like him vs. 54% who support Biden because he’s opposing Trump.
And when it comes to the top issues like inflation, the economy, and immigration, that same poll shows the voters more supportive of Trump’s stances than Biden’s. On immigration, 62% would support a new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants, while Trump is up by more than 2 to 1 among those who say that higher prices have been a hardship.
Friendly venues
Trump has said that he’s getting ready by conducting interviews with (friendly) media outlets, such as with conservative Philadelphia talk show host Chris Stigall on Saturday and with Newsmax on Tuesday night with Corey Lewandowski, his campaign manager in 2016.
Biden, on the other hand, has been preparing for the debate at Camp David by “hunker[ing] down with senior campaign aides since last Thursday,” the Associated Press reports.
“As somebody who has been on that debate stage, it takes time to prep,” said Fried, who was the state’s commissioner of agriculture between 2019 and 2023 and who ran in the Democratic Party gubernatorial primary in 2022.
“Not only to make sure that you understand the issues that are going to come up and make sure that you are prepared to answer all of the insane attacks that we know that Trump is going to bring up on the debate stage, making sure that there are answers. Debate stage prep takes time, no matter who you are, no matter how many times that you’ve debated.”
Fried was asked during the call once again to clarify whether she’s convinced the national Democratic Party really believes the state “is in play,” as Biden campaign officials said earlier this year. That comment seemed to have been repudiated this week when Jen O’Malley Dillon, chair of Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, told John Heilemann of Puck News on his podcast that the campaign does not consider Florida a battleground state.
Pot, abortion
Fried noted that early polling numbers showing support for the proposed constitutional amendments on recreational cannabis use for adults and restoring a woman’s right to an abortion up until viability are indications that the FDP remains “in play” in 2024.
“Democrats are creating a coalition that goes above partisan politics to talk about those issues,” she said.
“Democrats are holding Republicans accountable for everything again from property insurance to the six-week abortion ban. All of those things at the same exact time where we’re seeing investments on the U.S. Senate race. Investments from the Biden administration as well as other resources that are coming in here to fight back, because what I have said to the president and the vice president is that if you’re going to fight back against MAGA extremism, you’ve gotta come here to the state of Florida — the belly of the beast.”
Meanwhile, two prominent Florida Republicans who have been floated as potential running-mates for Trump — U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds — are expected to be in Atlanta for the debate, according to the Washington Examiner.
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