Joe Biden was last seen in public a week ago when he flew from Delaware to Maryland to spend a week of debate prep at the presidential retreat Camp David located in Catoctin Mountain Park. When asked how debate prep was going, Biden gave reporters a thumbs up as he walked to board Air Force One in Wilmington last Thursday evening.
Biden and President Trump will face off tomorrow night in Atlanta at a debate hosted by CNN. In contrast to Biden’s seclusion, Trump has traveled the country, giving speeches, holding a rally, attending fundraisers and mingling with the public in unscripted settings.
Biden landed at an airport in Hagerstown, Maryland Thursday evening where he was filmed shuffling across the tarmac to Marine One for the ride to Camp David. That is the last time Biden has been seen in person by the public or via photos or video.
President Joe Biden arrives aboard Air Force One at Hagerstown Regional Airport on Thursday, as he travels to Camp David for the weekend. pic.twitter.com/nd16N37EzP
— Al Drago (@Al_Drago) June 21, 2024
Biden arrives at Camp David, where he’ll be holed away — and heavily doped up — ahead of the debate.
He has zero public events on his schedule until Thursday. pic.twitter.com/3C3iCuZOzg
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 21, 2024
Curiously, neither the White House nor the Biden campaign has released any new photos or video of Biden in the past week, let alone arranged a brief public viewing.
M.J. Lee, a reporter with debate host CNN, reported Monday that Biden was working late into the evening on debate prep and eating lasagna, “President Biden and his team of advisers at Camp David are still in debate prep and have yet to break for the day, per a senior adviser.
Dinner tonight was lasagna.”
President Biden and his team of advisers at Camp David are still in debate prep and have yet to break for the day, per a senior adviser.
Dinner tonight was lasagna.
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) June 24, 2024
ABC News reported last Friday Biden would be practicing standing for ninety minutes during debate prep sessions:
Part of Biden’s “debate prep” includes rehearsing standing for 90 straight minutes (in addition to getting juiced) pic.twitter.com/tLJ0BpD5uT
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 21, 2024
The Biden campaign gave a story to the New York Times published Tuesday about Biden’s debate prep based on descriptions provided by Biden’s debate team. The article was not illustrated with any visuals of Biden at Camp David (excerpt):
WASHINGTON — At Camp David, a movie theater and an airplane hangar have been outfitted with lights and production equipment to create a mock debate stage. At least 16 current and former aides, summoned from Washington and Wilmington, Delaware, whiz back and forth on golf carts to join President Joe Biden in strategy sessions.
Biden is entering his fifth day of preparations at the presidential retreat in the woods of northern Maryland for Thursday’s debate against Donald Trump. Camp David has become the epicenter for an administration and campaign effort to help Biden shake off the rust that often comes with being an incumbent on the defense, and combat widespread voter concerns that he is too old to be an effective president.
According to people familiar with the planning at Camp David who were not authorized to speak publicly about it, the workdays vary in length and are not rigidly structured. Biden and his most trusted advisers work on what they think would be best to refine or practice in the moment.
…They are all trying to game out exactly which attacks Trump might launch at Biden, which of Biden’s policies Trump could try to undermine, and how they can best keep the president focused on landing an argument and striking a character and policy contrast with Trump.
…Biden’s advisers say the setting itself will help highlight Trump’s weaknesses, and allow the president to combat the idea — presented in a slew of misleading videos — that he is bumbling in public. Biden and Trump will meet in a closed studio in Atlanta with no live audience. Each candidate’s microphone will be muted when it is not his turn to speak.
The Trump campaign poked fun at Biden’s seclusion with a graphic posted Wednesday suggesting he is getting medically juiced for the debate.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) June 26, 2024
Other presidents have retreated to Camp David for debate prep, the AP reported this month (excerpt):
Camp David, located in the Catoctin Mountains northwest of Washington, is no stranger to presidents prepping for the debate stage. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan went there to ready themselves for debates during their reelection campaigns, as did George H.W. Bush before a debate in 1992.
President Barack Obama visited Camp David before his final debate with Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. Biden himself used the presidential retreat to prepare for his State of the Union address in February.
Reuters reported in 2012 that Barack Obama made public appearances during his debate prep (excerpt):
Obama is spending the days ahead of the second debate at a resort in Williamsburg, Virginia, a battleground state that both candidates want to win in order to be victorious on November 6.
During a quick stop at a local campaign office, where he delivered pizzas to volunteers and called supporters by phone, Obama had an enthusiastic take on his practice sessions.
“It is going great,” Obama told reporters.
Before his debate in Denver, Obama held a similar “debate camp” in the swing state of Nevada. During a visit to a campaign office there, he called the practice sessions “a drag.”
That attitude may have shown through on stage. His performance was widely panned as passive, and Romney’s energetic showing gave his campaign a significant lift.
Unlike Biden, team Obama released a photo of Obama during debate preparation:
Barack Obama confers with Ron Klain during debate prep with John Kerry, Henderson, Nevada, October 2, 2012.Photo: Pete Souza/The White House
CNN posted a photo of debate moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash at the debate site Wednesday:
Officially in ATL! CNN anchors @DanaBashCNN and @JakeTapper are ready for CNN’s Presidential Debate – tune in tomorrow at 9pET on @CNN, @CNNi, @CNNEE, CNN Max & https://t.co/dOLGQHuF4a pic.twitter.com/bnqGxLH90j
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) June 26, 2024
While Biden was in hiding again on Wednesday, Trump called into a campaign event in Atlanta to speak to the Team Trump Black Americans Barbershop Roundtable:
LISTEN: President Trump calls into the Team Trump Black Americans Barbershop Roundtable in Atlanta! pic.twitter.com/KZatc7LzL3
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) June 26, 2024
Raw video of Trump in Philadelphia on Saturday while Biden was in seclusion shows Trump interacting with reporters and supporters, including an impromptu interview with Fox News at the end.:
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