Biden campaign predicts GOP candidates will ‘out-MAGA each other’ at debate

President Biden’s reelection campaign on Saturday predicted that the GOP presidential candidates will “out-MAGA each other,” in the first GOP debate next week, according to an email memo.

Michael Taylor, communications director for Biden’s 2024 campaign, detailed the “extreme MAGA” topics they expect Republican candidates to hit on the debate stage: cuts to Social Security and Medicares, tax breaks for the rich, shipping jobs overseas, protecting the gun lobby, enacting a nationwide abortion ban and undermining democracy through election denial. 

“The MAGA Republican presidential candidates support gutting Social Security and Medicare, support a tax giveaway to the wealthy and profitable corporations, would ship good-paying American jobs overseas, want to ban abortion, choose the NRA [National Rifle Association] over our kids, and defend attacks against our democracy,” the memo reads.

“It doesn’t matter who ‘wins’ the debate on Wednesday, the MAGA Republican presidential candidates have all chosen a losing strategy that is extreme and out of touch with the American people,” the campaign added, calling out individual candidates for their positions on the hot-button issues.

Biden’s campaign also took aim at certain policies under the Trump administration, including former President Trump’s “trickle-down economics,” in reference to tax cuts on the rich, shipping jobs overseas and proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

The memo also called some of the GOP candidates’ push to cut the programs “wildly out-of-touch.”

Touching on election denial, the memo called out Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley for campaigning on b behalf of election deniers, which the memo labelled as an “undermine” of democracy. 

The campaign described some of the candidates’ support of a national abortion ban as “wildly unpopular, extreme and out of step” while also labelling MAGA Republicans’ “extreme anti-gun safety agenda” as “wildly out of step.”

Eight of the Republican presidential candidates have qualified for the first debate, which will take place in Milwaukee on Wednesday night. While Trump has qualified for the debate — other than signing the loyalty pledge — the former president has reportedly chosen to skip the debate and instead sit for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, according to a report from The New York Times.

The others are: DeSantis, Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.