The people around former President Trump believe he set debate expectations “too low” for President Biden four years ago, New York Times political correspondent Maggie Haberman said late Thursday.
“There is an awareness in Trump’s world that they have lowered the expectations pretty solidly for Biden there,” Haberman said on CNN’s “The Source” with anchor Katilan Collins, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
“I don’t know that a week out from the debate is enough time to try to recast that, but Trump did not help himself in 2020 when he was constantly interrupting Biden. He knows that; he has said that to people,” Haberman added. “Trump and his folks are aware that they set the expectations too low for Biden, and Biden beat them.”
Haberman also noted that Trump and his team “were trying to move from, ‘Biden can’t tie his shoelaces and is gonna trip his way all over the stage,’ to trying to suggest that they expect that he will be good in the same way he was, say, at the State of the Union, several months ago.”
Trump said Thursday that he is “not underestimating” Biden for their next debate. The two presidents are set to go head-to-head in a debate on CNN next week, their first debate since 2020.
Earlier this week, Haberman said Trump also knows he interrupted Biden too frequently in their first debate four years ago. The former president received heavy criticism for his performance in that debate at the time.
“He has said to people multiple times that he knows that he interrupted too much in the first debate with Biden in 2020, and having just rewatched that debate recently, it’s really striking,” Haberman said Wednesday on CNN.