U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he expected “personal attacks and lies” from Donald Trump during their first televised debate on Tuesday, comparing the Republican president to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
“It’s going to be difficult,” admitted the former vice president in an interview broadcast on MSNBC on Saturday.
“I guess it’s just going to be a direct attack. They’ll be mostly personal. It’s the only thing he can do,” he said of Trump.
Tuesday’s debate in Cleveland, Ohio, will be the first time the 77-year-old veteran politician has faced the president he has vowed to overthrow. The men will meet for two more debates ahead of the November 3 elections.
But some of his supporters fear that Biden, who is prone to blunders and slips, could falter in these televised duels under the rhetorical blows of the Republican billionaire – who is also prone to errors and slips, but is far more aggressive.
“He doesn’t know how to debate the facts. He’s not that smart,” Biden also said. “He doesn’t know much about foreign policy, he doesn’t know much about domestic policy. He doesn’t know much about details.”
As a result, Biden predicted, “It will be mostly personal attacks and lies; but I think the American people agree with him.”
Trump himself never ceases to mock what he says is his rival’s lack of dynamism, dubbing him “Sleepy Joe” and attacking his mental acuity.
“He’s a lot like Goebbels,” Biden said. “You tell the lie long enough, keep repeating it, repeating it, repeating it, it becomes notorious.”
“It’s not like it’s going to be a surprise. And so I’m ready to come out and explain why I think he failed and why I think the answers I need to provide will help Americans and Americans. economy, and make us more secure internationally. “