US election debates: Biden compares Trump to Nazi Goebbels before first clash
- Debate on Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio will be the first time Joe Biden faces president he has promised to unseat
- Biden may need to steel himself against a barrage of attacks by a provocative President Trump
US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, were set to meet on Tuesday for their first debate, a highly anticipated event in a highly unusual election year.
Trump has decided to skip any formal preparation. And while Biden’s team believes the significance of the debate may be exaggerated, the Democratic nominee has been aggressively preparing to take on the president.
The debate in Cleveland, Ohio will be moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace. The 77-year-old veteran politician Biden and the 74-year-old president will meet again for two more debates before the November 3 election.
Biden’s campaign has been holding mock debate sessions featuring Bob Bauer, a senior Biden adviser and former White House general counsel, playing the role of Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the preparations.
Biden said he expected “personal attacks and lies” from Trump, comparing the Republican president to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
“He’s sort of like Goebbels. You say the lie long enough, keep repeating it, repeating it, repeating it, it becomes common knowledge,” Biden said in an interview on MSNBC that aired on Saturday.
Adolf Hitler and Goebbels, his minister of propaganda, espoused a technique known as the “Big Lie”, which involved repeating a colossal falsehood until the public came to believe it was true. Hitler coined the term in his 1925 book Mein Kampf.