Joe Biden locks himself away for debate prep while Donald Trump ramps up rallies

Joe Biden is hunkered down in Wilmington in debate prep on Monday while President Donald Trump has back-to-back campaign rallies in Arizona with more on tap ahead of Thursday’s final presidential debate.

FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE 

The final presidential debate will be held on Thursday, October 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.

It will start at 9:00 p.m. ET and run for 90 minutes without commercial interruption.

The format is the same as the first presidential debate. 

NBC’s Kristen Welker is the moderator and chose the topics: 

Fighting COVID-19

American Families

Race in America

Climate Change

National Security

Leadership 

Their approaches mirror what they did for their first debate, with Biden at the books and Trump drawing energy from his supporters.

Thursday marks the final head-to-head for Trump and Biden before November 3. 

It comes after the second presidential debate was canceled when Trump refused to participate in it after organizers made it virtual. The two candidates held dueling town hall meetings on different networks instead.

Ahead of their last meeting, Trump is not likely to hold formal debate preparation sessions. One of the main reasons is that Trump himself and more than half the people in them – including adviser Hope Hicks, campaign manager Bill Stepien and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – contracted the coronavirus, The New York Times reported. 

But the president’s advisers are urging him to take a different approach to Thursday’s event in Nashville, compared to the first debate, when Trump was criticized for repeatedly interrupting and talking over his Democratic rival.

The format for the third debate is the same but advisers are telling him to be more likable, Axios reported, including trying to tell jokes and use a softer tone. 

But one area where Trump is expected to hit hard is on Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son. 

The president and his campaign have repeatedly hammered the Bidens on email messages reported to be from Hunter and Ukrainian officials. The laptop was from a repair shop in Wilmington whose owner could not remember who brought in and existence was revealed by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer. It’s authenticity is under question.

The third debate comes as Trump campaign aides are quietly conceding how uphill the odds are for the president to get a second term with the blame-game beginning.

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, is bearing the blunt of it, The Times reported, with critics drawing attention to the way he handled the president’s hospitalization with COVID. Questions were also being raised about why Meadows sat in Judge Amy Comey Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings this past week instead of being at work at the White House. 

Meanwhile, Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn became the latest Republican to distance himself from the president.

Cornyn, running for a fourth term, told the the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of his relationship with Trump, that ‘maybe like a lot of women who get married and think they’re going to change their spouse, and that doesn’t usually work out very well.’

‘I think what we found is that we’re not going to change President Trump. He is who he is. You either love him or hate him, and there’s not much in between,’ he said. 

‘What I tried to do is not get into public confrontations and fights with him because, as I’ve observed, those usually don’t end too well.’   

President Donald Trump is not expected to participate in any formal debate prep sessions ahead of Thursday night’s final head-to-head

Joe Biden is spending Monday hunkered down in Wilmington in debate preparation

Joe Biden is spending Monday hunkered down in Wilmington in debate preparation

President Trump's advisers are telling him to take a different approach from the first debate (above) when he repeatedly interrupted Joe Biden; they are advising him to be more likable

President Trump’s advisers are telling him to take a different approach from the first debate (above) when he repeatedly interrupted Joe Biden; they are advising him to be more likable

Cornyn’s words came after Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was at pains to stress he had not been to the White House since August; Arizona Senator Martha McSally repeatedly refused to answer if she was proud of her support for the president; and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse told a private phone call he expected Trump to lose. 

Biden is leading in the polls with 15 days until the election. Almost 29 million people have already cast their ballots.

While Trump rides a political wave of rallies in Arizona on Monday, Pennsylvania on Tuesday and North Carolina on Wednesday, Biden is expected to remain behind closed doors in debate prep with surrogates out campaigning for him. 

Kamala Harris will be campaigning in Florida, where early voting begins on Monday, and Jill Biden is in Pennsylvania. 

Jill Biden heads to Michigan on Tuesday.

And the Biden campaign is pulling out its biggest draw on Wednesday when former President Barack Obama campaigns for Biden in Philadelphia.