The first presidential debate of the 2020 election is scheduled to occur this coming Tuesday -- and aides to President Donald Trump fear he's on track to getting absolutely pasted by Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Politico reports that "some on Trump’s team are bracing for a humiliating loss" against the former vice president after Trump has spent several months claiming that Biden is too senile to form coherent sentences.
Veteran GOP strategist Ed Rollins said that Trump has so lowered expectations for Biden's performance that the media will declare the former vice president the winner as long as he comes across as reasonably lucid.
"Biden has clearly shown he can function, the bar is low and the expectations are so low, all he has to do is exceed those expectations," he said.
"The danger with [Trump’s] sustained attack against Biden’s cognitive abilities is that he’s now created a situation for himself where he has no excuse to fall back on if Biden lands a few punches and he struggles to return blows," said another Republican described as "close" to Trump's campaign. "I get why the president has gone after Biden for his age and gaffes... but at some point he should have flipped the script to increase expectations heading into the debates."
