Days away from the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the incumbent Democrat's reelection campaign is unveiling its strategy for the week -- holding hundreds of events and launching new ads in battleground states -- as he hunkers down at Camp David to prepare. 

What You Need To Know

  • Ahead of Thursday's debate President Joe Biden’s reelection team says it plans to hold more than 1,600 events in key swing states and disperse new digital and TV ads focused on reproductive health care, the economy and democracy
  • It will all culminate with 300 watch parties on the night of the debate as well as 40 virtual events specifically seeking to reach young voters, Caribbean women, Venezuelan Americans and the LGBTQ+ community 
  • Biden and former President Donald Trump, are drawing a sharp contrast in how they are preparing for their rematch on the debate stage – the first time a sitting president and former president will face off in such a manner 
  • Biden has been hunkered down with top allies at Camp David – the presidential retreat tucked away in the mountains of Maryland – to prepare for the last four days while Trump has hit the campaign trail 

In total, Biden’s team says it plans to hold more than 1,600 events in key swing states in the lead-up to Thursday night’s showdown. It will also disperse new digital and TV ads focused on reproductive health care, the economy and democracy – issues it hopes will “define the election,” according to a memo from the campaign. 

It will all culminate with 300 watch parties on the night of the debate as well as 40 virtual events specifically seeking to reach young voters, Caribbean women, Venezuelan Americans and the LGBTQ+ community. 

The president’s campaign is putting an emphasis, in particular, on engaging youth voters – a voting bloc in which some recent polls have shown Trump potentially making inroads. Biden’s team will host a statewide virtual debate watch party for college students in battleground Michigan and utilize the platform of content creators on social media sites such as TikTok, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter. 

The campaign will host watch parties for such creators in Atlanta, where the debate is taking place, as well as Wilmington, where Biden’s campaign is headquartered, and allow them in the “spin” room at the site of the debate – a space typically only inhabited by traditional credentialed media. 

“In short, Thursday’s debate will be one of the first moments of this presidential campaign where a larger slice of the American electorate will have the opportunity to witness the stark choice between Joe Biden, who is fighting for the American people, and Donald Trump, who is fighting for himself as a convicted felon with an unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler wrote in the memo. 

The organizing efforts are kicking off on Monday with more than 50 events marking the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade, returning the issue to individual states and sparking bans and restrictions on the practice across the country. 

Biden as well as Democrats up and down the ballot have made clear they believe reproductive health care is a winning issue for their side after Roe’s overturning. They credit the topic, in part, for a better-than-expected showing in 2022’s midterm elections and point to voters in even ruby red states like Kansas and Ohio voting to keep the practice more widely accessible following the Dobbs decision. 

Trump appointed three of the justices who ruled in favor of reversing Roe. 

Vice President Kamala Harris took the lead on the topics on Monday, speaking at an event in Maryland in which she said Trump is “guilty” of “stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America,” in what was also an apparent reference to the former president’s legal woes. After initially limiting its engagement on the topic, Biden’s team has recently leaned into highlighting the fact that Trump was found guilty by a New York jury in his hush money case last month, now frequently referring to him as a “convicted felon.”  

It all comes as the two candidates, Biden and Trump, are drawing a sharp contrast in how they are preparing for their rematch on the debate stage – the first time a sitting president and former president will face off in such a manner. 

Since Thursday, Biden has been secluded with top allies at Camp David – the presidential retreat tucked away in the mountains of Maryland and where he is expected to stay until the debate – preparing to take on Trump. 

The former president, on the other hand, has been out on the campaign trail, addressing conservatives at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s conference in Washington on Saturday afternoon before heading to Philadelphia for a rally that night in which he criticized his opponent’s debate preparation strategy. 

“It's been reported that right now, Crooked Joe's gone to a log cabin to study, prepare,” Trump said on Saturday. “No, he didn't, he's sleeping now because they want to get him good and strong…”

Trump also asked his supporters whether he should be “tough and nasty” or “nice and calm.”