When Joe Biden and Donald Trump meet on the debate stage in Atlanta on Thursday, it will be an unprecedented face-off.

For starters, it will be the first time in U.S. history that a sitting president and a former president have met on a debate stage. It will also be the third time the two men debate — of the three debates scheduled in 2020, one was canceled after Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 and declined to participate remotely — and the first time either one has participated in a debate in four years, with Biden not facing a serious Democratic primary challenger and Trump’s decision to skip all of the primary debates against his Republican challengers.

Given the historic nature of Thursday’s debate, it’s almost difficult to believe that there’s another unique wrinkle — there’s only one person out there who can say they debated both men on major stages: Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, U.S. senator, first lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

In an opinion piece for The New York Times on Tuesday, where she talks about what she’s looking for in Thursday’s CNN presidential debate, Clinton details being the “only person” who can say she’s debated both men: Trump three times in 2016 and Biden once during the 2008 Democratic primary, which she lost to then-Sen. Barack Obama.

In the piece for the Times, Clinton said she is all too familiar with “the excruciating pressure of walking onto that stage,” adding: “it is nearly impossible to focus on substance when Mr. Trump is involved.”

“In our three debates in 2016, he unleashed a blizzard of interruptions, insults and lies that overwhelmed the moderators and did a disservice to the voters who tuned in to learn about our visions for the country,” Clinton wrote, reminding readers that her September 2016 face-off with Trump is still the most-watched presidential debate in U.S. history.

Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016 before Biden beat him in 2020, said it would be a “waste of time to try to refute” the Republican ex-president’s arguments and claims “like in a normal debate.”

“It’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather,” she charges, adding: “Yet expectations for him are so low that if he doesn’t literally light himself on fire on Thursday evening, some will say he was downright presidential.”

Trump, she contended, “may rant and rave in part because he wants to avoid giving straight answers about his unpopular positions, like restrictions on abortion, giving tax breaks to billionaires and selling out our planet to big oil companies in return for campaign donations.”

“He interrupts and bullies — even stalking me around the stage at one point — because he wants to appear dominant and throw his opponent off balance,” Clinton continued, before offering advice to the Democratic incumbent.

“These ploys will fall flat if President Biden is as direct and forceful as he was when engaging Republican hecklers at the State of the Union address in March,” Clinton said. “The president also has facts and truth on his side. He led America’s comeback from a historic health and economic crisis, with more than 15 million jobs created so far, incomes for working families rising, inflation slowing and investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing soaring. He’ll win if that story comes through.”

She also advised debate watchers to “try not to get hung up on the theatrics” and instead focus on three key points:

• “Pay attention to how the candidates talk about people, not just policies,” Clinton urged, specifically referencing Trump’s comments during their third debate in October 2016 about appointing Supreme Court justices to eliminate Roe v. Wade — he appointed three of the justices who in 2022 were part of the majority opinion that overturned the landmark abortion ruling;
• “Try to see through the bluster and focus on the fundamentals at stake,” she said, contending that “you can draw a straight line” from his refusal to accept the results of the election in 2016 to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and;
• That the election is a binary choice between “chaos and competence.”

“This election is between a convicted criminal out for revenge and a president who delivers results for the American people,” Clinton concluded. “No matter what happens in the debate, that’s an easy choice.”

Thursday’s debate, hosted by CNN, will take place at the network’s studios in Atlanta and will be moderated by anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. For more information about how to watch the debate on Spectrum News, click here.