(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is getting ready for next week’s highly anticipated debate with President Joe Biden by holding policy meetings with advisers and congressional allies and favoring town hall events over mock debates, according to sources familiar with his preparations.
Ahead of the June 27 standoff in Atlanta, hosted by CNN, Trump is not making conventional preparations — where someone would be assigned to play Biden in a mock debate, people familiar with Trump’s plans tell ABC News.
Also, sources say he won’t plan to memorize a series of debate responses. Instead, the campaign has been setting up sessions with policy experts on individual topics they think could come up at the debate next Thursday, such as the economy, immigration and democracy, according to people familiar the plans.
When the former president was in town last week for a visit with congressional Republicans, he met with Sens. Marco Rubio and Eric Schmitt, for a debate discussion session, along with a group of his advisers, according to sources with knowledge of the meetings.
It’s an example of how Trump has held informal debate-focused sessions with a series of experts, fitting them in between campaign stops and fundraisers.
Many of these sessions have been with people who were part of his previous administration, including his former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and former top adviser Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, who served as acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when Trump was president, according to sources familiar with the meetings.
The debate, being moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, will run for approximately 90 minutes with two commercial breaks. It is the first of two debates scheduled between the candidates — the second of which will be hosted by ABC News on Sept. 10.
In an election year, both candidates are looking to the debate as a way to attract undecided voters in what is expected to be a very tight race.
Trump has also recently spoken with some of the people on his shortlist to become his vice president as he prepares to make a decision about who will be his running mate, sources tell ABC News. His vice presidential pick would go up against Vice President Kamala Harris during a debate this summer.
Trump met with Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month. Vance, speculated to be a top contender to be Trump’s vice president pick, discussed the economy with Trump as part of the former president’s debate prep, according to a source.
Vance has been an active surrogate for Trump over the past few months, appearing at campaign events with him and hosting fundraisers to help raise money for Trump’s White House bid.
Vance has maintained his commitment to helping Trump’s campaign. In May, he told Donald Trump Jr. on his podcast “Triggered with Don Jr.” that he wanted to help the former president however he could.
Trump has previously departed from traditional debate preparations, which advisers have said speak to his strengths in giving off-the-cuff remarks.
More recently, the campaign has also held more events where Trump is able to take questions from audience members. Although the questions have mainly been from his staunch supporters, the town hall forums have allowed the former president to be put on the spot ahead of the debate.
“President Trump talks with voters in town halls, speaks to thousands at rallies, and frequently takes questions from the press,” which have prepared him for the upcoming debate, senior adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement to ABC News.
Hughes added that “Biden needs rehearsals with handlers to find some way to explain this mess he’s made of our nation.”
“President Trump is always prepared to present to Americans his record of success and Biden’s weakness and failures,” Hughes said.
As Biden heads off to Camp David for his debate preparations, Trump will spend the weekend campaigning in Philadelphia and attending a series of fundraisers leading up to next week.
The Trump campaign pushed for earlier debates this election cycle, remaining confident Trump could garner more supporters if voters could see the two men debate and compare their presidential records.
Following Trump and Biden’s agreement to participate in debates in June and September, the Trump campaign has put public pressure on the Biden campaign to agree to more debates.
“We propose a debate in June, a debate in July, a debate in August, and a debate in September, in addition to the Vice Presidential debate. Additional dates will allow voters to have maximum exposure to the records and future visions of each candidate,” Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a memo sent out in May.
Debates have been an opportunity for Trump to reach a wider audience. His first debate with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in September 2016 garnered 84 million viewers, making it the most-watched presidential debate in modern American history.
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