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Trump launches final attack on Biden before debate

In a last-ditch attack, Donald Trump has released a scathing anti-Joe Biden video, branding the president boring as the two prepare for the first televised debate of the 2024 election.

Both Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, will take the stage in Atlanta, Georgia — the exchange will be broadcast on CNN — in the first of two moderated discussions, with the second scheduled to air on ABC in September. It will be the first time in U.S. history that a former president and the current incumbent will face off in a presidential debate.

Before the showdown, Trump took one final swipe at Biden by sharing a biting clip from Fox News’ satirical weekend panel show, Saturday night with Jimmy Failla. It advertises a fictitious drug that can help people sleep.

“If you’re having trouble sleeping, ask your doctor about Bidenica: the sleep aid that’s 100 percent made from Joe Biden’s press conference,” the narrator says in the video, shared on Trump’s Truth Social account in the early hours of Thursday.

Signs for a CNN presidential debate are seen outside their studios in Atlanta, Georgia on June 26, 2024.
Signs for a CNN presidential debate are seen outside their studios in Atlanta, Georgia on June 26, 2024. (Getty Images)

As the actors in the clip listen to the president’s speeches, they repeatedly fall asleep heavily. “Patented blend of confusion and forgetfulness that calms even the most overactive brains,” adds the narrator.

Fox News’ anti-Biden sketch goes on to list a series of obvious side effects: quick to lie, inability to secure the southern border, and hallucinations.

The fine print states that the patient should seek medical attention if he begins “speaking gibberish, becomes disoriented, or begins to believe he is the President.”

Biden’s campaign has also increased the number of anti-Trump posts in the past 24 hours, including a tirade of attacks on X, which referenced the Jan. 6 riots, his Truth Social post in which he spoke of a “united kingdom,” and his praise for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Biden and Trump last appeared together on stage in October 2020 during the Covid 19 pandemic
Biden and Trump last appeared together on stage in October 2020 during the Covid 19 pandemic (AP)

CNN’s presidential debate is the earliest in modern U.S. history in which neither Trump nor Biden have been officially nominated by their respective parties. Moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate in a closed studio without a live audience.

The duo will “moderate the debate between these candidates, not participate in this debate,” said political director David Chalian. The New York Times.

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was not eligible to participate in the debate, CNN announced last week.

He did not meet the eligibility criteria: He had to receive at least 15 percent of the vote in four key polls and be on the ballot in enough constituencies to theoretically have a chance at the Oval Office.

Kennedy Jr. claimed he was excluded because Trump and Biden were “afraid I would win.”