Fox News Politics reporter Paul Steinhauser said on Tuesday that President Trump is expected to throw “curveballs” at Democratic nominee Joe Biden during the first presidential debate, adding that the former vice president should be prepared to face personal attacks and questions from Trump.
“We all know the president does not play by the rules,” Steinhauser said in an interview on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”
“Expect him to bring up Hunter Biden tonight, expect him to throw some other curveballs at Joe Biden. If Joe Biden gets angry, that’s his downfall. Often when he gets angry, he makes mistakes.”
Trump has already announced ahead of Tuesday’s debate that he will bring up Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who many Republicans claim personally profited off of his father’s political connections.
The debate, which will be moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, is the first of three between the two candidates before the Nov. 3 election.
Steinhauser added that voters overall do not have high expectations for either candidate going into Tuesday night’s debate, citing a Politico poll released Tuesday that showed 44 percent of voters expect Biden to perform better in the debate, while 41 percent think Trump will perform better.
The Fox News reporter said that recent political messaging from the Trump campaign around Biden has changed in recent weeks, portraying Biden as an experienced debater. The changes comes after the president’s campaign has painted Biden as out-of-touch, ill-equipped and old.
“For six months, the president, his campaign, surrogates, allied groups, they belittled, ridiculed Biden as somebody who’s out of touch, lost some miles off his speedball, senile, doesn’t know where he is. And then all of a sudden two weeks ago, they make a dramatic 180 and they say this is a guy who’s a veteran debater who’s been doing it for four to five decades,” Steinhauser explained.
“I don’t know if Americans are really going to buy that now after this six-month onslaught. So, unwittingly, the Trump campaign has lowered the bar a little bit for Joe Biden.”
Watch the full interview above.
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