Biden, Trump Prep for Presidential Debate that Will Highlight Mental Fitness

FILE PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden answers a question as President Donald Trump listens during the second and final presidential debate at the Curb Event Center at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, US, October 22, 2020. Morry Gash/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden answers a question as President Donald Trump listens during the second and final presidential debate at the Curb Event Center at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, US, October 22, 2020. Morry Gash/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Biden, Trump Prep for Presidential Debate that Will Highlight Mental Fitness

FILE PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden answers a question as President Donald Trump listens during the second and final presidential debate at the Curb Event Center at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, US, October 22, 2020. Morry Gash/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden answers a question as President Donald Trump listens during the second and final presidential debate at the Curb Event Center at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, US, October 22, 2020. Morry Gash/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

President Joe Biden is hunkered down with aides at Camp David for several days to get ready to debate rival Donald Trump, who is eschewing traditional preparation and instead holding informal policy discussions between campaign stops.
The face-off in Atlanta, at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday (0100 GMT on Friday), will be the earliest presidential debate in modern US history and a critical event for both candidates, Reuters said.
Biden, 81, and former president Trump, 78, are neck-and-neck in national opinion polls, with a considerable slice of the electorate still undecided five months before the Nov. 5 vote.
The debate will provide the starkest contrast yet of the two men, the oldest candidates ever to seek the US presidency, as voters question their age and mental sharpness.
"It's an incredible test of their cognitive competence," said Patrick Stewart, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas who has written a book on presidential debates. "This is our chance to see how much they've declined or if they've declined."
With strict speaking limitations, a ban on notes and no audience to cheer them on during the 90-minute CNN debate, they will need to prepare for tough questions and a format that takes them out of their comfort zones, Stewart said.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn't make the cut, so Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, won’t have to worry about him.
Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff and a veteran of debate preparation, is leading Biden's sessions at Camp David, the mountain retreat in western Maryland where the president prepped for his fiery State of the Union speech in March.
A campaign spokesperson declined to comment on whether former White House counsel Bob Bauer would reprise the role of Trump he played during debate prep in 2020.
Biden's team will focus on refining the argument that Trump pursues extremist policies on abortion and other issues, is a danger to democracy, and is beholden to the rich donors writing him checks, a campaign official told Reuters.
While Biden will not shy away from attacking Trump for past actions, including his role in the US Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, the president wants to project himself as a wise and steady leader in contrast to Trump's division and chaos, the official said.
"What he wants to do is have that split screen, show that contrast and have President Trump be forced to account for his more extreme views," said another strategist advising the campaign, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.
INFORMAL APPROACH
The Trump camp, meanwhile, wants to make Biden defend his administration's record on immigration and inflation, as well as how he is dealing with "a world on fire," senior campaign adviser Brian Hughes said in reference to the conflict between Israel and Hamas and Russia's assault on Ukraine.
Trump has held a series of meetings in recent weeks with US senators and advisers at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and elsewhere to review the kind of substantive policy points he would like to make on the debate stage.
Among those involved in the discussions with Trump are US senators J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio - both leading contenders to be Trump's running mate - and Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Trump during his presidency known for his hardline stance on immigration.
Trump's aides say he is taking a more informal approach to readying for the debate than in the past, when former ally Chris Christie assumed the roles of rivals Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020.
Trump, the aides say, has been honing his argument to voters during more than a year of rallies and media interviews. He is not expected to participate in a mock debate.
"The idea that he has to be in a room and mock out - first this guy does that, then you do this - it's just not his style," Hughes said.
"If we're doing anything at all," Hughes added, "it's simply reviewing with him policies and accomplishments and looking ahead with him at what he'll do in the four years ahead."
Alan Schroeder, professor emeritus of journalism at Northeastern University, sees some risk in the less formal approach for Trump, who like Biden has not debated in four years after eschewing face-offs with his Republican primary challengers.
One of the rules that could prove challenging for Trump: Microphones will be muted except when it is each candidate's turn to speak.
"He's done so many TV events of different types that he sort of thinks he can wing it," said Schroeder, an expert on presidential debates. "But debating is a very specific thing. It doesn't really pay to just show up."



Ukraine Receives F-16s from Netherlands, 1st Mirage Jets from France

A serviceman of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, carries a Shark reconnaissance drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Oleksandr Klymenko
A serviceman of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, carries a Shark reconnaissance drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Oleksandr Klymenko
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Ukraine Receives F-16s from Netherlands, 1st Mirage Jets from France

A serviceman of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, carries a Shark reconnaissance drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Oleksandr Klymenko
A serviceman of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, carries a Shark reconnaissance drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Oleksandr Klymenko

Ukraine said on Thursday it had received a first batch of French Mirage 2000 fighter jets as well as US-made F-16 fighters from the Netherlands as European allies seek to strengthen Kyiv's hand in its war with Russia.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago, Ukraine had only a largely outdated air force inherited from the Soviet Union when it broke up in 1991.

Now facing Russian advances in the east and long-range air strikes, Ukraine has repeatedly pressed Western allies to supply it with increasingly advanced arms and ammunition including armoured vehicles, tanks, long-range missiles and F-16 fighters.

Mirage 2000s are the latest sophisticated jets Ukraine has received from allies after the first F-16s arrived last summer, marking a military milestone for the country.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised France and the Netherlands for their commitment to helping modernise Ukraine's air force.

"These modern combat aircraft have already arrived in Ukraine and will soon begin carrying out combat missions, strengthening our defense and enhancing our ability to effectively counter Russian aggression," Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said.

The exact number of F-16 and Mirage jets delivered was not revealed.
The Dutch defense ministry said that for security reasons it would not comment on the timing of deliveries, nor on the amount supplied at any given time.

The Netherlands has promised to deliver Ukraine a total of 24 F-16s, next to the fighter jets it supplies to a training center for Ukrainian pilots and crew in Romania.

French officials also cited security reasons in declining to specify how many warplanes had been supplied, although they did say the jets had been adapted to enable air-to-ground strikes, Reuters reported.

The Mirage 2000 is a multi-role, single-engine jet fighter. Last June, President Emmanuel Macron promised that France would train Ukrainian pilots to fly the Dassault-made jets, crossing a new line in military support for Kyiv.

The Mirage, which has been replaced by the Rafale fighter in the French air force, was initially conceived for aerial dogfights.
A French parliamentary report at the end of 2024 said that of the 26 Mirage 2000s in the French air force, six would be given to Ukraine.
France will on February 12 host a meeting with Ukraine, its main European allies, Britain and the United States to discuss how to strengthen support for Kyiv.