Trump launches last-ditch attack against Biden ahead of debate

Former and sitting president will go head-to-head in first of two televised debates

Donald Trump has shared a scathing anti-Joe Biden video in a last-ditch attack branding the president as boring as the pair gear up for the first televised debate of the 2024 election.

Both Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, will take to stage in Atlanta, Georgia – with the clash aired on CNN – in the first of two moderated discussions, with the second set to air on ABC in September. It marks the first time in US history that a former president and current incumbent have faced-off in a presidential debate.

Ahead of the showdown, Trump has taken one last stab at Biden, sharing a stinging clip from Fox News’ satirical weekend panel show, Saturday Night with Jimmy Failla. It teases a fabricated medication that can help people fall asleep.

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

Signage for a CNN presidential debate is seen outside of their studios on June 26, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia (Getty Images)

Actors continue to drop off and snore heavily while listening to the president’s speeches, in the clip. “Patented blend of confusion and forgetfulness that will calm the most overactive brains,” the narrator adds.

Fox News’ anti-Biden sketch continues by listing a range of apparent side effects: rapid lying, inability to secure the southern border and hallucinations.

The small print reads for the patient to seek medical assistance if they start speaking “gibberish, become disorientated or start thinking you are president”.

Biden’s campaign team has also ramped up its posts targeting Trump over the past 24 hours with a tirade of attacks on X. It made reference to the Jan. 6 riots, his Truth Social post mentioning a “unified Reich”, and his praise for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas.

Biden and Trump last shared the stage in October 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic (AP)

CNN’s presidential debate marks the earliest in modern US history, with neither Trump nor Biden officially nominated by their respective parties. Anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will serve as moderators in a closed studio with no live audience.

The duo will be “facilitating the debate between these candidates, not being a participant in that debate,” political director David Chalian told The New York Times.

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

He failed to meet the qualifying criteria: garnering at least 15 per cent support in four major polls, and being on the ballot in enough areas to theoretically have a chance at taking the Oval Office.

Kennedy Jr claimed that he was excluded as Trump and Biden “are afraid I would win”.