Stand-Ins, Push-Ups, Long Drives: How the 2020 Candidates Are Preparing for the Debates

[brooklynite]

New York Times

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said in an interview that he had been practicing mock debates with his former chief counsel, Nick Brown, playing a number of rival debaters. But Mr. Inslee said he was mainly focused on explaining his record as governor and his vision for addressing climate change as a national emergency.

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Mr. Biden has been studying for the debates for weeks, according to people familiar with his preparations. He has been reading through briefing books and engaging in rehearsal sessions, and his preparations are led by two of his closest advisers, Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director, and Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s former chief of staff. Some of his closest political allies have urged him to do his best to avoid squabbling with other candidates, even if they come after him.

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Among the major candidates, Mr. Sanders is said to have been least interested in participating in intensive pre-debate drills, people briefed on his activities said. He has been reading up on his rivals’ policy positions, these people said, but he has little patience for mock debates.

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On Sunday, Ms. Gillibrand and her advisers seemed to settle on something of a wait-and-see approach to her best-known opponents. She practiced an answer on health care that strongly implied she was a more politically daring advocate for single-payer medicine than Mr. Sanders: “It was something I actually ran on in 2006, and won in a two-to-one Republican district,” she said, answering a riff by Mr. Hall-as-Mr. Sanders.

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