today. i ll see you back here next saturday at adm. eastern smerconish is up next setting the bar i m michael smerconish in philadelphia, thursday here on cnn is the first of two scheduled debates between president biden and trump. jake tapper and dana bash will moderate the debate will last 90 minutes with no live audience. there will be no opening statements, answers will be two minutes rebuttals will be one-minute closing statements will be two minutes based on a coin toss, trump will go last. there will be two commercial breaks and perhaps the biggest wrinkle microphones will be muted when it s not someone s turn the stakes are high. the racist tight weather measured in national surveys or by battleground states. so the debate is a very big deal and opinions as to who won will no longer be influenced by expectations advantage joe biden. and here s why call it, be careful what you wish for in the last two weeks, president biden traveled overseas to participate in a
apology last night issued was significant for many reasons. not the least of which was the way it closed. here s what trump said. i ve said some foolish things but there s a big difference between the words and actions of other people. bill clinton has actually abused women and hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed, and intimidated his victims. we will discuss this more in the coming days. see you at the debate on sunday. that sounds like he intends to defend his own misconduct by discussing bill. is that a winning debate strategy or will it backfire? two stellar debate experts. john don van for intelligence u.s. debates and todd graham at southern illinois university. his teams have won five national championships and advanced to the final four nine consecutive years and he s been recognizing three times as the national debate coach of the year.
john don van, a preliminary question. this has to be confronted at the start of this debate tomorrow night. wouldn t you agree? they don t have opening statements but if you were moderating like you do in intelligence square, wouldn t you deal with it initially? i think it s absolutely top of mind. i think, in fact, probably it s possible that more people will watch this debate even than the first one which would be unprecedented and no way that either anderson cooper or martha radditz is not able to put it to donald trump but the question to hillary clinton. todd, donald trump suggested at the end of the videotape apology he s going there. is that a wise strategy? that s a terrible debate strategy. this is something that could only paint hillary clinton in a more positive and empathetic light. hillary clinton doesn t get a lot of empathy from people but if donald trump thinks that his latest troubles should be painted toward hillary clinton in some way, i think that s a horrib
very awkward. you have moments like al gore when he tried to man up against w. and didn t work out and mccain when he wandered around and spun around like he was looking for a missing toddler. you honestly have to practice this. you can t expect you ll be good at it. you say it yourself, i m john don van. congrats on your book. in a different key, the story of autism. i appreciate both of you being here. keep your tweets coming to you @smerconish. a timely question about donald trump s treatment of women. so good that some thought it was a little too timely and wondered if hillary set the whole thing up? my exclusive interview with brennan leech and her father, a democratic state senator from pennsylvania is next. solutely lw york apartment, but the rent is outrageous. good thing geico offers affordable renters insurance. with great coverage it protects my personal belongings should they get damaged,