We're about a week from the first presidential debate on June 27. My colleague Bob Hoge wrote about the variations in how the candidates were preparing, with Joe Biden going into hiding at Camp David to do deep preparation with his advisors, while former President Donald Trump is continuing to campaign while doing some consultation with advisors. 

Dueling Debate Prep: Biden to Go Into Hiding, Trump Stays Out in the Field

The problem is there's only so much they're going to be able to do with Biden. But however badly he does, we need to understand that he's going to be at the best they can get him, and even if that's bad, the media is still going to act like he's the Second Coming. At this point, the expectations are so low for Joe and the mainstream media is ready to hype him, if he just shows up, they will praise him to the skies. 

But CBS had a report that got a lot of attention because of what they said at the end of it. 

President Biden will head to Camp David this week to spend time preparing for the first presidential debate on June 27.

"I'm told that we should expect some surprises. ...This is such a critical performance for President Biden, not only on the content, but on his physical… pic.twitter.com/kXxD1X7Why

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 19, 2024

First, you know what to think of the report when Weijia Jiang says that Biden answers questions from reporters all the time, although the media would like him to answer more. If she means he ducks them most of the time, then yeah, she's right. 

She mentioned how he was prepping with his closest advisors. But these are the same guys who have advised him forever. Translation: These are the same guys who have been producing the mess that is Joe Biden that we've already seen every day. Will they be able to get him in any kind of shape for the debate? 

It already says a lot — and none of it good — that it's going to take him a week to prepare with whatever they do to him and with him to get him ready. You don't need a week to prepare for a 90-minute debate unless there's a problem. Meanwhile, what is going unattended that he's supposed to actually be dealing with? That's, of course, assuming he's actually the one dealing with anything he should be. 

But to get back to what Jiang said at the end of her report, "I'm told we should expect some surprises as well because this is such a critical performance for President Biden not only on the content but on his physical performance as well." 

It's interesting that "they" are telling Jiang there will be "surprises." Why are they telling her anything? What does that even mean? She seemed to be saying they were pertaining to the "content and physical performance." That would seem to be an acknowledgment that they know there's a problem with Joe in the eyes of the public. 

People speculated on X if he was going to get the questions in advance or was going to be "juiced." I think the last word was that there wasn't going to be any drug test prior to the debate. What would be a surprise in content if he's not supposed to know the content in advance? "Physical performance?" Hair plugs, plastic surgery, what? 

Gee. What kind of surprises? https://t.co/VMfGHOCCtZ

— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) June 20, 2024

Is he gonna do gymnastics? https://t.co/IyXaZMkggV

— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 20, 2024

We know he's going to concentrate on Trump being a "threat to democracy," Jan. 6, and Trump's conviction/indictments. Every time Biden says something like that, Trump should turn it around on him and how he's failed the American people, and that's why we have no money in our pockets, our money is flooding out for foreign wars, our border isn't secure, and the world is in chaos. 

I think they think they have to show Biden being alive and full of energy. We saw how that translated in the State of the Union to an angry guy. That didn't go over well and didn't move the needle for him. I think they may try to hype him up to go very aggressive against Trump — to keep calling him a felon or an insurrectionist. But that's just going to make Biden look angry and unhinged. I don't think he can carry it off. If he does that, he could be finished. And all Trump has to do is keep turning it back to Biden's record of failures.