Diplomats in Washington will be listening intently to tonight’s first debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump and plan to send a report back to the states highlighting Trump’s remarks and Biden’s self-presentation, multiple diplomats told CNN.
Diplomats acknowledge that there are still more than four months until the presidential election, and some are intrigued by the possibility that this could be the only debate — with a second one scheduled for September — but they told CNN they believe the debate could have a very real impact on the perceptions of American voters.
“We will send a report back to parliament in the morning. A team of expert political experts is working on it. It will include a summary of the reports as well as the key points from the debate,” a Western diplomat said.
Both candidates want to know what they can offer in terms of energy.
But when it comes to Trump specifically, multiple diplomats said they are eager to hear what he has to say on a range of issues, including NATO, the trade war, the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and competition with China.
“There’s some hope that President Trump will continue to focus on encouraging countries to contribute more to NATO without threatening the existence of the NATO defense alliance,” one European diplomat said, “but we’ll have to wait and see how it goes.”
As for Biden, most diplomats will not expect to gain any new policy insights given that he has been implementing policy for almost four years, but rather will focus on his performance.
