[Erik Latranyi]

Holding the debate this early was requested by the Biden team.

I do not think they deliberately sabotaged Biden. They thought they could pull it off.

[libh8er]

Holding the debate this early was requested by the Biden team.

Looking at last night's performance we can see why. They predicted a disastrous performance and the negative fallout from it. But whatever negative press Biden got from the debates would have enough time to dissipate and by October no one would remember the debates.

[Dr. Sivana]

Holding the debate this early was requested by the Biden team.

I do not think they deliberately sabotaged Biden. They thought they could pull it off.

I am partial to the theory that the Biden people thought that they could place so many unreasonable rules in (CNN, no audience, controlled mics, hostile moderators) that Trump would decline and then they could call him chicken.

Failing that, a sub-par performance by Biden early on would allow time to recover.

They may have been hoping that he had a good night, and it didn't quite work out that way.