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Trump Campaign Sent 'I Finished Debating Joe Biden' Email Hours Before Debate

The team bragged about the US president's performance before it even happened.

Donald Trump’s campaign sent out a message saying the US president had “finished debating Joe Biden” and that the event would “go down in history” ― hours before the first presidential debate actually started.

The Trump campaign mailed out its victory note and fundraising plea at roughly 6:30 p.m. ET, ahead of the debate’s 9 p.m. start, according to Politico.

“This debate will go down in HISTORY,” the email declared. “I showed the American people that I will ALWAYS fight to put America First no matter what and that I will NEVER stop working to Make America Great Again.”

His debate opponent had a similar snafu last year. Biden’s campaign fired off its post-debate fundraising email about six hours before the fifth Democratic primary debate began. “I’m leaving the fifth Democratic debate now. I hope I made you proud out there, and I hope I made it clear to the world why our campaign is so important,” the email began.

It’s not surprising, though, that the Trump campaign would prepare an email with such a distinctly bullish tone (and put any negative coverage down to the “Fake News media” before it even happens). Trump and his allies have prepared excuses that cover all the bases going in to Tuesday’s debate.

His surrogates alternated between their go-to attacks on Biden’s competence and mental acuity while also preemptively ― and baselessly ― dismissing any positive showing from the Democrat as the result of cheating. Trump has for weeks suggested that if his opponent outperforms him, it will be because he’s taking performance-enhancing drugs. On Tuesday, right-wing operatives and, subsequently, the Trump campaign, threw hidden earpieces into the mix, suggesting, again without evidence, that Biden would have help during the debate. Other conservatives claimed Biden would receive the debate questions beforehand ― a surprising accusation considering the debate will be hosted by the conservative Fox News cable channel.

The campaign’s trigger-happy email got the treatment on Twitter.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.