Monday, May 27, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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If the presidential debates were a vicious, viral rap battle, who would be Drake and who would be Kendrick Lamar?
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to a live debate on CNN in June, which, as it turns out, will be only the nation’s second-most talked about war of words between rival cultural factions.
For weeks, rappers Drake and Lamar have squared off in what Billboard magazine called “a lyrical death match,” with diss tracks on every subject from racial identity to domestic abuse to underage relationships.
The only things missing from the music battle are a stage, two podiums and a moderator from NBC.
Now, the Biden campaign is blurring the lines with a diss of its own released this month on Instagram.
“It’s always been about love and hate,” the Biden campaign says on a new video post. “Now let me say I’m the biggest hater.”
The line is borrowed from a song called “Euphoria,” one of Lamar’s latest anti-Drake diss tracks.
The campaign post changes up some of the lyrics originally intended to bash Drake, applying them instead to the former president, even though it’s probably a safe bet that neither Biden nor Trump knows anything about Drake or Lamar, much less their viral feud.
Biden should probably stay in his comfort zone, although it’s hard to pinpoint where that is. Outside of Trump, Biden’s biggest nemesis might be the teleprompter.
Last month, at a trade union conference in Washington, D.C., Biden read the word “pause” instead of following the device’s instruction.
A verbal threat he is not.
Still, in recent weeks Biden has managed to get off a couple of mic drop moments of his own ahead of the scheduled debate.
Although the president has distanced himself from Trump’s salacious hush money, porn star payment trial, he did crack a joke about it at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 27.
“Donald has had a few tough days lately,” Biden told the crowd. “You might call it Stormy weather.”
And when the campaigns were hashing out a debate schedule — they also have agreed to another one in September — Biden made a snarky suggestion.
“Let’s pick the dates, Donald,” he said. “I heard you’re free on Wednesdays.”
That’s the day the hush money trial is in recess.
Biden also predicted victory — in the debates and in November.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate,” Biden said in a post on X. “Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal.”
“Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation,” Biden wrote. “I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years.”
Trump has made a few sharp cuts of his own. When he’s not being fined for breaking the rules of a court gag order and railing against the judge in his trial, Trump has gotten off a few album-worthy insults.
Trump declared that Biden was the “WORST debater I have ever faced — He can’t put two sentences together!”
“Just tell me when, I’ll be there,” Trump wrote May 15. “ ‘Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!’ ”
The hype, as usual, is shaping up to be better than the main event. Each campaign has a team of speechwriters and social media mavens who won’t be much help on stage at the live event. Maybe they should do us all a favor and just stick to the diss tracks.
Leonard Greene is a columnist for the New York Daily.
