As President Biden and President Trump prepare for the debate Thursday, Republicans are trying to manage expectations for their presumptive nominee after years of highlighting the incumbent’s physical and mental slips. 

Many are attacking CNN ahead of time, for the favor the network could potentially bestow on Mr. Biden. Others are claiming the sitting president is actually an artful debater who may be on performance enhancing drugs to appear more lucid. 

Speaker Johnson Wednesday became the highest-powered Republican in America attempting to manage expectations.

“Everybody wants to know which Joe Biden is gonna show up,” the speaker said. “It doesn’t matter if he drinks a whole gallon of energy drinks — he’s not going to be able to match the acumen and the readiness of Donald Trump … even if it’s a three-on-one situation. Obviously the CNN moderators have shown an open disdain for President Trump.”

One of Trump’s most devoted allies in the House, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, said Wednesday that the former president will be at a disadvantage appearing before a liberal CNN panel. 

“He is going to hit a home run, but he is walking into a trap,” she said on Steve Bannon’s podcast. 

“He is walking into a rigged debate. He is walking into an arena filled with people who want to murder him,” she said, despite the fact that there will be no audience present.  

She went on to attack the debate moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who have both criticized Trump in the past. 

For years, Republicans have highlighted what they insist are the president’s obvious physical limitations and mental slip-ups, especially since Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report in February stating that Mr. Biden was not worth prosecuting for retaining classified documents because he would convince a jury he was nothing more than an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

A former Wisconsin governor who himself has debated Trump, Scott Walker, also said the press will help cover for any of Mr. Biden’s stumbles. 

“I think all of the media, or overwhelming amounts of the media, will come out and say President Biden exceeded expectations. They’ll talk about the energy he had, the well-rehearsed answers,” Mr. Walker said. “No matter how well-rehearsed the answers are, if Joe Biden can’t answer for why prices have gone up 20 percent during his presidency, he’s gonna have real troubles.”

One of the more talked-about issues at hand is whether Mr. Biden would take performance enhancing drugs ahead of the debate, which Republicans accused him of doing, without any proof, after he delivered an energetic State of the Union address earlier this year. 

Congressman Ronny Jackson, who served three presidents as the White House physician, recently sent a letter to the Biden White House demanding the commander in chief take a drug test before the Thursday event. 

“It’s a terrible reality that I am having to send a letter demanding President Biden submit to a drug test prior to this week’s debate. However, Americans are being left in the dark by a dishonest administration regarding what types of performance enhancing drugs Biden is using for high stakes events like the State of the Union,” Mr. Jackson wrote. “As the former physician to three United States Presidents, and as a Member of Congress, I see it as my duty to do everything I can to hold this administration accountable, especially when it comes to a President’s fitness for office.”

The White House has so far refused to comment on the letter. 

Trump himself is trying to help manage expectations for his debate. During an interview with the tech and business podcast, “All-In,” Trump said that Mr. Biden was a “worthy debater” who could hold his own. The former president said Mr. Biden’s 2012 debate with the then-Republican vice presidential candidate, Speaker Ryan, is proof enough that the sitting president will perform well on Thursday. 

“He beat Paul Ryan pretty badly,” Trump said. “And I assume he’s going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater. I would say I don’t want to underestimate him.”