Heading into Wednesday’s debate, Biden advisers and allies hope he can use the breathing room to portray himself as the battle-tested Democrat whom President Donald Trump is most afraid to face — and as the only candidate who has built a diverse, nationwide coalition of supporters.

“He’s been the center of attention, the center of a firing squad,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a top Biden campaign surrogate elected in 2010 to his old Senate seat. “I think the dynamic of the campaign has changed. There are more vigorous questions being posed about the policy positions of other candidates or about [their] background and record.

“No schadenfreude will be had,” Coons added, now that candidates other than Biden are drawing heat.

A Biden adviser pointed out that the former vice president has stemmed his slide in national polls. At the same time a pro-Biden super PAC is set to drop ads in Iowa and other early states. Biden received another boost during Tuesday’s impeachment hearings when a Republican-called witness, Ambassador Kurt Volker, dismissed Trump’s claims of corruption against Biden as “conspiracy theory.”

“We’ve had all the dirt and all the oppo thrown at us and we’re still standing,” said the adviser, explaining the campaign’s mindset on the eve of the debate.

Unlike in the previous four debates, Biden is no longer the clear frontrunner, though he leads in most national surveys as well as polls in the early states of Nevada and South Carolina.

In his stead, Buttigieg, after surging to first place in Iowa, has become the target.

“For Mayor Buttigieg, he’s going to be on the hot seat for the first time because he’s the ‘frontrunner’ In Iowa,” said Karen Finney, a veteran Democratic operative who worked for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns.

“This is the time where voters see how candidates can handle criticisms and attacks,” she said. “The race is very volatile and very fluid.”