After months of insults, it’s time for a debate: Joe Biden and Donald Trump, neck and neck in the polls, will meet on Thursday evening for their first face-off in the American presidential election.
The former Republican president landed, fist raised, around 5 p.m. in Atlanta, greeted on the tarmac by his supporters.
His Democratic rival also treated himself to an impromptu walkabout on his arrival in the capital of Georgia, the scene of the duel between the two men.
In an extremely polarized America, where a Democrat supporter cannot imagine voting for a Republican, and vice versa, there is no guarantee that this duel organized by CNN, in front of millions of viewers, will fundamentally change the situation.
But the vote between the 81-year-old Democrat and his 78-year-old Republican rival is shaping up to be so close that even tiny gains in the debate with independent voters could prove decisive in November, and that’s why both teams campaigners deployed major resources.
“Repeat offender” versus “doped”
Donald Trump, the first president ever convicted in a criminal case involving secret payments to a former porn star, is greeted in Georgia by huge billboards funded by Democrats, welcoming a “convict.”
The posters feature the billionaire’s mugshot, which was taken in Atlanta following Donald Trump’s indictment in another case, an attempt to falsify the outcome of the 2020 election in the state.
The Republican camp released a killer new video, showing Joe Biden’s falls and moments of confusion, and calling on voters to ask themselves if he is really capable of “spending four more years” in the White House.
The former president insinuated that his rival was “doped” in front of the cameras. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, asked about this, said she would not “honor him with an answer.”
Donald Trump claimed on his Truth Social network, in capital letters and with lots of exclamation points, that his rival was “a threat to the very survival” of the country.
Strict rules
This sets the tone: the meeting, between two men who hate each other, will be extremely tense.
Anxious to avoid the cacophony of the first debate of 2020, during which Joe Biden and Donald Trump spent an hour and a half insulting and interrupting each other, the channel adopted rules supposed to regulate their exchanges.
And the heavy task of enforcing these very strict rules will fall to the two CNN journalists who will host the evening: Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
The show will take place without an audience, without a teleprompter. Above all, Joe Biden’s microphone will be cut off when Donald Trump speaks and vice versa.
Basically, the two candidates should argue about inflation, immigration, the right to abortion, the defense of democracy and foreign policy.
Second debate in September
But since American presidential campaigns entered the age of television more than 60 years ago with the debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, form has mattered as much as substance.
This is particularly true for Joe Biden, who has undeniably lost his physical and oral ease in recent years, even if Donald Trump, only three years his junior, is also attacked for his mental stability and his verbal violence.
According to a survey New York Times/Siena published Thursday, Donald Trump is given favorite for the debate. But those around the Democrat emphasize that he is chronically underestimated.
A second debate is planned on ABC in September, two months before an election followed with concern around the world.