Trump or Biden, who will win this first debate?

The two candidates will face each other for the first debate of the presidential campaign in the United States. Their behavior will be particularly scrutinized Thursday evening by millions of Americans.

The presidential election in the United States will be decisive in just over four months. A first debate in this campaign between Joe Biden and Donald Trump will take place Thursday, June 27 in Atlanta, in the evening. It will be 3 a.m. in Paris, broadcast on CNN. Millions of Americans will follow discussions on the economy, immigration, abortion and even international issues for 90 minutes.

This is the first time Joe Biden and Donald Trump have been in the same room in almost four years. The last time was for their second debate in October 2020. This time, they are 2.50 meters apart.

This is the first time that a presidential debate pits two presidents against each other, the outgoing and the previous. Also the first time that the two contenders for the White House face each other at such advanced ages: 81 years for Biden, 78 years for Trump.

This is the first time, since the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, that the two candidates have found themselves in a television studio without an audience. The traditional committee for organizing the debates was bypassed. The Biden camp didn’t want any loud Trumpists in the room.

This is the first time in the country’s modern history that a presidential debate has been held this early in the year. The candidates haven’t even been officially nominated by their parties yet. That will be the case at the conventions this summer.

And it’s the first time any of the participants have been convicted of a crime. Trump will be sentenced in the Stormy Daniels case in just two weeks.

Two things will be scrutinized. First, Biden must prove that he can hold up physically and intellectually for an hour and a half and that he does not come across as an old man. For his part; Trump must restrain himself and not go off on a rant and rave with insults or lies.

Undecided or independent voters will want to verify that the outgoing president is suitable for a second term despite his absences and his errors in recent months. They will also want to ensure that Trump is not a dangerous potential 47th president, who would further limit human rights in this country, who would pardon the rioters of January 6 or who would shake hands with Vladimir Putin.

Joe Biden is going to have to send the message that he has a good economic record. Donald Trump is going to have to commit to simply respecting the outcome of the election in November, not like he did four years ago.

They both have a lot to lose. They come to Atlanta widely disliked by a large portion of Americans. Polls still show them neck and neck. There were 73 million Americans watching their first debate in 2020.