After months of invective, the time for confrontation has come: Joe Biden and Donald Trump, neck and neck in the polls, meet Thursday evening for the first debate of the American presidential election.
Millions of Americans will have their eyes glued to their screens for a high-tension face-to-face between the Democratic president and his Republican predecessor.
The two men will debate from 9 p.m. in Georgia, one of the most contested states in the election. They should arrive in Atlanta during the afternoon.
Their duel, expected to last 90 minutes, will be moderated by two CNN journalists, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
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 strict rules supposed to regulate their exchanges.
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.
To coincide with the debate, Joe Biden’s campaign team on Thursday aired a series of new television spots in key states calling his opponent a habitual criminal “who only thinks about himself.” Donald Trump’s team did the same, accusing the Democrat of mismanaging the economy and encouraging illegal immigration, his favorite theme.
Exceptional ballot
Although their impact on the vote often remains limited, these meetings have been highlights of the electoral campaign, since the first televised face-to-face meeting organized more than 60 years ago in Chicago between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
According to a Quinnipiac University survey, the vast majority of Americans plan to watch the debate on Thursday evening. Some 16% of them do not rule out the possibility that the show will change the way they vote.
But Thursday’s debate will be exceptional in every way, as the outcome of the November ballot is uncertain.
Never before have Americans had to decide between candidates as old as the 81-year-old Democratic president who, it must be said, is showing obvious signs of fatigue, and his Republican opponent, only three years his junior.
Likewise, Americans have never had to decide whether or not to entrust the keys to the White House to a former president convicted of criminal charges. Donald Trump will be sentenced in New York on July 11. He faces prison.
The Democrats are counting on the contrast between a Joe Biden who is not very charismatic but reasonable and competent, and a multi-indicted predecessor, temperamental and prone to false digressions.
“Doped”
The Republican, who never conceded defeat in 2020 and did not commit to respecting the verdict of the polls in November, will undoubtedly reserve barbs for his opponent on his physical and mental form.
The former president even insinuated that his rival would be “doped” before appearing in front of the cameras.
But the septuagenarian’s supporters know that this strategy of denigration could backfire, since even an average performance by the current president on Thursday could then be considered a victory.
“In the media, many are already ready to give a trophy to Joe Biden if he manages to stand for 90 minutes,” said Jason Miller, one of the hosts of the Republican’s campaign, on Tuesday.
He warns conservatives that Donald Trump will face on Thursday a candidate, who has been holed up since Friday evening with his advisers at Camp David, who will be “ready”.
Usually, candidates for the White House wait until the fall to debate, but the Democrat challenged his rival to face him before the summer in order to quickly establish a contrast which, Joe Biden is convinced, will work in his favor.
A second debate is planned on ABC on September 10, two months before this explosive election, on November 5, which is being scrutinized with concern abroad.