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There should be no handshake when US President Donald Trump and his challenger Joe Biden meet Tuesday for the first of three television duels ahead of the November 3 US election.
In the corona pandemic, this is a precautionary measure taken by the organizers, but you probably don’t need it at all. Even under normal circumstances, these two gentlemen would barely greet each other warmly.
Never before has the tension been greater before an American television duel. The showdown between Trump and Biden in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday night (local time) is the culmination of an election campaign that has been carried out with unprecedented harshness and merciless fury. One can expect a political spectacle in the arena the likes of which the United States has never experienced, and all live in prime time. It is safe to speak of the mother of all television duels.
Patriotisches Podium: Cleveland Debate
Photo: BRIAN SNYDER / REUTERS
Certainly it can be argued for a long time what effects these events will have on the election results. Many voters have long made a decision on the candidates, and both have barely moved at the polls, despite the turbulent weeks. Yet Trump at least is likely to see the standoff as one of the last chances to ensure his political survival in the White House without resorting to unfair means.
In most polls, Trump, 74, has been behind Biden for months, especially in the major swing states. He no longer has many opportunities to turn the career in his favor, especially after a new scandal haunts him, that of his years of tax tricks. If Trump fails in Cleveland, this would hardly improve his chances.
On the contrary, Biden will have to be careful not to make mistakes. The 77-year-old is at least under the same observation: For the Democratic challenger, it is all about clearing all doubts about his mental and physical fitness in front of an audience of millions.
How is the debate going?
Biden has to show that he is up to the presidency and must show no soft spot towards the political bulldozer Trump. If he fails dramatically on the big stage, that doesn’t bode well for the final sprint.
Critic, even though he works for Fox News: Talk host Chris Wallace
Photo: Joe Raedle / AP
The debate will be broadcast simultaneously on all US networks, 90 minutes without commercial breaks. In Germany she is with us at night from 2.45 a.m. M. in live broadcast You can watch it on SPIEGEL.de, but also on linear TV in Phoenix and on ZDF. Thanks to the dramatic situation, US ratings could even set the previous record: 84 million Americans watched the first television debate of Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. This time, as many as 100 million viewers are expected.
Moderator Chris Wallace hails from conservative broadcaster Fox News, but is known as a critical interrogator, last taking on Trump in July. However, you don’t want to be a live fact-checker, but rather “as invisible as possible.” This is by design: “There is a big difference between being a moderator of a debate and a reporter who interviews someone,” Frank Fahrenkopf, vice chairman of the bipartisan commission that organizes the debates, said on CNN. He also rejects correction of lies, whether from Trump or Biden.
Due to the pandemic, the debate will only take place in front of a maximum of 100 spectators who will have to keep their distance in the auditorium. Two other venues had previously canceled. There will also be no masses of reporters and the “Spin Room,” in which the best consultants announce candidates. Some technicians did not want to be flown and were taken by bus, some from more than 2,000 kilometers away.
Evil attacks: Trump debated Hillary Clinton in 2016
Photo: PISCINA / REUTERS
The second meeting, a public debate in Miami in mid-October, will be moderated by Steve Scully, C-SPAN’s political director, and the third on October 22 in Nashville by NBC reporter Kristen Welker. Susan Page of USA Today will take over the vice president debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris in Salt Lake City next Wednesday. None of them were on Trump’s wish list of mostly friendly names.
How did Trump and Biden prepare?
The candidates have prepared very differently for the duel. Trump hired his attorney Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, to “prepare” it, although it is unclear who gave instructions. Above all, Trump has been trying for weeks to manipulate the debates from the beginning with all kinds of political theater. For example, he claimed that Biden wanted to avoid fear, a pure fabrication. He also called for a fourth debate earlier.
At the same time, he portrayed Biden as senile, until his advisers allegedly warned him that he was setting the threshold for Biden’s success dangerously low. Since then, Trump has gone the opposite way: Biden may be among the “performance-enhancing drugs” that should make him more vigilant, he said, and requested a drug test.
Such maneuvers are not new: Trump also complained in 2016 about the appointment schedule, praising that Clinton and the Democrats wanted to “fake” the duels.
Biden, for his part, prepared himself in the classic way for the expected attacks, in the closest circle of trust. According to US reports, the chief debating coach was his former chief of staff Ron Klain, flanked by chief strategist Mike Donilon and former government attorney Bob Bauer, who played the role of Trump. These internal sparring matches were accompanied by malicious commercials against Trump, who ran Project Lincoln, a group of Republicans close to Biden.
What topics are important?
Corona, the economy, the Supreme Court, Trump’s tax returns, police violence, the health service, the dispute over the vote by mail – there is hardly a topic that is not debated in the duel. For both opponents there are points with which they want to distinguish themselves, and others that could be uncomfortable.
Potential hot topic: Amy Coney Barrett, Supreme Court nominee
Photo: CARLOS BARRIA / REUTERS
Trump will try to make his successes in economic policy In front To highlight the beginning of the pandemic, but to distract from the accident since then. Biden is likely to portray Trump as a threat to the future of American democracy and to portray himself as a reconciler.
Experience shows that in such duels, many viewers do not necessarily pay attention to the substance of what is said, but rather to how Things are said. Who seems competent, assertive, personable?
What else can change the debate?
In the past, in conventional election campaigns, televised debates could be pivotal moments that, although rarely, changed a candidate’s fate for better or for worse. For example, when Richard Nixon became the center of attention in the first televised duel against John F. Kennedy in 1960, which allegedly stole his election victory. Or when Gerald Ford claimed in 1976 that the Eastern Bloc was not under “Soviet rule.” Or when Ronald Reagan mocked in 1984 that he would not take advantage of the “youth and inexperience” of his rival Walter Mondale.
But this is not a conventional election campaign. So the question remains, what will all this change? If he follows Trump’s behavior in the 2016 debates, he will unleash a barrage of lies and insults, which Biden is likely to counter with sharp criticism of Trump. That should be entertaining for the audience. But is it also informative?
Especially since a recent poll showed that only eleven percent of registered American voters consider themselves “undecided.” However, the same poll found that 80 percent were very interested in the election campaign.
Plus, nearly a million Americans have already cast their vote by mail. More than 70 million ballots are on their way to mail-in voters. “Too much theater, too little substance,” writes columnist Charles Blow in the “New York Times” about the debates, advising that they be removed: Those who want to know more about candidate positions are better off on their websites.
