After meeting last month in perhaps the most chaotic debate in modern history, the president Donald trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, will take the stage Thursday to give him another chance.
The bar for improving their last primetime meeting is low: Their first debate was marked by frequent interruptions, primarily from Trump, leaving the two men talking to each other and Biden finally telling the president to “shut up.” The second debate did not take place after the Republican president was diagnosed with the coronavirus and refused to participate in a virtual format. Instead, Biden and Trump engaged in town hall duels on competing television networks.
Thursday’s debate, which begins at 6:30 a.m. IST (9 p.m. ET), from Nashville, Tennessee, marks the candidates’ second and final face-to-face meeting, with Election Day less than two weeks away.
This is what you should look at:
Muted microphones
After viewers of the latest presidential debate lamented the moderator’s inability to cut off the candidates’ microphones, the non-partisan Presidential Debate Commission responded with an announcement this week that each candidate’s microphone will be turned off while his opponent gives a two-minute answer to a question. initial question on each discussion topic.
After those initial responses, the microphones will remain on during open discussion, so there is likely still a lot of crosstalk during rebuttals.
Coronavirus
Since the last debate, Trump has been diagnosed and hospitalized for COVID-19. The Republican has expressed the virus and his own infection in positive terms, resumed holding large campaign rallies and attacked the government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Biden, who has described the Trump administration’s response as an abject failure, has taken a much more cautious approach. He regularly wears a mask, holds small campaign events in person, and posts his COVID-19 test results, which have been negative. Find them to focus on both your personal choices and your different policy plans.
Family and personal attacks
The president for months has been making corruption allegations against Biden and lately he has intensified his focus on unverified claims about Biden’s son Hunter. During the latest debate, the president did not shy away from mentioning Biden’s family, targeting the former vice president’s son for his history of substance abuse and attacking Biden’s intelligence.
Biden’s aides anticipate that Trump will again launch searing personal attacks during the debate. The Democrat is expected to try to refocus his core argument that Trump is unfit for the job.
Career
After a summer marked by nationwide protests over racial injustice, Trump has repeatedly come forward as a greater advocate for African Americans than Biden, while also emphasizing the issue of law and order. But during the latest debate, Trump gave a reluctant response when asked whether he would condemn white supremacists, and he refused to outright condemn a far-right fascist group, instead telling them to “stand back and stand by” .
Biden, who frequently acknowledges systemic racism, has accused the president of encouraging a rise in white supremacy and armed militias and cites Trump’s comments that there were “very good people” on both sides of a white supremacy rally from 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, as the impetus for his presidential career.
Expect the Democrat to continue to address those issues as Trump holds Biden responsible for helping to send millions of African Americans to prison with a 1994 criminal law when Biden was a senator.
Leadership and national security
Look for Trump to continue promoting his “America First ” policies, which have taken the United States out of multilateral agreements that, according to him, were not of interest to the country. Also likely to highlight the construction of more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) of the promised wall along the US-Mexico border and recently negotiated agreements that normalize relations between Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
Biden has accused the president of alienating former allies of the United States. Expect him to focus on Trump’s efforts to maintain a relationship with Vladimir Putin’s Russia despite warnings from US intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election and accusations that Russia offered secret bounties. for American deaths in Afghanistan.
Immigration
Immigration is not among the prominent issues expected during the debate, but see if Biden seeks to raise the issue after a report this week that court-appointed attorneys have been unable to find the parents of 545 separated children in the US – Border with Mexico at the beginning of the Trump administration. Biden has repeatedly criticized Trump’s immigration policies, something that Trump highlighted prominently in his 2016 campaign.
Moderator and format
The debate will be moderated by NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker. Welker will be the first black woman to moderate a presidential debate since Carole Simpson in 1992.
The discussion will be divided into six 15-minute segments, each on a topic selected by Welker: “Fighting COVID-19,” “American Families,” “Race in America,” “Climate Change,” “National Security.” . ‘and “Leadership”.
Trump and Biden will each have their mikes cut off while their rival gives an initial two-minute response to each of the six discussion topics, the commission announced. The mute button will not appear in the open discussion portion of the discussion.
How to watch
The 90-minute debate will begin at 9 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on major cable news networks and channels, including ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, PBS, NBC, MSNBC, Noticias Telemundo and C- LAPSO. Most networks will offer a way to view the debate live online, through their apps and accounts on YouTube and other social media channels.
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