[ad_1]
The volatile US presidential election enters a fierce new phase this week when Donald Trump and Joe Biden hold their first debate, a television spectacle that finally allows Americans to witness the two antagonists face to face.
Tuesday’s showdown, which came just after Trump defied Democrats and nominated a Conservative to replace liberal Supreme Court icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, could turn an already tough competition upside down.
Biden, 77, leads the polls against the Republican incumbent, both across the country and in most of the decisive states to provide the decisive electoral college count on Nov. 3.
But Trump, 74, is campaigning intensely, crossing those battlefields on Air Force One while Biden executes a much lower-profile strategy. And with his record of showmanship and brutal debating tactics, Trump hopes the meeting in Cleveland will put him back on top.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, this has been a primarily long-distance election season. That puts even more weight on the first of three 90-minute debates, where tens of millions of Americans will weigh two men who accuse the other of posing an existential threat to America.
Trump sees his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, possibly tilting the court to the right for years, as a fundamental boost to his contentious re-election campaign.
But the live television debate will be a wild card.
Trump must overcome the bad news of 200,000 deaths from coronavirus, the long-lasting economic consequences and fatigue across swaths of the country in the face of the constant scandal and turmoil plaguing his administration.
And Trump has great confidence in his prowess on stage.
Yet unlike the sycophantic treatment you enjoy during your weekly calls to Fox News or the worshipful atmosphere at rallies, you will find yourself facing a man who paints you “toxic” in front of the entire country.
“When Joe Biden enters the stage of the debate, it will be the first time in four years that an American has the opportunity to confront Donald Trump for what he has done,” said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist turned outspoken opponent. from Trump, on MSNBC.
Biden, as a leader, mainly needs to stay stable.
But he will face a man many would call the best provocateur in the business.
“There is virtually no doubt that Trump will try to provoke him,” said David Barker, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University.
“Biden has a history of thin skin, and most of his most memorable mistakes come when he answers a question or comment that has gotten under his skin.”
Trump has spent months denigrating Biden’s state of mind.
He says that the former vice president is “shot.” Question whether Biden took performance-enhancing drugs during the Democratic primary.
However, Biden has been through the crucible of Democratic primary debates earlier this year. He has also been making a series of generally well-received speeches on the election campaign.
Trump comes with his own weaknesses.
Although he often answers questions from groups of reporters, he rarely makes the one-on-one televised session riskier with a tough interviewer. Nor has she had to debate an opponent face-to-face since Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“Typically, that first debate is the hardest for the headline,” said Aaron Kall, debate director at the University of Michigan and co-author of “Debating The Donald.”
“When you are president, you are in a kind of bubble and historically that first debate tends to go better for the opponent.”
In the days leading up to the Cleveland crash, the Trump campaign has been busily trying to reestablish expectations, suddenly portraying Biden as a master artist.
“We have to be prepared for the tuned Joe Biden,” said Trump’s campaign communication chief Tim Murtaugh.
The debate moderator, Fox News host Chris Wallace, has laid out themes that span several of the country’s most explosive political and social issues:
– Trump and Biden records.
– The Supreme Court, which Trump intends to move to the right for a generation on the eve of elections by nominating conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
– The economic and health disasters of Covid-19.
– Race relations and urban violence.
– The integrity of the elections, which intelligence agencies say is being undermined by Russia in particular, and which Trump claims will be “rigged” by Democrats.
However, whether Wallace can keep both men moving is an open question.
bur-sms / ch
