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The president of the United States and his opponent meet for the first time. The hurdle Joe Biden must overcome to be considered a winner is not too high.
Television politicians in action: Donald Trump in the debate against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Photo: Keystone
There will be no handshake between the two candidates. Too risky: the virus. The audience has also shrunk: Instead of 900, only a few dozen people can enter the room in Cleveland, Ohio, where Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden will hold their first television matchup Tuesday night. All spectators have to tie masks over their mouth and nose, have been screened for the coronavirus, and sit two meters away. Candidate debates are no longer what they were in times of the pandemic.
What has not changed is the importance that the candidates attach to these debates. The stakes are higher for the President than for the Democrat. Trump has yet to catch Biden. He attacked him with accusations and denunciations, slandered him as an old man with dementia, called him a socialist and a sympathizer of stone throwers and looters. But all of these attacks have done little to change Biden’s solid lead in the polls. If there was a presidential election on Tuesday and the polls are correct, Biden would likely win.
Trump’s team hopes to give Biden a so-called Bloomberg moment in Cleveland.
So far, the election has resulted in a referendum on the incumbent. Trump and his campaign team have been waiting for the debates for weeks. He wants to turn the referendum on one person into a real election between two people. So, according to Trump, many voters would continue to vote for him.
Today’s duel marks the first time that Trump and Biden have met in public and in person. And the president, it is said from his side, intends to roll the Democrats like a bulldozer. Trump’s team hopes to give Biden the so-called Bloomberg moment in Cleveland, named after former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, who was so badly attacked during a debate in February that he was completely stunned and his candidacy was up in fifteen minutes. done.
Not much of a debater: Joe Biden in an election campaign appearance in Wilmington, Delaware.
Photo: Keystone
That something similar could happen to Biden at least is not excluded. The former senator and vice president has been in politics for four decades and has participated in countless debates. But he has a tendency to become entangled, to lose the thread or to tell made up anecdotes. That can be avenged in a live televised debate, especially if the opponent is Trump, who will attack regardless of decency or truth.
Biden leaves the stage to Trump
Therefore, Biden’s team was quite happy that the discussions had only just begun. When Trump asked a few weeks ago for one of the events to be brought forward, Biden’s people refused. They wanted Trump to remain the center of attention. Democrats are equally pleased that Trump is mocking Biden’s ability as a debater. On Sunday, the president wrote on Twitter that he would demand a doping test from Biden, because he would have no chance without the drugs.
With that speech, Trump only lowers his opponent’s expectations. So the hurdle Joe Biden must overcome on Tuesday to be deemed a winner isn’t too high.
