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The first televised debate between the two presidential candidates will take place on Tuesday night. Five responses to one of the most important moments of the American electoral campaign.
Two employees decorate the room in which President Donald Trump competes in the first television matchup against his challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday night.
In the first television debate of this year’s US presidential election, current Republican Donald Trump will face his Democratic challenger Joe Biden. The debate will take place on September 29 from 9:00 pm to 10:30 pm (local time) at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Due to the corona pandemic, unlike usual, only around eighty spectators are allowed in the venue. The duel will be broadcast live on all major US news channels; In Switzerland and Germany, SRF 1, among others, will also broadcast the debate live from 3 am and ZDF from 2:45 am
How does the first television debate work and what is it about?
Chris Wallace, the host of “Fox News Sunday,” leads the discussion. Fox News is generally very supportive of Trump. Wallace, however, is considered the most critical journalist of the station, who already put the president in some awkward situations during interviews. The moderator has chosen six topics that the two candidates will debate for fifteen minutes each:
- the political record of Trump and Biden;
- the Supreme Court and Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the potential successor to the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg;
- the corona pandemic;
- the economy;
- Racism and urban violence;
- the integrity of the election.
Wallace will ask one question per topic, Trump and Biden each have two minutes to answer them. They are then allowed to react to each other until Wallace moves on to the next topic after fifteen minutes.
For the two candidates, Tuesday night will be about expressing their position on important issues and positioning themselves better than their opponents. The main goal is to mobilize your own voters so that they can actually vote. New votes are rarely obtained in debates, and with political polarization declining even less than usual. All polls show that there are hardly any undecided voters left.
Of the three scheduled television debates with the presidential candidates, the first is the most important. Due to the crown pandemic, many Americans will use the mail vote this year and will vote earlier than ever. In addition, the first duel usually has the highest ratings: in 2016, according to a study by the market research institute Nielsen, 84 million people watched the first debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton live on television, while the third was of “only” 71.6 million viewers. .
What do you have to pay attention to?
Acting President Trump loves public attention. The Americans know his strengths and weaknesses, and his base is very forgiving. He will praise himself, blame others for mistakes, and try to upset Biden. Still, there are some issues worth paying close attention to in Trump’s responses.
His handling of the corona pandemic is also controversial among his voters. With more than 7.1 million people infected and more than 205,000 dead, everyone will soon know someone who has been affected by the virus. In addition, Trump doubts the integrity of the election and indicates not to accept a possible defeat. It will also be interesting to see how Trump reacts when asked about the revelation in the New York Times about his low tax payments in recent years.
In contrast, challenger Biden will focus less on the content of his responses than on his performance. Trump has repeatedly questioned the former vice president’s mental abilities. Biden will have to allay concerns about his age and mental capacity by acting confidently for ninety minutes, making no promises, finishing his sentences. He will have to convince the audience that they are still fit enough for the presidency, even if he is only three years older than Trump. Biden stuttered as a child and still makes regular promises today. Time and again he makes verbal mistakes, also in debates against his democratic opponents last year. However, he seemed safer in the only 1: 1 debate against Bernie Sanders than with many commentators on stage.
What attacks can you expect?
Expect an extremely violent exchange of blows between Trump and Biden, because both paint a dystopian picture of America, if the other wins.
Above all, Trump will argue that Democrats are to blame for the riots in American cities, all of which are democratically governed. He regularly claims that the situation will get worse if Biden becomes president. He accuses him of wanting to cut police resources. However, the lawsuit known as “Defund the police” is supported by the left wing of the Democrats, Biden does not support it. In general, Trump portrays his opponents as a left-wing pawn of the “socialist” party, whose far-reaching reform plans he will adopt. He will no doubt accuse Biden of this in the debate. One of the slogans in recent weeks is that Biden has achieved less politics in 47 years than Trump in 47 months. In doing so, he portrays the former vice president as an old man and as an establishment candidate.
It is unclear whether Trump will repeat the personal attacks on Biden. The president regularly suggests that Biden is senile and forgetful. He also claims, without any evidence, that Biden was “doped” for debates during the Democratic primary campaign by taking stimulant drugs. Over the weekend, he even tweeted that Biden had to take a drug test before or after the debate. He would do that too.
I will vigorously demand a Sleepy Joe Biden drug test before or after Tuesday night’s debate. Naturally, I will agree to take one as well. His performances in Debate have broken UNEVEN records, to put it mildly. Could only drugs have caused this discrepancy?
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2020
Biden, in turn, will focus heavily on the corona pandemic and argue against Trump that the number of new infections in the US has never been drastically reduced compared to other industrialized countries, hundreds of people continue to die every day and the president is deliberately downplaying the situation. to have. It will also accuse Trump that only the rich have benefited from his economic policies and that the world has become more insecure because the relationship between the United States and numerous allies suffered badly under Trump.
Trump often claims things that are excessive or simply wrong. That can be difficult for Biden. Therefore, some Democrats have asked that the president’s statements be verified live to see if they are true. Otherwise, a debate would be meaningless. However, Biden always agreed with the television duel and said that he himself would be the “fact-checker.”
Do television debates have any influence on the outcome of the elections?
The Pew Research Center has conducted post-election polls since 1988. In most cases, at least three-fifths of voters said the debates were “very or somewhat helpful” in helping them choose a candidate. However, this does not necessarily mean that many of the voters will change their minds because of the duels; some see them only as confirmation of their long-term decision.
After the elections four years ago, for example, only one in ten respondents said they had made a final decision on a candidate “during or shortly after” television debates. Almost two-thirds of voters said they had made a decision before, during or shortly after the party’s congresses in July.
In the past, it was often the case that candidates in debates lost an election, but could hardly win. A frequently cited example is the first televised debate in 1960 between then-Republican Vice President Richard Nixon and Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy. Young Kennedy looked good and fit in close-ups. Nixon, on the other hand, was wearing an ill-fitting suit, was still recovering from an illness, and wiped sweat from his forehead. It is said that many of the 66.4 million viewers clearly saw Kennedy as the winner. However, those who saw the debate on the radio attributed the victory to the more experienced Nixon. Kennedy not only won the polls after the debate, but he also won the presidential election on November 8, 1960 by a narrow margin.
Another famous moment in American television debate history is Ronald Reagan’s question to viewers in 1980 when he dueled with President Jimmy Carter: “Are you better today than you were four years ago?” Given the recession of the first half of 1980, many Americans answered no to their own question. After the televised duel, Reagan fell away in the polls. What is also remembered is how President George Bush looked at his watch for all to see during the debate with Bill Clinton in 1992, exactly at the moment when a woman in the audience asked him a question. That made him seem distant. Reelection was lost a month later.
Whats Next
Two more television debates with Trump and Biden are planned until the November 3 election. There is also a duel between Republican Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The debates will take place on the following days:
- Pence and Harris: October 7 in Salt Lake City, Utah, moderated by Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today.
- Trump and Biden: October 15 in Miami, Florida, hosted by Steve Scully, editor of C-Span television.
- Trump and Biden – October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee, moderated by Kristen Welker, White House correspondent on NBC.
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