Next Thursday, June 27, the first presidential debate will take place in the United States, in an unprecedented setting in which a sitting president and a former president, both with undeniable strengths and weaknesses, will show their faces and their verbs in a meeting that will most likely show who will be the winner in the elections on November 5.
By Ociel Ali López
For RT
The event will happen in atlanta, Georgiaone of the “hinge” states that will define the result, which stokes nerves about the importance of this first round of a more than expected rematch.
Difficulties on the back
In the debate, both will try to forget their main handicaps.
And when we talk about handicap we mean that, on the one hand, the former president donald trump (78 years old) comes with deep war wounds. At the beginning of this month a court of New York declared him guilty of 34 crimes such as tax fraud, document falsification and violation of electoral laws. But his moment of greatest foolishness, which has been recorded in the world’s political imagination, occurred around the fatal episodes of January 2021, when a group of his followers invaded and vandalized the Congress United States.
The current president and candidate Joe Biden (81 years old) He does not have it so easy either, and he also brings his own war wounds. We are talking about a leader who is often seen to be lost and senile, who seems incapable of taking the reins of the country.
During his mandate, two wars have been started and both point directly to him with high degrees of responsibility in them. First, the conflict of Ukraine that has destabilized the economy of USA as well as the supply of fuel and food and has put the world on the brink of a world war. And second, the war between Israel and Palestine who is gaining support for his management from the leftist, university and Arab and Muslim migrant sectors, all very important for the campaign of Biden.
These sectors organized during the Democratic primaries to call for voting independently as a protest against the support of Biden to Israel and they got a number of votes that could put their victory in several key states at risk.
Furthermore, one of the weakest points of Biden it’s your son, Hunterwho has been involved in various pornographic, pedophile, rape and drug use scandals and who three weeks ago was found guilty of three serious charges.
However, these weak points of the protagonists do not hide their strengths.
Strengths of the candidates
The strength of trump It has been his own character, his political incorrectness that has allowed him to gain followers even in the worst moments, as well as the return of a nationalist vision that excites American conservatism.
Despite a rather unstable administration (2017-2021), in which the pandemic occurred that caused more than a million deaths and also bloody rebellions that destabilized the country through protests, looting and looting, in 2020 Trump managed to increase its vote by more than ten million votes compared to 2016.
Besides, trump comes from sweeping the Republican primaries without any type of weighty competitor. Those who dared to compete with him were overwhelmed, which indicated almost unanimous support in conservatism regarding his controversial figure.
The solid niche of trump remains intact for these elections: the poor white American who feels represented by the concerns of trump “from making great America again” and will support him to the very end.
The cohesion of his followers can allow him to seek to capture the vote that should support him. Biden: Latinos, Afro-descendants and migrants. To this end, he has already made some moves. With regard to migrants, trump He promised to grant the ‘green card’ (identity card) to those foreigners who graduate from an American university, which can be considered an important turn in his always criminalizing speech with respect to this decisive sector of voters.
In the same way, he used his trial and sentence to compare himself with the Afro-descendant community because he declares himself a victim of discrimination and assured that the support of this community, vital for Bidenhas grown since the court ruling.
Biden attacks
For its part, Biden attacked quite early trumpthrough a communication campaign in which he denounces him as a convicted criminal.
In recent weeks he has raised the volume of his verb to call the former president criminal and crazy and he has also known how to direct strong messages to the community of migrants whose vote can be decisive.
Besides, Biden has a veiled weapon that was profoundly effective in the midterm elections: the ban on abortion by the Supreme Courtcontrolled by the Republicans, which can be considered an affront to the historical struggle of American feminism.
The greatest strength of Biden is the same trump. We must remember that in 2020, when Trump sought re-election, the Democrats designed a campaign in which more than the attributes of Bidenthey sold the unrest against trumpforming a great alliance that managed to gain an advantage of seven million votes.
The objective of this campaign seems to be similar and therefore, it is quite predictable that the president-candidate will concentrate, during the debate, on attacking trump more than highlighting the achievements of his administration.
What is expected then, on Thursday night in atlantamore than electoral offers or defense of their respective administrations, it is a ruthless attack between two experienced politicians that they are going to do everything possible to put their opponent in a bad light and to show each other who is the “badest”.
Most likely That debate shows who is the favorite to win on November 5 And that is where its importance lies, despite the four months still remaining until the elections.
