Atlanta (USA), June 26 (EFE).- The president of the United States, Joe Biden, and former president Donald Trump will face each other this Thursday in the first debate of the elections on November 5, an appointment in a moment transcendental because the Democrat has managed to surpass his Republican rival for the first time in the polls, which are tighter than ever.
The campaigns of both candidates are aware that tens of millions of Americans will tune in to CNN to watch the face-to-face meeting and they prepare the meeting knowing that any mistake that goes viral can tip the balance.
Trump has led the polls all year, but his image has suffered a slight erosion since he was found guilty in New York of falsifying business records to buy the silence of a porn actress in the 2016 elections.
Biden, on the other hand, has the wind of the latest polls in his favor with an upward trajectory during the last week that has placed him in first place, although the difference is so narrow that it does not allow predictions to be made.
The national average of polls from the FiveThirtyEight portal gives the current president 40.8% of voting intentions compared to 40.7% for his Republican rival. That makes tomorrow’s debate a decisive meeting.
“Even if there are a few thousand people in key states who change their minds after the debate, that would already alter the trajectory of these very close elections,” Aaron Kall, director of the Debate Program at the University of Michigan, told EFE.
The electoral campaign has not yet formally started, so the debate is unusually early, but the candidates are in a hurry to win the early vote that in some states begins in September.
Personal attacks expected
For 90 minutes, the two oldest candidates in history will be face to face – Biden is 81 years old and Trump is 78 – and also the most unpopular, which will lead many citizens to vote for whoever they consider the lesser evil.
All eyes will be on the lucidity and vigor of Biden, increasingly questioned for his mistakes, and on the manners of Trump, known for his hoaxes and insults. Furthermore, both of them lack practice, since they have not debated since 2020.
The Republican has been warming up his engines for days and exploiting Biden’s weaknesses, whom he challenged to undergo a drug test to demonstrate that he will not come to the debate doped.
Trump will attack the immigration management of the Democratic Administration in the face of what he considers an “invasion”, and will point his finger at the inflation that makes it difficult for families to purchase.
For his part, Biden, who has been locked up in the Camp David presidential residence for almost a week to prepare, intends to portray his predecessor as a danger to democracy, since to this day he still does not recognize his defeat in the 2020 elections. .
It will also mark him as a criminal due to his recent conviction in New York and the several pending accounts he has with Justice, including the accusation for the assault on the Capitol in 2021, when a mob of Trumpists tried to stop the transition of powers.
The general feeling among analysts is that it will be a face to face with more personal attacks than proposals.
“Both are vulnerable to being knocked out by the rival’s insults. Both can lose their temper, more than any other candidate in the past, and they really hate each other,” presidential debate expert Steven Fein told EFE.
Without an audience and with microphones turned off
Despite their mutual disdain, the two have been able to agree on the rules and format of the debate, which will be a sort of rematch of their two tense face-to-face encounters in 2020.
This time, however, the CNN debate may be more orderly and have fewer interruptions than those four years ago, since only the microphone of the candidate who has the turn to speak will be on.
The event will have no audience and will be moderated by journalists Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. Biden and Trump will not be able to speak with their advisers during the two commercial breaks and are prohibited from taking prepared notes.
By lottery it was decided that Biden’s podium would be placed on the right side of the screen and Trump’s on the left. The Republican will be in charge of closing the debate with the final statements.
(c) EFE Agency
