In the last days, donald trump has softened attacks against his political opponent, Joe Biden. There have been so many times that the former president has tried to ridicule the octogenarian Democrat that the fact that he does not do so is news. The sudden change in attitude has a reason, and it is the first presidential debate that takes place tonight (three in the morning in mainland Spain). «I suppose he will be a worthy debater»Trump said on a podcast during an interview last week, “I don’t want to underestimate him.” The change in rhetoric comes after concern spread within the Republican Party because its candidate, still unofficial, has made dropping standards of decorum to such low levels that could even favor his opponent, an old guard politician with careful forms who still continues to bet on a traditional style when it comes to political struggle.
Trump tries to present himself as a worthy future president who knows how to rise to the occasion when necessary, but the big question is whether, when the key moment comes, he will succeed. In the 2020 debate, both candidates traded less personal and derogatory insults. Trump accused Biden of being a “socialist,” and the Democrat accused him of being “a liar.” That first face-to-face meeting was disastrous, both speakers constantly interrupted each other and the former president even went so far as to accuse the moderator of CNN, which is the network that organized the debate, of not being impartial. “It seems like I’m debating with you and not him, although I’m not surprised,” he told host Chris Wallace when he asked him to let his opponent speak. This time the organization wanted to control the speaking turns and the microphones will only work when the speaker is speaking. The rest of the time they will be silenced to avoid interruptions.
In the last four years, the verbal attacks, especially by Trump, have escalated. The Republican has called his opponent a “brain-dead zombie,” a “low-IQ individual,” and a “corrupt president,” among many other insults. Biden, for his part, had until recently stayed away from direct conflict. However, lately he has changed his strategy and on more occasions he has openly attacked his opponent, referring to him as “a loser” who “lied about the pandemic,” or when he said that he was “a grown man competing against a six-year-old boy.
Tonight, millions of Americans will follow a debate that will show them the real face of their political options on November 5.
A meeting that could be decisive when the polls are closer than ever and undecided voters have it in their power to decide the winner. “Trumpists” don’t need reminding why to follow their leader, but many more moderate suburban Republicans don’t want four more years of constant political division and “roller coasters.” Therefore, Trump could have problems capturing that vote when he has not yet made the decision.
“The debate will be one of the first moments of this presidential campaign in which a larger portion of the electorate will have the opportunity to witness the tough choice between Biden, who fights for the American people, and Trump, who fights for himself as a convicted felon with an unhinged campaign of regency and retribution,” said the Democratic president’s campaign communications director, Michael Tyler. Biden, whom more and more voters consider too old for a second term, also has to demonstrate tonight that he is in top shape, physically and mentally, to remain in the White House for one more term. Trump, for his part, will have to show that he knows how to maintain his manners when he plays, so as not to present himself to the electorate as a politician desperate to be proven right through shouts and insults. He is expected to insist that the 2020 elections were stolen from him, despite the fact that it was proven that this was not the case, and possibly also try to destabilize a Biden who in recent weeks has suffered more than one mistake in public and who arrives emotionally affected by the recent birth of his only son Hunter Biden.
