After months of invective, time for debate: Joe Biden and Donald Trump, neck and neck in the polls, meet Thursday evening for their first face-to-face in the American presidential election.
The former Republican president landed, fist raised, around 5 p.m. in Atlanta, welcomed on the tarmac by his supporters.
His Democratic rival also took part in an impromptu crowd bath on his arrival in the capital of Georgia, the scene of the duel between the two men.
In an extremely polarized America, where a supporter of the Democrat cannot imagine voting for the Republican, and vice versa, nothing says that this duel organized by CNN, in front of millions of viewers, will fundamentally change the situation.
But the race between the 81-year-old Democrat and his 78-year-old Republican rival is shaping up to be so close that even small gains in the debate among independent voters could prove decisive in November, which is why both campaigns have pulled out all the stops.
“Reconvicted” versus “doped”
Donald Trump, the first president ever convicted in a criminal case involving secret payments to a former porn star, is greeted in Georgia by huge billboards funded by Democrats, welcoming a “convict.”
These posters are illustrated by the billionaire’s legal ID photo. It was taken in Atlanta, following the indictment of Donald Trump in another case, in this case an attempt to distort the result of the 2020 election in the state.
The Republican camp has released a new killer video, showing Joe Biden’s falls and moments of confusion, and calling on voters to ask themselves whether he is really capable of “spending four more years” in the White House.
The former president insinuated that his rival was “doped” in front of the cameras. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, asked about this, said she would not “honor him with an answer.”
Donald Trump claimed on his Truth Social network, in capital letters and with a lot of exclamation points, that his rival was “a threat to the very survival” of the country.
Strict rules
This sets the tone: the meeting between two men who hate each other will be extremely tense.
Anxious to avoid the cacophony of the first debate of 2020, during which Joe Biden and Donald Trump spent an hour and a half insulting and interrupting each other, the network adopted rules intended to regulate their exchanges.
And the heavy task of enforcing these very strict rules will fall to the two CNN journalists who will host the evening: Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
The show will take place without an audience, without a teleprompter. Above all, Joe Biden’s microphone will be cut off when Donald Trump speaks and vice versa.
Basically, the two candidates should argue about inflation, immigration, the right to abortion, the defense of democracy and foreign policy.
Second debate in September
But since American presidential campaigns entered the age of television, more than 60 years ago with the debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, form has mattered as much as substance.
This is particularly true for Joe Biden, who has undeniably lost his physical and oral ease in recent years, even if Donald Trump, only three years his junior, is also attacked for his mental stability and his verbal violence.
According to a survey New York Times/Siena published Thursday, Donald Trump is given favorite for the debate. But those around the Democrat emphasize that he is chronically underestimated.
A second debate is scheduled on ABC in September, two months before an election that is being watched with concern around the world.
