After months of insults, the time for confrontation has come: Joe Biden and Donald Trump, neck and neck in the polls, will meet on Thursday for the first debate of the American presidential election.
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Millions of Americans will have their eyes glued to their screens for a high-tension face-off between the Democratic president and his Republican predecessor.
The two men will debate from 9 p.m. in Georgia, one of the most contested states in the election.
Their duel, expected to last 90 minutes, will be moderated by two CNN journalists, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
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 channel adopted a series of rules supposed to regulate their exchanges.
The show will take place without an audience or a teleprompter.
Above all, Joe Biden’s microphone will be cut off when Donald Trump speaks and vice versa.
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Exceptional ballot
Although their impact on the vote often remains limited, these meetings are highlights of the electoral campaign, since the first televised tête-à-tête organized more than 60 years ago in Chicago, between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
According to a Quinnipiac University survey, the vast majority of Americans plan to watch Thursday evening’s debate. Some 16% of them do not rule out the possibility that the show will change the way they vote.
But Thursday’s debate will be exceptional in every way, given the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the November vote.
Never before have Americans had to decide between candidates as old as the 81-year-old Democratic president who, it must be said, is showing obvious signs of fatigue, and his Republican opponent, only three years his junior.
Similarly, Americans have never had to decide whether or not to hand over the keys to the White House to a former president who has been convicted of a criminal offence. Donald Trump will be given his sentence in New York on July 11. He faces prison.
Democrats are counting on the contrast between an uncharismatic but reasonable and competent Joe Biden and a multi-indicted, temperamental predecessor prone to mendacious digressions.
“Dope”
The Republican, who never conceded defeat in 2020 and did not commit to respecting the verdict of the polls in November, will undoubtedly reserve barbs for his opponent on his physical and mental form.
The former president even insinuated that his rival would be “doped” before appearing in front of the cameras.
But the septuagenarian’s supporters know that this smear strategy could backfire, since even an average performance by the current president on Thursday could then be considered a victory.
“In the media, many are already ready to give a trophy to Joe Biden if he manages to stand for 90 minutes,” said Jason Miller, one of the hosts of the Republican’s campaign, on Tuesday.
He warns conservatives that Donald Trump will face on Thursday a candidate who has been entrenched since Friday evening with his advisers and who will be “ready”.
Usually, candidates for the White House wait until the fall to debate, but the Democrat challenged his rival to face him before the summer in order to quickly establish a contrast which, Joe Biden is in convinced, will work in his favor.
A second debate is scheduled on ABC for September 10, two months before the explosive election.
