MIAMI– In a meeting full of regulations and excessive controversy, tonight at around 9:00 pm Americans will be able to see two presidents of the United States face to face in the first presidential debate before the elections in November of this year.
President Joe Biden is seeking re-election, while former President Donald J. Trump is seeking a second term in the White House.
For some analysts, the debate is nothing more than a formality that does not change the voting intentions of the majority of Americans; for other experts, it is an opportunity for both to win supporters in a race that is repeatedly controversial after Biden’s questioned electoral victory in 2020.
What is unusual about this debate is that the CNN broadcast will be the earliest in electoral history and the first televised presidential debate organized by a single media outlet, after both campaigns abandoned the Commission on Presidential Debates, a bipartisan body that had organized all the confrontations since 1988.
Under the rules of the well-known left-wing network, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not qualify.
Joe Biden, the big question
The great expectation falls on Biden whether he could withstand the pressure of his opponent and the absence of a teleprompter to read, amid serious questions about his deteriorating state of cognitive health and his serious disorientation problems.
Some media have speculated about the use of some secret pharmacological stimulant or some other treatment 24 or 48 hours before the debate, which increases the concern of the voters reflected in several national polls after the current tenant in the White House confused two presidents, including Francois Mitterrand (who died decades ago); he repeatedly cited the southern border of the United States as the Gaza Strip in the West Bank, in addition to being “frozen” in a theater during a campaign fundraiser in California and where Barack Obama had to rescue him and take him by the hand to lead him away without saying goodbye to the audience. Biden remained static without making any movement for several minutes.
For these reasons, the Democratic president will get the most attention from viewers, while constantly trying to attack Trump to make him angry. Trump is expected to do the same.
Biden has given ample evidence of his incapacity in recent months: he appears disoriented in almost all of his public appearances, and has fallen asleep at important events such as Memorial Day and others; he is visibly slower every day and his movements seem robotic, the complete opposite of what was seen in the Union Speech in which many speculate that he was given some powerful drug or treatment days before.
Trump and Biden have not been on the same stage, or even spoken to each other, since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump did not attend Biden’s inauguration as was his duty as the outgoing president.
Among the rules agreed upon by both campaigns is that microphones will remain off while moderators are asking questions. With no audience in the television studio, Joe Biden’s microphone will be muted when Donald Trump speaks and vice versa.
The two oldest candidates in American history – Biden is 81 and Trump is 78 – will stand behind a lectern for 90 minutes.
The questions are expected to be pointed at Trump, as both CNN moderators (Jake Tapper and Dana Bash) are openly staunch critics of the former president, and have even called him a Nazi and a neo-fascist.
A coin toss determined that Joe Biden could choose where he wanted to sit on the podium – he chose the right – and the order of the closing statements. Trump will have the final word in the debate.
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Source: With information from AFP and other sources.
