Less than two months before a presidential election that promises to be undecided, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are currently facing off in a debate that could give one of the candidates a head start. This television show is one of the most anticipated events of this extraordinary campaign.
While the Democratic vice-president and the former Republican president had never spoken to each other, they have been facing off since 3:00 a.m. (Swiss time) in front of millions of viewers, but without an audience and without notes in front of them.
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Both have agreed to strict rules designed to prevent untimely interruptions or direct calls.
Their debate, the first and perhaps last before the November 5 election, is being moderated by two ABC journalists and is taking place in Philadelphia, in the crucial northeastern state of Pennsylvania.
>> Also listen to the subject of La Matinale on the difficulty of fighting against fake news during the debate:
Decisive debate between Biden and Trump
Since the first televised debate in 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, these duels had allowed one or the other candidate to distinguish himself with a salient sally or a striking retort, but never had they really shaken up the campaign.
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Until June 27 of this year. That day on CNN, Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate already weakened by incessant questions about his age, had lost his footing live on air against Donald Trump.
>> Read again: Invective between a confused Joe Biden and an offensive Donald Trump during the first presidential debate
The poor performance led to the historic withdrawal of her candidacy on July 21. Since then, Kamala Harris has revived Democratic hopes.
Where the octogenarian president was left behind, she is neck and neck with Donald Trump in the polls, including in the “swing states”, the six or seven pivotal states that carry so much weight in the American system of indirect elections.
>> Forum explanations:
More at stake for Kamala Harris
Many Americans – 28 percent of voters who plan to go to the polls, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll – say they have trouble understanding the 59-year-old vice president, her personality, her ideas, her platform.
The Democrat’s first goal on Tuesday is therefore to make a good impression on these undecided voters.
>> Read more: Kamala Harris will have more to lose than Donald Trump in Tuesday night’s presidential debate
Donald Trump has no need to make himself known, either to his fiercely loyal supporters or to his detractors. The 78-year-old billionaire, who is surrounded by legal proceedings and was the target of an assassination attempt in June, is participating in his seventh presidential debate.
>> Also read: Donald Trump’s assassination attempt likely to boost his campaign
And in a complete reversal from the June debate against the American president, this time it is Donald Trump’s cognitive abilities that are being scrutinized, facing an opponent almost twenty years younger.
>> Listen to the episode of the Democracy! podcast dedicated to the debate:
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