Never before have Americans had to decide between candidates as old as the Democratic president, 81, and his Republican predecessor, 78, whose camps have already gone on the attack.
The debate will allow the country
“to become aware of the choice between Joe Biden (…) and Donald Trump, a habitual criminal”
Who
“runs a crazy campaign”
fueled by the obsession with
said Michael Tyler, campaign spokesperson for the Democrat, on Sunday.
A New York jury delivered a criminal guilty verdict against the former president, unprecedented, for hidden payments to a former porn actress. Donald Trump is being prosecuted in several other cases, notably in connection with the protest and the violence following the 2020 election.
The Republican, who never conceded defeat and did not commit to respecting the verdict of the polls in November, attacked the physical and mental form of his opponent on Saturday.
In front of his supporters in Philadelphia, he joked about the meticulous and secret preparation of the debate by Joe Biden, holed up with his advisers in a residence near Washington.
The Republican launched:
He’s sleeping, because they want him to be in good shape. And a little before the debate, he will receive a shot in the ass.
He had already insinuated that the Democratic president would be
for their meeting.
The duettists, however, accepted rules intended to prevent the duel from turning into fistfights like their first debate in 2020. Joe Biden had launched a
“But will you shut up, man?”
after yet another untimely interruption from Donald Trump.
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 convinced , will work in its favor. Another confrontation will take place in September.
Both candidates will
“reacquaint yourself with an electorate who knows them well, but who until now have not paid much attention”
in the countryside, comments Donald Nieman, analyst at Binghamton University.
The challenge, for Donald Trump as for Joe Biden, is to mobilize voters who escape the extreme polarization of American political life and who are repelled by this return match. Once again, the election could be decided by a few tens of thousands of votes in a handful of states.
Grant Reeher, a political scientist at Syracuse University, wonders whether Donald Trump will seek to prove his
“presidential stature”
to convince this moderate electorate, by breaking with the verbal violence with which he showers his base.
“Trump’s weak point is his extremist rhetoric,”
and that of Joe Biden,
“it is to know if he has the mental acuity required for the function”
summarizes Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communications at the University of Pennsylvania.
The age gap between the two men is only about three years.
But the Americans are more worried about the faculties of the president in office, who has undeniably lost his physical presence and oratory fluency, than about those of the Republican, although the latter often launches into incoherent digressions at meetings.
Joe Biden promises to save democracy in the face of a rival who has called his political opponents a
and who publicly considered being dictator
The octogenarian also poses as a guarantor of the right to abortion, an ally of the middle classes and a bulwark against authoritarian states such as Russia and China.
Donald Trump says he wants to stop the
of America with tax cuts, customs duties, oil drilling and mass expulsions of migrants.
Regularly criticized for xenophobic remarks, the billionaire did it again on Saturday by mentioning the organization of bare-handed fights between migrants and American champions, based on the model of mixed martial arts (MMA) competitions.
“It’s not the worst idea I’ve had.”
he told a gathering of evangelical Christians.
