the essential
The first televised debate of the American presidential campaign will take place on the night of Thursday to Friday between the two main candidates. None of them will win the election tonight, but one of them could lose it if they fail.
Will the American presidential election be played this Thursday evening, in the premises of the CNN channel, where Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the two main candidates, will face each other during the first of two televised debates? The vote is only scheduled in a little over four months, on November 5, but the battle is currently so close and the unknowns so numerous that a failure of one of the two candidates could well tip the scales for good on one side or the other.
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For the first time since the last presidential campaign, four years ago, these two men who hate each other so much will come face to face and appear together in the image. The visual opposition between two suitors opposed by everything except age will cruelly highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each. Joe Biden will be judged on his ability to not look 81 years old, to physically keep the distance, and Donald Trump (78 years old) on his ability to keep his nerve, far from the excesses which have alienated part of the electorate. Who will emerge victorious?
In the columns of the New York Times, former candidate Hillary Clinton, the only one to have debated both Joe Biden (during the 2008 Democratic primaries) and Donald Trump (during the 2016 election), put her finger on the pitfall of this type of exercise: “We too often approach these major moments as if they were theater,” she warned. We choose a President, not the best actor. »
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“But are you going to shut up, man? »
Wishful thinking, certainly: these debates often go down in history for the little phrases that hit the mark, more than for the ideas and programs that were developed there. Four years ago, Joe Biden left his mark on viewers by telling Donald Trump, who kept interrupting him: “But are you going to shut up, man? » (Will you shut up, man). The drastic rules decided by the two parties will certainly result this year in a little more stability (see opposite), but once again the public will only remember a sentence or two from the hour and a half of debate, more striking than the others.
In this game, Donald Trump shot first. During his last meeting, last Saturday in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), he was not shy when attacking his opponent: “Before the debate, they are going to give him an injection in the buttocks to wake up, he told his audience, laughing. I’m actually going to request a drug test. » The request is serious and comes up regularly, each time Joe Biden appears in good shape.
For his part, Joe Biden took refuge in recent days at Camp David, the vacation residence of American Presidents, to prepare in the same way as in 2020, that is to say in the company of his close guard , including his lawyer Bob Bauer who dons the Trump costume.
One of his power brokers, his former chief of staff Ron Klain, is a debate specialist. He has drawn a number of rules from it, including his favorite: “Attacks are good, but counterattacks are even better.”
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What place will be left for substantive issues, of which there are currently many in the United States? Joe Biden plans to attack his opponent on the risk that a new Trump presidency would pose to Americans and especially American women, many of whom were deprived of the right to abortion by the Supreme Court remodeled by the former Republican President .
Donald Trump, for his part, will focus on uncontrolled immigration from the Mexican border and the inflation that is eating into voters’ wallets. Each has their favorite themes, but above all an opposition between two personalities and two ways of doing politics.
