the essential
The teams of the two participants negotiated drastic rules so that the debate does not turn into a contest of invective as it did four years ago.
Four years ago, the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump turned into a free-for-all. The two candidates had spent their time interrupting and insulting each other. This time, the teams of the two participants have negotiated rules so drastic that the conversation should be better, in terms of form at least.
There will be no audience in the room. Each candidate will have two minutes to answer questions posed by CNN anchors. A red light will flash when the time is up. Only the microphone of the candidate having the floor will be open, the other will be turned off to avoid interruptions and unpleasant remarks, or even exaggerated sighs like those of Al Gore facing George W. Bush in 2000.
These rules were negotiated directly between the teams of the two candidates and the CNN television channel which will broadcast the exchange. For the first time in the very rich history of this traditional moment in American campaigns, the Commission on Presidential Debates was bypassed. This transpartisan organization has in fact escaped, in recent years, the control of the parties, and the moment was considered serious enough to convince both Democrats and Republicans not to leave it to anyone else to decide the course of the face- face to face.
Clinton: “Expectations for Trump are so low…”
Observers have long believed it impossible to hold such a debate between the two candidates, who have spent their time insulting each other from a distance since the last presidential campaign, in 2020. Donald Trump, too, did not imagine that Joe Biden would accept. Bravage, the former businessman declared in the spring that he would debate under any conditions. The Democrats took him at his word and were able to impose their demands, including the absence of an audience, thus bringing this moment back to the Kennedy – Nixon duel of 1960.
“They made me an offer I couldn’t accept, but I accepted it,” Donald Trump said last week, ironically addressing the Biden team’s many demands, while referencing the famous line from the movie “The Godfather.” In front of his supporters, gathered at a rally in Philadelphia, he also tested the formulas he plans to use during the debate. “Would you rather I call him Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe?” he asked his audience.
From the applause meter, the public leaned towards “Sleepy Joe”… Donald Trump also questioned his fans on the behavior he should adopt during the debate: “Should I be harsh and unpleasant, or on the contrary nice , calm down and let him speak?” Several Democrats also considered that the rules aimed at protecting the good conduct of trade were bad news… for Joe Biden: “the best way to fight against Donald Trump is to let him be Donald Trump”, summarized members of the left. “Expectations for Trump are so low that if he doesn’t do literally anything, we’ll say he’s pretty much presidential,” Hillary Clinton said in a column in the New York Times.
