Follow the first debate of the American presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump live, in a special program broadcast on LCN, from 8 p.m.
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It is time for a first direct confrontation between the 81-year-old Democratic President, Joe Biden, and his 78-year-old Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.
LCN
The two men will deliver a 90-minute debate, in front of CNN cameras, starting at 9 p.m. in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the most contested states in the election.
The special show will begin at 8 p.m. on LCN and will be hosted by Paul Larocque and Richard Latendresse.
The show’s panelists will be Emmanuelle Latraverse, Luc Lavoie, Jean-Marc Léger and Stéphane Bureau.
Several interviews are planned to discuss this presidential debate which risks being very tense, while these two men have nothing but contempt for each other.
Biden and Trump an hour away from a debate with colossal stakes
For months, they have been attacking and insulting each other from a distance, in an hour, they will face each other physically: Joe Biden and Donald Trump are preparing to debate Thursday for the first time in a presidential campaign that is as uncertain as it is tense.
The 81-year-old Democrat arrived first in Atlanta, Georgia, and took a walkabout with his supporters. The 78-year-old Republican, shortly after, got off the plane, raising his fist.
AFP
The two men, neck and neck in the polls, will meet at 9 p.m. local time for this confrontation organized by CNN, and which will be hosted by two journalists from the channel, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
It is up to them to enforce the very strict rules of a debate that will be held without an audience, with timed exchanges and, above all, a microphone systematically cut off for the candidate whose turn it is not to speak.
The first debate between the Democratic president and his Republican predecessor in 2020 turned into a fistfight, and the antipathy they have for each other has only grown since the victory of Joe Biden, which Donald Trump has never conceded.
Getty Images via AFP
The Republican, who presents himself as the strong man who alone can stop the “decline” of America, released a scathing video on Thursday of his opponent, showing falls and moments of confusion, to ask if he was really capable of “spending four more years” in the White House.
Joe Biden has undeniably lost his physical and oral ease in recent years, and his age worries voters much more than that of Donald Trump, three years his junior.
But the billionaire has not yet won: his verbal aggressiveness and his disjointed diatribes, if they appeal to his supporters during the meetings, could, in the context of the debate, put off independent voters.
However, it is them who must be seduced on Thursday for Joe Biden as for Donald Trump, four months before an election which could, like four years ago, come down to the wire in a few key states.
To win, experts believe that each of the two candidates will have to go against their nature in some way.
The Democratic president, who is not very charismatic and who likes to discuss his record with lots of figures and details, “must give something other than purely rational arguments. No election is decided solely on reason, so he will have to offer a few shocking sentences,” in short, putting on a show, analyzes Jane Hall, professor of communications at American University.
“This debate could surprise us. I think Donald Trump has been trained and will try not to be the same person as in recent debates,” to give himself more of a statesman’s stature, she predicts.
Joe Biden presents himself as a guarantor of democracy and an ally of the middle classes, facing an opponent accused of fueling political violence and serving the richest.
Democrats have installed huge billboards in Atlanta welcoming a “repeat offender”: Donald Trump is the first president ever found guilty in a criminal case, in a case of secret payments to a former porn star.
Among the key themes of the campaign and therefore certainly of the debate: the cost of living, the right to abortion, aid to Ukraine and Israel, the numerous indictments of Donald Trump and the defense of democracy.
A second debate is planned on ABC in September, two months before an election followed with concern around the world.
