28-6-2024Â (ATLANTA) In an unprecedented political spectacle, Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump will take the stage on the night of June 27 (June 28 morning in Singapore) for a debate that will offer voters a rare side-by-side look at the two oldest candidates ever to seek the U.S. presidency.
With opinion polls showing a deadlocked race for months, Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, will be under immense pressure to display their command of issues and avoid verbal stumbles as they seek a breakout moment in this highly anticipated event.
The 90-minute televised debate, the first between a sitting president and a former one, will air at 9 p.m. ET (9 a.m. June 28 in Singapore) on CNN. It comes far earlier than normal – more than four months before the Nov. 5 Election Day – at a moment of profound polarization and deep-seated anxiety among voters about the state of American politics.
Trump will take the stage as a felon who still faces a trio of criminal cases, including his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The former president, who continues to falsely claim that his defeat was the result of fraud and has suggested he will punish his political enemies if returned to power, will need to convince undecided voters that he does not pose a mortal threat to democracy, as Biden asserts.
Biden, on the other hand, arrived in Atlanta on June 27 afternoon under intense pressure to deliver a forceful performance after months of Republican assertions that his faculties have dulled with age.
Ahead of the debate, the Biden campaign released a video featuring former Trump aides saying they would not support him this time. “Take it from the people who know Donald Trump best – he is unfit to be president,” Biden said on X.
Biden advisers say he will emphasize Trump’s role in threatening abortion access, portray him as a danger to democratic norms, and remind voters of Trump’s often chaotic 2017-2021 term in office. Trump, on the other hand, will focus on the high levels of inflation and record numbers of migrants who have entered the country illegally under Biden’s watch, and will also question his world leadership at a time of war in Gaza and Ukraine, Trump advisers said.
While national polls show a tied race, Biden has trailed Trump in polls of most battleground states and recently saw his financial edge erased after Trump was criminally convicted over trying to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“Biden needs a change in the status quo, and this debate is his best opportunity yet to do it,” said Jacob Rubashkin, an elections analyst at the nonpartisan website Inside Elections.
Neither Biden nor Trump is popular, and many Americans remain deeply ambivalent about their choices. About a fifth of voters say they have not picked a candidate, are leaning towards a third-party candidate, or may sit the election out, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
“They’re horrible candidates,” said Kathy Elder, a 59-year-old sales manager who voted for Trump in 2016 before switching to Biden in 2020. “Can he speed this up and actually talk?” she said of Biden. As for Trump, she added, “What the hell is going to come out of his mouth?”
Biden and Trump have made little effort to disguise their mutual dislike. During their first debate in 2020, Trump aggressively talked over Biden in a performance that turned off many voters.
CNN will attempt to avoid cross-talk by muting the candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn. The debate will take place without an audience, and neither candidate is allowed to bring notes or props, though they will have a pen and paper.
With tensions running high and the future of American democracy at stake, this high-stakes debate promises to be a defining moment in the heated 2024 presidential campaign, offering voters a rare opportunity to directly assess the contrasting visions and leadership qualities of the two polarizing candidates vying for the nation’s highest office.
