The right to abortion and judicial problems will star in the individual arguments in a confrontation focused on the question-answer
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, meet again face to face in a televised debate this Thursday the 27th in the city of Atlanta, almost four years after their last confrontation, now with the roles of president and candidate reversed but both as respective exponents of political polarization in a country that has not yet shelved the tumultuous resolution of the 2020 elections.
Right off the bat, Thursday’s debate occurs under two notable circumstances: it is the earliest recorded in an electoral campaign in the United States (the first of the 2020 elections occurred in September) and the bipartisan will not participate in its organization. National Commission for Presidential Debates, but will remain under the exclusive jurisdiction of the CNN network.
Both campaigns have coincided in both terms for different reasons. Biden does not have good memories of the commission, which he has accused of ineffectiveness in imposing coronavirus restriction measures on Trump’s entourage during one of the debates of the last campaign. Neither Biden nor Trump have good memories of the organization during those confrontations, especially the first one, where the candidates spent most of the time stepping on each other. And, as for the date, both prefer to see each other before early voting begins in September, to mark territory.
The president of the commission, Frank Fahrenkopf, has complained bitterly about this decision and questioned some of the rules of the format agreed upon by both candidates, who “have appropriated something that really belongs to the American people to leave it in the hands of a network.” , as he told the ‘Los Angeles Times’ this week, before wondering “what the hell he was supposed to have done” when Trump’s entourage, with the family at the head, decided to take off their masks without warning shortly before from the start of the October 2020 debate in Cleveland.
CLOSED MICROPHONES AND NO AUDIENCE
Fahrenkopf has expressed serious doubts especially about two of the key rules of Thursday’s debate: Trump and Biden will have their respective microphones closed during their opponent’s speaking turn and there will be no audience at the meeting.
“This should be a serious debate and people should be able to see for themselves whether the candidates are capable of behaving politely,” he explained. And since the campaigns have taken control of the organization, the commission will probably have to end up canceling its own debate calendar, which included meetings in schools and universities, whose students will be left, in Fahrenkopf’s words, without a civics lesson.
On the question of the public, Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, has argued that “debates should not be entertainment for an audience full of patrons determined to interrupt all the time,” in a letter to the commission picked up by NBC. The Trump campaign has wanted nothing to do with this body for almost a decade, when he protested “technical problems” during the debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Neither campaign will be able to speak to the candidates during the debate that will take place on June 27 at the CNN studios in Atlanta. Both will appear on two equal stands, with a booklet, a pen and a bottle of water. A coin toss has decided that Biden will appear to the viewers’ right, Trump to the left. Since the currency favored Biden in the positions, the Republican candidate will be the last to make the final reflection of both contenders. There will be no opening remarks and the format will be strictly limited to answering questions from the two moderators, hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. They will have two minutes to respond, one more to reply, and another additional minute for the counter-reply.
ABORTION, FRAUD, BIDEN JR. AND DEMOCRACY
Although the format does not leave much room for direct attacks, Biden and Trump have an arsenal at their disposal to verbally attack their opponent. Biden has the option of resorting to the recent conviction against Trump for fraud and of cornering his rival on the issue of abortion, an issue that causes enormous friction between Trump, a supporter to a certain extent of this right, and the strictest ultra-conservative sector of the Republican Party. The president could also take advantage of the role played indirectly by Trump in the assault on the Capitol in January 2021 after the defeated tycoon spoke openly of electoral fraud.
Trump, for his part, has practically shown all his cards during his rallies in recent weeks, in which he has characterized, for example, Biden as a “traitor” and a “complete cretin” for considering a hypothetical arms embargo on Israel during the Gaza war and questioned on countless occasions his mental capacity to continue governing the country. However, the recent conviction of Biden’s son, Hunter, for illegal possession of weapons has stripped him of what, presumably, was going to be one of the main spearheads of his argument.
This will not be the last time they will see each other, although we will have to wait practically until the end of summer for it. It will be on September 10, again, a television network will be in charge of organizing the confrontation, ABC, with its presenters David Muir and Linsey Davis as moderators of the meeting. Trump has proposed a third debate on his own field, the Fox network. The Biden campaign has flatly refused. “No games, no chaos, no debating about debates,” wrote Biden’s campaign manager. “We will see each other next June 27 in Atlanta, if Trump feels like appearing,” she concluded.
