Biden, Trump gear up for unprecedented debate debate

For the first time, a sitting president and an ex-president will lock horns before millions of viewers

CNN | The confrontation in Atlanta between Joe Biden and Donald Trump Thursday night has a good chance of becoming the most fateful presidential debate in US history.

For the first time, a sitting president and an ex-president will lock horns before millions of viewers, in an encounter taking place far earlier than normal — even before the party conventions.

The CNN-hosted showdown is the most pivotal moment yet in a neck-and-neck election, and it’s Biden’s best chance to shake up a reelection bid that he is in deep danger of losing as he struggles to convince voters that he’s delivered the political and economic normality he promised in 2020.

The momentous nature of this debate can only be fully understood against the backdrop of the unprecedented politics of the times.

Since Sen. John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon staged the first televised debate in the 1960 campaign, there have been agonizingly close elections that have set the country on a sharply different course.

But the stakes in 2024 are greater than ever because of Trump’s attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power based on false claims of fraud in the 2020 election and his promise to wage a never-before-seen presidency of personal vengeance if he wins in November.

Had Sen. John Kerry beaten President George W. Bush in 2004 or ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney made President Barack Obama a one-term president in 2012, there would have been significant political change.

But the character of the republic and its global posture would not have fundamentally altered. That assurance cannot be applied with any confidence to the current election.

Trump’s strongman impulse – epitomised by his claim before the Supreme Court that presidents have almost limitless power, as well as a blueprint for hardline new policies on immigration, the economy and foreign policy – means a second term could bring massive disruption.

“(It is) unbelievably historic. You cannot (over) hype up the importance of this,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday.

Democrats are desperate for the 81-year-old Biden to put on a show of vitality and sharpness amid concerns about his age.

Seventy-eight-year-old Trump’s biggest liability might be himself and the possibility of a performance that could validate Biden’s warnings that he’s too “unhinged” to be president.

Biden is expected to hammer Trump over abortion — one of the few policy areas where he outpolls the former president — and his admiration of foreign dictators.

Trump is already signaling he’ll portray Biden’s America in dystopian terms, beset by uncontrolled immigration, rampant crime and searing economic pain.

The most extraordinary aspect of the debate is that it takes place less than a month after Trump was convicted in a criminal hush money case in New York.

Biden has already highlighted the guilty verdict in campaign events, but Trump insists that he’s the victim of an attempt to weaponize the legal system to interfere in the election.

Extreme pressure

Both men will hope to avoid the kind of debate night gaffes or odd personal quirks that have often gone viral and dominated critical post-debate media coverage that helps cement the perception of who won and who lost in voters’ minds.

Vice President Al Gore’s theatrical sighs in 2000 and President George HW Bush’s unwise glance at his watch in 1992 both became emblems of losing campaigns.

The risks are now much higher because of social media.

Presidential debates don’t always decide who wins in November. But the tension surrounding this year’s first debate in June, rather than in September or October as usual, is palpable.

“The closer the election, the greater the chance that a debate could influence it,” said Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan, who has conducted an in-depth study of every presidential debate.

“A lot of times these mistakes reaffirm a caricature of one of the particular candidates that existed before it happened.”

For Biden, that means no senior moments, and Trump would be advised to avoid outbursts that confirm Biden’s characterization of a tyrant in waiting.

Neither Trump nor Biden has debated since their final clash in the pandemic-disrupted 2020 campaign.

And their preparation for one of the most important nights of their lives has reflected their character and political personas.

The president has been out of sight for days, huddled below the oaks, poplars and maple trees at the Camp David retreat with advisers, strategizing how to handle the most challenging debate foe in history.

Fueled by lasagna and tacos, he’s taken part in mock debates, immersed himself in briefing binders and tried to anticipate Trump’s wild twists and diversions.

It’s a debate camp in keeping with Biden’s view that he’s locked in an existential election duel with the soul of the nation on the line.

The former president hates mock debates and has instead honed his preparation at rallies and events, trusting his instincts and intuition and a feral sense of an opponent’s political weakness.

He has, however, had policy refresher sessions with aides and some potential vice-presidential picks including Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Biden has raised the stakes for himself heading into the debate higher than those any modern president faced.

He argues Trump is a criminal in whom something has “snapped” and who is too dangerous and reckless to be let back into the White House.

He’s also rebuked Trump for using Nazi-style language and warned democracy and freedom are on the ballot along with the capacity of ‘We the People’ to shape America’s destiny.