Biden-Trump debate could change trajectory of 2024 race – NBC4 Washington

Trump and Biden Face Off in Pivotal DebateTrump and Biden Face Off in Pivotal Debate Atlanta, Georgia – President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will engage in a highly anticipated debate on Thursday, September 15th, offering both candidates an unprecedented opportunity to reshape the political narrative. With only four months until Election Day, their performance holds the potential to significantly alter the race’s trajectory. Every gesture and word will be scrutinized, not only for its content but also for the dynamics between the candidates and their demeanor under pressure. Firsts and Controversies This debate marks a series of historical firsts. It is the first and only televised presidential debate on a general election to be hosted by a single news network (CNN). Additionally, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is ineligible to participate, following network rules. To prevent a recurrence of their chaotic 2020 encounters, Biden and Trump have agreed to have their microphones muted when it is not their turn to speak, and there will be no audience. Key Issues and Stakes The debate comes at a critical time, just days after the second anniversary of Roe v. Wade’s overturning and the Biden White House’s executive action limiting asylum applications at the U.S.-Mexico border. Illegal immigration remains a central focus of Trump’s campaign, while Biden emphasizes his opponent’s threat to democracy. The candidates’ sharply divergent views on inflation, tax policy, government spending, climate change, and foreign affairs will also be highlighted. Additionally, the potential release of the Supreme Court’s decision on Trump’s alleged role in the January 6th insurrection looms over the race. Preparations and Strategy Biden has sequestered himself at Camp David, practicing with allies and advisors to simulate the debate environment. Trump, meanwhile, has engaged in less structured preparations, consulting with supporters and attacking his opponent on social media. Both campaigns have spent significant time analyzing what they perceive as weaknesses in their respective opponents. Trump’s team has focused on Biden’s age and energy levels, while Biden’s team eyes Trump’s legal troubles and inflammatory rhetoric. Georgia on the Mind The host city of Atlanta holds both symbolic and strategic importance for the campaigns. Biden narrowly won Georgia’s electoral votes in 2020, and Trump has baselessly challenged those results. Both candidates hope their performances will resonate beyond Georgia and influence voters nationwide. Following the debate, Biden and Trump will travel to key battleground states, including Virginia and North Carolina, where major campaign rallies are planned.

President Joe Biden and his Republican rival, Donald Trump, will meet Thursday for a debate that offers an unprecedented opportunity for both candidates to try to reshape the political narrative.

Biden, the incumbent Democratic president, has a chance to reassure voters that at 81, he can lead the U.S. through a series of challenges. Trump, 78, could use the moment to get past his felony conviction in New York and convince an audience of tens of millions that he is temperamentally fit to return to the Oval Office.

Biden and Trump enter the night against fierce headwinds, including a public tired of the tumult of partisan politics. Both candidates are disliked by the majority of Americans, according to polls, and offer starkly different views on virtually every key issue. Trump has promised sweeping plans to overhaul the US government when he returns to the White House and Biden argues his opponent would pose an existential threat to the country’s democracy.

With just over four months until Election Day, their performance has the rare potential to change the trajectory of the race. Every word and gesture is analyzed not only for what both men say, but also for the way they interact with each other and how they hold up under pressure.

“Debates typically don’t change voters’ perceptions in a way that changes their votes: they tend to be empowering, but they don’t persuade,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on presidential communications. “What makes this debate different is that you essentially have two incumbent politicians about whom voters have very well-formed opinions. But that doesn’t mean those perceptions are accurate or match what voters will see on stage.”

The debate marks a series of firsts

Trump and Biden have not stood on the same stage or even spoken since their final debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and failed effort to overturn his loss to Biden, culminating in the January 6 Capitol riot by his supporters.

Thursday’s broadcast on CNN will be the first general election debate in history. It is the first-ever televised presidential debate on a general election to be hosted by a single news network, after both campaigns dumped the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which had organized every contest since 1988.

According to network rules, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. not eligible.

To avoid a repeat of their chaotic 2020 matchups, Biden insisted — and Trump agreed — that the debate be held without an audience and that the network mute the candidates’ microphones when it’s not their turn to speak. There will be two commercial breaks, another departure from modern practice. The candidates have agreed not to consult staff or others when the cameras are off.

The timing follows moves by both candidates to respond to national trends toward early voting by moving the political calendar forward. It remains to be seen whether the early schedule will soften the effects of any missteps or crystallize them in the public’s mind.

“You have two guys who haven’t debated in four years,” said Phillippe Reines, a Democratic political consultant who helped former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepare for debates with Trump in 2016.

Biden and Trump, he said, “don’t like each other, haven’t seen each other, (are) pretty rusty heading into the biggest night of their lives. That pretty much sums up what’s at stake on Thursday.”

Both parties recognize the commitment

The debate comes just days after the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, which ended the federally guaranteed right to abortion and made reproductive rights central to the politics.

The confrontation also comes just after the Biden White House took executive action to limit asylum applications at the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to reduce the number of migrants entering the country. Trump has made illegal immigration the centerpiece of his campaign.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza hang over the race like a dark cloud, as do the candidates’ sharply divergent views on America’s role in the world and its alliances. Differences over inflation, tax policy and government spending to build infrastructure and combat climate change will add to the contrasts.

Also in the political backdrop, the Supreme Court is about to announce its decision on whether Trump is legally immune from his alleged role in the January 6 insurrection. That comes weeks after Trump was convicted in New York of participating in a hush-money scheme that prosecutors alleged was designed to unlawfully influence the 2016 election.

Biden spent the week leading up to the debate at Camp David, sequestered with senior White House and campaign aides, as well as a coterie of longtime advisers and allies. A fake stage was built on the grounds to simulate the studio where the debate will be held, and Biden’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, reprized his role as Trump during practice sessions.

Aides say the work reflects Biden’s recognition that he can’t afford a flat display. They claim the sometimes dour orator would rise to the occasion.

Meanwhile, Trump has continued his less structured debate preparations with two days of meetings at his Florida estate, calling allies and supporters and attempting attacks in social media posts and interviews with conservative media.

Trump and his aides have spent months documenting what they say are signs of Biden’s diminishing stamina. In recent days, they have begun predicting that Biden will be stronger on Thursday, aiming to raise expectations for the incumbent president.

The candidates have Georgia in mind

Atlanta, the host city of the debate, offers symbolic and practical significance to the campaign, but both sides believe that what happens there will resonate far and wide.

In 2020, Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by a margin of less than 12,000 votes out of a total of 5 million cast. Trump urged the state’s Republican leadership to overturn his victory, based on false theories of voter fraud, memorably being caught on tape saying he wanted to “find 11,780 votes.” He now faces state racketeering charges.

Both campaigns held a flurry of events in Atlanta ahead of the debate, including competing events at local Black-owned businesses. Trump called into a gathering at Rocky’s Barbershop in the Buckhead community on Friday to talk about his showdown with Biden and to ask whether CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash would treat him fairly.

As we leave the debate, both Biden and Trump will be traveling to states they hope to reach this fall. Trump is headed to Virginia, a former battleground that has shifted to the Democrats in recent years.

Biden is set to fly to North Carolina, where he is expected to hold his campaign’s largest rally ever in a state that Trump narrowly carried in 2020.

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Miller, Superville and Weissert reported from Washington and Price from New York. AP video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed to this report.