As Donald Trump and Joe Biden sit in a deadlock in polls of the 2024 election, millions of Americans are preparing to watch the first debate ahead of the November contest.
Most Americans plan on watching the televised debate, per an AP-NORC poll, with half of voters viewing the event as important to the candidates’ chances.
The June debate is the earliest in an election cycle that one has come in recent memory, typically falling in the six weeks leading up to the election.
The candidates, each a rounding error from 80 years old, have battled age in the court of public opinion, with Biden’s being a central messaging point for the Trump campaign. But Trump’s recent gaffes, moments of brain fog, and misremembrances are closing a gap in Americans’ perception of the candidates’ mental acuity.
When the camps agreed back in May, some novel rules — such as the absence of a studio audience, muting microphones, and no opening statements — drew attention. Though the Trump campaign agreed in mere hours to the CNN-hosted discussion, surrogates spent the week ripping moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash apart and complaining of a rigged conversation ahead of time.
The Biden campaign spent the week deep in preparation mode, with the president escaping to Camp David to spar with his lawyer, Bob Bauer, who sat in for Trump.
The debate, the first time the two candidates have squared off since an October 2020 showdown in which Trump had COVID, will be an opportunity for the candidates to share their vision for the next four years, or, more likely, examine the pair’s records as president.
Expect Trump to launch attacks on Biden's administration policy, such as the president’s handling of an influx of immigrant arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border, an inflation crisis that pushed Biden’s early-term approval downward, and conflicts in the Middle East.
But Trump typically uses the debate stage to battle imaginary foes, as well. Expect barbs at his criminal conviction in New York by 12 Manhattan jurors, which Trump has lambasted as political persecution, and attacks against the previous election’s integrity, despite the former president’s hot-mic admission that he lost.
Biden, whose campaign has made democracy a key issue after Trump’s efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election and subsequent attacks on the legitimacy of American elections, is likely to push his opponent on his conspiracy theories and rebuke his support of political violence as his opponent battles January 6 criminal charges.
Trump, who took the morning to whine about “Biden people” appearing on Fox News, joins just a handful of candidates in U.S. history to vie for a rematch after losing the 2020 election.
Tune in to the first general presidential debate of 2024 at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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