In an election year like no other, the first debate between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, could be a pivotal moment in a race that has remained stubbornly unchanged in the face of historic tumult.
The Tuesday night debate will offer a massive platform for Trump and Biden to outline their starkly different visions for a country facing multiple crises, including racial justice protests and a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans and cost millions of jobs.
The 90-minute showdown kickstarts the final stretch of the race for the White House with Biden continuing to hold a sizable lead over the president with just 35 days remaining before the Nov. 3 election.
The debates will take place at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University in the state of Ohio while Fox News host Chris Wallace will moderate the conversation.
Every major U.S. TV network is preparing to air the significant occasion without any commercial breaks, and the whole world can follow the debates via live video streaming platforms. Debate topics are slated to include each nominee’s respective record, the Supreme Court, the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, race and violence in cities, and election integrity. The president’s handling of the coronavirus will likely dominate much of the discussion. The pandemic’s force will be tangible as the candidates' podiums will be spaced far apart and the traditional opening handshake scrapped.
The health emergency has upended the usual trappings of a presidential campaign, lending heightened importance to the debate. But amid intense political polarization, comparatively few undecided voters remain, raising questions as to how, or if, the debate might shape a race that has been defined by its bitterness and, at least so far, its stability.
Trump had told advisers that he is preparing an all-out assault on Biden, claiming that the former senator's 47 years in Washington have left him out of touch and that his family, namely his son Hunter, has benefited from corruption. The president on Monday also repeated his demand that Biden takes some sort of drug test, asserting without evidence that the Democratic nominee was somehow using a performance enhancer.
"This guy doesn’t have a clue. He doesn’t know where the hell he is," Trump said recently, likening the debate to a boxing match and pointing to his head. "To win matches you need that up here. This wins, probably, it’s 50% of it. This is not prime time for Joe."
Trump’s highly unusual demand has been laughed off by the former vice president who said during a news conference he has "no comment" on the matter before his campaign formally rejected the proposal.
"Vice President Biden intends to deliver his debate answers in words. If the president thinks his best case is made in urine he can have at it," deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement to the Politico news website.
"We’d expect nothing less from Donald Trump, who pissed away the chance to protect the lives of 200K Americans when he didn’t make a plan to stop COVID-19," she added, referring to the U.S.' mounting coronavirus death toll.
Biden's performances during the primary debates were uneven, and some Democrats have been nervous as to how he will fare in an unscripted setting. But his team views the night as a moment to illuminate Trump's failings, with the former vice president acting as a "fact-checker on the floor" while bracing himself for the onslaught that is coming.
"They’re going to be mostly personal," Biden said. "That’s the only thing he knows how to do. He doesn’t know how to debate the facts because he’s not that smart. He doesn’t know that many facts."
Tuesday’s debate will run from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. EST (0100 GMT to 0230 GMT). It will be followed by Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris facing off next week on Oct. 7 in the sole vice presidential debate.
Trump and Biden will again take the debate stage Oct. 15 and Oct. 22 in the final two presidential debates.