President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will have their first presidential debate this Thursday unofficially, an event that could mark the new route of the campaigns and expose who is most vulnerable.
According the surveys, Biden and Trump enter this debate with a technical tiesince the national average places the Republican 1.5 above, but the margin of error in the surveys ranges between three and five percentage points, which is also an element when evaluating results.
There are two surveys to highlight, while the New York Times places Trump four percentage points above Biden, the Fox News network reveals a two-point advantage for the Democrat over the Republican.
Who then comes more vulnerable to this debate?I asked historian Talmage Boston, who recently published the book “How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents” (Post Hill Press, 2024) about eight American presidents.
“I think they are [en una situación] “Equally complicated, but obviously for different reasons,” Boston said. “Biden’s main problem is his mental health. And Trump’s main problem is what the criminal consequences of his past actions will be. So those are two very different categories of concerns, for any voter who is involved in making decisions about that.”
The presidential debate hosted by CNN in Atlanta, Georgia will begin at 9:00 pm Eastern. Both candidates’ campaigns negotiated various terms and rules.
At the outset, presidential candidates will only have access to a notebook, a pen and water.
Time and microphone control will be strict. CNN established a system to avoid interruptions during the answers that each one offers to the questions.
Position on stage was also negotiated. In the broadcast, viewers will see Biden on the right side.
The hottest topics in US politics for several months have been the economy, reproductive health and abortion, immigration and the border, as well as the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Boston believes that Biden and Trump will attack each other. The first could be questioned about his mental capacity, while the second could be about his judicial history, including being convicted of 34 criminal offenses for the secret payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“In addition to the topics we have mentioned [el debate podría] Always dealing with the economy and how the economy affects people is the number one topic,” Boston considered.
He added that American voters “vote with their pockets,” which is why the issue will be essential.
“Yeah [a los votantes] They’re doing well financially, so they think, ‘why would I want to change anything?’ And if they are not doing well financially, then they are looking for something new and different,” Boston noted. “Since, in this election, we have something we’ve never had before in American history, we have two people running against each other and they’ve both been presidents. So we have a presidential record, which each of them has and about which people can identify favorably or unfavorably.”
That is to say, Biden and Trump can no longer just promise, since both have had the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do with the US economy
“And certainly the performance of the economy during the Trump presidency compared to the Biden presidency is something voters should consider,” Boston said.
The expert recognized that US foreign affairs are advancing the presidential agenda and the electoral contest.
“The question is who is the Commander in Chief for the next four years in a very unstable world, obviously, with Israel and the situation in the Middle East; with Russia and the Ukrainian war; with China obviously an incredibly strong country, possibly stronger than the United States, and what are his plans for the next four years, for example, whether he will try to take over Taiwan.”
Immigration and the border
Part of former President Trump’s campaign has been attacks on the immigration policies of President Biden, who sent immigration reform in 2021 to Congress, where it stalled.
The increase in irregular migrant crossings allowed Trump to return to his xenophobic rhetoric, calling migrants “criminals” and even “mentally ill,” but Biden faced severe criticism for what was considered late action on border security and immigration.
“Another obviously important issue on voters’ minds is border security.. And again, every president has a four-year track record. “Trump, for the most part, had a very good record on border security, with the exception of people who object to him separating children from their parents,” Boston said.
On Biden’s recent actions – after the failure of the bipartisan project – that Encounters with immigrants at the border have decreased by 40%Boston believes that the president was slow to act.
“I think most people will see it as too little too late. “That this is an issue that, for the most part, he has ignored during his four years of presidency,” Boston considered. “Now that it has become such a dominant issue in the political campaign [que] You have to do something to try to leave a better taste in at least some people’s mouths that you give the issue some priority. So it may help a little bit, but I don’t think it’s going to help much in terms of making people think about how they’ve done over the last four years.”
The debate in Spanish
Noticias Telemundo will simulcast the CNN presidential debate.
The meeting organized in Atlanta, Georgia, is this Thursday the 27th at 9:00 pm Eastern (6:00 pm Pacific) at the CNN studios in Atlanta.
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