Biden, Trump lock horns in high stakes debate

Atlanta, June 27, 2024 (AFP) -Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS with Frankie TAGGART in Washington Joe Biden and Donald Trump square off Thursday in a crucial US presidential debate that carries enormous stakes for both candidates as they battle for the approval of undecided voters and any slim advantage in their neck and neck race for the White House.

Millions of Americans will tune in to the highly anticipated clash that fires the starting gun on what promises to be a bruising summer of campaigning in a deeply polarized country still scarred by the chaos and violence that accompanied the 2020 election.

With only two debates this election cycle and national polls showing the pair locked in the tightest of contests, Thursday's event at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia takes on heightened significance.

For many voters, the choice between President Biden, the oldest ever incumbent, and Trump, now a convicted felon, is an uninspiring one -- a dynamic both candidates need to counter as they go head to head.

For Trump, an instinctive political pugilist, the challenge will be to rein in the aggressive tendencies he unleashed -- to his detriment -- in their first chaotic debate four years ago.

The 81-year-old Biden will be desperate to avoid any major gaffes that could underline concerns about his age, and to focus on his key campaign message that Trump poses an existential threat to US democracy.

There is certainly no love lost between the two candidates and both sides have agreed to a series of debate rules aimed at minimizing the prospect of a shouting match.

There will be no studio audience, depriving candidates of the momentum that comes from ginning up supporters, and microphones will cut out when a candidate's speaking time is over.

To coincide with the debate, both camps unleashed a series of fresh attack ads, with Trump's team taking out TV spots accusing Biden of mismanaging the economy and encouraging illegal immigration.

In a morning post on his Truth Social platform, Trump argued that Biden was the real threat to democracy, "and a threat to the survival and existence of our country itself."

The Democratic Party, meanwhile, paid for five massive billboards in Atlanta trolling Trump over his legal woes. "Donald, welcome to Atlanta for the first time since becoming a convicted felon. Congrats - or whatever..." the signs said.

Trump enjoys a slight advantage in the all-important swing states but the overall polling looks extremely close in an election likely to be decided by a few photo finishes in a handful of battlegrounds.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll shows Trump edging ahead of Biden nationally, 49 percent to 45 percent.

The rivals both step onstage for the 90-minute debate seeking to allay fears about serious political liabilities.

Biden faces the most concern about his mental sharpness, with voters much more likely to bring up his age than Trump's, despite the Republican being just three years younger.

Ahead of the debate, both Trump and Biden have had missteps, stumbling over words or appearing muddled.

Trump is also engulfed in controversy over his inflammatory rhetoric, his recent conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, and fears he would weaponize the presidency to settle personal scores.

- Fine-tuning or freewheeling -Biden has spent the last week off the radar at the Camp David retreat near Washington, fine-tuning his attack lines in mock debates under real TV lighting.

Trump's preparation has been more relaxed, eschewing dress rehearsals in favor of informal policy roundtables and workshopping debate strategy with rally crowds.

Aides have encouraged him to focus on his perceived strength on the economy and crime, while Biden will seek to paint Trump as unhinged and unfit for office.

The Trump campaign has repeatedly characterized Biden as feeble and incompetent, but changed tack in recent days following warnings that setting low expectations for the Democratic president would only help him.

"We know that Joe Biden, that after taking an entire week off, will be ready for this," senior Trump campaign advisor Jason Miller told reporters.

One of Biden's biggest vulnerabilities is border security, with Trump promising to combat an influx of undocumented migrants from Mexico with mass deportations and repeatedly bringing up killings by migrants.

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(Adds Biden video, Trump statement, paragraphs 7-11)

By Helen Coster, Joseph Ax and James Oliphant

ATLANTA, June 27 (Reuters) - Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump will take the same stage on Thursday for the first time since 2020, in an election rematch between the two oldest candidates ever to seek the U.S. presidency.

The 90-minute televised debate, the first between a sitting president and a former one, will air at 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Friday) on CNN and is expected to draw a huge audience. A record 84 million watched Trump's first debate in 2016 against Hillary Clinton.

Both men enter the debate in Atlanta with political vulnerabilities that present a mix of risk and opportunity. The debate takes place far earlier than normal - more than four months before the Nov. 5 Election Day - and against a backdrop of national opinion polls showing the two men in a dead heat.

The clash also arrives at a moment of profound polarization and deep-seated anxiety among voters about the state of American politics. Two-thirds of voters said in a May Reuters/Ipsos poll that they were concerned violence could follow the election, nearly four years after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Trump, 78, will take the stage as a felon who still faces a trio of criminal cases, including charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The former president, who continues to falsely claim that his defeat was the result of fraud and has suggested he will punish his political enemies if returned to power, will need to convince undecided voters that he does not pose a mortal threat to democracy, as Biden asserts.

Biden, 81, is under intense pressure to avoid verbal stumbles and deliver a forceful debate performance, after months of Republican assertions his faculties have dulled with age.

Ahead of the debate, the Biden campaign released a video featuring former Trump aides saying they would not support him this time. "Take it from the people who know Donald Trump best - he is unfit to be president," Biden said on X.

The Biden campaign also said it would launch new ads in the Atlanta area warning that Trump would ban abortion, cut Social Security and undermine democracy.

The Trump campaign said it would release two new television ads during the debate: one focused on the economy, illegal immigration and crime and another focused on Biden's physical stumbles that will say he "won't make it four more years in the White House."

On his Truth Social platform, Trump called Biden "a threat to the survival and existence of our country itself!"

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who did not qualify for the debate, was due to host his own event on X at the same time.

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While national polls show a tied race, Biden has trailed Trump in polls of most battleground states and recently saw his financial edge erased after Trump was criminally convicted over trying to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

"Biden needs a change in the status quo, and this debate is his best opportunity yet to do it," said Jacob Rubashkin, an elections analyst at the nonpartisan website Inside Elections.

"Right now, voters are looking at this race more like a referendum on Biden than a choice election, and that's dangerous territory for him to be in. But in the debate he can drive home the contrast angle - and Trump will be in the spotlight as well."

Neither Biden nor Trump is popular and many Americans remain deeply ambivalent about their choices. About a fifth of voters say they have not picked a candidate, are leaning toward a third-party candidate or may sit the election out, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.

"They're horrible candidates," said Kathy Elder, a 59-year-old sales manager who voted for Trump in 2016 before switching to Biden in 2020.

Elder will be watching Thursday's debate to try to decide which way to go this year, but she said she cringes whenever they speak - for different reasons.

When it comes to Biden, she said, "Can he speed this up and actually talk?" As for Trump, she said, "What the hell is going to come out of his mouth?"

Biden and Trump have made little effort to disguise their mutual dislike. During their first debate in 2020, Trump aggressively talked over Biden in a performance that turned off many voters.

CNN will attempt to avoid cross-talk by muting the candidates' microphones when it is not their turn. The debate will take place without an audience, and neither candidate is allowed to bring notes or props, though they will have a pen and paper.

Biden advisers say he will emphasize Trump's role in threatening abortion access, portray him as a danger to democratic norms and remind voters of Trump's often chaotic 2017-2021 term in office.

Trump will focus on the high levels of inflation and record numbers of migrants who have entered the country illegally under Biden's watch, and will also question his world leadership at a time of war in Gaza and Ukraine, Trump advisers said.

The second and final debate in this year's campaign is scheduled for September.

See a Reuters photo slide show of previous debates. (Reporting by Helen Coster and James Oliphant, additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Stephanie Kelly and Steve Holland; Writing by Joseph Ax and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Ross Colvin, Kieran Murray, Howard Goller and Alistair Bell)