Donald Trump, who loves his verbal boxing skills, should hit hard and low. (File)
Cleveland:
There will be no handshake, but venom to spare when President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden meet in Cleveland on Tuesday for the first of three televised debates that could shake up an already volatile White House race.
The Covid-19 restrictions will give the debate hosted by Fox News star Chris Wallace a streamlined look with a smaller audience. Naturally, there will be no display of goodwill, even if it is sometimes forced, when the rivals take the stage.
The 90-minute clash will have a chance for Americans to finally see Trump, 74, and Biden, 77, face off.
With Trump claiming that Biden is virtually brain dead – “Biden doesn’t know he’s alive” – and Biden calling the president a “toxic presence,” it won’t be for the faint hearted.
Significantly behind in the polls, Trump is in combat mode, embarking on a program of rally endurance testing on key battlefields several times a week.
Biden, however, hopes to take advantage of it.
And it arrives aided by the New York Times publication of a report purporting to reveal the contents of Trump’s deeply secret tax returns – finding that the self-proclaimed billionaire and working-class champion avoids paying nearly all federal taxes on the government. returned.
Hard and low
Trump, who loves his verbal boxing skills, should hit hard and low.
For months he painted Biden as senile. As the debate approached, he increasingly focused on his claim that Biden is taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Biden laughed at the suggestion, but Trump, a former master of cursing to stick with his opponents, doubled down.
“Joe Biden just announced that he won’t accept a drug test. Okay, I wonder why?” Trump tweeted on Monday.
Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield responded in kind, saying that if Trump wanted the debate to be over “urine” samples, “he could.”
Trump, no doubt, has little to lose. His unconditional support is already built in, and Americans are now almost incapable of feeling shocked by his convention-destroying style.
He is also traveling to Cleveland with what he hopes will be his own quick fix – the appointment of Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace late Liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
If Barrett is quickly confirmed, as the Republican-led Senate expects, Trump will have succeeded in tilting the highest court firmly to the right for years to come.
Democrats are crying out loud over the rushed timing on the eve of the election, but Trump expects the power play to energize many conservatives.
Boastful blue collar
The president is sure to build on previous claims that Biden’s son was involved in corruption in Ukraine. Last year, Trump was impeached for using the power of his office to try to pressure the Ukrainian government to publicly support this theory.
Biden, as a favorite, wants to stay stable, but he has a reputation for losing his temper when challenged in public.
“I hope I don’t get caught up in a fight with this guy because he’s the only place he’s comfortable,” he said.
Instead, Biden will aim to keep his eyes on the coronavirus pandemic, which polls show about two-thirds of Americans say Trump has mismanaged.
He will also hit back at the filling of the Supreme Court seat, saying Trump’s plan is for the court to restrict abortion and cancel the Obamacare health program – two areas that could worry voters.
But the fiercest moments can come when Biden himself goes personal, portraying Trump as a spoiled playboy who only comes across as a friend of the white working class who helped him get elected in 2016.
Biden, who spent his early childhood in the rugged town of Scranton, Pa., Increasingly pokes fun at Trump’s glitzy New York roots, calling it a “Scranton vs Park Avenue” election.
The strategy appears to be having some traction at least in Pennsylvania: A new Washington Post-ABC News poll on Tuesday showed the former vice president moving forward in Battlefield State, which Trump won in 2016.
Trump points out that Biden only lived in Scranton as a young boy and spent most of his life in Congress. But the Times report on the president’s ability to avoid nearly all federal income taxes will give Biden a wealth of new ammunition.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
