President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will face off tonight for their final presidential debate before the election.
After an initial match up that quickly descended into a glorified shouting match, with Trump repeatedly interrupting Biden and running roughshod over the moderator, the second debate, scheduled for last week, was canceled after the President tested positive for the coronavirus and subsequently refused to take part in a virtual meeting.
The Commission on Presidential Debates has given the green light to an in-person face-off, but with one unprecedented change: The candidates will have their microphones cut off while their opponents respond to the first question of each of the debate’s six segments.
The topics slated for discussion over 90 uninterrupted minutes, beginning at 9 p.m. ET, include “Fighting COVID-19,” “American Families,” “Race in America,” “Climate Change,” “National Security” and “Leadership.”
But that’s just where the moderator, NBC’s Kristen Welker, will begin. Where the candidates go from there, especially in Trump’s case, is the wild card.
Here are five things to watch in the debate:
Debate rules: In order to enforce the debate’s rule, the commission has resorted to something familiar to a country operating by video conferences: The mute button. But there are questions over how effective the new guardrails will really be. Trump and his allies have been teeing up his plans to attack Welker and the commission by flouting the rules wherever they can. How Trump executes that strategy could provide the voters who haven’t already cast a ballot with their last memory of the President before they make a decision.
How Trump handles coronavirus questions: Trump wants to avoid the constant drumbeat of coronavirus news. Surging numbers across the country — including swing states central to his victory — make that impossible. Coronavirus remains the most important issue in the minds of voters. How Trump handles questions about the issue will have significant implications in this election.
Biden tries to pass one more test: Thursday night’s debate is effectively the last major hurdle that must be cleared by Biden, a candidate who — despite his reputation for gaffes, and some minor stumbles along the way — has largely stuck to the same message since launching his campaign in April 2019. If Biden emerges largely unscathed tonight, he’ll likely have successfully weathered every key moment with the potential to alter the dynamics of a presidential race polls show he is winning.
How Biden handles personal attacks: In the alternate universe of right-wing media, Biden is currently embroiled in scandal — most of it focusing on unproven allegations about his son Hunter Biden. There’s also a bogus “Obamagate” conspiracy theory that Trump has promoted, despite its underpinnings all having been knocked down in the real world. None of it seems to have moved voters who aren’t already part of Trump’s base, and attacking Biden’s surviving son could also backfire. But Trump is sure to try to use it all to attack Biden — a candidate who has at times flashed a temper.
Who will they direct their closing statements to? With the beginning of early in-person voting and millions of American casting their ballots by mail, the number of undecided voters still up for grabs is likely much smaller than it was just a few weeks ago. Even in more conventional circumstances, debates are as much about narrowcasting your message to potential supporters as they are about “winning” the argument on a given issue.
