Mute buttons at the ready for final Donald Trump-Joe Biden debate on coronavirus, race and climate change
US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, will face off for their second and final debate on Thursday night, a crucial test for Trump, who is trailing in polls as the nation continues to reel from a devastating pandemic his administration has failed to control.
Covid-19 is one of six subjects on the agenda for the debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, along with American families, race, climate change, national security and leadership.
Organisers are hoping for a more substantive discussion than the candidates' first combative face-off two weeks ago. Each speaker's microphone will be muted while their opponent delivers an opening two-minute response to each question.
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Similar to the first debate in September, Trump did little preparation ahead of Thursday's event, barring a few informal sessions aboard Air Force One, sources told NBC. As the president's near-daily campaign rallies have continued apace, a campaign spokesman told NBC: "The president prepares for debates by being president."
Former vice-president Biden, however, has retreated from the trail in recent days, favouring intensive preparatory sessions at his Delaware home with aides role-playing as Trump. Of crucial concern for his supporters is how he will handle repeated interjections from Trump standing a few feet away, even if those interruptions are not heard by viewers at home.
Biden is anticipating "personal attacks" from Trump, he told ABC affiliate WISN earlier this week. "Because he doesn't want to talk about why he's taking away health care at the very time we're in the middle of a pandemic," Biden said.
Thursday's event caps off a tumultuous debate season that saw the second of three planned meetings cancelled after Trump boycotted the virtual event over concerns that he would be muted by moderators.
The drama took another turn when the would-be moderator of that debate, C-Span's Steve Scully, was suspended by the network for lying that hackers were behind a tweet he sent regarding Trump's goading of him.
The Trump campaign renewed its attacks against debate organisers this week, protesting that foreign policy was not to be a dominant theme, and claiming that the Commission on Presidential Debates wanted to "insulate" Biden after an unsubstantiated report about his son's overseas business dealings.
During rallies since the publication of the unverified New York Post story, which alleged that Biden's son Hunter used his father's sway as vice-president in his business dealings in China and Ukraine, Trump has stepped up claims that his opponent would be beholden to foreign powers if elected.
Journalist Lesley Stahl is a host of "60 Minutes" on CBS. Photo: TNS alt=Journalist Lesley Stahl is a host of "60 Minutes" on CBS. Photo: TNS
Despite there being no specific foreign policy section carved out in the debate, Trump is expected to hone in on Hunter Biden and his business ventures in Ukraine and China regardless.
"[China] is an adversary, they're a competitor, they're a foe in many ways," Trump said in an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes that was scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday, but which Trump released early on Thursday to protest the "tough questions" posed by interviewer Lesley Stahl.
As his track record on the pandemic has come under increasing scrutiny in the final weeks of the campaign, Trump has intensified his attacks on the media, along with organisers of the debates, for what he claims to be a pro-Democrat bias.
"Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS," Trump wrote on Facebook as he posted the raw footage. "Tonight's anchor, Kristen Welker, is far worse!"
Thursday's debate comes not only among double-digit leads for Biden in national polls, but also as roughly six out of 10 likely voters believe that the coronavirus is out of control in the United States, according to an October 22 poll by Quinnipiac University.
Over 47 million people have already voted ahead of election day on November 3, either by mail or through early in-person voting, more than 30 per cent of the total number of votes cast in the 2016 presidential election.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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