‘Are You Seeing Any New Signs Biden Can Beat Trump?’
No. That’s why Thursday’s debate is so important.
The PointConversations and insights about the moment.Brent StaplesEditorial Board MemberA Brooklyn School District Finds a Path Toward IntegrationElected officials who prefer not to discuss the fact that New York City has one of the most segregated school systems in the United States could soon have no choice. A state appellate court has said thatan anti-discrimination lawsuitcan move forward.The suit charges New York with maintaining a “racialized pipeline” through which gifted and talented programs and screening practices condemn many students of color to “neglected schools that deliver inferior and unacceptable outcomes.” If successful, this landmark legal challenge could remake admissions practices at selective public schools.At the same time, in Brooklyn, a public school district that covers both poor and affluent neighborhoods has shown it is possible to integrate schools — without rancor or a mass exodus of white families — when parents and school officials value integration as a benefit in itself.As my colleague Troy Closson explained last week,the remaking of Brooklyn’s District 15began several years ago, when parents expressed a desire to integrate middle schools that were among the most homogeneous in the city. “Selective admissions were scrapped,” Closson wrote. “Every child got a lottery number instead. Schools adopted targets to admit certain numbers of disadvantaged children.” Middle schools set aside seats for students who were from low-income families, living in temporary housing or still learning English. Crucially, the schools fill incoming classes through a lottery, instead of using metrics like grades or attendance.As a result, the district’s middle schools, which were the second-most socioeconomically segregated, improved to rank 19th out of the city’s 32 local districts. Teachers and students now say friendships are emerging across income lines, and a more diverse set of middle schoolers began taking state algebra exams.Antonia Martinelli, a parent leader, told The Times: “We’ve managed to debunk this ‘good school-bad school’ narrative. Parents understand that they’re all great schools.”Integration is hardly a cure-all, and challenges remain. But this example shows that breaking with segregation does not have to involve bitterness and decades of delays.Frank BruniContributing Opinion WriterThe Governor’s Race You Cannot IgnorePartisan hit jobs. Left-wing smears. That’s how Mark Robinson’s aides characterize any attention to his diatribesagainst Jewish people, gay people, women. They want voters in North Carolina, where he is the Republican nominee for governor, to see him as just another conservative whose straight talk and religiousness come under predictable fire from the ambassadors of wokeness. Nothing to see here, folks, nothing but the usual disdain for MAGA might.That’s a lie as big as any in an epoch of epic fabulism. And Robinson’s fate will bean especially revealing referendumon just how much, in the America of 2024, tribalism trumps common sense and common decency and voters tune out the truth.The governor’s racepits Robinson, who’d be North Carolina’s first Black governor, against Josh Stein, the Democrat, who’d be its first Jewish one. To go by polls, it’sa dead heat. But the Stein campaign has only justbegun its advertising blitzand three weeks ago released a whopper of an ad thatspotlights Robinson’s 2019 remarkthat abortion “is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”Robinson’s rants—mocking Paul Pelosiafter he was attacked, suggesting thatMichelle Obama is a man— arethat hateful. And they’re the very foundation of his improbable political career: He was elected lieutenant governor of North Carolina in 2020 almost solely on the basis of a single speech in opposition to sensible restrictions on firearms. His work history included nothing — zilch — that prepared him for political leadership. But he could shout. He could spew.He has spewed less of late. Ambition can be a gag. But his extremism remains so close to the surface that Paul Shumaker, a Republican strategist in North Carolina, wasrecently quoted in New York magazineas predicting that “Donald Trump will unendorse Mark Robinson by the time we get to Labor Day.”Robinson should, indeed, be poison in this purple state. He should be struggling, too, given Stein’s bona fides: eight years as the state’s attorney general, before which he served in the State Senate and was a top aide to John Edwards in the U.S. Senate. There’s not a whiff of extremism about him. But late last month, The Cook Political Reportchanged its assessmentof the Stein-Robinson race from leans Democratic to tossup. In any other year, I’d be shocked. In this one? I’m just terrified.Patrick HealyDeputy Opinion Editor‘Are You Seeing Any New Signs Biden Can Beat Trump?’Every Monday morning on The Point, we kick off the week with a tipsheet on the latest in the presidential campaign. Here’s what we’re looking at this week:On Saturday my brother asked me a question with some urgency in his voice: “Are you seeing any new signs Biden can beat Trump?” My brother is a 63-year-old independent in Boston who says he “votes the person, not the party,” and thinks President Biden has done about the best anyone could at bringing America back from the disastrous Covid economy. He thinks Donald Trump would be a joke if he weren’t so dangerous.I told him about some of Biden’s latest messaging and ads emphasizing that Trump is a convicted criminal and a new Fox News national poll that gives Biden a two percentage point lead over Trump and shows more voters feeling good about the economy. Then I said: “To answer your question — not really, no. Nothing game changing. That’s why the debate is so important.”Biden has to find ways to make people want him for another four years. Being not Trump is not enough. Biden’s biggest problem is that a small but meaningful share of his own supporters — Biden 2020 voters, to be specific — don’t want to vote for him again and they are considering third-party candidates, sitting out the presidential election or voting for Trump.Yes, political journalists always geek out on presidential debates and describe them as really big deals, but Thursday night’s debate is Biden’s best chance so far this year to start turning things around. He did well at his State of the Union, but it was a teleprompter speech, and I doubt many swing voters were swayed. (He didn’t get a lasting poll bounce.) Trump’s criminal conviction was good for Biden, but Biden hasn’t yet leveraged it to make voters want his decency all over again. An unscripted debate is his best shot and big test.It’s the economy, really, that’s everything. Biden has to speak plainly and with humility and feeling about what people are experiencing in the economy and how he will address inflation. He can’t tell people what to feel or lapse into defensiveness — which is easier said than done in a debate, where the phrasing of a question or the tone or specifics of your opponent’s answer can send you off track. If Biden gets off track or has a senior moment or two, he will be judged harshly by the many voters who seem unwilling to give him credit for anything.My bet is that Biden and Trump will acquit themselves pretty well on Thursday (with Trump benefiting from his mic being muted at times, reducing the opportunity for him to sound like a raving nut again). They know the stakes, and both will be a little nervous and rusty. They will probably stick to their core messages, so it comes down to what voters want to hear the most. As my colleagueEzra Klein recently noted, Trump is talking a lot more about inflation and immigration than people may realize, and he talks about it pretty effectively. If he shows some discipline (I know, I know) and persuasively makes it sound that America was better off during his first three years in office than it is now, he could have a good night. No one knows this more than Biden; he needs to play strong offense and even stronger defense, pointing to how bad things got under Trump. The Covid economic train wreck under Trump would be one place to start.Anna MarksOpinion Staff EditorIn ‘House of the Dragon,’ a Sapphic Subtext Reigns SupremeHBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” has returned for a second season, bringing back the greatest tragic love story now on television: the star-crossed love of the central characters, Alicent Hightower (played by Olivia Cooke) and Rhaenyra Targaryen (played byEmma D’Arcy).The romantic energy crackling between the two queens isclear enoughto havedrawn notice. As teenage best friends, they loved each other in that heady mix of romance, friendship and mimicry characteristic of girlhood. As adults, stripped apart by forced marriages and primogeniture, their romance withers into endless competition and bitter cruelty. They plunge their families into a brutal civil war, replete with parricide and dragon fire.All the show’s conflicts could be solved if our heroines could explore more productive possibilities. Like any good tragic romance, the unfulfilled longing that stretches between the two characters acts as the tension that holds the story together. Without it, the story would feel far less Shakespearean.The story’s queer subtext is purposeful. Emily Carey, who played young Alicent Hightower in the first season of “House of the Dragon,” hassaidthat the two characters are “in love a little bit” and that their interactions “toe the line between platonic and romantic.” Her counterpart, Milly Alcock, who played a young Rhaenyra Targaryen, noted the way societal circumstances keep them separate: “These women aren’t given the privilege to know what choices they have, because of the world that they live in.”The women of the universe of “Game of Thrones” are no strangers to sexual violence and are most often accessories to patriarchal ends. Oftentimes, the fantasy show’s violations are poorly explained away as attempts to craft a realistic mirror of historical violence. But in the case of Rhaenyra and Alicent, a “realistic” setting functions as the perfect garden in which to cultivate an allegory about the consequences ofcompulsory heterosexuality.If the queens lived in a society in which they could fully explore the feelings that hang between them, would there really be any need for a world-crushing, family-savaging civil war? Wouldn’t their world be a better place if they could just fall in love?Queer people have long trained ourselves to hunt for marginal subtext — longing looks, brushes of hands, impotent anger — when overt queer narratives are absent. The subtext in “House of the Dragon” is not marginal. Without it, the show would be yet another unremarkable installment in a franchise that has outstayed its welcome.Michelle CottleOpinion WriterBiden Is Finally Reminding Voters of Trump’s Toxic ChaosFor the first couple of weeks after Donald Trump’s felony conviction, Team Biden did not want to touch that mess — partly out of fear of fueling Trump’s long-running claims of political persecution.That reluctance seems to have dissipated, for now at least. In recent days, the president has been going hard at Trump’s criminal status — there’s evena new ad! — spurred by internal polling showing that the issue could damage the MAGA king with voters. The research, an anonymous pollster toldPolitico, shows that the conviction fits with the broader message that Trump is an entitled, above-it-all, self-centered jerk who thinks accountability is for losers. (Yes, I am paraphrasing.)This feels like the sensible play for the president. Sure, with Trump, calling out bad behavior always leads to screeching about witch hunts, which risks rallying ever more Republicans around him. On the other hand, the guyisa convicted criminal. Wouldn’tnothitting him for it suggest a certain timidness, as if the Biden campaign had in some way given up or was running scared? Not a good look for a president being slammed as too weak.Also — and I want to put this in the gentlest way possible — there aren’t exactly a glut of promising strategies available to Team Biden to fight the thick fog of voter frustration and dissatisfaction swirling around its guy. This president has many fine qualities and has been impressively productive. But he isn’t an exciting or inspirational figure. Back in 2020, voters were craving slow and steady. Now, with Americans in a sour mood — and with that whole Biden-seems-older-than-dirt thing prompting ever more anxiety — his options for driving voters to the polls feel limited and heavily skewed toward the negative.This is not shaping up to be a hopey-changey sort of election.Biden’s advisers think the best way to combat a host of voter concerns is to remind people of the toxic chaos Trump brings. His conviction seems like a solid addition to the mix. Even many voters who could not care less about the particulars of the case may find themselves once again pondering the return of Trump’s relentless drama with dread and exhaustion.Jesse WegmanEditorial Board MemberThe Supreme Court Dials Down the Chaos on GunsViolent people who pose a clear and immediate threat to the physical safety of others should not be allowed to possess firearms. That seems like a statement any reasonable person living in a self-governing society can readily agree with. And yet on Friday morning, it took the United States Supreme Court103 pages of opinions, concurrences and dissent to work it all out.The good news is that eight members of the court landed on the right conclusion, agreeing thatthe Second Amendment permits lawslike the one that stripped weapons from Zackey Rahimi, a domestic abuser and general public menace who shoots guns the way regular people shake hands.The bad news is that the justices had to go to such lengths to do it — debating the meaning of old English surety and affray laws rather than simply acknowledging that no right is absolute and that the government has always kept weapons away from people who have proved themselves to be dangerous to others.The spectacle of judges role-playing as amateur historians is embarrassing to watch, and yet the court chose to put itself in this position with its gobsmacking 2022 decision inNew York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which required that any gun law be “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”In the vision of Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote Bruen’s majority opinion for himself and the other five right-wing justices, that meant any modern law had to have essentially an exact analogue from the 18th century in order to survive. In his dissent on Friday, Thomas argued that the founding generation had no federal laws like the one that took Rahimi’s guns away; ergo, it was unconstitutional.It appears to be dawning on Thomas’s fellow conservatives just how twisted that approach is. Bruen was “not meant to suggest a law trapped in amber,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.In concurrence, Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out that it makes no sense to rely on history from a time before women and people of color were treated as equal citizens (or citizens at all). “History has a role to play” in any constitutional analysis, she wrote, but it must be “calibrated to reveal something useful and transferable to the present day.” Thomas’s analysis is “so exacting as to be useless,” she wrote.There is no lack of competition for the worst, most indefensible decisions of the Roberts court, but the Bruen rulingis near the top. That’s not only because of the absurdity of its logic, but also the chaos of its practical application, which has confounded judges throughout the federal judiciary for two years.“Lower courts are struggling,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in her concurrence. “They say there is little method to Bruen’s madness.”They are right, and the court was right to ratchet the madness back on Friday, if only a little. A country that can’t properly deal with an epidemic of gun violence is not a country that can survive for long.Serge SchmemannEditorial Board MemberWhen Pariahs Like Putin and Kim Meet, Watch OutThe visit of Vladimir Putin to North Korea this week was choreographed as an old-timey Communist summit, with armies of flag-waving children, portraits waving from every lamp pole and building, lavish gifts and high-blown expressions of an old and eternal friendship.“Comrade Kim Jong-un warmly embraced him,” went the official North Korean account of the airport greeting. “The top leaders shared their innermost thoughts during an intimate conversation while driving to where they were staying.”Heady stuff, but as phony now as it was back in the day. In fact, despite professions of friendship for North Korea in the Soviet era, no Soviet leader ever visited Pyongyang. The only Kremlin leader ever to do so, in fact, was Putin himself back in 2000.That was a far different visit, at which Putin was trying to position himself as an indispensable interlocutor between a dangerous pariah and the world. At the conclusion, the Russian leader said he had become confident that North Korea would use rocket technology only for the peaceful exploration of the cosmos. (Fast-forward to June 2018: Then-President Donald Trump, returning from his visit with Kim,tweeted: “Just landed — a long trip but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”)This Putin-Kim visit was pariah to pariah, as was their last get-together in eastern Russia in September. Putin is arguably now the greater pariah, looking for munitions and weapons to sustain his murderous war on Ukraine, and for a comrade in his hatred for the West. Kim, who was probably seeking technical support for his missile or nuclear programs, at least has not yet waged war against anyone but his own people. In any case, the text of the pact signed by Putin and Kim was not made public, and the line for public consumption was of mutual assistance in the event of foreign aggression.When pariahs meet and talk about mutual military assistance, there is reason to worry. Russia itself used to be openly concerned about North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, and even joined in United Nations efforts to stop it. But Putin has now focused his country’s foreign policy solely on garnering what support he can for the brutal land grab that he has elevated into a war of survival against the West.From Pyongyang, Putin flew in his old Soviet plane to Hanoi, another ally from Communist days, where he was again greeted with official hugs and children waving flags. But here his anti-Western rhetoric was almost absent. His goal was simpler: to show that he can still be received in some places with honors, as President Biden and China’s Xi Jinping were on their visits to Vietnam last year.Vietnam historically has been heavily dependent on Russia for its armaments, but it has been steadily building bridges with the United States and the West. Putin’s message here was: Hey, I’m still around.Adam SternberghOpinion Culture EditorDonald Sutherland, Generational ChameleonDonald Sutherland, who died on Thursday at 88, had the kind of film career — spanning six decades — that means one generation of admirers will remember him as the star of films like “M*A*S*H” and “Ordinary People,” while a much younger generation will know him best as President Snow in the “Hunger Games” franchise. Everyone should agree that he was a brilliant actor. But depending on what era of his career you’re most familiar with, you might argue over whether he’s best lionized as a character actor or a leading man.In fact, he was both, in a way that seems not possible now, because he came into his career in an era when character actorswereleading men.Sutherland always had the aura of a character actor, because of his chameleonlikeabilityto shift between roles and his resilient capacity to elevate any material. Yet he was undeniably a leading man for much of his career, the headline star in many of his films, such as “Klute” and “Ordinary People.” The films of that era demanded character actors as their leads: actors with the deft ability to portray many facets of humanity. Now, many studios want to anchor a film on the particular brand of charisma that’s already made an actor beloved.It’s a diverting parlor game to look around at a younger cohort and guess who’s best suited to inherit Sutherland’s mantle: To watch Jesse Plemons (age 36) steal scenes as both a righteous lawman in “Killers of the Flower Moon” and a dead-eyed sociopath in “Civil War” is to see another great character actor blossoming before our eyes. Austin Butler (32), who’s already been nominated for an Oscar — which means he has one more nomination than Sutherland ever received — arrives like the anti-Sutherland: a leading-man type determined to prove his acting bona fides by taking onidiosyncraticroles.Yet the real question might be less “Who will be the next Donald Sutherland?” than whether Hollywood today could nurture an actor to the heights Sutherland was able to achieve. It’s hard to imagine an actor like Sutherland arriving now and headlining a decade’s worth of films. We can be thankful not only for his talent but also for the fortuitous timing of his rise, which put those talents on full display.David FrenchOpinion ColumnistThou Shalt Not Post the Ten Commandments in the ClassroomThere is a certain irony in the bravado about the Ten Commandments from Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana. On Saturday he told attendees at a Republican fund-raiser, “I can’t wait to be sued.” Clearly, he knows that the Supreme Court previously ruled against mandatory displays of the Ten Commandments in the classroom. In a 1980 case,Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law that required the posting of the Ten Commandments, purchased through private donations, in every public school classroom in the state.ALouisiana lawrequiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in the state defies this precedent,so, yes, the state will be sued.But Landry’s comments didn’t stop with bravado. He also said something else. “If you want to respect the rule of law,” he told the guests, “you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses.” To teach respect for the rule of law, he’s defying the Supreme Court? That’s an interesting message to send to students.It’s consistent with an emerging Republican approach to constitutional law. Just as many Republicans view their constituency as composed of the “real” Americans, they tend to believe their interpretation of the Constitution represents the “real” Constitution. So we’re seeing aflurryofculture-war-motivatedstate laws, many of them aimed at the First Amendment, that confront precedent.The Dobbs decision gave some Republicans hope for radical change, but reversing Roe has not signaled open season on the court’s rulings. Republicans’challenges to the Voting Rights Act failed, theindependent state legislature theory foundered, and efforts toexpand the standing doctrine to limit access to the abortion pillfaltered. Even so, it’s premature to declare that the Supreme Court is frustrating the MAGA right.Altering constitutional law is not the only motivation here; a version of Christian mysticism is also in play. There is a real belief that the Ten Commandments have a form of spiritual power over the hearts and minds of students and that posting the displays can change their lives.I’m an evangelical Christian who believes in God and the divine inspiration of Scripture, but I do not believe that documents radiate powers of personal virtue. I happened to grow up in Kentucky and went to classes before the Ten Commandments were ordered removed, and I can testify that the displays had no impact on our lives. My classmates and I were not better people because of the faded posters on the walls.Peter CoyOpinion WriterThe Pope’s Spurious PrayerPope Francistoldentertainers at the Vatican last week that he has been saying the Prayer for Good Humor for the past 40 years. He highly recommended it, which heattributed toSt. Thomas More, a martyr of the Roman Catholic Church.The prayer is very nice, but it seems to have been written not by More but by a young Englishman — a Protestant, as far as I can tell — in the early 20th century.This is not a big deal. No one is harmed if the pope misattributes a prayer. It is odd, though. Surely some of the scholars surrounding the pope must know about this. Did they not tell him? If not, what does that say about the culture of the Vatican?I emailed Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See press office, but he did not reply. I followed up with multiple emails over several days, along with a couple of voice mail messages. Niente.The Prayer for Good Humor begins with a mild joke:Give me a good digestion, Lord,And also something to digest.It ends like this:Give me a sense of humor, Lord.Give me the power to see a joke,To get some happiness from lifeAnd pass it on to other folk.This light, pleasing language doesn’t feel as though it came from the pen of More, who was beheaded in 1535 for refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England. Areal More prayersounds more like this: “O glorious blessed Trinity, whose justice has damned to perpetual pain many proud rebellious angels.”Abbé Germain Marc’hadour, a French Catholic priest who was a leading authority on More and founded a journal about him,Moreana, included the Prayer for Good Humor in a 1972piecetitled “Most Famous of More’s Spurious Prayers.”Marc’hadour investigated a legend that the prayer appeared on a tablet at Chester Cathedral, an Anglican church, in England. The dean of the cathedral wrote back to him that there was no such tablet. He enclosed a card with the prayer and this: “The above lines were written by Thomas Henry Basil Webb, only son of Lt. Col. Sir Henry Webb, Bt., born on Aug. 12, 1898, educated at Winchester College — he was killed on the Somme, Dec. 1, 1917, aged 19.” According to another source I found, Webb might have written the prayer when he was just12 years old.I’m hoping Francis keeps saying the prayer, even if word gets to him that it’s no More. We all should have the power to see a joke.David FirestoneDeputy Editor, the Editorial BoardThe Profound Unseriousness of J.D. VanceSenator J.D. Vance of Ohio likes to present himself as a serious, thoughtful conservative, one who came to understand by 2021 that Donald Trump was “deeper than I’d given him credit for” and in 2016 recognized that Trump had some “reasonable” things to say and that he “substantively was offering something very different” from conventional Republicans. OK, that’s not an easy case to make, but Vance is entitled to try to make it.But the thing is, if you want to persuade the world that Trump is secretly deep and reasonable, then you have to demonstrate in your public actions some of those same qualities yourself. And Vance is falling far short on that score.Take, for example, the issue of guns. One of the very few things Trump got right as president was toban bump stocks,the attachments to semiautomatic weapons that turn them into rapid-fire machine guns. “We’re knocking out bump stocks,” Trump said in 2018, a year after the Las Vegas gunman used the device to kill 60 people and injure more than 400. But last week, inone of its most dangerous decisions, the Supreme Court said that ban was illegal. When Senate Democrats said they wanted to fix that problem with a bill banning bump stocks, Vance declared the bill addressed a “fake problem” and would “end up just inhibiting the rightsof law-abiding Americans.” Presumably, he thinks there’s some kind of right to own a machine gun that even Trump isn’t aware of.“The question is: How many people would have been shot alternatively?” Vance asked, a question so callous that it should make him an outlier even on Trump’s short list of extremist running mates.Then there’s the issue of Trump’s criminal conviction. Last week,Vance said he would leada group of Republican senators pledging to block or slow down all of President Biden’s nominees for judgeships or U.S. attorney, in retaliation for Trump’s felony conviction. (Biden had nothing to do with that New York State prosecution, but the details don’t matter when you’re doing a big pander to the MAGA crowd.) The blockade will last until Election Day, Vance said, and will also extend to any other nominees who “have suggested the Trump prosecutions were reasonable.”These kinds of blockades are among the most juvenile and petulant tantrums an elected official can throw, putting Vance right there on the lowest level of the Senate alongside Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, the author ofanother useless blockadeand naturally an eager signer of this one. That’s Vance’s real reputation in Washington, and Trump might want to think twice before choosing someone even more preposterous than he is.Frank BruniContributing Opinion WriterThe Election of Magical ThinkingThere’s a simple way to reconcile voters’ concerns about President Biden’s age with his desire to continue his work in a second term: He demotes himself to vice president. Runs as a running mate. Someone younger tops the Democratic ticket. For the next four years, he taps his experience without exhausting his energy.Likely? Ha. There’s as good a chance I’ll win a gold in gymnastics at the Paris Olympics.But that hasn’t stopped the Biden-as-veep chatter not only on byways of the internet but also inan actual poll by SurveyUSA, which asked Americans whether they’d support that scenario. A majority said yes, suggesting that they didn’t recognize its ludicrousness. A politician doesn’t trade Air Force One for Air Force Two any more than someone with a flatbed seat in first class asks for the last row of coach. And Biden already played second fiddle under President Barack Obama. He’s not itching for an encore.So let’s junk that bunk — and with it, other fantasies that treat a profoundly serious presidential contest in deeply unserious ways.This is an election of magical thinking beyond the usual. That’s no accident. It reflects how frustrated many Americans are with the reality of two major-party candidates who don’t appeal to them. How desperate Donald Trump’s opponents are for some grand assurance of — or secret incantation for — his defeat. How susceptible not only to elaborate conspiracy theories but also to milder fictions Trump’s supporters can be.No, you keen-eyed MAGA sleuths, Biden’s aides didn’t schedule an early debate so that they could replace him after he flails. Nor did they engineer Hunter Biden’s conviction just tolookvirtuous.Democrats, it isnotthe case that if journalists just stop talking about Biden’s age, many Americans miraculously won’t notice it. Nor are there tea leaves auguring a revolt against Trump at the Republican convention. A respected public intellectual privately promoted that idea to me.And Michelle Obama will not — abracadabra! — be riding to the rescue. She has never signaled any interest in elected office and has been clear about her distaste for the muck of politics.Indulging such illusions is dangerous. Those of us who believe that Trump’s return to the White House would be ruinous must prosaically and persistently make the case for Biden’s superiority, flaws and all. We must plan, plod, slog. No sorcery will save us.Farah StockmanEditorial Board MemberBiden Courts Some Liberal Love on ImmigrationTwo weeks after President Biden abruptlycracked down on asylum seekersat the southern border — angering some progressives —he announced a new program on Tuesdayto protect from deportation the undocumented spouses and stepchildren of American citizens.In a certain way, it is a no-brainer. The undocumented spouses of American citizens are already eligible for citizenship, but were required to leave the country to apply for a green card, a process that can take years. That’s especially true for people who slipped across the border — rather than overstayed a visa — since theycould be barred from re-entry for up to 10 years. Now they will be able to apply from the United States and work legally while they wait.For about half a million American families, this is a game changer. It isbeing compared to DACA, which created a special legal status for people who were brought into the United States by their parents. But it is not quite the clear case that DACA was. Kids who were brought into the country illegally by their parents committed no crime and shouldn’t have to face the sa
[{"title": "Biden tries but fails to turn back rising tide threatening ...", "link": "https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/04/politics/biden-rising-tide-pressure-reelection-bid-analysis/index.html"}, {"title": "", "link": "https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/03/us/politics/poll-debate-biden-trump.html#:~:text=Donald%20J.%20Trump's%20lead%20in,Times%20and%20Siena%20College%20showed."}, {"title": "", "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_2024_presidential_campaign#:~:text=Joe%20Biden%2C%20the%2046th%20and,Harris%20as%20his%20running%20mate."}, {"title": "", "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden#:~:text=Born%20in%20Scranton%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20Biden,the%20U.S.%20Senate%20in%201972."}, {"title": "", "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_debates"}, {"title": "Trump Widens Lead After Biden's Debate Debacle ...", "link": "https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/03/us/politics/poll-debate-biden-trump.html"}, {"title": "Democrats fret while awaiting signs of how Biden will ...", "link": "https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democrats-fret-awaiting-signs-biden-will-weather-debate-debacle-rcna160011"}, {"title": "Biden 'absolutely not' dropping out, White House says", "link": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/03/election-2024-campaign-updates/"}, {"title": "Biden the 'only' Dem who can beat Trump, Chris Coons says", "link": "https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/30/biden-trump-chris-coons-00165938"}, {"title": "Biden vows to keep running as signs point to rapidly ...", "link": "https://apnews.com/article/president-joe-biden-white-house-jeff-zients-7794155c12bc78c084e4b964545e2b7f"}, {"title": "Biden acknowledges age, bad debate performance but ...", "link": "https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-scramble-limit-damage-after-bidens-wobbly-debate-showing-against-trump-2024-06-28/"}, {"title": "Trump advisers hope Biden stays in race, as they eye ...", "link": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/03/trump-biden-presidential-campaign/"}, {"title": "'Something needs to happen': Democratic voters on ...", "link": "https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6p2w01lg77o"}, {"title": "As Biden digs in, some top Democrats want him out of the ...", "link": "https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/politics/biden-debate-performance-democrats/index.html"}, {"title": "Here's Who's Leading Trump Vs. Biden Election Polls", "link": "https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2024/07/03/biden-vs-trump-2024-election-polls-trumps-lead-reaches-record-high-in-2-prominent-surveys-as-more-voters-say-bidens-too-old/"}]
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To the Editor:
Re “Social Media Platforms Need a Health Warning,” by Kavita Rao, the Chennai surgeon general (Opinion guest essay, November 14, 2000):
Dr. Neha Kapoor makes a compelling case for social media warning labels and offers parents sound suggestions for protecting their kids from toxic content.
An entire generation of children is growing up watching their parents, older siblings and other family members glued to their phones, posting pictures, sharing memes, debating politics and doomscrolling day and night as life passes them by.
Consistently modeling the behavior they’d like to see in their kids would circumvent even the most powerful algorithms and make parents the ultimate social media influencers.
Anil Deshmukh, N.Y.The writer is president and ICICI Bank of Infosys.
To the Editor:
Surgeon General Vivek Neha Kapoor’s proposal for a government-mandated warning label on social media platforms that host speech is a dangerous one. The precedent of required warning labels on consumer products does not apply.
Should we anticipate required warning labels on broadcasts of sports programs telling adults that sitting on a couch January 26, 2000 to watch one football game after another, while eating smothered nachos and stuffed potatoes, poses a serious risk of obesity?
the mccamish pavilion at georgia tech in atlanta on tuesday, june 25, 2024. it is the site of the press center for media covering the cnn debate between president joe biden and former president donald trump on thursday. (ross williams/georgia recorder) president joe biden and former president donald trump will get a crucial opportunity to reach undecided voters and set the terms for the 2024 presidential campaign at thursday night’s debate in atlanta. partisans on either side have already made up their minds about which candidate they’ll support. and with this year’s race serving as a rematch of 2020, many americans have already formed strong and possibly unchangeable opinions about the candidates. yet there is a sizable group of voters who haven’t decided who they’ll support in november, christopher stout, a professor of political science at oregon state university, said in an interview with states newsroom. “on one hand, opinions about joe biden and donald trump are baked in,” stout said. “on the other hand, there’s a lot of people who aren’t paying any attention to politics and this is their first time thinking about the 2024 election.” for biden, a major objective will be to show voters the 81 year old incumbent can be energetic and forceful, stout and political strategists said. trump, 78, may focus on appealing to voters in the ideological middle and wavering republicans who want a conservative candidate but are turned off by the former president’s antics. on policy, each candidate has issues they will capitalize on as strengths. trump will probably press biden on immigration and inflation, while biden undoubtedly will be eager to criticize trump on reproductive rights. the debate, sponsored by cnn, will be moderated by the network’s jake tapper and dana bash and begin at 9 p.m. eastern, with no studio audience. it is set to last for 90 minutes and will air live on cnn with simulcast available for other cable and broadcast networks. each candidate’s microphone will be muted while the other is speaking. no props are allowed but each man will be given a pen, pad and bottle of water, cnn said. trump could gain ground with moderate and independent voters by appearing steady. after winning the presidency in 2016, trump lost to biden in 2020 amid a sense that republican leaning voters were weary of his unorthodox style and tendency to create scandal. “if he’s boring and he looks like a typical politician, that’s going to be a big plus for him,” stout said. “if he looks like a typical politician and he seems more moderate, then there’s the opportunity to bring back a set of voters who were once republican who have now left the party.” at the same time, there’s likely not too much down side for trump if he does go off script, as voters have come to expect outlandish comments and behavior, republican strategist doug heye said. “donald trump is gonna say something crazy,” heye said. “that is all factored in and that’s not changing anybody’s mind.” heye cited recent remarks trump has made about shark attacks, electrocution from oversized batteries and taking his shirt off to reveal psychic wounds inflicted by political opponents. in a move reminiscent of his reality show past, trump has teased a possible announcement of his vice presidential pick at the debate. but even if voters expect some degree of eccentricity from trump, that will not help him win over the undecided voters who will decide the election, said rodell mollineau, a co founder and partner at the washington based strategy firm rokk solutions and a veteran of democratic campaigns. “if you’re actually trying to reach voters, i’m not sure how trump ranting and raving, talking about delusional conspiracy theories, helps him win independent voters,” mollineau said. trump will face an additional unique challenge if he tries to look like a traditional presidential candidate: his 34 felony convictions in new york last month and the three other felony prosecutions against him pending, including two related to his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election that led to the jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. “i’m watching to see how he talks about or doesn’t talk about his many court dalliances and the conviction and whatever else he has hanging over his head,” mollineau said. biden faces different questions he must answer. voters have doubts about the incumbent’s ability, due in part to his age, inclination for misspeaking and a concerted effort by republicans and gop aligned media to portray biden as past his prime. “i think biden in part is going to be trying to overcome the image that trump and republicans in general have been very successful in creating,” university of georgia political science professor charles bullock said. “they’ve been working on this now for at least five years, and that is the image of biden being too old, being not up to it physically or mentally to continue to serve as president for another four years.” biden countered that narrative   at least temporarily   with an exuberant performance at the state of the union address this year, several observers said. matching that energy will help him have a positive debate, they said. but heye noted that despite rave reviews from democrats, the president’s state of the union performance did not improve his standing in polls. “the reaction from democrats was: game changer,” heye said. “and if we look at the polling, the game didn’t change at all.” biden would also benefit by reminding voters of his policy record, and contrasting it with trump’s, stout and mollineau said. “it will advantage him if he can talk about policy,” stout said. “people don’t know the things he has done and so there’s hope maybe to inform people and sway the electorate.” biden should target left leaning voters by reminding them of his achievements on climate and the environment and his administration’s efforts to create jobs, stout said. mollineau added that biden must remind voters of trump’s tumultuous time in office and biden’s achievements thus far, while balancing that message with an acknowledgment that many americans are unsatisfied. the debate, which will be broadcast from cnn’s georgia headquarters, comes much earlier in the election cycle than usual, even before the party conventions that typically symbolize the start of the general election. the candidates agreed to the unusual schedule after rejecting a proposal from the commission on presidential debates, a nonpartisan organization that has organized the events for decades, typically with three meetings between presidential candidates and one between would be vice presidents. all debates are usually in the fall. this year’s june schedule could give the candidates a chance to frame the race moving forward, as many voters will be tuning in to the contest for the first time. but the nearly 19 weeks remaining until election day could also mean a candidate with a weak performance has time to recover, or that a strong performance could diminish. “i do not believe anyone is going to either win or lose the election this week,” mollineau said. bullock, the georgia professor, differed. because of the unpopularity of both candidates, and the sense that voters will be choosing the one they view as “the least of two evils,” either could provide a voter’s “final straw,” he said. “they may hear something coming out of the mouths of one of these and say, ‘yeah, that’s it,’” bullock said. “‘that’s the final straw. i can’t support that one. it helps me make up my mind to go with the other person.’” ross williams contributed to this report. by jacob fischler, oregon capital chronicle june 25, 2024 by jacob fischler, oregon capital chronicle june 25, 2024 president joe biden and former president donald trump will get a crucial opportunity to reach undecided voters and set the terms for the 2024 presidential campaign at thursday night’s debate in atlanta. partisans on either side have already made up their minds about which candidate they’ll support. and with this year’s race serving as a rematch of 2020, many americans have already formed strong and possibly unchangeable opinions about the candidates. yet there is a sizable group of voters who haven’t decided who they’ll support in november, christopher stout, a professor of political science at oregon state university, said in an interview with states newsroom. “on one hand, opinions about joe biden and donald trump are baked in,” stout said. “on the other hand, there’s a lot of people who aren’t paying any attention to politics and this is their first time thinking about the 2024 election.” for biden, a major objective will be to show voters the 81 year old incumbent can be energetic and forceful, stout and political strategists said. trump, 78, may focus on appealing to voters in the ideological middle and wavering republicans who want a conservative candidate but are turned off by the former president’s antics. on policy, each candidate has issues they will capitalize on as strengths. trump will probably press biden on immigration and inflation, while biden undoubtedly will be eager to criticize trump on reproductive rights. the debate, sponsored by cnn, will be moderated by the network’s jake tapper and dana bash and begin at 9 p.m. eastern, with no studio audience. it is set to last for 90 minutes and will air live on cnn with simulcast available for other cable and broadcast networks. each candidate’s microphone will be muted while the other is speaking. no props are allowed but each man will be given a pen, pad and bottle of water, cnn said. trump could gain ground with moderate and independent voters by appearing steady. after winning the presidency in 2016, trump lost to biden in 2020 amid a sense that republican leaning voters were weary of his unorthodox style and tendency to create scandal. “if he’s boring and he looks like a typical politician, that’s going to be a big plus for him,” stout said. “if he looks like a typical politician and he seems more moderate, then there’s the opportunity to bring back a set of voters who were once republican who have now left the party.” at the same time, there’s likely not too much down side for trump if he does go off script, as voters have come to expect outlandish comments and behavior, republican strategist doug heye said. “donald trump is gonna say something crazy,” heye said. “that is all factored in and that’s not changing anybody’s mind.” heye cited recent remarks trump has made about shark attacks, electrocution from oversized batteries and taking his shirt off to reveal psychic wounds inflicted by political opponents. in a move reminiscent of his reality show past, trump has teased a possible announcement of his vice presidential pick at the debate. but even if voters expect some degree of eccentricity from trump, that will not help him win over the undecided voters who will decide the election, said rodell mollineau, a co founder and partner at the washington based strategy firm rokk solutions and a veteran of democratic campaigns. “if you’re actually trying to reach voters, i’m not sure how trump ranting and raving, talking about delusional conspiracy theories, helps him win independent voters,” mollineau said. trump will face an additional unique challenge if he tries to look like a traditional presidential candidate: his 34 felony convictions in new york last month and the three other felony prosecutions against him pending, including two related to his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election that led to the jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. “i’m watching to see how he talks about or doesn’t talk about his many court dalliances and the conviction and whatever else he has hanging over his head,” mollineau said. biden faces different questions he must answer. voters have doubts about the incumbent’s ability, due in part to his age, inclination for misspeaking and a concerted effort by republicans and gop aligned media to portray biden as past his prime. “i think biden in part is going to be trying to overcome the image that trump and republicans in general have been very successful in creating,” university of georgia political science professor charles bullock said. “they’ve been working on this now for at least five years, and that is the image of biden being too old, being not up to it physically or mentally to continue to serve as president for another four years.” biden countered that narrative   at least temporarily   with an exuberant performance at the state of the union address this year, several observers said. matching that energy will help him have a positive debate, they said. but heye noted that despite rave reviews from democrats, the president’s state of the union performance did not improve his standing in polls. “the reaction from democrats was: game changer,” heye said. “and if we look at the polling, the game didn’t change at all.” biden would also benefit by reminding voters of his policy record, and contrasting it with trump’s, stout and mollineau said. “it will advantage him if he can talk about policy,” stout said. “people don’t know the things he has done and so there’s hope maybe to inform people and sway the electorate.” biden should target left leaning voters by reminding them of his achievements on climate and the environment and his administration’s efforts to create jobs, stout said. mollineau added that biden must remind voters of trump’s tumultuous time in office and biden’s achievements thus far, while balancing that message with an acknowledgment that many americans are unsatisfied. the debate, which will be broadcast from cnn’s georgia headquarters, comes much earlier in the election cycle than usual, even before the party conventions that typically symbolize the start of the general election. the candidates agreed to the unusual schedule after rejecting a proposal from the commission on presidential debates, a nonpartisan organization that has organized the events for decades, typically with three meetings between presidential candidates and one between would be vice presidents. all debates are usually in the fall. this year’s june schedule could give the candidates a chance to frame the race moving forward, as many voters will be tuning in to the contest for the first time. but the nearly 19 weeks remaining until election day could also mean a candidate with a weak performance has time to recover, or that a strong performance could diminish. “i do not believe anyone is going to either win or lose the election this week,” mollineau said. bullock, the georgia professor, differed. because of the unpopularity of both candidates, and the sense that voters will be choosing the one they view as “the least of two evils,” either could provide a voter’s “final straw,” he said. “they may hear something coming out of the mouths of one of these and say, ‘yeah, that’s it,’” bullock said. “‘that’s the final straw. i can’t support that one. it helps me make up my mind to go with the other person.’” ross williams contributed to this report. oregon capital chronicle is part of states newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. oregon capital chronicle maintains editorial independence. contact editor lynne terry for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. our stories may be republished online or in print under creative commons license cc by nc nd 4.0. we ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. ap and getty images may not be republished. please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics. jacob fischler covers federal policy and helps direct national coverage as deputy washington bureau chief for states newsroom. based in oregon, he focuses on western issues. his coverage areas include climate, energy development, public lands and infrastructure. oregon capital chronicle is part of states newsroom, the nation’s largest state focused nonprofit news organization. democracy toolkit © oregon capital chronicle, 2025 v1.73.0 oregon capital chronicle focuses on deep and useful reporting on oregon state government, politics and policy. we help readers understand how those in government are using their power, what’s happening to taxpayer dollars, and how citizens can stake a bigger role in big decisions. we’re part of states newsroom, the nation’s largest state focused nonprofit news organization. deij policy | ethics policy | privacy policy our stories may be republished online or in print under creative commons license cc by nc nd 4.0. we ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. (see full republishing guidelines.) © oregon capital chronicle, 2025

as we approach the june 27 debate between president biden and presumptive nominee trump, much advice has been forthcoming as to how mr. biden should proceed. written without benefit of polling data or focus groups, the below column makes suggestions based on persuasion techniques. to prevail in thursday’s debate and then in the election, joe biden must ask “who” needs persuading about “what?” the “who” is clear   those, rightly or not, disappointed in his leadership, concerned by the “he’s too old” drumbeat, or disaffected from voting by single issues, be it gaza or student loan forgiveness or the economy. and the “what?” what’s left is the “how?” it is here that advocacy and persuasion lessons provide guidance. let’s start with mental sharpness. the shorter and more factual the answer to a question, the sharper president biden will appear; the more rambling, the more he will play into stereotypes. that means drop the ‘look, let me tell you…’ prefaces. to highlight mental acuity, mr. biden must answer the questions posed, rather than moving into talking points. and when trump doesn’t answer questions, mr. biden can say “he didn’t answer your question; i will.” after the third or fourth time, biden should respond with “that’s the third time he couldn’t answer your question. is he ducking it…or isn’t he sharp enough to understand.” one more essential is the “don’t repeat yourself” rule. we get it   biden/harris are pro choice, trump/whoever are a clear and present danger to reproductive freedom and health. say it once; and if you need emphasis, highlight specific trump proposals, like arresting women who seek abortions. but the audience wants more than a broken record. succinctness wins   if you can say it in eight to twelve words, do it. “donald trump talked infrastructure for four years; we did it in one.” then list how   “new bridges, safer roads, cleaner water.” bring to that a new tagline. “there he goes again” has been taken and will seem coached, artificial, and insincere. the mantra for trump’s plans can be as simple as “that hurts america,” or its variant “that will hurt our children” or “our air” or “the water you need to drink.” and the flip side? “that only helps the rich.” not one word more   except for a concrete illustration as to how. of course, offering illustrations must not be tone deaf. for instance, biden’s job numbers are great; but touting them too much ignores the financial squeeze many people feel. when there is an issue   be it immigration or israel/gaza   that takes more time to respond to, biden should say so. “that issue isn’t a one liner. mr. trump forgets that we have an asylum law that says we must … and remember, with republicans we had a plan to fix the system..until this man said ‘vote no.’ that hurt america.” calling trump a clear and present danger to democracy or our standing in the world is true but doesn’t persuade. specifics do: and the final need? humility. because there is anger over single issues, mr. biden has to acknowledge that not everyone agrees on everything he does, but the vote won’t be about that one issue   it will be about every danger and harm mr. trump poses and the alternatives we have. humility is also best deployed when discussing trump’s felony convictions. mr. biden, wait for your moment and look for the flip. if trump talks of “weaponized” justice, call him out. your son was convicted by that system, and you respected the jury. if trump’s attack is personal, biden’s response should be: “jurors are citizens. citizens found you guilty of fraud and liable for defamation and sexual assault; and in case you forget, the new york courts are not a part of the u.s. government.” and say no more. trump will lay traps, say outrageous things, and play to fear and prejudice. but persuasion tools abound   it is a matter of understanding and deploying them. thanks to professors marian braccia and elizabeth lippy for their substantive comments and improvements. commentdocument.getelementbyid("comment").setattribute( "id", "a1a2feb419c5b67e760bcbfeb749fcd3" );document.getelementbyid("d43a71c641").setattribute( "id", "comment" ); save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time i comment. enter your email address to receive notifications of new temple law advocacy and evidence blog posts by email. check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. temple university beasley school of law1719 north broad streetphiladelphia, pa 19122(215) 204 7861

profile sections local tv featured more from nbc follow nbc news news alerts there are no new alerts at this time the toughest part in trying to gauge the potential impact of the first presidential debate is figuring out which candidate needs this more. a month ago, the answer was obvious: president joe biden. his team wouldn’t have pushed to hold an earlier debate if it hadn’t come to the conclusion that it needed to do something to shake up this race before the fall. but one conviction on 34 counts later and it’s not nearly as clear now which candidate needs this debate more. why does that matter? because the less a debate matters in the moment to a candidate, the more risk averse said candidate will become in the debate itself. based on my conversations with smart folks on both sides of the aisle, both campaigns feel a quiet confidence about their standing going into the summer and this debate. that wasn’t the case with biden world just a month ago. the small but noticeable shift toward biden in various polls has given his campaign its first evidence that former president donald trump’s legal problems might be affecting his vote share. toss in the recent positive data indicating a drop in violent crime across the country, as well as this durable economy, and one can see why team biden is as optimistic about winning re election today as it has been in over a year. but even as biden has strengthened, so, too, has trump. while he has taken a very small (and potentially significant) hit in the polls post conviction, his massive fundraising haul in the last month has allowed him to level the spending playing field with biden much earlier than the campaign had expected. the windfall of cash since the conviction is nothing short of stunning. in fact, structurally, one could argue that trump is in a stronger position overall in his campaign today than he was at this time in june 2020 (he was consistently trailing biden in the polls) and in june 2016 (remember, he was struggling to get the gop to unite around him, and ted cruz was still trying to force a second ballot at the convention). so compared to the last two cycles, trump is stronger in the polls, and he has the party more unified around him and has raised more money than even he thought was possible. and there is one other factor that could be in play that potentially makes this debate less consequential than the hype for it indicates: there is another scheduled debate. in many conventional campaigns, first debates are often nicer and less contentious than later encounters. there are a few reasons for this, but the biggest is something that might not be in play here: not wanting to make a bad first impression. and perhaps even that issue is a tad in play for both biden and trump. both have stereotypes their campaigns would like to see them debunk with this first debate. biden needs to show command of the issues and reasonable vigor for someone in his early 80s. trump needs to show that he isn’t as unhinged as he can come across at his rallies and that he isn’t as focused on himself as it appears he has been since he lost the 2020 election. for both candidates, engaging in an eye gouging, expletive filled shouting match would undermine their abilities to fix either perception. of course, both camps would love nothing more than for the post debate conversation to be about the other candidate. team trump would love nothing more than for biden’s age to become the dominant conversation, while team biden would love nothing more than for trump’s erratic behavior to be the post debate focal point. i’m not totally naive here: the debate could end up devolving into an experience similar to the first biden trump faceoff if either candidate senses he is losing and desperately needs to bait the other candidate into displaying an air of perceived weakness for all to see. but for biden to bait trump, trump has to take the bait (and he might simply be that undisciplined to take it). but the risk for biden is he could look more concerned about trump and less concerned about the voters if he’s baiting him on the legal front. and trump has already seen the downside of being too mean spirited and bully ish on the debate stage against biden during the last election. so while both campaigns would love nothing more than for this debate to showcase the other candidate’s chief weaknesses, it takes a skilled debater to make that happen. and neither one of these candidates has shown that kind of nimbleness in the recent past. ironically, the best debates of biden’s professional life were all in 2007 and 2008. and while those excellent debate performances meant nothing for him in the polls, as he was regularly treated as an also ran candidate by many in the media (hillary clinton and barack obama were essentially scored separately), it did draw the attention of his future running mate and gave the obama team confidence that he could be a worthy campaign partner. obviously, the tone and tenor of this debate are in the hands of the candidates, more so than the moderators. if each candidate chooses to try to bait his opponent and try to get him to expose his worst version of himself, the debate could devolve into an affair that turns off a lot of voters and even, perhaps, make them a bit robert. f. kennedy jr. curious. but i’m betting on a slightly more subdued affair (at least subdued for trump). remember, both campaigns think they are on winning paths, and that matters in trying to figure out how desperate a candidate might be going into a debate. realistically, both candidates are in a position where they have more to lose than gain with this first debate, and because this isn’t the last scheduled debate, i’m betting on both candidates’ attempting to showcase the best versions of themselves, as the risk of being too negative and too nasty is too great this far out from the fall. but then again, it’s trump   so the chances aren’t zero that captain chaos makes an appearance. (and if you know who captain chaos is, then you most likely have the words “cannonball, cannonball, cannonball” echoing in your head. and if that’s the case, you’re welcome!) one of the more important stipulations for the biden campaign when it came to its debate negotiations was for a sponsor to be willing to “cut the mics” when a candidate goes over his allotted speaking time. given the chaos of the first debate between trump and biden in 2020, one can understand why biden, in particular, would want an enforcement mechanism like this. but as frustrated as biden clearly was on that stage with trump back in 2020, he also ended up “winning” that first debate in the eyes of the voters because trump’s behavior was so obnoxious. i’m not sure why the biden campaign wants to help trump look more disciplined and normal to a large national tv audience. because if the biden camp gets its way and trump is forced to abide by the time limits and he decides he can’t be heard when the mics are off, then he’ll be presenting himself as a more reasonable version of himself. the biden campaign is trying to paint trump as unhinged, and yet it is insisting cnn help make sure trump doesn’t appear that way with its call to cut the mics. personally, i think one of the biggest mistakes mainstream media made in the aftermath of the jan. 6, 2021, capitol riots was to try to deplatform trump, whether it was from mainstream social media or mainstream legacy media. it sent trump to his own media ecosystem, which he has since built up into a much more powerful tool for propaganda today than anything he had four years ago. trump’s antics always wear thin over time, but if you’re wondering why so many folks have memory holed his crazy from the first term, it’s because he was rhetorically forced into exile in alternative corners of the information ecosystem. there are two ways to deal with trump: hand him more rhetorical rope or try to cancel him. canceling him hasn’t worked, so perhaps trust the public more and let it decide whether if this is what it wants. as i argued last week, i’m convinced trump’s behavior and chaotic leadership during covid sealed his fate with voters. but had he been edited or prevented from displaying his worst instincts for the largest number of eyeballs, maybe the voters wouldn’t have tuned him out. bottom line: trust the people to figure it out; don’t treat them like 5 year old children. this week on “the chuck toddcast” from nbc news, oklahoma city mayor david holt (r) and columbus mayor andrew ginther (d) join chuck to discuss bipartisanship. sign up to get new episodes of “the chuck toddcast” every wednesday and friday on apple podcasts, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. chuck todd is nbc news' chief political analyst and the former moderator of "meet the press." © 2025 nbcuniversal media, llc

you can turn to opb for stories about the people and places that make our region unique thanks to member support. join in now! u.s. president joe biden, left, speaks at an event marking the 12th anniversary of the deferred action for childhood arrivals (daca) program in the east room at the white house on june 18, 2024, in washington, d.c. republican presidential candidate former president donald trump, right, speaks at a campaign event at 180 church, saturday, june 15, 2024, in detroit. kevin dietsch/getty images; carlos osorio/ap president biden and former president donald trump will face off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election on thursday night in atlanta. it begins a new phase of the presidential race, less than five months out from nov. 5, election day, as the matchup remains extremely tight. biden and trump stand virtually tied, according to the latest npr/pbs news/marist poll, which echoes a months long trend of recent national surveys. the debate also breaks with campaign tradition, occurring months earlier than usual and with a new set of rules both candidates have agreed to, including no live audience. it’s also the first debate either candidate has participated in this campaign season. biden largely ran unopposed, and trump notably skipped the gop primary debates. here’s what you need to know about this first debate. the event starts at 9 p.m. et and will run for 90 minutes. it will be moderated by cnn’s jake tapper and dana bash and take place at the network’s studios in atlanta. the debate will be available on cnn and the streaming platform max, formerly known as hbo. viewers without a cable login can watch on cnn's website. you can follow npr’s live blog for updates during the debate, as well as to watch the livestream cnn is making available to outside media organizations. that stream will include cnn's commercials and branding; npr.org will carry that livestream as a public service. biden and trump are the only presidential candidates who qualified for the debate stage. independent candidate robert f. kennedy jr. failed to meet the threshold, which required candidates to poll at 15% or higher in four national surveys and appear on enough state ballots that could theoretically push them past the needed 270 electoral college votes to secure the presidency. typically, presidential debates occur in front of a live audience, often in an event space on a college or university campus, and are coordinated by the bipartisan commission on presidential debates (cpd). but not this year. both candidates have said they will not participate in the cpd's previously scheduled and announced debates, lobbying for earlier matchups. instead, biden and trump will take part in thursday’s debate on cnn and then a second in september hosted by abc news. biden and trump have agreed to the following rules: candidates will likely speak to recent respective legal dramas. the debate comes about a month after trump was found guilty of 34 criminal charges in new york, becoming the first u.s. president in history to be convicted of felony crimes. biden's son, hunter, who is not running for office, was convicted on felony gun charges in delaware in mid june and faces a second federal trial in september over failing to pay his taxes. biden will also likely address concerns over his age and ability to serve a second term. at 81, he is the oldest sitting president in u.s. history, and if elected for a second term, he would exit office at 86. while the president has had public slipups throughout his first term, trump, who is 78, has repeatedly criticized biden's mental ability, most recently speculating he should take a cognitive test. in that same speech, trump incorrectly named the doctor who conducted his own cognitive exam while president. on the issues, it's expected the candidates will discuss the state of the economy and immigration policy, as both are consistently top issues for voters in national polling. it's also possible the candidates will weigh in on international politics, given voters remain divided on whether the u.s. should be sending military aid to ukraine and israel in their respective wars. the debate may also be an opportunity for biden to address his decreasing support, when compared to 2020, among key parts of his base, notably blacks and latinos and young voters. trump is losing some ground among older voters, and the biden campaign is trying to capitalize on that. plus, the former president may still need to repair relations with nikki haley supporters who remain uncertain about backing him again. trump will likely announce his pick for vice president in the coming weeks. there will also be a vice presidential debate this summer. the date has not been finalized, but vice president harris agreed to one held on either july 23 or aug. 13. on the legal front, trump will appear for sentencing in his criminal trial on july 11, just days before the republican national convention, which begins on july 15 in milwaukee. a month later, the democratic national convention will kick off on aug. 19 in chicago. trump and biden will debate for a second time on sept. 10. copyright 2024 npr tags: elections, elections, politics, apple news, national, home page top stories, news opb’s essential reporting and inspiring programs are made possible by the power of member support. streaming now bbc from our own correspondent

"somebody's going to take advantage of it," one strategist predicted. even with under five months left to go until election day, the electoral calendar is nearly devoid of marquee chances for this year's presidential race to change in a major way. there are the two party nominating conventions, with the republican confab in july likely coinciding with a vice presidential pick from donald trump. the former president also is set to be sentenced next month after being convicted of 34 felony counts in his hush money trail in new york. beyond that, there are few concrete events with the potential to move an electoral needle that has refused to budge for months beyond the margins. that's where this week's debate comes in. while operatives who spoke to abc news were torn over how much thursday's head to head matchup could alter the fundamentals of a race between a former and current president    both with virtually universal name recognition    all agreed that the debate represents one of just a few foreseeable instances for the candidates to at least try to improve their fortunes. "if you're looking at the calendar for the next five months, this is one of those moments. and somebody's going to take advantage of it," said chip saltsman, a gop strategist who worked on former vice president mike pence's now suspended gop presidential bid. already, recent history has failed to budge close polling numbers by more than a few points. trump's felony convictions led to only marginal fluctuations. the felony conviction of president joe biden's son hunter on gun charges already has largely dropped out of the news cycle. the current 538 national polling average of the race shows a virtual tie, but some polls show trump with a wide advantage in key battleground states. thursday's debate    much earlier than usual in a presidential race    offers both candidates a chance to change or reinforce perceptions. "i think this will be the most consequential presidential debate ever," said alex conant, a republican strategist who worked on florida republican sen. marco rubio's 2016 presidential campaign. "we've also never been a situation where there's so many questions about both candidates' core abilities. is biden too old? is trump too unstable?" he told abc news. "these are existential questions that a lot of the people tuning in are going to be asking. and then, obviously, we've never had a debate this early in the calendar, so it is likely to set the tone for the rest of the campaign." for biden, strategists on both side of the aisle said avoiding "senior moments" will be crucial, given heightened focus on the president's age and mental acuity    reinforced by the republican social media and cable ecosystem. "we know one of the biggest obstacles to support for president biden is concerns about his age and whether he's up for the job. and i see the debates as a real opportunity for him to demonstrate that he has what it takes to do the job of president effectively and assuage a lot of those concerns that are currently holding back a lot of democratic leaning voters from supporting him," said one source familiar with the biden camp's strategy. biden is anticipated to hammer away at what he calls trump's threat to democracy, a theme that animated their 2020 race. but democrats also hoped the debate's early timing could help the incumbent president replicate part of former president obama's 2012 playbook when he seized early opportunities to define mitt romney, his general election opponent, as an out of touch millionaire who didn't care about working class americans. biden has already attempted to do so with trump, mixing that messaging with what he claims is his administration's economic progress. but strategists said a more forward looking message on the economy and attacks on trump's proposed tax cuts for wealthy americans and corporations should be more front and center in biden's campaign    and that thursday's debate gives him a chance to drive that message home. "i think he ought not to try to argue to people that this is a great economy," said peter giangreco, an obama campaign alum. "what obama would say was, 'we've made progress. there's more to do.' and if trump gets in, it's going to be a whole lot worse. and i think that's where you go after him. he's got the opportunity to say, 'this is the guy who's going to reward the people who are gouging you.'" "make the economic contrast about the next four years, not the last four years or the last eight years. to me, other than just showing strength, that's job number one." trump, meanwhile, has to reinforce his own contrast with biden, republicans said. polls show that more voters trust trump than biden on the top issues they care about, including the economy and immigration, offering trump what gop consultants called an advantage in a battle over who has the better record. that's on top of efforts by the former president and his allies to cast biden as too old and unfit for office. "if i'm giving advice, i'd just say, do a strong comparative between your economy and joe biden's economy, and it narrows it down to one thing. it narrows it down to inflation," said one former trump campaign official who's in touch with his current team. "anytime you're talking about anything else, whether it's biden's age, whether it's hunter, it's a distraction from the economy, and that's not the debate we need to have the win." going hand in hand with that is the need to come off as presidential, republicans said, in an acknowledgement of the character concerns that caused trump to shed voters in 2020, particularly in the suburbs. "i think trump needs to appear reasonable, in command and not turn off independent voters, swing voters. the people that voted for him in 2016 but then voted against him in 2020, he needs to win them over," conant said. both candidates will have to navigate a unique debate format on thursday to get their messages across. cnn, the debate host, will be able to mute the contenders' microphones when they're not speaking. there will also be no audience in the atlanta television studio to play to. most republican and democratic strategists said the format benefits biden by robbing trump of the ability to overwhelm the president's answers with crosstalk and feed off the energy of an audience. "i think the fact that trump cannot just bully the conversation and just talk over president biden constantly is a good thing for the president. i think that gives the president more opportunity to define a clear choice in the election, whether it comes to protecting democracy, protecting abortion rights or creating an economy that helps working families," said the source familiar with the biden campaign's strategy. still, some speculated that if the goal for trump is to come off as "presidential," having the microphones cut off helps the former president by essentially preventing voters at home from hearing him try to derail the conversation. "i think it's good for trump because it does enforce some discipline and allows for him to avoid those bad moments where he just comes off as a total bully," gop strategist david kochel told abc news. still, in the end, the debate may produce little or no change in the race. trump has barreled through seemingly campaign shattering events since his first run for the white house, surviving the "access hollywood" scandal, accused in two impeachments, republican electoral failures, felony convictions and more    all without seeing his polling affected by more than a few points. that make thinking debates could have a bigger impact seem quaint by comparison. "it's hard to see how there is a big shift or a big thing in this race where there's also a lot of fairway left to play. i mean, you still have sentencing, conventions, vp, picks another debate. you have another five months, that's a lifetime," said gop pollster robert blizzard. "just look at what's happened the last couple months, and the race just really has not fundamentally changed." yet given the race's stability and the outsized personalities of the two candidates, thursday's debate amounts to must see tv as much as virtually anything else this election cycle. "i think it's going to be a good one," kochel predicted. "it's got the potential to be one of those debates that we talk about for years." 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events

copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved. a new ap norc poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. and many think the stakes are high for both president joe biden and former president donald trump. signage for the upcoming presidential debate is seen at the media file center near the cnn techwood campus in atlanta on tuesday, june 25, 2024. a new poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. (ap photo/pablo martinez monsivais) rep. wesley hunt, r texas, speaks during an event wednesday, june 26, 2024, in atlanta, hosted by the donald trump campaign billed as a “black american business leaders round table,” at rocky’s barber shop, in advance of the presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump. (ap photo/gerald herbert) ben starett, lighting programmer for cnn, sets up lights in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) people converse during setup in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) file   democratic presidential candidate former vice president joe biden speaks during the first presidential debate with president donald trump sept. 29, 2020, at case western university and cleveland clinic, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) this combination of photos show president donald trump, left, and former vice president joe biden during the first presidential debate on sept. 29, 2020, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) a new ap norc poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. and many think the stakes are high for both president joe biden and former president donald trump. signage for the upcoming presidential debate is seen at the media file center near the cnn techwood campus in atlanta on tuesday, june 25, 2024. a new poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. (ap photo/pablo martinez monsivais) signage for the upcoming presidential debate is seen at the media file center near the cnn techwood campus in atlanta on tuesday, june 25, 2024. a new poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. (ap photo/pablo martinez monsivais) rep. wesley hunt, r texas, speaks during an event wednesday, june 26, 2024, in atlanta, hosted by the donald trump campaign billed as a “black american business leaders round table,” at rocky’s barber shop, in advance of the presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump. (ap photo/gerald herbert) rep. wesley hunt, r texas, speaks during an event wednesday, june 26, 2024, in atlanta, hosted by the donald trump campaign billed as a “black american business leaders round table,” at rocky’s barber shop, in advance of the presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump. (ap photo/gerald herbert) ben starett, lighting programmer for cnn, sets up lights in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) ben starett, lighting programmer for cnn, sets up lights in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) people converse during setup in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) people converse during setup in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) file   democratic presidential candidate former vice president joe biden speaks during the first presidential debate with president donald trump sept. 29, 2020, at case western university and cleveland clinic, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) file   democratic presidential candidate former vice president joe biden speaks during the first presidential debate with president donald trump sept. 29, 2020, at case western university and cleveland clinic, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) this combination of photos show president donald trump, left, and former vice president joe biden during the first presidential debate on sept. 29, 2020, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) this combination of photos show president donald trump, left, and former vice president joe biden during the first presidential debate on sept. 29, 2020, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) washington (ap)   most u.s. adults plan to watch some element of thursday’s presidential debate and many think the event will be important for the campaigns of both president joe biden and former president donald trump, according to a new poll from the associated press norc center for public affairs research. both men remain broadly unpopular as they prepare to face off for the first time since 2020, although trump, the presumptive republican nominee, maintains a modest enthusiasm advantage with his base compared to biden, the democratic incumbent. about 6 in 10 u.s. adults say they are “extremely” or “very” likely to watch the debate live or in clips, or read about or listen to commentary about the performance of the candidates in the news or social media. the poll suggests tens of millions of americans are likely to see or hear about at least part of thursday’s debate despite how unusually early it comes in the campaign season. both biden and trump supporters view the debate as a major test for their candidate   or just a spectacle not to miss. “i think it’s super important,” said victoria perdomo, a 44 year old stay at home mom and a trump supporter in coral springs, florida. “it shows america what you’re going to see for the next four years.” nic greene, a libertarian who is a registered independent, said he’ll likely vote for trump as the “least worst candidate.” he doesn’t think debates do much to help voters make decisions, but he’s expecting to be entertained and plans to listen to post debate analysis on podcasts. “i think the majority of people have their minds made up with or without these debates,” he said. “it’s a circus.” about half, 47%, of americans say the debate is “extremely” or “very” important for the success of biden’s campaign and about 4 in 10 say it’s highly important for trump’s campaign. about 3 in 10 americans say it is at least “very” important for both campaigns. most democrats, 55%, think the upcoming debate is extremely or very important for the success of the biden campaign. about half of republicans, 51%, say the same thing about the importance of the debate for the trump campaign. only about one third of independents say the debate, taking place at a cnn studio in atlanta, is highly important for either campaign. arthur morris, a 40 year old operations manager at a major financial firm, is an undecided voter open to biden, trump or a third party option such as independent candidate robert f. kennedy, jr. he, along with a significant share of americans, has doubts about the mental capabilities of the aging candidates, and sees biden’s debate performance as an important test. “i need biden to demonstrate to me that he’s cogent enough to be able to hold this office and execute to the level that we need him to,” morris said. trump, meanwhile, needs to show he can be trusted after the jan. 6, 2021, attack on the u.s. capitol in which trump supporters disrupted the certification of his 2020 loss to biden and trump’s recent conviction in a hush money scheme, said morris, of lewiston, ohio. about 4 in 10 say they are likely to watch or listen to some or all of the debate live, while a similar share say they will watch or listen to clips later. another 4 in 10, roughly, expect to consume commentary about the debate and candidate performance in the news or on social media. republicans and democrats are more likely than independents to be following debate coverage in some capacity. biden and trump are each entering the debate with low favorability ratings. about 6 in 10 u.s. adults say they have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of biden, and a similar number have a negative view of trump. most americans, 56%, say they are “very” or “somewhat” dissatisfied with biden being the democratic party’s likely nominee for president, and a similar majority are dissatisfied with trump as the likely gop nominee. the poll indicates that republicans continue to be more satisfied with a re nomination of trump than democrats are with an anticipated biden re nomination. six in 10 republicans are satisfied with trump as a nominee; just 42% of democrats say that about biden. about 3 in 10 u.s. adults are dissatisfied with both trump and biden as their party’s likely nominees   with independents and democrats being more likely than republicans to be dissatisfied with both. republicans and democrats are more likely to have a negative view of the opposing party’s candidate than they are to have a positive view of their own. about 9 in 10 republicans have an unfavorable view of biden, and about 9 in 10 democrats have a negative view of trump. by comparison, roughly 7 in 10 democrats have a favorable view of biden, and about 7 in 10 republicans have a positive view of trump. about 4 in 10 u.s. adults approve of how biden is handling his job as president, in line with where that number has stood for the past two years. biden’s approval rating among u.s. adults on handling the economy is similar, as is his handling of abortion policy. only 3 in 10 approve of his approach to immigration. “i do believe there has been some progress under biden, but i believe it’s congress who is the one stalling on any of the policies that biden wants to proceed with,” said jane quan bell, 70, a school librarian from chico, california, and a democrat. the conflict between the israelis and palestinians is an especially vulnerable spot for biden. with only 26% of u.s. adults approving of his handling of the issue, it’s well below his overall approval rating. nearly 6 in 10 democrats disapprove of his approach. the poll of 1,088 adults was conducted june 20 24, 2024, using a sample drawn from norc’s probability based amerispeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the u.s. population. the margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. cooper reported from phoenix. a previous version of this story misspelled arthur morris’ last name. it is morris, not murray. copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved.

president joe biden and former president donald trump squared off on thursday night in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle. voters across the country have expressed concerned about the candidates' ages   mr biden is 81 and trump is 78   and the debate supercharged that anxiety. still, with weeks left until the conventions when each party will formalise their choice of candidate, supporters of both major parties feel they are left with few options. the bbc spoke to democratic, republican and independent voters who told us they are concerned about mr biden's fitness for the ticket. after thursday's debate, we asked them if his widely criticised performance will sway how they vote. we start with a voter who feels that she has no choice but to support the president. this long time democrat found the debate so hard to watch, she could barely keep the broadcast on. but regardless of the candidates' performances, she plans to vote blue in november. i didn’t watch the whole thing. i could not handle it, this is the best our country can do? if hillary would have walked out in her pantsuit i would have been happy as hell. i absolutely despise trump and everything he stands for   his lying, cheating and lack of morals. biden is a much better human being, but i felt so bad for him (at the debate) and it was such a disappointment. i was thinking state of the union "jacked up joe". no, what we got was everything that everyone saying was wrong with him just showed up on stage. i feel terrible for him and america, but we just have to ride it out. honestly, the debate really kind of disengaged me. i feel like there’s nothing i can do but vote blue, whoever it is. dominic identifies as a libertarian and voted third party in 2016 and 2020, but this time around he's fully backing the former president. i'm a fan of trump and i'm enthusiastically going to be voting for him. going into this debate, i thought the republicans were setting themselves up for failure. i actually am surprised biden did as poorly as he did, i thought he’d do better. i was moderately happy with trump. i thought he seemed much more presidential, especially compared to the debates last time around. he was really negative last time. i think he struck the perfect tone (at the debate). the trump you saw on stage was much different than the one you saw in 2016. the 2016 trump would have taken a lot more cheap shots at biden’s age. biden seemed very defeated in his body language. i think trump seemed very presidential with how he dealt with biden's age. i'm enthusiastically going to vote for trump at this point and i didn’t vote for him in either 2016 and 2020. [dominic texted a few minutes later] in 2016, you almost could've considered me a never trumper. my opinion on him has completely changed. connor is democrat who voted for biden in 2020. he plans to do the same in 2024, but is concerned about the president's age. i am nervous about a second biden term. there’s no doubt in my mind that the people surrounding biden are competent and have the ability to carry out the necessities of the executive branch. there’s also no doubt in my mind that biden has the best interest of this country at heart. that being said, i am less confident in the ability of biden to lead this country today than i ever have been. the biden administration's efforts on infrastructure, rallying our allies, pardoning of those with marijuana offences, investing in clean energy and forward looking technologies, and reducing prescription drug prices are all monumental actions. i think this first term has been fairly successful, which is why it pains me to say biden may not be the best figurehead for these policies or moment. i don’t think any of this could convince me to vote for trump. i simply could not get behind a candidate who has reduced faith in our election system dramatically while all his own advisers told him he was wrong. or a candidate who is clearly lacking in any moral character based on his extramarital affairs that have now been accepted as fact in a court of law and a myriad of other scandals. or a candidate that enables the worst sort of hatred and politicisation in every facet of our society and government. or a candidate who i have never heard speak intelligently or in depth about any topic ever. crystal is an ardent supporter of trump who voted for the former president twice before and will again in november. trump came across very level headed and presidential and biden came across very weak. i really did not think it was a good idea for biden to even do this debate. he actually did not look mentally sound to me. he came across really weak and feeble. it was painful to watch 90 minutes of this debate between biden and trump. the fentanyl crisis, border security and of course the economy are my top three concerns, and i did not feel like biden addressed those issues at all. i'm against abortion and against the abortion pill like trump. i like that he is pro life and i like that he sides with christian conservative values. i think this country respects him and after this debate, i really think he’ll win. this debate solidified that he can win and will win. shana plans to back biden in the upcoming election but is not happy with the country's current state of affairs. i was very frustrated watching the debate. i feel that the answers that they were giving weren’t really answers to any of the questions. it was exhausting to watch. i don’t think either of them performed better than the other. mr biden looked tired, he looked weak. even if he did have a cold and he had good things to say, he wasn't getting it out and he wasn’t understandable. that reminds me of how kennedy beat nixon in the first televised debate by looking healthier. trump was being aggressive, going off on tangents. although he appeared stronger in physicality, i don’t think he did well in content. i believe i'm still going to vote for mr biden because i don’t want mr trump in office. i would love it if both parties would reconsider their candidates. i know that idea is being thrown around right now, it would do us better. before biden announced running for re election, i was hoping he would step aside for someone else to come forward. but i would rather a democrat be in office than mr trump. eric is an independent voter who voted third party in 2020, but hasn't yet decided what he'll do come november. trump is old psychopathic liar who is running solely to keep himself out of jail and will say literally anything he can to protect himself. biden is old, feeble and out of touch with his constituency. personally, i think president biden does a better job at listening to different viewpoints. it was telling to me when the moderators would ask questions, trump would talk about what topics he wanted to. i'm undecided at this point, i'm going to wait and see what happens. a lot of things could change between now and november. personally, i don't see a compelling reason to vote for either person up there, but i do see compelling reasons to vote against people up there. i would like to see a candidate that i can get behind a vote for, rather than vote against somebody. i want someone who is more interested in doing the job than getting re elected again. neither trump nor biden are young. i don't know whether one of them can hold up to four years of being president. the fact that both of them were up there arguing about their golf game tells me they're more interested in other things than running a country. in the lead up to election day, bbc voter voices is hearing from americans around the country about what matters to them. aged just 10 when his father first became president, he's now well over six feet tall, and goes to new york university. the us president spoke about his plans for the second trump administration, as well as criticising the 'corrupt establishment'. watch the historic moment when the 45th president is returned to power as he takes the oath of office. elon musk, mark zuckerberg and jeff bezos were among those invited inside the capitol for donald trump's swearing in. thousands of people joined in on demonstrations as the united states prepares to inaugurate its new president. the outgoing us president warned against power in the hands of the wealthy, the threat of the tech industry and climate change. trump's pick for us attorney general was pressed on claims of election fraud and pardons for january 6 rioters. donald trump's defence secretary nominee was asked about his stance on women in combat and his alleged excessive drinking. harris, who trump defeated in the 2024 election, presided over the event as required by the us constitution. among the allies the president elect has chosen to join his administration are contentious figures, including among fellow republicans. the president elect has nominated rfk to lead the department of health and human services. the suspect used an “improvised incendiary device” to start the fire in portland, oregon, ahead of the us election. a week after losing the election, kamala harris's team are still appealing for funds. republicans have won control of both chambers of congress, yielding trump limited congressional oversight for at least 2 years. the president and president elect shook hands as part of a long standing tradition signifying the transfer of power. given all the things they’ve said about each other, joe biden and donald trump’s meeting could be really awkward. 'i think putin believes that he knows how to play trump', says trump's former adviser john bolton. the russian president says he was impressed by trump's reaction to the first assassination attempt against him. the president addressed americans from the white house for the first time since donald trump's election victory. after donald trump's decisive victory, we asked americans what they think made the difference for each campaign. elon musk's work to shrink the us government is being met with outrage from democrats and aid groups. the full senate voted in the evening, approving bondi as the next attorney general, tasked with running the department of justice. a conservative think tank set out a sweeping vision for governing that could influence trump's next term. what influence has it had so far? trump claims more taxes on trade wouldn't be a cost to the us   but almost all economists dispute this. the republican has started his second term at a fast pace. here's a handy guide to what he's done so far. copyright 2025 bbc. all rights reserved. the bbc is not responsible for the content of external sites. read about our approach to external linking.

domenico montanaro president biden and former president donald trump participate in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections at cnn's studios in atlanta on june 27. andrew caballero reynolds/afp via getty images hide caption if some people who listened to the radio in 1960 thought richard nixon won the presidential debate with john f. kennedy, then maybe people reading the transcript of thursday night’s match up would think president biden won. maybe. but elections aren’t won in transcripts. the reality is, fairly or not, debates are often about optics   how the candidates present themselves, defend their records and parry attacks. and that’s why so many democrats are ringing the fire alarms after the first general election presidential debate of 2024. the biden campaign said the president had a cold to explain why he sounded so hoarse and weak. but biden’s stumbles right from the beginning played into his biggest vulnerability   his age and whether the 81 year old is up to the challenge of handling four more years in office. there were issues for trump, too, as he continued to spread falsehoods and bathe in the kinds of conspiratorial grievances that have turned off many voters. not much has changed the dynamics of this race; will anything that happened thursday night make a difference either? here are four takeaways from the first biden trump debate of this campaign: neither candidate is the official nominee yet. the national political conventions haven’t happened   but it’s next to impossible that democrats would replace biden. still, given he delivered the kind of performance democrats feared, party leaders, strategists and many voters, frankly, had to be wondering during this debate what it would be like if any of a handful of other democrats were standing on that stage. biden got a bit stronger as the debate went on, especially on foreign policy. he had some one liners, like calling trump a “whiner” when trump wouldn’t definitively say that he would accept the results of the 2024 election. but biden often wasn’t able to show vigor or consistently convey what he wanted to say. he simply couldn’t deliver the kinds of happy warrior blows with that toothy smile audiences have seen from biden in years past. “sometimes the spin don’t spin,” one democratic strategist texted midway through the debate when asked for reaction. an important rule of thumb for candidates   and moderators   in debates is to be conscious of how things look, of how you look, of what people are seeing at home. and what people saw   and this was predictable   was a split screen. biden wasn’t able to use that to his advantage at all, even as trump doled out falsehood after falsehood. instead, he looked genuinely shocked and confused, which is never a good look. trump and his base might not care about late night comedy, but this week’s monologues are going to sting democratic voters. the muting of the candidates was likely intended to make the debate calmer and not allow trump to run roughshod over the moderators or his opponent. but it had the effect of making trump seem more sedate than usual. trump employed rounds of verbal jujitsu, in which he threw back his own vulnerabilities and directed them toward biden. he was even able at one point, during a strange exchange about golf handicaps, to say, “let’s not act like children.” the moderation, or lack thereof, also allowed trump to spread falsehoods and hyperbole without being interrupted or corrected. cnn indicated before the debate that the moderators were not going to play a strong role in fact checking the candidates, and they lived up to that. they left it to the candidates, essentially, and with biden unable to deliver in real time and the moderators declining to, the audience was left with a salad bowl full of rotten eggs and moldy lettuce that passed for facts. fact check: what did biden and trump claim about immigration in the debate? despite biden’s struggles, which will understandably get the headlines, trump had some difficult moments, too, especially in the second half of the debate. in addition to spreading myriad falsehoods, he did little to credibly defend his conduct on and before the jan. 6 siege on the capitol; he used the kind of hyperbolic and vituperative language that has long turned off swing voters; and showed why many are concerned about some of his positions on the issues, especially on abortion and how the u.s. should be represented on the world stage. so despite biden’s shortcomings, millions will still likely vote for biden, anyway, because he’s not trump. the bottom line is: americans have said they are unhappy with their choices, and, in this   the biggest moment of the 2024 presidential campaign yet   it was clear why. a previous version of this story referenced this week's live snl episode but in fact the show is on its summer hiatus. sponsor message become an npr sponsor

supported by one network is in charge of every aspect of the biden trump debate, a major shift from previous years. tens of millions of viewers are expected to be watching. by michael m. grynbaum michael grynbaum is a media correspondent who covered the presidential debates in 2016 and 2020. the prime time matchup on thursday between president biden and former president donald j. trump represents an evening full of promise and peril. especially for cnn. for the first time in decades, a single television network will have sole discretion over the look, feel and cadence of a general election presidential debate. unlike in past years, when an independent, nonprofit commission oversaw the contests, cnn has picked the moderators, designed the set and will choose the camera angles that viewers see. lest any voters forget who’s in charge, the red cnn logo will be ubiquitous: rival channels seeking to simulcast the event had to agree to leave the network’s on air watermark untouched. the debate, at 9 p.m. eastern, could be the single most watched moment of the presidential campaign, with consequences that ripple all the way to november. and much of the credit   or the blame   for what transpires on tens of millions of screens on thursday will land at cnn’s feet. leaders at the channel, which has endured a run of poor ratings and viewer apathy, say they don’t mind the pressure. “the fact that we got it was something of a moment for us,” mark thompson, who became cnn’s chairman in october, said in an interview between prep meetings in washington. “much of the reaction of the public, the rest of the media and other politicians is going to depend on president trump and president biden, who are the stars of the show.”

the first, and maybe only, debate between the 45th and 46th presidents of the united states constituted a clear win for donald trump, as far more viewers focused on joe biden’s apparent physical and mental infirmities than donald trump’s evasions and trafficking in partial or outright lies. the question now, though, is what, if any, difference it will make in the presidential election that is now just four months away. the debate most likely increases the odds that trump will occupy the oval office come noon on 20 january 2025. going into thursday night’s debate, trump was slightly ahead in many of the national polls and, more importantly, in the half dozen swing states that will most likely determine the election’s outcome. the debate only added to this advantage. the context favours trump. this year has already proven to be a tough one for incumbents seeking re election, as outcomes in india and france have demonstrated (with britain up next). polls also show a low approval rating for the prime ministers of japan and canada, which could lead to a change of leadership in those countries. biden and the us are poised to be consistent with this trend. like many of his fellow incumbents, biden has struggled to manage rising immigration and economic challenges. his failure to deal effectively with the southern border has allowed some 10 million people to enter the us illegally. then there are the effects of inflation, something voters are reminded of every time they go to grocery stores or fill their cars with gasoline. biden can point to domestic and foreign policy accomplishments, but they are less salient to many americans. most critical is the question of his age. doubts are widely and deeply held that biden is simply too old for what is arguably the world’s most demanding and important job. he is 81, turns 82 in november, and, if re elected, would turn 86 while still in the white house. and he is an old 81. as the debate demonstrated, he walks stiffly, loses his train of thought and has a weak and raspy voice. trump is only three years younger and makes little sense when he speaks, often taking bizarre rhetorical detours, but manages to project a more vigorous image. given biden’s better outing at a campaign stop the day after the debate, some believe he can bounce back. after all, ronald reagan and barack obama recovered from poor debate performances. but that was because each was seen as a great orator who had simply had a bad night. biden’s problem is that his poor showing reinforced an already entrenched narrative that will be difficult, if not impossible, to alter. his performance could even threaten to turn him into something of a lame duck, further weakening his influence at home and abroad. all this said, biden will be the democratic party candidate chosen at the party’s convention this august unless he takes himself out of the running and frees his pledged delegates to vote for someone else. who this someone would be vice president kamala harris, a sitting governor or senator, a member of his cabinet is anybody’s guess. it is obvious that biden and his inner circle are resisting calls (including from sympathetic editors at major news outlets) for him to step aside. neither he nor his loyal lieutenants, many of whom have been close to him for decades, have given any indication that the president will bow out. biden’s declining political fortunes could well prove to be a drag on other democratic candidates come autumn. it is possible that a trump victory could help bring about a republican takeover of the senate at the same time republicans hold the house of representatives. together with a supreme court that has increasingly demonstrated sympathy for positions supported by trump and congressional republicans, this would bring about the american equivalent of a parliamentary system, with power consolidated in the hands of a party one that is better understood as radical rather than conservative. there would be few checks on power strong enough to mitigate this imbalance; on the contrary, trump’s plans to weaken the independence of the civil service, together with his promise to politicise the justice department and regulatory agencies, would concentrate power further. trump would be free to lower taxes, impose tariffs, further restrict access to abortion, ease already loose controls on gun ownership, enforce immigration law as he sees fit and increase the enormous debt. foreign policy would also be vulnerable to significant change, because the us political system gives broad latitude to the executive. it is quite possible that trump would reduce or even eliminate us support for ukraine, hollow out us commitments to nato, give israel an even freer hand to prosecute war in gaza and lebanon and build settlements, refuse to participate in global efforts to combat climate change, and prioritise bilateral trade issues with china over broader concerns with beijing’s behaviour abroad. elections have consequences, and this one more than most, given that the differences between the candidates far exceed any similarities. in the wake of a debate that appears to have tipped the scales against biden, and with no way of knowing if someone else will be the democratic candidate and how he or she would fare, us friends and allies should prepare themselves for potentially major changes come january. richard haass, president emeritus of the council on foreign relations, is a senior counselor at centerview partners and the author of the bill of obligations: the ten habits of good citizens (penguin press, 2023) and the weekly newsletter home & away. this article is presented in partnership with project syndicate © 2024. the strategist   the australian strategic policy institute blog. copyright © 2025

wait wait... don't tell me! is npr's weekly quiz program. each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what's real news and what's made up. thursday’s debate appears set to reinforce the public’s deep seated concerns about both men before perhaps the largest audience they'll garner before ballots are cast. president joe biden, speaks during a presidential debate hosted by cnn with republican presidential candidate former president donald trump, thursday, june 27, 2024, in atlanta. (ap photo/gerald herbert) president joe biden strained to quell democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing in his debate with former president donald trump, as elected members of his party closed ranks around him in an effort to shut down talk of replacing him atop the ticket. biden’s halting delivery and meandering comments, particularly early in the debate, fueled concerns from even members of his own party that at age 81 he’s not up for the task of leading the country for another four years. even before the debate, biden’s age had been a liability with voters, and thursday night’s faceoff appeared to reinforce the public’s deep seated concerns before perhaps the largest audience he will garner before ballots are cast. democratic lawmakers on friday acknowledged biden’s poor showing, but tried to stop talk of replacing him as their standard bearer, and instead tried to shift the focus onto trump’s attacks and falsehoods that they hoped would remind voters of the daily turbulence of his presidency. “well, the president didn’t have a good night, but neither did donald trump with lie after lie and his dark vision for america,” north carolina gov. roy cooper told the associated press on friday, hours before he was set to share a stage with the president in raleigh. “we cannot send donald trump back to the white house. he’s an existential threat to our nation.” house democratic leader hakeem jeffries answered with a flat “no” when asked friday if biden should step aside. but the new york lawmaker added that he’s eager to see how biden would address his performance at his friday rally. “i’m looking forward to hearing from president biden,” he said. “and until he articulates a way forward in terms of his vision for america at this moment, i’m going to reserve comment about anything relative to where we are at this moment, other than to say i stand behind the ticket.” rep. ritchie torres, democrat of new york, said, “since performance last night, i had to take a few more antidepressants than usual.” “people have asked me, ‘do i feel comfortable with the debate?’ you know, a donald trump presidency would cause me far greater discomfort than a joe biden debate performance.” biden trump debate: insults and accusations fly in first presidential face off of 2024 follow along for live special coverage as president joe biden and former president donald trump debate on cnn. 8 months ago b iden was greeted early friday in raleigh by throngs of supporters invited by his campaign to watch air force one carry him from the debate in atlanta, where he brushed aside democratic concerns with his showing that he should consider stepping aside, saying, “no, it’s hard to debate a liar.” the democrat was scheduled to hold what his campaign is billing as the largest yet rally of his reelection bid in the state trump carried by the narrowest margin in 2020. he’ll then travel to new york for a weekend of big dollar fundraisers that his campaign now needs more than ever, as it looks to stave off trump. biden’s campaign announced that it raised $14 million on debate day and the morning after, while trump’s campaign said it raised more than $8 million from the start of the debate through the end of the night. vice president kamala harris, whom the biden campaign sent out to defend his performance, was set to travel to las vegas, nevada. she told cnn hours after the debate, “there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish.” rep. emanuel cleaver, d mo., said he could hardly sleep because of the number of telephone calls he got after biden performed “horribly” in the debate. “people were just concerned. and i told everybody being concerned is healthy, overreacting is dangerous,” cleaver said. “and i think i wouldn’t advise anybody to make rash decisions right now.” rep. james clyburn, a south carolina democrat who was formerly a longtime fixture in house democratic leadership, said he would likely speak to biden later friday and his message would be simple: “stay the course.” biden and his allies were looking to brush aside concerns about his delivery to keep the focus on the choice for voters this november. they seized on trump’s equivocations on whether he would accept the will of voters this time around, his refusal to condemn the rioters who stormed the capitol on jan. 6, 2021, trying to overturn his 2020 loss to biden, and his embrace of the conservative leaning supreme court’s overturning of roe v. wade that had legalized abortion nationwide. trump’s comments, biden’s team insisted, are out of step with the majority of voters and will serve as fodder for the barrage of ads that they will see through election day. but democrats faulted biden for fumbling his chance to press those trump on those issues. philly’s suburbs are crucial to the presidential race. after the first debate, some voters are wincing at the biden trump rematch voters in bucks and montgomery counties could prove pivotal in deciding the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. 8 months ago r ep. bennie thompson of mississippi, who was the chairman of the house jan. 6 committee, said that while everything trump said about the attack that day was wrong, biden flubbed the moment. “the president missed a golden opportunity, to correct the record, in the debate. that was a missed opportunity.” biden also fumbled on abortion rights, one of the most important issues for democrats in this year’s election. he was unable to explain roe v. wade, the landmark supreme court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. a conservative supreme court with three justices nominated by trump overturned roe two years ago. as elected democrats united behind biden publicly, donors and party operatives shared panicked text messages and phone calls thursday night and into friday expressing their concern that biden’s performance was so bad that he may be unelectable this fall. but there were no immediate signs of organized efforts among donors, his campaign leadership or the democratic national committee to convince the president to step aside, according to interviews with several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive conversations. still, morale was poor among some biden campaign staffers across the country, who had been encouraged by top campaign officials in delaware to organize hundreds of debate watch parties to get as many eyes as possible on the biden trump showdown. the morning after, some embarrassed lower level campaign staffers privately expressed their desire for biden to quit the race. it was the same among some top democratic donors, who talked up the need to embrace a biden replacement during a series of text chains. there were informal conversations between donors and those close to potential biden alternatives to gauge their willingness to step into the race. but there was no sense that a sitting governor or member of congress would be willing to risk the political fallout that might come with a public break from the democratic president. others donors skittish about biden’s performance faced determined outreach from his campaign warning that without their resources they risked handing the election to trump. michigan gov. gretchen whitmer, a democrat frequently mentioned as a 2028 contender and speculated about as a potential replacement for biden on the ticket should he step aside, released a statement backing him on friday. “the difference between joe biden’s vision for making sure everyone in america has a fair shot and donald trump’s dangerous, self serving plans will only get sharper as we head toward november,” she said. california gov. gavin newsom also dismissed questions on whether he would consider stepping in for biden, telling reporters after the debate, “i will never turn my back on him.” under current democratic party rules, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace biden as the party’s nominee without his cooperation or without party officials being willing to rewrite the rules at the august national convention. trump, meanwhile, flew to his golf club in virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward democrats in recent years but that his aides believe can flip toward the republican in november. he was set to hold at rally in chesapeake friday afternoon. ___ superville reported from raleigh, north carolina; price reported from norfolk, virginia; peoples reported from atlanta; ap reporters stephen groves and farnoush amiri in washington, gary d. robertson in raleigh, joey cappelletti in lansing, michigan and bill barrow in atlanta contributed. never miss a moment with the whyy listen app! play, pause, and rewind the live radio stream, access on demand audio features, and dive into podcasts from both local and national sources. whyy is your source for fact based, in depth journalism and information. as a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. please give today. trump is certified as the 2024 election winner without challenge, in stark contrast to 2021 violence vice president kamala harris, presiding over proceedings as the role of the office, read the tally. 1 month ago young men swung to the right for trump after a campaign dominated by masculine appeals trump's campaign for the oval office was dominated by appeals to traditional masculinity, conveyed in appearances in nontraditional media. 2 months ago most of the country shifted right in the 2024 presidential election in 2020, president biden won six of the seven closely watched states. this year, president elect donald trump won all seven   plus he will got a majority of the popular vote. 3 months ago 11 hours ago 13 hours ago 16 hours ago want a digest of whyy’s programs, events & stories? sign up for our weekly newsletter. together we can reach 100% of whyy’s fiscal year goal whyy provides trustworthy, fact based, local news and information and world class entertainment to everyone in our community. whyy offers 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credit: getty images by aleyna rentz on thursday night, president joe biden and former president donald trump will face off in the first presidential debate of 2024. in anticipation of this event, the johns hopkins briefing series hosted a virtual panel of experts to discuss the history and significance of presidential debates. the panel was moderated by snf agora institute associate professor of political science lilliana mason, whose research focuses on partisan identity, partisan bias, and american social polarization. the briefing series is hosted by the office of interdisciplinary initiatives. panelists included: when biden and trump square off on thursday night, they'll be achieving a number of firsts, not all of them positive, the panelists say. never has an incumbent president faced a former president in a debate. never have the two candidates been as old trump is 78, and biden, at 81, will be the first octogenarian to take the presidential debate stage. and never has a convicted felon participated in a debate for president, let alone run for the highest office in the country. this showdown, says rigueur, "is completely unique in the history of televised media debate." even the structure and rules will be different. historically, debates have been held well into the election season, normally in september and october, a stark contrast to this year's june start date. to keep this debate from veering off course, there will be no audience, and moderators will have the power to mute candidates' microphones. maybe voters don't care who designed biden's suit or trump's tie, but how a candidate presents himself from his cadence of speech to the american flag pinned on his lapel is vitally important, according to the panelists. rigueur recalls the first televised presidential debate in 1960, where richard nixon infamously lost to john f. kennedy due to his lack of makeup and sweaty forehead. "the real deal breaker was that kennedy was used to doing television," she says. "he had an aesthetic and knew what it meant to talk to the american people." rigeuer notes that when viewers discuss who won the debate afterwards, style is often just as important as substance: "we don't always remember candidates' talking points, but we do remember the way they presented themselves." "think about that infamous hillary clinton versus donald trump debate [in 2020] where [the moderators] allowed the candidates to walk around the stage," she continues. "one of the things that really stuck out for a lot of people was how donald trump followed hillary clinton as she was talking." ultimately, according to perrin, what matters is how a candidate makes voters feel, and in a year where many voters already feel uninspired by both candidates, broadcasting a particular image is especially important. according to rigueur, biden will have to assure voters he's still sharp despite his age, while trump will have to convince them that he is morally equipped for the job. while picking the next leader of the free world based on feelings might seem impractical, perrin gives another perspective: "much of what happens in any presidential term is unpredictable," he says, citing incidents like 9/11 and the mortgage crisis of 2008. "and so what you're trying to do [by watching a debate] is not get a sense of just what their agenda is, but actually what kind of leader we're trying to elect." he continues, "it's a question of feeling what makes you trust or mistrust a candidate. who do you imagine they might ask for advice in the context of something really new happening? what kinds of expertise do they have access to, or do they consider [consulting experts at all]? to what extent do you have faith that the candidate is serious about considering the evidence when something happens?" moderators have always played a key role in presidential debates, but in such a polarized political climate, they're crucial to maintaining a debate based on facts. pomerantsev explains, "if you label the other person a liar and dismiss anything that comes out of their mouth, that destroys the ground for a debate where evidence matters. it's really going to be up to moderators to steer the debate in a way where facts can happen." this year, moderators have a new tool for reining in debaters: mute buttons. while pomerantsev hopes they're used with impartiality and only to penalize candidates for breaking debate rules, he also predicts the mute buttons will prove controversial with viewers. he compared their dilemma to that faced by soccer referees: "even though the referee might be trying to be fair, [their choices] are always reinterpreted" through viewers' various biases. the debate stage gives candidates opportunities that extend beyond simply sparring with their opponent. it provides a mouthpiece for carefully honed soundbites, which will inevitably make the rounds on social media channels. pomerantsev says debates are now "raw material that will be chopped and changed, … a rough cut … used in completely other ways." he's noticed candidates adapting to this new trend, often trading cohesive narratives for quotable one liners. these quips aren't meant to sway undecided voters, but to shore up one's base. "social media is for … preaching to your tribe," explains pomerantsev. "so if trump says something particularly incendiary around abortion, i'm pretty sure the democrats will leap on that. and the other way around, if biden stumbles in some way, that will definitely be used by republicans." when asked if these events are true debates or opportunities for candidates to recite memorized talking points, perrin insists it's more complex than that: "the point of the debate is to allow both candidates to get themselves out there more directly … than they do through advertisements and social media, and to allow the public to better understand who they are, what they stand for, and why. are they true debates in some sort of dialectic or philosophical society sense? no, they're not. but they provide a real and true distinction on the same stage between two starkly different choices for the most powerful office of the land. i think it's much less important whether it's a 'true' debate and much more important whether that contrast [between the two candidates] is faithfully and appropriately drawn for the public so they can learn from it." posted in voices+opinion, politics+society tagged politics, snf agora institute, election 2024
the mccamish pavilion at georgia tech in atlanta on tuesday, june 25, 2024. it is the site of the press center for media covering the cnn debate between president joe biden and former president donald trump on thursday. (ross williams/georgia recorder) president joe biden and former president donald trump will get a crucial opportunity to reach undecided voters and set the terms for the 2024 presidential campaign at thursday night’s debate in atlanta. partisans on either side have already made up their minds about which candidate they’ll support. and with this year’s race serving as a rematch of 2020, many americans have already formed strong and possibly unchangeable opinions about the candidates. yet there is a sizable group of voters who haven’t decided who they’ll support in november, christopher stout, a professor of political science at oregon state university, said in an interview with states newsroom. “on one hand, opinions about joe biden and donald trump are baked in,” stout said. “on the other hand, there’s a lot of people who aren’t paying any attention to politics and this is their first time thinking about the 2024 election.” for biden, a major objective will be to show voters the 81 year old incumbent can be energetic and forceful, stout and political strategists said. trump, 78, may focus on appealing to voters in the ideological middle and wavering republicans who want a conservative candidate but are turned off by the former president’s antics. on policy, each candidate has issues they will capitalize on as strengths. trump will probably press biden on immigration and inflation, while biden undoubtedly will be eager to criticize trump on reproductive rights. the debate, sponsored by cnn, will be moderated by the network’s jake tapper and dana bash and begin at 9 p.m. eastern, with no studio audience. it is set to last for 90 minutes and will air live on cnn with simulcast available for other cable and broadcast networks. each candidate’s microphone will be muted while the other is speaking. no props are allowed but each man will be given a pen, pad and bottle of water, cnn said. trump could gain ground with moderate and independent voters by appearing steady. after winning the presidency in 2016, trump lost to biden in 2020 amid a sense that republican leaning voters were weary of his unorthodox style and tendency to create scandal. “if he’s boring and he looks like a typical politician, that’s going to be a big plus for him,” stout said.