Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Trump, Biden to meet for final debate tonight
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are set to square off in their final debate today, one of the last high- profile opportunities for the trailing incumbent to change the trajectory of an increasingly contentious campaign.
Worried about losing the WhiteHouse, some advisers are urging Trump to trade his aggressive demeanor from the first debate for a lower- key style that puts Biden more squarely in the spotlight. But it’s unclear whether the president will listen.
Biden, who has stepped off the campaign trail in favor of debate prep, expects Trump to get intensely personal. The former vice president and his inner circle see the president’s approach chiefly as an effort to distract from the coronavirus, its economic fallout and other crises.
With less than two weeks until Election Day, Biden is leading most national polls and has a narrower advantage in the battleground states that could decide the race. More than 42 million people have already cast their ballots. The debate, moderated by NBC’s KristenWelker, is a final chance for both men to make their case to a television audience of tens of millions of voters.
“The rule is that last debates before the election have a big impact,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who made clear the legacy of the candidates’ first face- off: “That was the most outof control presidential debate we have seen.”
Trump, who staged a remarkable comeback in the
closing days of the 2016 campaign, believes he can do it again by using the power of the presidency to attack his rival.
Trump on Tuesday called on Attorney General William Barr to launch an investigation into unverified claims about Biden and his son Hunter, effectively demanding that the Justice Department muddy his political opponent and abandon its historic resistance to getting involved inelections.
While Biden will defend his own record and his son, aides have said, he hopes to focus on making the case thatTrump is unfit foroffice and let thenationdownduring a confluence of crises.
“He knows that people want to hear about how we’re going to help working families get through the end of the month and pay the rent,” his runningmate, Sen. Kamala Harris, said Wednesday in North Carolina. “That’s what people care about, and one of the things I love about Joe Biden — he doesn’t take on or talk about other people’s kids.”
The one- twopunch of the first debate and the president’s three- day hospital
stint after contracting COVID- 19 rattled his base of support and triggered alarm among Republicans who fear the White House and Senate could be slipping away.
The initial debatewas the most tumultuous in modern history, with a belligerent tone that was persistent and somehowfitting for whathas been an extraordinarily ugly campaign.
The two men frequently talked over each other with Trump interrupting, nearly shouting, so often that Biden eventually snapped at him, “Will you shut up, man?”
Aides have urged Trump, who has skipped debate prep, to showsome restraint this time, allowing Biden to speak more and get himself introublewith verbal gaffes and lapses. But the president has made no promises.
It was two days after first debate in Cleveland when Trump tested positive for the coronavirus. TheWhite House has refused to reveal when the president had last tested negative before the debate, raising questions as to whether he was already infected when he took the stage.