President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are preparing for the biggest moment so far in the United States election — the first of two high-stakes debates that could upend the race.
Today’s showdown will raise the campaigning to boiling point, with both camps recently escalating their increasingly personal attacks.
“I think I have been preparing for it for my whole life…We’ll do very well,” Trump told right-wing network Newsmax in an interview on his debate preparation.
The 2024 election looks close, with Trump enjoying a slight polling advantage in the all-important swing states in an election likely to be decided by a few hundred thousand votes across a handful of battlegrounds.
The rivals will both step onstage for the 90-minute clash, to be hosted by CNN in the southern city of Atlanta, seeking to allay fears about serious political liabilities.
Biden, 81, faces the most concern about his mental sharpness, with voters much more likely to bring up his age than Trump’s, despite the Republican being just three years younger.
Both have faltered and appeared muddled during public events, although Trump in particular has raised eyebrows over his rambling and occasionally bizarre campaign speeches.
Trump is also engulfed in controversy over his inflammatory rhetoric and a glut of criminal cases he faces, as well as fears that he would weaponise the presidency to settle personal scores.
Biden spent the week off the radar at the mountainside retreat of Camp David near Washington, preparing with mock debates.
Trump’s preparation has been more relaxed, eschewing dress rehearsals in favour of informal policy roundtables and workshopping debate strategy with rally crowds.
