It's beginning to look a lot like Debate Week
Campaigns prepare for Atlanta debate
Debate week in Atlanta is officially upon us.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will meet face-to-face at CNN’s Midtown Center Thursday night for the earliest presidential debate in American history. It will also be the first time the two rivals have shared a stage since their final debate in October 2020.
On-air hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are set to co-moderate the 90-minute debate, which will be without a studio audience and include two commercial breaks.
As both candidates prepare for the consequential debate, their campaigns are already rolling out the welcome mats for their return to a state that could again play a pivotal role in the race for the White House.
We are already seeing an early preview of President Biden’s reported plans to hold the former president accountable. On Monday, the Democrat’s campaign held a press conference in Atlanta to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
And the President himself now appears in a new direct-to-camera social media video pointing the finger at his rival, who continues to praise the conservative bench he helped put in place for sending the issue of abortion rights back to the states.
The Trump team, meanwhile, appears to be heeding warnings from top Georgia Republicans to step up their efforts on the ground. Several Republican state and local officials were on hand as the Republican nominee’s campaign opened a new field office in Savannah. New “Trump Force 47” encampments have also popped up in metro Atlanta counties such as Cherokee, Gwinnett and Fayette.
Trump is set to stick around after the Thursday debate for a high-dollar fundraiser with some of his biggest Georgia supporters.
All this comes amid a neck-and-neck race for the White House. And a new statewide poll from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the University of Georgia finds Trump out in front even as both leaders remain deeply unpopular with voters in the key battleground state.
But Thursday’s debate could be the first opportunity for either candidate to create some movement in an otherwise stable contest.