World News – US – To watch in the debate: racism, coronavirus, mics

The U finalS Thursday night’s presidential debate will cover a range of topics from the race for national security to climate change In response to criticism, the Commission on Presidential Debates plans to take into account has the ability to silence candidates’ microphones

After meeting last month in perhaps the most chaotic debate in modern history, President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden will speak on Thursday to try another shot

The bar for improving their last prime-time meeting is low: their first debate was punctuated by frequent interruptions, mostly from Mr. Trump, leaving the two men to talk to each other and Mr. Biden finally told the president to « shut up » A second scheduled debate did not take place after the Republican president was diagnosed with the coronavirus and refused to participate in a virtual format Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump instead participated in town hall duels on competing television networks

Thursday’s debate, starting at 9 p.m. EDT, in Nashville, TN, marks the candidates’ second and final face-to-face meeting, on election day in less than two weeks

The debate will be moderated by Kristen Welker, NBC News White House correspondent SP Welker will be the first black woman to moderate a presidential debate since Carole Simpson in 1992

The debate will be divided into six 15-minute segments, each on a topic chosen by Ms. Welker: “Fighting COVID-19”, “American Families”, “Race in America”, “Climate Change”, “National Security « And » Leadership « 

After viewers of the last presidential debate lamented the moderator’s inability to mute candidates’ microphones, the Non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates responded by announcing this week that each candidate’s microphone will be turned off while his opponent allowed two minutes answer to a first question on each topic of debate

After these initial responses, the microphones will remain on during the open discussion, presumably still leaving a lot of crosstalk during rebuttals.

Since the last debate, M Trump was diagnosed and hospitalized with COVID-19 The President put the virus and his own infection in positive terms, resumed holding large election rallies, and attacked the government’s senior infectious disease specialist, Dr.Anthony Fauci m Biden , who described the Trump administration’s response as an abject failure, took a much more cautious approach.He regularly wears a mask, hosts small in-person campaign events, and publishes the results of his COVID-19 test, which have been negative Seek them to focus on their personal choices as much as on their different political plans

For months the president has been laying corruption charges against Mr. Biden and recently stepped up his attention to the unverified allegations about Mr. Hunter, Biden’s son During the last debate, the president did not hesitate to mention Mr. Biden’s family, targeting the former vice president’s son for his history of drug addiction, and attacked Mr. Biden’s intelligence

Mr. Biden collaborators expect Mr. Trump will again level searing personal attacks during debate m Biden is expected to attempt to redirect to his basic argument that M Trump is unfit for work

Following a summer marked by nationwide protests against racial injustice, Mr. Trump has repeatedly presented himself as a greater champion of black Americans than Mr. Biden is, while emphasizing the theme of law and order But in the last debate, M Trump gave a reluctant response when asked if he would condemn white supremacists, and he refused to categorically condemn a far-right fascist group, telling them instead to «  step back and stay loyal »

Mr. Biden, who frequently acknowledges systemic racism, accused the president of encouraging a rise in white supremacy and armed militias, and quotes Mr. Trump’s comments that there were « very good people » on both sides of a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., As a boost to his presidential race

Look for Mr. Biden to continue discussing these topics while Mr. Trump throws M Biden as the official responsible for helping send millions of black Americans to jail with a 1994 crime law passed when Mr. Biden was a senator

Mr. Trump is expected to continue pushing his ‘America First’ policy, which pulled the United States out of multilateral agreements that he said were not in the best interests of the United States. country He is also likely to highlight the construction of more than 200 miles of his promised wall along Mexico’s US-border and recently negotiated agreements normalizing relations between Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Israel

Mister Biden accused the president of alienating U of longtime allies He is supposed to focus on M Trump’s efforts to maintain a relationship with Vladimir Putin’s Russia despite warnings from US intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the U 2016S presidential election and allegations that Russia offered secret bounties for the death of Americans in Afghanistan

Immigration is not one of the topics discussed during the debate, but Mr. Biden may seek to raise the issue following a report this week that court-appointed lawyers were unable to find the parents of 545 separated children at the US-The Mexican border at the start of the Trump administration m Biden repeatedly criticized M Trump’s immigration policies, what Mr. Trump featured prominently in his 2016 campaign

The 90-minute debate will be broadcast on major cable networks and news channels including ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, PBS, NBC, MSNBC, Noticias Telemundo and C- SPAN Most networks will offer a way to watch the debate live online, through their apps and accounts on YouTube and other social media channels

This story was reported by The Associated Press AP writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report

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Donald Trump, Belmont University, Joe Biden, Debate, presidential debates in the United States