Presidential debates have little relevance in US elections, says professor

International Relations professor Carlos Gustavo Poggio spoke, during his participation in the WW program this Monday (24), about the expectations for the debate between the candidates for the presidency of the United States: Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

According to Poggio, in general, debates are not as important in the North American electoral process, especially in general elections.

The professor highlighted that there is greater concern surrounding this specific debate due to two main factors: first, because it occurs very early in the electoral campaign, even before the party conventions; and second, due to the great expectations about the physical and cognitive condition of the 81-year-old Democratic candidate Biden.

“Trump has been running a very strong campaign to reinforce that Biden is an 81-year-old guy, who would have cognitive problems,” said the professor. “Therefore, there is a very high expectation surrounding Joe Biden’s performance in this debate.”

If Biden has a performance that is considered poor and reinforces the perception of cognitive decline, Poggio assesses that this could severely harm his campaign and open space for a possible change of candidate for the Democratic Party.

“It is a debate that has a much greater risk for Joe Biden than Donald Trump, despite the topics that will be discussed.”

Debate between Biden and Trump

Two years after reversing Roe vs. Wade, the US Supreme Court gave states the power to decide their own rules on abortion.

Biden’s team took the opportunity to attack Trump over his conviction for falsifying financial records.

Abortion will be one of the topics explored in the debate on CNN this Thursday (27), the first time that Biden and Trump will meet face to face since October 2020.

While Biden is expected to explore Trump’s conviction, the former president is expected to address sensitive issues for Biden, such as immigration and inflation.