It’s the last chance — for President Donald Trump, Democratic nominee Joe Biden and undecided voters.
Thursday night’s second presidential debate, held before a limited in-person audience at Belmont University here and tens of millions of Americans watching from their homes, matches up two candidates still looking to seal the deal with a small fraction of the electorate.
The race remains close enough that everything matters. Biden holds narrow leads — within the margin of error or just outside it — in nearly every swing-state poll, and FiveThirtyEight.com gives him an 87 percent chance, or about 7 in 8, of winning. And yet both Republicans and Democrats say they are feeling déja vu from the 2016 campaign, when Hillary Clinton’s polling leads in key swing states evaporated on Election Day.
It’s impossible to know how the debate will affect the race, if at all, before the two candidates square off. But one thing that’s worth watching is whether either breaks out new promises or behaves in a markedly different way from past public appearances.
What is likely is that the debate will help a limited set of voters decide whether they’re done with Trump and comfortable with Biden or whether they will look past Trump’s flaws because they think Biden isn’t right for the job.
Trump has prepped for tonight’s debate even less than last one
President Trump has done even less traditional debate prep for the second and final contest tonight in Nashville than he did for the first face-off, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.
Trump has been counseled by aides and allies to not interrupt as much, though it’s unclear how much he will follow that advice. The president indicated he is not pleased with the new microphone-muting adjustment and says he will plan to speak up when he feels it’s appropriate.
The president has also been told by advisers to let former Vice President Joe Biden speak more than he did on the stage in Cleveland, in their view, to allow the Democratic nominee to potentially stumble or make a mistake.
Expect Trump to raise Hunter Biden and China throughout the debate. The president has suggested as much in recent days.
The team that helped prepare the president last time did not reassemble this time around, partially because several of them were still recovering from coronavirus. As a reminder, the following people got sick around the time the president and first lady did: senior aide Hope Hicks, senior aide Stephen Miller, outside adviser Kellyanne Conway, former Gov. Chris Christie and campaign manager Bill Stepien.
A few back-and-forth practice meetings took place on Air Force One over the last week while the president was traveling to battleground states. Those sparring rounds were more topic-oriented discussions with aides, however, and did not resemble formal sessions.
Trump, for his part, told reporters he considers his exchanges with them “prep,” in addition to the 13 rallies he’s done since his return to the trial last week after his hospitalization for Covid-19.