As Donald Trump and Joe Biden gear up to face off in the first Presidential debate of the year on June 27, polls show unwavering support for the challenger and a reported lack of confidence in the incumbent president.
Knewz.com has learned that Trump's demeanor at the CNN debate, however, might make or break his chances of grabbing the throne in the November election.
As of now, many voters have claimed that they do not have a real choice on the ballot, with Trump having been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and Biden not being able to invoke a lot of confidence due to his advancing age.
"We are once again forced to choose between two terrible choices. Genocide Joe is doing everything in his power to lose," a Democrat supporter from Texas \- who voted for Biden in 2020 - said when interviewed for a recent JL Partners survey.
"They're both old idiot candidates," said another individual who voted for Biden in the previous Presidential election.
However, polls have also shown that Trump has maintained most of his voter base despite his criminal conviction, something Dr. Allan Lichtman, a historian with a record of correctly predicting the outcome of presidential elections, noted when he shared his predictions about the November 2024 elections.
On the other hand, Dr. Lichtman also noted that "a lot would have to go wrong for Biden to lose to Trump," per his calculations.
As it stands, the June 27 debate on CNN could establish either of them as the more suitable candidate for Office in the minds of the unsure voters. Real Clear Politics columnist Frank Miele commented that for Trump, the key to winning the year's first presidential debate will be his "demeanor."
"When Trump joins President Joe Biden on CNN for the earliest general election presidential debate in U.S. history, it’s not going to matter what the former president says so much as how he says it," he wrote, noting that many of his supporters are concerned whether he will "act presidential" at the debate.
It is worth noting that the JL Partners survey found that 79% of voters predicted that Trump will most likely interrupt Biden and speak over him, much like he did during the 2020 Presidential debate.
The poll also found 61% of voters claiming that Trump will most likely "tell a rambling story" at the debate, while 54% expect his mic to be cut off.
However, if Trump manages to keep his cool during the debate and offer prepared responses to the questions asked by the CNN moderators, who Miele believes will have their "sights set on" him, he will have invoked more confidence during the surveys following the debate.
Miele predicts that the questions to be asked by the panelists will focus on "election interference in 2020, election acceptance in 2024, and Hunter Biden."
"Hopefully his campaign team will make sure that he is prepped and ready to avoid each obstacle, such as making ambiguous jokes like 'dictator on day one,' demeaning the elderly president as 'Crooked Joe,' and talking more about himself than about the problems of everyday Americans."
"If Trump remembers to act presidential, and not like an attack dog, there is every reason to believe he will attract voters eager for a change," Miele predicted.
The Real Clear Politics columnist also said that Trump's demeanor will solidify the confidence of his supporters partly due to the ground rules set by President Biden for the CNN debate.
Biden agreed to participate in the June 27 Presidential debate on the condition that there be no studio audience present and that CNN use microphones that "automatically shut off when each candidate’s allotted time is complete," per The Telegraph.
"Both of those changes could help Trump avoid a repeat of the bullying performance that may have cost him the election in 2020. In addition, turning off Trump’s mic will force Biden to complete his responses without making gaffes or getting lost in his addle-pated syntax, an opportunity Trump missed in the 2020 debate," wrote Miele.
Notably, 49% of voters predicted in the JL Partners survey that President Biden might forget where he is during the debate and 70% of the voters wrote in the poll that they expect Biden "to mess up his words."
Around 40-41% of voters also bet that the President would have trouble standing up at the debate and would likely walk off the wrong side of the stage.
