London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

LIVE: Biden and Trump Prepare for First Presidential Debate in Ohio on Tuesday | Happening Today

President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden square off for 90 minutes in their first debate Tuesday and political pros on both sides are fretting the most about a viral moment that can turn a good performance into a disaster that’s remembered for generations.
A single ill-advised answer could turn off a crucial demographic in a battleground state. A subconscious gesture could go viral, undermining the candidate’s carefully constructed image. Or the debate could simply prove a missed opportunity when there’s few of them left before the Nov. 3 election.

Biden has to worry about looking confused or unsure, or even interrupting himself to note that his time is up, as he did several times during the primary debates.

For Trump, experts are watching how he conducts himself in a format that doesn’t suit his off-the-cuff style -- and to see if his boastful lack of preparation leaves him seeming ill-informed against a policy wonk like the former vice president.

Another key is how the candidates speak directly to the states that decide the election. The pandemic has severely limited in-person campaigning, adding importance to the first debate.

Trump’s campaign hopes to overcome Biden’s lead in the polls by locking down key battleground states, such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which he won in 2016 after solid debate performances against Hillary Clinton.

The debate will take place on Tuesday from 9 to 10:30 p.m. New York time, and will be moderated by Fox News’s Chris Wallace.

Here’s how to watch it for the parts that really make a difference.

Debate viewers should remember that many of the voters who will decide the election may not watch it.

They’ll likely hear about it after the fact via friends, social media memes and clips they stumble across online or on television. The decisive moments may not even be the most widely shared.

Veteran Democratic strategist Evelyn Perez-Verdia says that Biden’s response to a likely attack from Trump that he’s hiding a socialist agenda will be widely replayed on Spanish-language radio in Florida, where he is struggling to match Clinton’s numbers among state residents who fled socialist regimes in Cuba and Venezuela.

A concise answer that allays concerns could help him win back some of those voters, she said, possibly even clinching the state and with it, the presidency.

Those moments have plagued leading candidates in earlier campaigns. In a town-hall format debate in 2016, Trump hovered behind Clinton, attempting to make her look smaller even as she gave sharp answers to questions.

President George H.W. Bush looked at his watch during a debate with Bill Clinton and independent Ross Perot in 1992, which made him look like he felt he was wasting his time. And Ronald Reagan skewered Jimmy Carter in 1980 by asking voters in the middle of an economic downturn whether they felt better off than they did four years ago.

The most famous of all may now be considered quaint given the broadsides Trump unleashes on Twitter almost daily. But in 1988, Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle compared himself favorably to John F. Kennedy. His Democratic opponent, Lloyd Bentsen, retorted to lengthy cheers and applause, “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

Nevertheless, Quayle and Bush won the election.

Biden himself survived such a moment in the primary debates when Senator Kamala Harris, now his running mate, linked him to segregationist senators over his opposition to federal funding to bus Black children to majority White school districts, linking it to her own experience as a Black and Indian-American child in Oakland, California.

The formal topics for the debate are the candidates’ records, the coronavirus pandemic, the Supreme Court, race and violence in cities, the economy and election integrity, according to a list of debate topics announced by the Commission on Presidential Debates, the non-partisan entity that arranges these events every four years.

But the biggest question each will face is unspoken.

For Trump, the test is maintaining the right amount of composure. The president has clashed with advisers who give him bad news, given most of his extended interviews in office to friendlier news programs like “Fox and Friends” and has said he is not formally preparing for the debate.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×