US President Joe Biden and his predecessor, former President Donald Trump are scheduled to take part in their first televised debate on Thursday night. Most surveys show the candidates as polling just one point of each other, yet Forbes reported that a recent New York Times/Siena poll showed Trump about six points ahead of his Democratic competitor.
The poll also found that 60% of respondents believe Trump will perform “very” or “somewhat” well compared to 46% who said the same about Biden. And a separate poll released by Quinnipiac University found that 16% of voters are open to changing who they will vote for in November based on how candidates perform in the debate.
On Thursday, the writer and scholar Gerald Horne sat down with Sputnik’s The Critical Hour to discuss the upcoming debate. Sputnik’s Wilmer Leon prefaced the interview by suggesting that it will be difficult for Biden to land any criticisms about Trump in the debate, as the controversial figure has seamlessly skirted accountability for both his offensive rhetoric and accused legal actions - apart from recently in New York, where he became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes.
“Speaking of professor Cornel West, he suggests that the choice is between civil war as fomented by Donald J. Trump, or, World War III as fomented by the misguided foreign policies of one [US President] Joseph R. Biden,” Dr. Horne suggested.
“To that end, and with regard to gaffes, I do feel that in the last debate between these two senior citizens that Mr. Trump might have put his foot in his mouth when he suggested that the Proud Boys and white supremacist standby. He has yet to explain what he meant by that, although I think we've received a glimmer of his meaning on January 6th, 2021, when certainly they did not standby,” the show’s guest said.
In September of 2020, then-President Donald Trump was asked during a presidential debate if he would condemn white supremacist and militia groups that were actively present during Black Lives Matter protests.
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said at the time, before later claiming that he did not know who the Proud Boys were. “But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem.”
“They were part of the vanguard with regard to the interruption of the peaceful transfer of power. With regard to Mr. Biden, it seems to me every time he mentions the word Ukraine, every time he mentions the name Zelensky, and perhaps even every time he mentions Israel and Netanyahu, he will be putting his foot in his mouth because these foreign conflicts that give fare to ignite World War III are quite dangerous and quite ominous,” the show's guest said.
“Already we see that Mr. Biden has jeopardized the strategic position of US imperialism by driving Russia and China closer together and then driving North Korea and Russia closer together. And so, it seems to me that, however, you define the word gaffe that it's going to be unavoidable for these two men to avoid gaffes this evening.”
Sputnik’s Garland Nixon then suggested that the US economy plays a major role in who is elected to the White House. He pointed to the 41st president, George H. W. Bush, who received an 89% approval rating in 1991 following the end of the Cold War and US victory in the first Gulf War, but lost his seat in 1992 due to a poor economy and rising unemployment rates.
“For all of the talk that they do tonight and all these things that we may pontificate about, if the economy's good, which it ain't, Biden wins. If it's bad, he's done,” said Nixon.
“I should also point out that in 1992, George H.W. Bush faced the revenge tour of his fellow Texan, Ross Perot, who got double digits in terms of the popular vote,” Dr. Horne said. “Now, the question for 2024 is whether or not presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will be as popular in November as he appears to be in June.”
“It's unclear whether [Kennedy] take votes from Mr. Biden or more votes from Mr. Trump, but that is an X factor that we'll have to consider, as well as another X factor, if I may, being whether or not presidential candidate Cornel West will take votes away, as the mainstream press would put it, from Joseph R. Biden. These are all X factors going into tonight's debate.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was bumped from the upcoming presidential debate between Biden and Trump. CNN requires their debate participants to qualify on enough state ballots to win the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidential election - Kennedy could only win about 100, as of the day of the debate.
Kennedy’s campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, accusing CNN of setting requirements that would intentionally exclude him from the debate, NewsNation reported. Instead, the former president’s nephew and member of the Kennedy family will participate in the debate by responding to questions online, followed by an interview with NewsNation.
“Over 70% of Americans want a different choice than Presidents Biden or Trump,” Kennedy said in a video he posted on X. “They’re tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.”