The stage for the final presidential debate of the 2020 election is tested for light and sound at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday.
After that debate — and the way President Trump in particular conducted himself — Trump took a hit in the polls.
Joe Biden was understandably surprised by how Trump conducted himself the first time these two squared off.
"Will you shut up, man?" Biden said, unable to get a word in edgewise.
"I know you'd ask it," Biden said to a CBS News campaign reporter.
Biden will likely need a more temperate response than his one to the CBS reporter, something more akin to what he did when Trump went after Hunter Biden in the first debate.
"My son, like a lot of people, like lot of people you know at home, had a drug problem," Biden said at the first debate.
The bar for Biden in the first debate was practically on the floor.
He exceeded that, and since that debate, Biden had one of his best performances of the campaign with his town hall on ABC, which replaced the second debate after Trump chose to skip it because the debate commission wanted the candidates to be remote, given Trump's recent coronavirus diagnosis.
The onus is on Biden to have a solid performance, handle everything Trump throws at him and close the deal.
In a statement, the Trump campaign complained of the deck being stacked against it, lambasting "last minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favored candidate.".
The campaign also said it believed this was supposed to be a foreign policy debate — despite no evidence of that being publicly stated.
That all sets things up for another potentially contentious debate with Trump lashing out, not just at Biden but at the moderator.
I am urging them to do it," Trump said, adding, "I am 100% on board, but if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can't go along with that."
During a town hall with NBC on the night of what was supposed to be the second debate, Trump walked a similar line
"They talk about 'Will you accept a peaceful transfer?' " Trump said
UK
Australia
France
Germany
Russia
India
Canada