Trump and Biden set to square off in highly anticipated first presidential debate

The debate has been divided into six topics: "The Trump and Biden Records," "The Supreme Court," "Covid-19," "The Economy," "Race and Violence in our Cities" and "The Integrity of the Election," according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Trump must deliver a performance that will dramatically alter the race at a time when voters are looking for him to explain the stunning new reporting from The New York Times that he paid no federal income taxes in 10 out of 15 years starting in 2000.

The President enters this first of three presidential debates in a far more vulnerable position than in his 2016 match-ups with Hillary Clinton, when he had no presidential record to defend and attempted to rattle the former secretary of state with frequent interruptions and by reeling off one-liners, including the quip in one debate that if he had been in the White House "you'd be in jail." Many voters have already made up their minds about Trump, giving him poor marks for his handling of both the pandemic and the tension over race relations and police violence this year.

Trump's strategies to take down the former vice president -- including his unproven charges of corruption about Biden's son Hunter, which he plans to raise on Tuesday -- have so far been less effective than those he unfurled on Clinton.

The President also may have miscalculated by setting a low bar for Biden Tuesday night as he repeatedly questioned the former vice president's mental acuity and called him "dumb as a rock."

One of the few areas where Trump has enjoyed majority approval throughout his presidency has been on the economy.

In a preemptive strike to use the tax return issue to his advantage, the Biden campaign released the former vice president's 2019 tax returns earlier Tuesday, which showed he paid nearly $300,000 in federal income tax last year.

Trump is also expected to drill into Biden's record over his 47 years in politics, arguing that the former vice president would support his "radical" agenda with trillions of dollars in new spending and massive tax hikes that would cut into the bottom line for middle-class American families.

With opinions so hardened by Trump's polarizing leadership, many Americans will be tuning in to see whether Biden can withstand Trump's bullying tactics and slashing rhetoric.