US President Donald Trump and his challenger Joe Biden are set to meet in their final debate on Thursday. It is one of the last high-profile opportunities for the trailing incumbent to change the trajectory of an increasingly contentious campaign. President Trump and Biden will each have his microphone cut off in an effort to curtail interruptions, on Thursday night. Biden has stepped off the campaign trail in favor of debate prep, expects Trump to get intensely personal. Trump will describe efforts to distract from the coronavirus, its economic fallout, and other crises. Point to be noted that Biden is leading most national polls and has a narrower advantage in the battleground states and it will decide the race. At least 42 million Americans have already cast their ballots.
Kristen Welker of NBC News is moderating the debate and it is the final opportunity for both candidates to make their case to a TV audience of tens of millions of voters. The Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said, “The rule is that last debates before the election have a big impact. That was the most out of control presidential debate we have seen”. President Trump believes he can win the US election again by using the power of the presidency to attack his rival. On Tuesday, he also called on Attorney General William Barr to immediately launch an investigation into unverified claims about Biden and his son Hunter Biden. The President has promoted an unconfirmed New York Post report published last week.
The NYP report points to an email in which an official from Ukrainian gas company Burisma thanked Hunter Biden. Some former national security officials and other experts said the episode raised multiple red flags of a possible foreign disinformation effort. The director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe dismissed that disinformation theory. It is noteworthy that Trump’s attacks on the Biden family have been relentless, including his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Biden, which led to Trump’s impeachment. Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said, “Trump is still the political outsider, while Biden is the ultimate insider. We now know that Biden allowed his son to sell access to him while he was vice president”.