CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — In one week, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will face off in a 90-minute debate with one moderator and no audience to cheer them on.
According to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the president and former vice president will get questions on their respective records, the Supreme Court, the coronavirus pandemic, racial protests and violence, election integrity and the economy when they take the stage at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.
There will be six 15-minute segments dedicated to those topics.
The audience for the first debate is expected to be in the tens of millions and the president has tried to shape expectations by repeatedly suggesting — without providing evidence — that Biden may be on drugs to enhance his performance.
When asked about that last week. Biden said the following:
“I’m looking forward to the debate and he’s [Trump] a fool,” said Biden.
The former vice president won the endorsement of Sen. John McCain’s widow Cindy McCain, explaining that it was President Trump’s reported disparagement of America’s fallen servicemen that moved her to his side.
Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris was in Detroit Tuesday.
“Donald Trump will never use the term Black Lives Matter,” said Harris, urging Black people to vote.
“Why do you think so many powerful people are trying to prevent black people from voting in America? Why do you think they are trying to suppress and to make it difficult or to confuse black people around voting? And the answer is simple – they know when we vote things change,” said Harris. “They know when we vote we are powerful. And so I say let us not let them take our power. Let them not get away with trying to take our power.”
Nationwide in 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau reported – Black turnout dropped by 7 percentage points from its record high during President Obama’s re-election in 2012. In the Detroit area, the drop-off was even steeper – 14 percentage points.