World attention will focus on President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump who will lock horns in the first American presidential debate on Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia marking the official countdown to the elections in November.

It will be the first debate in United State’s history between a sitting president and a former president. The debate will bring out the ideological differences between the two candidates as they solicit votes from Americans in what is projected by the polls to be a close race.

This year’s race for the White House will be one of the most unusual – and historically consequential – the American nation has seen. It is a rematch between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump after both emerged in their parties’ primaries.

The elections are to be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Voters will also be electing Congressional candidates for seats in the House of Representatives and the US Senate. Usually, many people may have already cast their vote ahead of the scheduled time using the postal voting system or early voting. This turned out to be very controversial in the last election.

The general election will also decide control of Congress, which is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Currently, the Republicans control the House of Representatives by a small majority (currently 218 – 213) and Democrats control the Senate by an even more razor-thin margin (51-49).

Modification of the Debate Rules
Unlike the previous presidential debates, this year’s edition has been modified and both candidates have accepted new rules and a fresh format for the debate, which will not include a studio audience. It also requires that their microphones be muted when the other is speaking. Live audiences have often shown partisanship and defied rules by the organisers and the moderators often leading to distractions and interruptions of debate time.

The debate will be hosted by CNN at the cable network’s studios in Atlanta and will run 90 minutes with only two commercial breaks. It will be moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, co-hosts of CNN’s Sunday morning show State of the Union.

The Debate Rules
Thursday’s debate will see major shifts from prior telecasts. The rule includes:
• No live audience, which means there will be no applause or boos that could derail the conversation.
• Muted microphones when it’s not their turn to speak.
• No prewritten notes are allowed.
• The only props they’re permitted to have at the lectern are a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water.
• They will stand behind their lecterns the entire time, limiting their mobility — with Biden on the right and Trump on the left.
• There will be no opening statements from either candidate.
• Trump will get the final word during closing statements, as determined recently by a coin flip.

The Debaters’ Selection Process
There are more than two presidential candidates in the 2024 elections but only the candidates of the two major candidates, Republicans and Democrats will participate in the debate. To qualify for Thursday’s debate, a candidate had to appear on a certain number of state ballots that would make the candidate eligible to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency. The candidate also had to reach at least 15% of votes in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters, according to CNN.

Only Biden and Trump met those qualifications. Third-party candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein failed to hit those benchmarks.

Will There Be Other Debates?
The second presidential debate is set for Sept. 10 and will be hosted by ABC News, with the network’s own David Muir and Linsey Davis serving as moderators.
It’s still unclear whether the second debate will have an audience, but ABC did confirm that it will be held during primetime.

Former President Trump has, however, indicated that he would like to have more than two debates, but it is unlikely that the Biden camp will accept that. There are no dates for a third debate yet.
The debates are expected to be a defining moment for the two candidates who have been criticised for their old age. President Biden is 81, and Donald Trump is 78. Some of the topics that will differentiate the two candidates include their opinions on immigration, abortion, and the war in Gaza amongst others.