Atlanta takes the stage for tonight’s presidential debate

Like President Biden and former President Donald Trump to get on stage On Thursday night, in CNN’s historic Techwood campus studio, the Peach State will also be in the spotlight.

“The stakes are very high,” said Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat who represents the Atlanta metropolitan area and eastern suburbs. “And so having this debate in Atlanta will help increase turnout in this very crucial and extremely high-stakes election.”

Georgia has become a crucial battleground. With 16 electoral votes, the state’s explosive growth has attracted an increasingly diverse and expanding population Black, Latino, and Asian-American voters.

Trump won the state in 2016 by 5 percentage points over Hillary Clinton. Mr. Biden reversed the situation in 2020 with a narrow advantage of about 12,000 votes. Trump and 18 co-defendants have been charged with trying to overturn the 2020 results by an ongoing election interference caseIn the current match, the former president leads Mr. Biden in Georgia 51%-48%, according to a CBS News battlefield poll conducted earlier this year.

“I think people are missing his policies,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of northwest Georgia told CBS News. “You know, inflation affects a lot of people in Georgia, especially in rural areas.”

This week, both campaigns flooded the capital with voter outreach, press conferences, ads, surrogates and debate watch parties. The Biden-Harris campaign held more than 1,600 events in battleground states.. This included Daily press briefings have focused on issues ranging from reproductive rights to the economy, drawing local politicians like Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan. The Trump campaign has targeted some of its outreach to black voters with Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida and Congressman Wesley Hunt. from Texas “cutting it” in barbershops and cigar lounges as RNC leaders toured Atlanta’s northern suburbs to discuss election integrity.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said it was a “good thing” that the South was getting more political attention. The close Trump ally made the two-hour drive from his home in neighboring South Carolina to attend.

“I think this debate is going to be about whether Biden can do it,” Graham said. “And if I were Trump, I would talk about the right path and the wrong path. I don’t think he needs to be too aggressive.”

A CBS News poll finds that 70% of likely Republican voters think Trump should be “more polite” during the debate, while 68% of Democratic voters think Biden should be “more forceful.” 63% of voters planning to tune in say they want to learn more about the candidate’s plans and policies.

“The American people need to see the difference,” said Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Delaware, who is also a co-chair of Biden’s campaign. “They need to see the contrast between someone who works for the American people every day and not just for himself.”

“Be himself, be the compassionate, balanced, capable and insightful leader that he was,” added Sen. Chris Coons, co-chair of the campaign. indirectly advised Mr. Biden’s team. The Delaware Democrat attended the first presidential debate in 2020 in Cleveland, which turned into a combative shouting match between the two candidates and he hopes there won’t be a repeat.

“It was one of the most chaotic, incoherent performances by a presidential candidate that I’ve ever seen,” Coons recalled. “Donald Trump, the president at the time, broke every possible norm and rule in the way he conducted himself, and it was breathtaking. The only thing we know for sure about him is that he’s unpredictable.”

Mr. Biden has been holed up at Camp David for nearly a week for a mix of informal and formal preparation sessions with advisers, such as attorney Bob Bauer, who is playing Trump. Trump has taken a less traditional approach, holding policy discussions with leading experts and Republican lawmakers such as Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri.

“It was a great meeting,” Schmitt told CBS News. “I think he’s going to have an excellent debate.”

The sitting senator and former state attorney general declined to go into details of the meeting and joked that he was “not” replacing Mr. Biden.

“For the first time in a lifetime, you have two individuals who have been president facing off,” Schmitt said. “So you have a pretty unique opportunity to kind of revisit the history of the tape. And I think everybody knows that, you know, we had a secure border. We dominated the energy sector. People were making more money. So to the extent that I think the election is about that, I think that’s why you see President Trump leading in the polls. As far as the debate… all of these debates have a life of their own.

Former vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia understands the pressures that come with being on the stage of a national debate. He said Republicans should not underestimate the president’s performance, pointing to his State of the Union address. Kaine’s “only advice” is for Mr. Biden to look at the “good economic news.”

“Manufacturing jobs are up, unemployment is down, retirement savings are up, infrastructure is up, we’re rebuilding,” Kaine said. “I think the president can and must deliver a powerful economic message. I think he’s going to succeed.”