The expectation in the United States is maximum for the to the debate between Democratic President Joe Biden and former Republican President Donald TrumpBoth have a lot at stake and that is why they have been preparing for days to face each other early this Friday morning in their first presidential debate of the 2024 electoral cycle.

The debate will be followed from home, from bars and very close to the CNN studio, the chain that broadcasts it, and a pavilion has been set up for media, candidate teams and activists. There in Atlanta, the security around the debate is extreme and the preparation is like for a Super Bowl or almost.

CNN has done the rest and has prepared a 20,000 square meter pavilion for the Biden and Trump teams, activists from each and hundreds of journalists from around the world. Of height, too, the great security deployment around the debate and the ‘viewing party’ and now the entire center of Atlanta is fenced off, traffic blocked off and police everywhere.

The stakes couldn’t be higher, CNN rightly says, because according to polls, most Americans are not entirely convinced by either the current president or his predecessor. “A lot of light needs to be shed on both candidates, so the expectation is growing,” says a young American woman. Six out of 10 US adults say they will watch it. These are figures not seen since the 1960s, even surpassing the multitudinous clash between Trump and Clinton.

”(It’s intriguing) to see how the candidates react to not having an audience and having their microphones cut off, it’s going to be interesting” explains another American. With the two candidates’ very opposite characters, accustomed to clashing and cutting each other off, it is difficult for them to don’t let sparks fly tonight.

No audience, open microphone, the details of face to face

Americans, and much of the world, know how important every detail of a face-to-face debate is. The debate stage is one of them. Incumbent President Joe Biden will enter and take his place at the lectern to the right of the screens. Donald Trump, meanwhile, will enter and occupy the lectern to the left of the screens. Between the two of them, there will be two and a half meters of separationand in front of them, the moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

But if either of them does not look forward and looks at their lectern, there they will also be able to know whether your microphone is open or not. They will know it by those green lights, all this is to avoid any confusion and for both of them to be clear about whether they are heard or not.

Each candidate will have two minutes to answer questions and they will have a minute for cross-questioning, to clarify their counterarguments and, if they wish, to clarify something of what they have said. The debate moderators may intervene and will grant, at their discretion, one more minute to each candidate to speak again if they need to make any clarifications.

A debate, which, unlike what is usually tradition in the United States, will not have an audience. And another great novelty is that when the time assigned to each one ends, Their microphone will be cut off. But how will they know how much time they have left? Looking forward, at the cameras. A kind of traffic light has been placed above them that, when yellow, It will mean that they have 15 seconds left. When they blink, in redyou will have five seconds to finish, and when the red light stays on, your time is up.