The 2024 presidential campaign is heating up with a high-profile debate on Thursday on CNN.  President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will go toe-to-toe.

 As the two oldest candidates in U.S. history, Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, prepare to square off, experts suggest that slip-ups or stumbles could play a more significant role than in previous debates.

“A lot of this is going to be about appearance, not the criteria by which high school debates are judged,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College. “And I say this having judged many high school debates.”

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Trump's Conviction: A Wildcard in the Campaign

Trump's recent conviction by a New York jury on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records is the wildcard. 

This unprecedented court case involved accusations of a hush money scheme before the 2016 election, with porn actress Stormy Daniels as a witness. Daniels claimed she had an affair with Trump and shared salacious details in court. 

In response to the conviction, Biden has launched a substantial ad campaign celebrating this legal outcome.

Trump describes the legal battle against him as “Lawfare. And points to the growing number of cases that were started the day after he announced he was running for the office.

Heated Rhetoric on the Campaign Trail

The campaign rhetoric is intensifying as Trump released a video message from his private jet, Trump Force One, last week. On a flight to a rally in Philadelphia, he warned that President Biden would "destroy America" if re-elected.

 Biden, on the other hand, has consistently argued that Trump would destroy democracy if he returned to the Oval Office.

In his video message, Trump claimed the United States would be "finished" should he lose the election. 

Polls Show a Tight Race

Trump has boasted about being 10% ahead of Biden in recent polls, criticizing the current president as "the worst president in history." 

According to the latest Rasmussen poll, Trump was projected at 46%, while Biden received 36% of the vote in a five-way race. 

The poll also included independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, with nine and two percent, respectively, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at one percent.

In a two-way race, Trump led Biden 49% to 40%, with 7% of respondents indicating they would vote for someone else and 4% undecided.

But there are other polls that don’t show Trump with such a large advantage.

High Stakes for the First Debate

The Biden-Trump debate set for next week marks a crucial moment in what is shaping up to be a tight presidential race.

 Inderjeet Parmar, a Professor of International Politics at City University of London, previously warned that the debate will be a "gamble" for the Democrats.

Meanwhile the Republican National Convention is scheduled to start on July 15, and early voting in California for the November 5 election will begin in just over three months. With the stakes higher than ever, this first high-profile debate could significantly influence the direction of the 2024 presidential campaign.