US Election 2020: Biden hopes Trump 'plays by the rules' at last presidential debate

Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden says he hopes President Donald Trump  "plays by the rules" during tonight's debate.

Biden made the comments Thursday as he prepared to board a plane for Nashville, Tennessee for the presidential debate.

Tonight's debate will serve as a final national stage for the candidates to outline starkly different visions for a country in the grips of a surging pandemic that has killed more than 225,000 Americans and cost millions of jobs.

Despite historic tumult, the race has remained largely unchanged with Biden holding advantages in many battleground states while Trump faces a shortage of campaign cash and, crucially, time.

Worried that Trump could lose the White House and cost Republicans the Senate, some advisers urged him to trade his aggressive demeanor from the first debate for a lower-key style and put the spotlight on Biden, whom he derides as “Sleepy Joe.” But Trump made no such promise.

Biden, who has stepped off the campaign trail for several days in favor of debate prep, expects Trump to get intensely personal.

The former vice president and his inner circle see the president’s approach chiefly as an effort to distract  from the coronavirus, its economic fallout and other crises of Trump's term.

Final debates often play an outsized role in electoral outcomes. But Thursday night's showdown will be different from those past.

More than 42 million people have already cast their ballots as part of a pandemic-era rise in early voting. In an election dominated by a polarizing president, far fewer undecided voters remain than at this point in 2016.

And, in a visual reminder of the pandemic that has rewritten the norms of American society and fundamentally changed the campaign, sheets of plexiglass have been installed onstage between the two men.

In an effort to curtail interruptions this time, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that Trump and Biden will each have his microphone cut off while his rival delivers an opening two-minute answer to each of six debate topics.

The mute button won’t figure in the open discussion portion of the debate.