Georgia, setting for Biden-Trump debate, as divided as America itself

Atlanta, Georgia is hosting the first debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump as they battle for the White House in November

Here are five interesting things to know about the southeast state, which serves as a reflection of the political schism dividing America as a whole:

CNN

Atlanta is the birthplace and headquarters of CNN, which is airing and moderating the first debate between the 81-year-old Democratic president and his 78-year-old Republican opponent. A second debate scheduled for September will air on ABC.

The 24-hour cable news channel first went on the air in June 1980.

Overshadowed by more politically pronounced competitors, like conservative Fox News and MSNBC which is popular with progressives, CNN is betting big on this debate and hoping it will win the network more viewers.

Surprise in 2020

Georgia has traditionally voted Republican in US presidential elections. But in 2020, in the wake of anti-racism protests sweeping the nation, this state with a large Black population pivoted surprisingly and voted for Biden over Trump.

The margin of victory was razor thin — fewer than 12,000 votes — and Trump has to this day not accepted his defeat in Georgia or the country as a whole.

Trump’s mugshot

Rather, Trump called up a senior state official and in a now infamous conversation asked him to “find” enough votes for Trump to make up the difference and win Georgia. As a result, Trump was indicted in Georgia for his efforts to overturn the election result and his police photo — his mugshot — was taken. Millions of people around the world saw Trump scowling in that iconic photo.

Swing State

Georgia is considered a swing state, which can vote one way or another depending on people’s political sentiment in a given election year.

For several months now polls in Georgia have put Trump ahead of Biden by a varying margin in this state of roughly 10 million people back in 2020.

On paper at least the Biden campaign is working full-throttle in Georgia. But it is actually more focused on winning over undecided people in states further to the north — mainly Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Black voters

Atlanta was the hometown of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, the iconic civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968.

In January 2023, Biden visited the church where King used to preach and he called on people to choose between democracy under him and autocracy with Trump.

Support from African Americans was key to Biden’s win in 2020, but polls show this backing has weakened since then.

Trump, in a phone call Wednesday to supporters at an Atlanta barber shop, said that since his mugshot was released his support among Blacks “has gone through the roof.”

“I guess they equate it to problems that they’ve had,” said Trump, who in late May was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to a porn star just before the 2016 election.

The Biden campaign responded by saying Trump was resorting to a “dangerous racist stereotype that people of color relate to and appreciate the fact that Donald Trump is a criminal.”