Ohio US election: Five things to watch out for in the Donald Trump v Joe Biden debate
As Joe Biden and Donald Trump gear up for the first round of the US election debate at their respective podiums in Ohio, ITV News spoke to presidential debate expert Brett O'Donnell on what to particularly look out for tonight.
Brett O'Donnell - who has previously coached Republicans George W Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney and most recently Boris Johnson - explained how he would advise both Trump and his Democratic challenger Biden for the debate.
Speaking on the US election podcast Will Trump Win?, he said no one has yet found the answer to how to handle Trump on the debate stage because he's an unconventional "table turner".
1. Unconventional Trump will turn tables and brand his opponent
Mr O'Donnell tells ITV News Trump will continue to use some of his tactics from four years ago, including branding his opponents.
He said: "If you go back and look at his primary debate in particular, he was very disciplined about branding are his competitors and sticking with that brand."
In the past Trump named political figures 'I am Ted', 'Little Rocket Man', 'Crooked Hillary' and 'Low Energy Jeb', as a tool of distraction about their personalities.
The nicknames have also been used engage his voters and more importantly to plant seeds of doubt about his opponents.
"His recent rallies, he's actually been really good at being on message, the things that he should be talking he is and they are going to be persuasive in the election," Mr O'Donnell said.
2. He shouldn't defend his record - but go all out attack
Mr O'Donnell said Trump should play to his strengths and he doesn't need to defend his record.
He said: "He’s got to do everything in his power to make this a choice election and not just a referendum on him."
Trump realises this is not an "Oxford style debate" by any stretch of the imagination, it's all about branding, playing to the television, and quick witted responses - he get's the game.
"Plus, he has changed the rules of the game... which has made him very effective," Mr O'Donnell said.
3. Trump needs to act like a challenger (like four years ago)
When asked what he would advise Donald Trump, Mr O'Donnell said: "I would tell him to act like a challenger. I’d say: stay on offence, don’t stay on defence."
"The only part of his record that he should really worry about talking about is what he’s done economically, whether it’s employment or trade or any of those things about the economy because the election is about the economy and should be so."
4. Biden has got to avoid mistakes and hold Trump to account
Mr O'Donnell told ITV News: "If I was advising Joe Biden I’d say 'look you have to first of all pass the test that the Trump campaign has set up: which is you’ve got to not make mistakes in the debate'.
"So that’s the first level. The second level is, I’d stay on offence against him," he added.
He said: "I’d litigate his record, given that he has been president now for four years.
"That’s the mistake that incumbents will make in presidential debates. Barack Obama made it in his first presidential debate, Ronald Reagan did the very same thing."
5. But there's no perfect plan to beat Trump as aggressive Clinton found out
Trump is "a table turner, his brand is being unconventional and so handling him in conventional ways didn’t work", Mr O'Donnell said.
"Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton tried to handle Trump very aggressively, and tried to debate at his level and it didn’t work out for them either."
So the question is how do you handle Donald Trump?
The presidential debate expert said: "I’m not sure I even have the perfect answer to that question, because he is a one-of-a-kind candidate, because of who he is, what he came in with, and the fact that he had been doing television for 15 years and is a master of branding."