US President Donald Trump and his opponent, Democratic nominee Joe Biden, will square off in a last 90-minute-debate on Thursday, 12 days before the election on November 3.
The stakes are high in their second and last face-off, especially for Mr Trump, who is trailing in polls and running out of time to catch up in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida and Wisconsin, all of which he won in 2016.
The president is likely to go on the attack and make the most of the opportunity to try to damage Mr Biden in front of a television audience of millions.
In the first debate on September 29, Mr Trump interrupted the Democratic nominee at least 50 times, but that will not be technically possible in Nashville on Thursday night.
The Commission on Presidential Debates has introduced a “mute button” allowing the moderator, NBC's Kristen Welker, to cut the candidates’ microphones if they interrupt the other while giving their first responses.
The debate will focus on Covid-19, American families, national security, leadership, climate change and race relations.
The Trump campaign lodged a complaint about not having foreign policy as the major topic of the evening.
In the past week he has tried on Twitter to discredit Welker, who he congratulated this year on becoming an anchor for the NBC morning show.
He is hoping to lower expectations and blame the media later if he performs poorly.
The White House did not elaborate on what preparations Mr Trump has made for the debate.
“I'm not going to get into whether or not the president has had those debate-prep sessions,” spokesman Hogan Gidley said on MSNBC on Thursday.
Mr Biden took days off the trail to prepare for the event, his campaign said this week.
Biden and Trump test Covid negative
To keep the pressure on the Trump team, the Biden campaign announced on Thursday that its candidate provided a negative PCR test for Covid-19, in adherence with the debate rules.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows announced later on Thursday that Mr Trump, who caught the virus this month, had tested negative too.
A plexiglass that had been positioned to go between the two protagonists in the studio was then removed following a consultation with Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“Hopefully [Trump's] going to play by the rules," Mr Biden said on his way to Nashville.
"Hopefully everybody’s been tested. Hopefully it’s all been worked out what the rules are. We’re looking forward to it."
While presidential debates at such a late stage are not usually game-changers, there are exceptions.
Ronald Reagan’s final debate with Jimmy Carter in 1980 gave him a major boost in the last week of the election, and he went from there to win the presidency.
Mr Trump will need a Reagan-esque performance on Thursday night, something he has not shown in his one-on-one debates in 2016 and 2020.
He must also hope for a major gaffe by Mr Biden to try to regain momentum in the race.
