Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to debate Tuesday—widely viewed as the most consequential night of their campaigns as Harris’ rise in polls appears to have plateaued.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at ... [+]
ABC News anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis will host the 90-minute debate at 9 p.m. EDT at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, with no live audience.
As with the prior debate between Trump and President Joe Biden before Harris became the nominee, each candidate's microphone will be muted when it isn’t their turn to speak, according to a list of rules ABC News says both Trump and Harris' campaigns have agreed to follow.
The microphones were a point of disagreement between the Harris campaign, which wanted unmuted microphones—suggesting it could expose Trump’s penchant for interrupting his opponents—and the Trump campaign, which wanted muted mics, despite Trump saying he preferred for them to be unmuted.
There will be no opening statements, Trump and Harris can’t ask each other questions, and each candidate will be given two minutes to answer each question with a two-minute rebuttal plus an additional minute for a follow-up, clarification or response, ABC says.
Trump won a coin flip to deliver the final closing statement, while Harris chose to stand at the podium to the right of users’ screens.
Candidates will stand behind podiums and are prohibited from interacting with staff or using pre-written notes during the debate, which will feature two commercial breaks.
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2.8. That’s how many points Harris leads Trump by, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average. Prior to Harris launching her candidacy on July 21, Trump led Biden in polls. Harris was up 3.7 points over Trump by Aug. 23, a high in her polling average, according to FiveThirtyEight.
The debate will run live on ABC and most other major networks at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, and on the ABC News Live streaming network, Disney+ and Hulu.
The economy, immigration and abortion are expected to be major topics in Tuesday’s debate. Previewing his attacks on Harris, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said the former president will link her to Biden’s economic policies and highlight the more left-leaning proposals she endorsed during her 2020 presidential campaign. Harris, meanwhile, is widely expected to contrast her own background as a prosecutor with Trump’s criminal record, highlight his role in Roe v. Wade’s reversal and criticize his Project 2025 agenda. The debate is especially high stakes for Harris as she has spent only a month on the campaign trail and voters are less familiar with her background and policy proposals.
Trump said earlier this month he also agreed to a Sept. 4 debate on Fox News and that the ABC debate would be Sept. 25. His campaign quickly clarified the ABC debate would be Sept. 10 and NBC News would host the Sept. 25 debate, though Harris has only agreed to the Sept. 10 debate so far. An NBC spokesperson also indicated the date Trump floated was not official, according to CBS News, which reported the spokesperson said the network has had conversations with both campaigns about a range of dates.
Yes—Oct. 1 on CBS.
Trump agreed last month to debate Harris after suggesting he might back out amid a feud over the rules. The rules for the ABC News debate mirror the ones Trump and Biden followed during the June 27 debate on CNN, including no live audience and muted microphones. Biden’s rocky performance during that debate led him to drop out of the race and endorse Harris, following a weeks-long revolt by many top Democrats. Trump repeatedly waffled over whether he would debate Harris, bashing the network as biased.
It’s unclear. The former first lady made a rare appearance at the Republican National Convention in July, and she issued a public statement on X criticizing President Joe Biden, while promoting her new book. “It has become increasingly apparent that there are significant challenges to free speech as demonstrated by the efforts to silence my husband,” she said in the statement.
Trump’s campaign in 2020 argued against then-host Commission on Presidential Debates’ decision to turn off mics during the second debate following repeated interruptions from Trump during the first debate.
Trump Reverses Course: Offers 3 Debates With Harris—Including ABC Debate He Called Off (Forbes)
Trump Pledges He’ll Debate Harris In ‘Pretty Near Future’—After Backing Out Of ABC Debate (Forbes)
Trump Backs Out Of Debate And Proposes Another On Fox News—Harris Claims He's 'Running Scared' (Forbes)