U.S. President Joe Biden, left, speaks during an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in the East Room of the White House June 18, 2024, in Washington, DC. Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a campaign event at 180 Church, Saturday, June 15, 2024, in Detroit.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Carlos Osorio/AP
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Carlos Osorio/AP
President Biden and former President Donald Trump will face off Thursday night in Atlanta in the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election.
This opens a new phase in the presidential race, less than five months from November 5, election day, because the confrontation remains extremely close. Biden and Trump are virtually tied according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, which echoes a months-long trend of recent national surveys.
The debate also breaks with campaign tradition, taking place months earlier than usual and with a new set of rules agreed to by both candidates, including no live audience. This is also the first debate either candidate has participated in this election season. Biden ran largely unopposed, and Trump notably skipped the GOP primary debates.
Here’s what you need to know about this first debate.
When and how to watch
The event begins at 9 p.m. ET and will last 90 minutes. It will be moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and will take place at the network’s studios in Atlanta.
The debate will be available on CNN and on the streaming platform Max, formerly known as HBO. Viewers without a cable connection can also watch on the CNN website.
You can follow NPR’s liveblog for updates during the debate as well as to watch the livestream that CNN is making available to outside media. This feed will include CNN ads and branding; NPR.org will broadcast this livestream as a public service.
Who will be there?
Biden and Trump are the only presidential candidates qualified for the debate phase.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to meet the threshold, which required candidates to score 15% or higher in four national surveys and appear on enough state ballots to theoretically be able to push them beyond the 270 electoral college votes needed to secure the presidency. .
How is this debate different from those of the past?
Typically, presidential debates take place in front of a live audience, often in an event space on a university or college campus, and are coordinated by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).
But not this year. Both candidates said they would not participate in previously scheduled and announced CPD debates, pushing for earlier clashes.
Instead, Biden and Trump will participate in Thursday’s debate on CNN and then a second one in September hosted by ABC News.
Biden and Trump agreed to the following rules:
- Microphones will be muted unless a candidate is invited to speak.
- Candidates are not permitted to bring pre-written notes or props. They will receive a pen and paper, as well as a bottle of water.
- A draw determined the positions on the podium and the order of the final declarations. According to CNN, Biden’s campaign won the coin toss and chose the podium to viewers’ right. As a result, Team Trump chose to deliver the final statement of the evening.
What to watch for
The candidates will likely talk about recent legal dramas. The debate comes about a month after Trump was convicted of 34 criminal charges in New York. Biden’s son, Hunter, was convicted of gun crimes in Delaware in mid-June and will face a second federal trial in September for failure to pay his taxes.
Biden will also likely address concerns about his age and ability to serve a second term. At 81, he is the oldest sitting president in U.S. history and if elected to a second term, he will leave office at 86.
While the president has made public mistakes throughout his first term, Trump, who is 78, has repeatedly criticized Biden’s mental abilities, recently speculating that he should take a cognitive test. In that same speech, Trump falsely named the doctor who performed his own cognitive exam when he was president.
On these issues, candidates are expected to discuss the state of the economy and immigration policy, as both issues are consistently top of mind for voters in national polls. It’s also possible that the candidates could weigh in on international politics, given that voters remain divided on whether the United States should send military aid to Ukraine and Israel in their respective wars.
The debate could also be an opportunity for Biden to address his waning support, compared to 2020, among key parts of his base, including Blacks, Latinos and younger voters.
Trump is losing ground among older voters, and the Biden campaign is trying to take advantage. Additionally, the former president may still need to repair his relationship with Nikki Haley’s supporters, who remain unsure whether he will support her again.
And after?
Trump will likely announce his choice for vice president in the coming weeks. There will also be a vice presidential debate this summer. The date has not been set, but Vice-President Kamala Harris has agreed that it will be held on July 23 or August 13.
Legally, Trump will appear for sentencing at his criminal trial on July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention, which begins July 15 in Milwaukee. A month later, the Democratic National Convention will begin on August 19 in Chicago.
Trump and Biden will debate a second time on September 10.
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