How to Watch, and Everything to Know, About the First Trump-Biden Presidential Debate

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The first 2020 presidential election debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden is set to take place on Tuesday.

WHERE

The debate will take place in Cleveland, OH, at Case Western Reserve University and it will be broadcast live on all major cable and broadcast news networks.

WHEN

Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 9 p.m. ET.

WHO

Trump will square off against Biden in their first debate together while Fox News anchor Chris Wallace moderates.

WHAT ELSE

According to Fox News, the debate “will be divided up into six 15-minute-long segments, each dedicated to one topic, picked by moderator Chris Wallace and approved by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.”

These topics will include‘ the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, the Supreme Court, “The Trump and Biden Records,” election integrity, and “Race and Violence in our Cities.”

While Wallace may push back in the event of a particularly outlandish claim, it is unlikely he will do much fact-checking on Trump or Biden during the debate.

The Commission on Presidential Debates co-chairman Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. told CNN Sunday, “We don’t expect Chris or our other moderators to be fact checkers… The minute the TV is off there will be plenty of fact checkers.”

“The moderator is the facilitator,” he continued, adding, “When we choose moderators we make very clear to them that there’s a vast difference between being a moderator in a debate and being a reporter who is interviewing someone.”

Going into the debate, Trump’s re-election platform echoes many of the same points from his previous campaign in 2016, focusing on a strict crackdown on immigration, dismantling several environmental regulations, appointing conservative judges, and promoting an “America First” foreign policy doctrine.

Trump is also going into the debate following a bombshell report by the New York Times that claimed the president only paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017. The report also alleged that Trump had paid no income taxes for ten of the 15 years preceding his presidency and claimed a $72.9 million tax refund.

Trump has also been discrediting his opponent’s mental acuity for months on the campaign trail, calling him “Sleepy Joe Biden” and branding him as incapable of becoming president. The president has also baselessly accused Biden of being on drugs on several occasions, demanding that the two of them be drug tested before the debate.

The Biden campaign responded with a statement clarifying that Biden “intends to deliver his debate answers in words,” adding that, “If the president thinks his best case is made in urine he can have at it.”

“We’d expect nothing less from Donald Trump, who pissed away the chance to protect the lives of 200K Americans when he didn’t make a plan to stop COVID-19,” the statement concluded.

Biden often bashes Trump’s response to the coronavirus epidemic, and will likely do so during the debate, especially considering the pandemic is one of Wallace’s topics of the night. The United States has recently surpassed the grim milestone of 200,000 coronavirus deaths going into the debate, while more than seven million Americans have been infected and daily cases have grown beyond 40,000.

Biden’s election platform additionally emphasizes voting Trump out of office, but also expands on several imporant topics to his campaign. His campaign points highlight his support for a retirement safety net, the Affordable Care Act, increases in Social Security benefits, and rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement along with increasing investments in clean energy research.

The Biden campaign has also welcomed a new member prior to Tuesday’s debate, as Cindy McCain, who endorsed Biden last week, is now joining his presidential transition team.

WHAT’S NEXT

Vice President Mike Pence will debate Biden’s running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) in Salt Lake City, UT on Wednesday, October 7. The event will be moderated by USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page.

Then, on Thursday, October 15, Trump and Biden will square off again in Miami, FL for a debate moderated by C-SPAN Political Editor and Senior Executive Producer Steve Scully.

The last presidential debate between Trump and Biden — moderated by NBC News’ Kristen Welker — will take place on Thursday, October 22 in Nashville, TN.