By Stephanie Kelly
(Reuters) – U.S. Republican nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Kamala Harris will square off next month in their first presidential debate after a disastrous performance earlier this summer by incumbent President Joe Biden led to him being pushed out of the race.
It will be the first chance some 240 million eligible U.S. voters get to hear Trump and Harris explain their policies side-by-side, and a rare moment when the two are actually in the same room. Here’s what to expect from the highly anticipated event:
WHEN AND WHERE IS THE DEBATE?
The debate, hosted by ABC News, will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT on Wednesday, Sept. 11) in Philadelphia, one of the key battleground states in this year’s election.
The debate will be held at the National Constitution Center, a museum devoted to the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, which also contains the Liberty Bell.
HOW CAN YOU WATCH THE DEBATE?
Moderated by ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis, it will air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.
It will also be produced in conjunction with local Philadelphia network WPVI-TV, an ABC affiliate.
WHAT ARE THE GROUND RULES?
Both sides have agreed to the same terms as CNN’s June debate between Biden and Trump, which had muted microphones when candidates were not speaking and did not include a live audience, a Trump spokesman said Tuesday.
That debate also banned any props and included two commercial breaks.
Harris’ campaign had been pushing for a “hot mic” that would pick up whatever a candidate was saying, whether their opponent was speaking or not.
WHAT ABOUT THIRD PARTIES?
Vice President Harris, who secured the Democratic nomination after Biden stepped aside last month, said in early August she would participate in the Sept. 10 debate that had been previously agreed to by Biden and Trump.
Trump, 78, and Harris, 59 are unlikely to be joined by third-party candidates. Qualifying candidates must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots and reach at least 15% support in four national polls that meet ABC’s standards.
The deadline to qualify is Sept. 3.
WHAT’S EXPECTED OF HARRIS?
Harris will be entering the debate with momentum – after she closed out the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 22, her campaign announced she had raised over $500 million since entering the race.
Meanwhile, Harris has surged in opinion polls. Polling aggregator website FiveThirtyEight showed Harris up by 3.5 percentage points in national polls.
But since Harris only recently entered the race, she has not had much time to formulate detailed policy plans, and her campaign has avoided offering up clear examples of where she may depart from Biden’s policies.
Harris, who launched a short-lived White House bid in the 2020 election cycle before withdrawing, has sought this time to portray herself as both an extension of the Biden administration and the face of a new generation.
WHAT ABOUT TRUMP?
Since Harris entered the race, Trump has fought to have the media spotlight, a stunning turnabout for a politician used to dominating headlines. He had threatened to pull out of the debate, suggesting ABC is biased. WHAT TOPICS ARE LIKELY? Harris faces mounting pressure to flesh out her policies in the last 75 days of the campaign, and that may begin at the Sept. 10 debate.
Some of her already announced plans include a middle class tax cut, support for Ukraine and NATO, and a push for a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza.
Last week, Trump touted plans on taxes and health, trying to turn the page on a week in which he was overshadowed by Harris. He struggled to focus on policy issues instead of personal attacks on Harris.
His second-term agenda includes plans to deport millions of migrants, reshape global trade with sizable tariffs and replace longtime government employees with loyalists.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly)
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