How to watch Tuesday's presidential debate — and what to watch for
Tuesday night could mark a turning point in the 2024 presidential campaign.
The last debate, between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, set off a series of events that led to Biden withdrawing from the race.
Tonight, Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump will face off for the first time.
The debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia is the only one the two candidates have agreed to so far. It'll be a crucial moment for both campaigns, which are approaching it with radically different strategies.
Harris has been studying and practicing with aides while holed up at a hotel in Pittsburgh since Thursday. Trump, meanwhile, has dismissed the idea of debate prep.
Here's what you need to know and what to expect tonight:
How and where to watch
The debate will be live on ABC at 8 p.m. It'll also be streamed on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu, preceded by a pre-debate "Race for the White House" special.
Here's a link to the livestream, which will go live this evening. Other major networks plan to broadcast and stream the debate, including C-SPAN, NBC 5 Chicago and FOX 32.
The Sun-Times and WBEZ will have coverage from a Chicago perspective this evening.
— Ellery Jones
Who are the moderators?
Tuesday's debate will be moderated by David Muir, the anchor and managing editor of ABC's "World News Tonight," and Linsey Davis, who anchors the show on Sundays and also hosts ABC News Live Prime.
They both have presidential debate experience. Muir moderated debates in 2016 and 2020; Davis moderated debates in 2019 and 2020. They moderated several Democratic primary debates together during the last election cycle alongside George Stephanopoulos — who Trump is suing for defamation — and other journalists.
Their colleague, ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, clashed with Trump during a televised interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago in July.
The shortened session was full of incendiary comments from the ex-president, including claims of undocumented immigrants taking “Black jobs” and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of “only promoting Indian heritage.”
During the convention, he questioned Harris' racial identity and Scott's question about derogatory statements he has made toward the Black community. Trump described her question as "very rude" and declared ABC News was “fake news.”
— Ellery Jones
Harris, Trump come into debate neck and neck
The Harris campaign — which began July 21, within hours of Biden dropping out — comes as a new national poll of likely voters, by the New York Times and Siena College, shows a statistical tie. The poll revealed voters want to know more about Harris.
Harris performed well when it came to introducing herself to the country during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month. At the United Center, Harris had lots of time, bio videos and a script. Plus, a loving husband, Doug Emhoff, telling the story of their romance.
Americans will now see how, in the debate where there will be time constraints, Harris gets people to know her better — and what she picks to highlight.
— Lynn Sweet
Pennsylvania a key state
When Donald Trump and Kamala Harris meet onstage Tuesday night in Philadelphia, they’ll both know there’s little debate that Pennsylvania is critical to their chances of winning the presidency.
The most populous presidential swing state has sided with the winner of the past two elections, each time by just tens of thousands of votes. Polling this year suggests Pennsylvania will be close once more in November.
A loss in the state will make it difficult to make up the electoral votes elsewhere to win the presidency. Trump and Harris have been frequent visitors in recent days — Harris plans to return Friday — and the former president was speaking in Butler County on July 14 when he was the target of an assassination attempt.
The stakes may be especially high for Harris: No Democrat has won the White House without Pennsylvania since 1948.
— Associated Press
What are the rules for the debate?
The 90-minute debate will feature only questions asked by Muir and Davis, according to the debate rules posted by ABC after both candidates agreed to them.
Trump won a virtual coin flip last Tuesday to determine the order of closing statements and podiums. He'll have the last word in the debate, while Harris chose the podium that'll be on the right of the screen.
There are no opening statements — candidates will enter from opposite sides of the stage, with Harris introduced first. Closing statements will be limited to two minutes each.
Candidates will have two minutes to answer moderator's questions, two minutes for rebuttals and an extra minute for any follow-ups. They are not permitted to ask questions of each other.
Moderators will "seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion," per ABC. There will be no audience in the room.
How will Trump pronounce Harris’ name?
Trump has made a point of deliberately mispronouncing the vice president’s name. Or calling her Komrade or Comrade Kamala — he spells it both ways in his posts. Trump mangles Kamala as a way of trying to minimize the vice president and frame her as an “other.”
In an inspired bit at the convention, Harris’ two grandnieces along with actor Kerry Washington taught the crowd in the United Center how to pronounce Kamala as “Comma-La,” at the same time sticking it to Trump with grace and wit.
The neutral way of doing this at the debate is for Harris and Trump to address each other as Mr. President and Madame Vice President. Let’s see what happens on this front.
— Lynn Sweet
Muted microphones
Harris and Trump will have their microphones muted when it is not their turn to speak. The Harris team wanted the mics always on but eventually relented.
When Harris debated then-Vice President Mike Pence in October 2020 and he interrupted her, she said, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking. I’m speaking.” That went viral and worked to her advantage.
— Lynn Sweet
Harris’ debate style
From her earliest campaigns in California to her serving as President Joe Biden’s running mate, Harris has honed an aggressive but calibrated approach to debates.
She tries to blend punch lines with details that build toward a broader narrative. She might shake her head to signal her disapproval while her opponent is speaking, counting on viewers to see her reaction on a split screen.
And she has a go-to tactic to pivot debates back in her favor: saying she’s glad to answer a question as she gathers her thoughts to explain an evolving position or defend a past one.
— Associated Press
Look out for wild card Trump
If you ask Trump’s previous debate opponents what they’re watching for on Tuesday night — and we did — many say the same thing: Look out for the thing he says or does that Harris can’t possibly prepare for.
Trump is the ultimate wild card who's found tremendous political success by ignoring the traditional rules of politics. He will say or do whatever he thinks is best in the moment. And Harris, who has dedicated several days to debate prep, can’t make a plan for everything.
At this point, it’s hard to imagine Trump surprising anyone with new material. He has praised dictators, talked about genitalia size, suggested suspending the U.S. Constitution and said that Harris only recently “turned Black.”
Trump’s own team doesn’t know what he’ll do or say on any given day. That’s incredibly risky for Trump. But it also puts enormous pressure on Harris.
— Associated Press
Abortion vs immigration
Republicans hope Trump makes immigration a defining issue of the debate.
The GOP has effectively condemned the Biden administration’s handling of illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border for much of the last four years.
Harris will be eager to remind voters that Trump helped kill a bipartisan immigration bill that would have done much to fix the problem. But overall, Harris is likely to be on the defensive when the issue comes up.
Democrats, meanwhile, want to focus on abortion.
Trump, of course, appointed three Supreme Court justices who later overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that protected a woman’s right to choose abortion. Trump has repeatedly said he was proud that Roe was defeated. But aware that such a view isn’t popular among many women, he has tried to moderate his stance on the divisive issue.
Harris won’t make that easy. Stating the obvious, as a woman, she is positioned to be a much more effective messenger on the issue than Biden was. And Trump can’t afford to lose many more female voters.
— Associated Press