Here are the details about the scheduled presidential debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, including the dates, networks, and format.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have accepted invitations to debate live on television at least twice before the Nov. 5 election, giving voters a chance to hear from both presidential candidates side-by-side well before early voting begins.
The first debate will be hosted by CNN on June 27 and the second will be hosted by ABC on Sept. 10, marking the first set of onstage clashes between the former President and his successor in more than three years.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]While the terms are still being determined, the June debate is set to be the earliest general-election debate in modern history—a move both candidates support in order to reach early voters who were crucial to Biden’s 2020 election win. Additional debates, which the Trump campaign is calling for, could be announced later in the election cycle.
Trump currently leads Biden by less than one point in most national polls, suggesting the debates could play a pivotal role in shaping public opinion and potentially influencing the outcome of the election. A recent poll from The New York Times found that Trump is leading in five out of six swing states, and that more voters trust Trump over Biden to handle the economy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate who is polling around 13% nationally, was not immediately invited to participate in the debates with Biden and Trump, though he could end up on the debate stage if his polling improves to 15% and he appears on more state ballots. He criticized the networks’ decision to exclude him for now, writing on social media that the frontrunners are “colluding” to keep him off the debate stage “because they are afraid I would win.”
Here are the details about the scheduled presidential debates.
The first presidential debate will be held on June 27 in CNN’s Atlanta studios with no audience present, according to a news release from the network on May 15.
The debate will start at 9 p.m. and the moderators will be announced at a later date, CNN said.
The decision to scrap the live audience format—a staple of nearly every presidential debate since 1976—comes after the Biden campaign argued that in-person crowds that cheer and boo can derail the conversation. Trump pushed back on the format, saying that he would prefer “for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds.”
CNN said that in order to qualify for its debate, candidates must “appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency and receive at least 15% in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters that meet CNN’s standards for reporting.” As the debate date nears, that may be a tough challenge for Kennedy, who has only submitted formal requests to appear on the ballot in six states as of May 15.
Biden and Trump will meet again on Sept. 10 for a presidential debate hosted by ABC News. It’s unclear if there will be an audience and what time the debate will begin, though the network said it would be held during “prime time.”
“Information on moderators, format and additional details will be provided at a later date,” the network said in a press release. The debate will air on ABC News, ABC News Live, and Hulu—and will also be simulcast on additional broadcast and streaming news networks, ABC said.
Like the CNN debate, in order to qualify for the ABC debate candidates must be polling above 15% in four separate national polls and appear on a sufficient number of state ballots, leaving open the possibility that Kennedy could end up on the debate stage if his polling improves and he makes it on the ballot in more states by the fall.
A vice-presidential debate is also expected to take place before early voting begins in September, with both campaigns expressing interest in a debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and the soon-to-be-announced Trump running mate.
The Biden campaign has proposed that one vice-presidential debate be held in late July after Trump and his vice presidential candidate are formally nominated at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, while the Trump campaign has called for four presidential debates “in addition to the Vice Presidential debate.”
