Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will square off for their first presidential debate on Tuesday. It’s going to be essential viewing for every American who’s nervous about the upcoming election. And with so much at stake, there’s plenty to be nervous about.
Hosted by ABC News, the 90-minute debate will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT. If you’re looking for all the ways to watch, we’ve got you covered.
Trump and Harris have never actually met before in real life, which makes Tuesday’s debate a historic occasion. Trump, a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who recently described his plan to deport millions of people as a “bloody story,” will be debating Harris, an accomplished vice president and former prosecutor who wants to help usher America into the 21st century rather than drag us back to the 19th. And yet somehow these two very different people are in a close race, if the polls can be believed. Roughly half of registered voters seem to want the neo-fascist to run the country again rather than the mainstream progressive Democrat.
David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC News will host the debate Tuesday and both candidates have agreed to a number of different rules, though some rules have proven to be controversial. For example, microphones will be muted for each candidate when it’s not their turn to talk. That was a rule that President Joe Biden’s team supported for the infamous first debate against Trump. Biden’s performance was so bad it ultimately sealed his fate and forced the president to drop out and make way for Harris. But Harris and her team didn’t want microphones to be muted this time. It appears they thought it would be useful for the American public to see Trump’s incoherent rambling and likely attempts to talk over Harris. However, Trump’s campaign team won that battle and microphones will be muted.
Harris has been polling well since entering the race on July 21, when President Joe Biden dropped out. But Harris and Trump are still neck-and-neck if you can believe it. FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average has Harris up 2.8 points against Trump as of Monday. That’s actually down from August 27, when Harris’s margin over Trump peaked at 3.7 points. Harris is still doing well in recent battleground polls, with her virtually tied in states that Biden was polling very poorly in, like Georgia and North Carolina. But it’s still anyone’s race and voter turnout will be crucial to keeping Trump’s brand of sadism from returning to the White House.
Below, we’ve got a multitude of ways you can watch the debate, including livestreams and old-fashioned TV.
YouTube
- ABC News has a livestream of the debate on YouTube.
- C-SPAN has a livestream of the debate on YouTube.
- NBC News has a livestream of the debate on YouTube.
- Telemundo has a livestream of the debate on YouTube.
Websites and apps with livestreams
- ABC News Live
- BBC.com
- CBSNews.com
- Disney+
- Hulu
- Paramount+
- Peacock
Old School TV
- ABC
- CNN
- CNN International
- CNN en Español
- NBC
- PBS
A coin toss was held to determine the podium placement and the order of closing the candidates’ statements, according to a press release from ABC News, with Trump winning the coin toss. The former president chose to give his closing statement last. That gave Vice President Harris the opportunity to choose her podium placement, and she opted for appearing on the right side of the screen as the viewers at home would see it.
Harris is scheduled to follow up the debate with what the vice president’s campaign is calling her “New Way Forward” tour, hitting crucial battleground states. Harris will be holding rallies in North Carolina on Thursday, including the cities of Charlotte (4:30 p.m. ET) and Greensboro (8 p.m. ET). Then Friday she’s off to Pennsylvania, arguably the most important must-win swing state with the closest margin right now, where she’ll be holding a rally in Wilkes-Barre that’s scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz, her vice presidential running mate, will be holding an event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET and then heading to Lansing, Michigan on Friday before flying to Mosinee, Wisconsin later in the afternoon at the Central Wisconsin Airport. Later that evening Walz will be in Wausau, Wisconsin.
The Vice Presidential debate between Walz and Trump’s weirdo running mate JD Vance is scheduled for October 1 and will also be hosted by ABC News. But it’s unclear at this point whether Harris and Trump will meet again for a second debate. Trump insists he wants to do many debates, including two with NBC News and Fox News, but Trump insists on a lot of things. And if Harris is able to get some good verbal punches in and holds her own, Trump could very well come up with some excuses for why he doesn’t want another match-up. The Harris campaign has said she’s up for another debate if Trump shows up for Tuesday’s in Philadelphia. But it seems unlikely that she’ll agree to one hosted by Fox News, a propaganda network that openly supports Trump’s particular brand of hate and bigotry.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 5, 2024. You can check whether you’re registered to vote and learn more about registering if you haven’t done that yet at Vote.org.
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