US Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris will square off in the early hours of Wednesday morning Irish time in their first presidential debate since President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid. It will be the first chance some 240 million US voters get to hear Trump and Harris explain their policies side by side in advance of the November 5th election.
When and where is the debate?
The debate, hosted by ABC News, will take place at 2am Irish time in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in one of the battleground states that swing between Democrat and Republican.
The debate will be held at the National Constitution Center, a museum devoted to the US constitution in Philadelphia’s Independence Mall.
Will it be televised?
Moderated by ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis, it will be broadcast live on Channel 4 from 1.30am. There will be a stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.
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What are the ground rules?
The candidates’ microphones will be muted when it is not their turn to speak. The Harris campaign agreed to this rule on Wednesday after weeks of back-and-forth with the Trump campaign, with Harris’s team initially hoping for so-called “hot mics” throughout the debate and Trump’s team pushing for muted mics.
CNN’s June debate between Biden and Trump also had muted microphones when candidates were not speaking. The CNN debate also banned any props, had no live audience and included two commercial breaks, conditions that are expected to be replicated.
What can be expected of Harris?
Voters want to hear more about Harris’s policy plans, strategists say. She may attack Trump on his appointment of three supreme court justices who helped overturn Roe v Wade, mention “Project 2025”, a sweeping conservative policy framework written by some of his closest advisers, and contrast her record as a prosecutor with his felony conviction.
What can be expected of Trump?
Trump is likely to try to pin issues that helped sink Biden’s popularity with voters on Harris – inflation and border security – while suggesting she’s not ready to be the nation’s commander in chief. He may bring up the liberal stances she took as a 2020 candidate and could attack the Biden administration’s record in Gaza and Ukraine.
What other topics are likely?
The economy, particularly high consumer prices, is likely to be a main topic.
Harris has said she will increase taxes for the wealthy and give economic help to small businesses. Trump says he will cut taxes and government spending. He has also proposed ending taxes on tipped income, which Harris has adopted, which could mean a chance for the two to discuss a rare shared interest.
What do the polls say?
A national poll of likely voters by the New York Times and Siena College found Trump leading Harris, 48 per cent to 47 per cent, within the poll’s 3-percentage-point margin of error and largely unchanged from a Times/Siena poll taken in late July just after Biden left the race.
– Reuters. Additional reporting: New York Times.