Start time, how to watch and stream Harris vs. Trump first face-off in 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will face off Tuesday night in Philadelphia in their first — and likely only — presidential debate before the Nov. 5 election.

Harris, 59, enters the debate with a slim lead in most national polls, while she and Trump appear to be running neck and neck in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state where both campaigns are clashing. Harris traveled to Philadelphia on Monday but has been in Pittsburgh since last week preparing for tonight’s debate, and Philippe Reines — a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — filled in for Trump during the mock debates.

It is unclear how much time Trump, 78, spent preparing for the debate. The New York Times described the former president’s preparations as “more improvisation” than preparation for the debatein which no one played Harris. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who challenged Harris in the 2020 Democratic primary, took part in informal policy sessions, according to ABC News.

Ahead of the debate, Trump spent time attacking ABC News, although attacking major media companies is nothing up-to-date for the former president. Among other things, Trump said he did not expect Tuesday’s event to be fair to his campaign and claimed, without evidence, that ABC News was asking Harris’ campaign questions ahead of the debate.

Trump also noted Harris’ friendship with senior Disney executive Dana Walden it goes back decadesbaselessly claiming it shows bias. ABC News said Walden is not involved in editorial decisions about the news.

Regardless of the attacks, both campaigns agreed to rules for Tuesday’s debate, as outlined by ABC News. Only moderators will be allowed to ask questions of the candidates, and answers and rebuttals will be restricted to two minutes. Although Harris’ campaign fought to keep microphones on throughout the debate, both campaigns ultimately agreed to mute them when the opposing candidate speaks.

“I don’t think it will affect the debate,” said Marc Burstein, senior executive producer at ABC News, who is overseeing Tuesday’s debate. “At the end of the day, it’s about who can come up with the better vision and convince the most voters.”

While ABC is hosting the debate, it will also air on all major broadcast networks and news channels to an expected television audience of 60 to 70 million viewers, with millions more expected to stream the event. The June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden averaged more than 51 million viewers — down 30% from the 73 million who watched the first debate in September 2020 — but it came months earlier in the election season, when many voters were less engaged and largely disengaged from what was then a repeat of the previous election.

Here’s what you need to know before tonight’s debate in Philadelphia.

What time does today’s presidential debate start and end?

The first presidential debate between Harris and Trump is set to begin at 9 p.m. ET. and last approximately one hour and 40 minutes, including two commercials.

The debate will be challenging to miss. While ABC is hosting the debate, the event will be broadcast live on all major broadcast channels (CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS) and news networks (C-Span, CNN, MSNBC, Fox Business, Fox News).

It will also be available to stream on many so-called “modest” cable packages, such as YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, DirecTV Now, and FuboTV. It will also be available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.

You can also watch the debate here, courtesy of C-SPAN:

Who will moderate tonight’s presidential debate?

Today’s debate will be led by two moderators, both well known to Philly TV viewers.

The first one is David Muir, who was the presenter ABC World News Tonight for the past decade after taking over from Diane Sawyer. ABC World News Tonight is the most watched evening news program in the country, averaging more than 7 million viewers each night. It is also the most watched television program in Philadelphia, where it averages more than 400,000 viewers each night.

Despite the popularity of his show, Muir has become a target of Trump’s attacks, as has his fellow ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos. Trump Sues ABC News and George Stephanopoulos after the longtime host said a jury found the former president “raped” E. Jean Carroll. The Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexual harassment but not rape, which has a specific legal definition in New York.

Although Muir has not been in the spotlight of a presidential general election debate, he is a seasoned player on the gigantic stage, having moderated four debates — three Democratic, one Republican — during the past two presidential cycles and conducted televised interviews with both Harris and Trump.

The second moderator for today’s debate will be Linsey Davis, a South Jersey native and host World news on Sunday evening. Davis, a 1995 graduate of Moorestown Friends School, is also a host on the ABC streaming show ABC News Live Prime and moderated two Democratic primary debates in the 2020 election cycle.

While there has been some discussion about the need for real-time fact-checking of Trump’s statements, Burstein said the moderators’ primary job is to keep the discussion going and let viewers leave the show knowing where the candidates stand on the issues.

“It’s really not a yes or no, fact-checking or no fact-checking position,” Burstein said. “If it’s necessary to fact-check, you can hear it. I’m sure both candidates will probably be more sensitive to what the other person is saying and will want to correct what they hear that they think is blatantly wrong.”

» READ MORE: Who is Linsey Davis, the ABC News anchor and presidential debate moderator from South Jersey?

Will there be another debate between Harris and Trump?

This remains unclear.

Before Biden dropped out of the race, both campaigns agreed to participate in two presidential debates — on June 27 and Tuesday.

Harris campaign officials have said they are open to hosting a second debate between Trump and the vice president in October, but said it would be contingent on the former president appearing at the debate in Philadelphia.

Trump has said he wants to debate Harris as often as possible and proposed several debate dates in September on NBC and Fox News before agreeing to participate in Tuesday’s debate.

No additional debates were announced.

Vice Presidential Candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance to Debate Next Month

Next month, Minnesota Governor Walz and Ohio Senator JD Vance will take the debate stage.

The two vice presidential candidates will face off on October 1 in New York in a debate hosted by CBS News.

As was the case for Tuesday’s event, CBS will be using two moderators for the vice presidential debate — CBS Evening News presenter Norah O’Donnell and Stand face to face with the nation moderator Margaret Brennan.

CBS has not yet announced details about the time, location or rules of the vice presidential debate.

2024 Pennsylvania Election News

Here are some recent stories about the 2024 election from The Philadelphia Inquirer: