Vice-President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have never met in person, but that will change on September 10, when they face off for the first time in their only scheduled presidential debate of the season. The debate comes after weeks of Harris challenging the former president to share the stage with her, while Trump flip-flopped repeatedly on whether he’d actually commit to the event. Here’s everything you need to know.
When is the presidential debate?
The event will be held in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center at 9 p.m. Eastern time on September 10. It’ll be hosted by ABC News with World News Tonight anchor David Muir and ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis as the moderators. It is scheduled to last 90 minutes.
Where can I watch the debate?
The debate will be broadcast on ABC News’ properties, including Disney Plus, Hulu, and ABC News Live’s streaming online.
What are the rules?
There will be no live audience at the debate, and microphones will be muted when the candidates are not speaking. Each candidate will have two minutes to answer questions and offer rebuttals, as well as an additional minute to respond to follow-up questions or offer clarifications. They will not be allowed to ask each other questions. There’ll be no opening statements before the debate begins, but Harris and Trump will be able to offer closing statements.
What has Trump said about debating Harris?
Trump immediately began distancing himself from his commitment within hours of Biden dropping out, posting on Truth Social that the next debate “should be held on FoxNews,” an extremely friendly network, “rather than very biased ABC.”
Trump’s campaign then appeared to backtrack further. Trump’s communications director issued a statement saying that due to the “continued political chaos surrounding” Biden and the Democratic Party, “general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee.” He went on to say, “It would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.”
Four days later, Trump wavered once again in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “I want to do a debate,” he said. “But I also can say this: Everybody knows who I am, and now people know who she is.” Ingraham pressed him about debating Harris, and he replied, “The answer is ‘yes.’ I’ll probably end up debating.” Still, Trump remained noncommittal: “But I can also make a case for not doing it.”
He ultimately committed to the debate in late August and proposed two additional debates—one hosted by Fox News and one by NBC News.
Will there be other presidential debates, then?
That is unclear. The Harris-Walz campaign has said she would participate in one more debate in October, assuming that Trump participates in the September 10 face-off. Separately, vice-presidential candidates Tim Walz and J.D. Vance are scheduled to debate on October 1 in an event hosted by CBS News.
What has Harris said about debating Trump?
From the moment it became clear she’d be the Democratic nominee, Harris has been itching to face Trump and has not toyed with backing out of her commitment. Following the staffer’s comments implying that Trump would back out in late July, her campaign wrote on X, “What happened to ‘any time, any place’?,” a reference to his previous call for debates against Biden to be held “ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE.”
And after Trump’s interview with Ingraham, the Harris campaign sent out a press release with a subject line calling Trump “Duckin’ Don.” “It’s clear from tonight’s question-dodging: He’s scared he’ll have to defend his running mate’s weird attacks on women or his own calls to end elections in America in a debate against the vice-president,” Harris spokesperson Ammar Moussa said.
Following Trump’s comments about a debate on Fox News, the Harris campaign said the former president is “running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to” and was now “running straight” to Fox News expecting the network to “bail him out.” The campaign added that Harris would appear on ABC on September 10, regardless of whether Trump shows up to debate her.
The campaign has also posted a clip on social media from Harris’s 2019 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Speaking about a potential debate against Trump in that election cycle, she said, “Well, Jimmy, if I do debate President Trump, I’m sure it’ll be a competitive face-off where either one of us could end up on top.” Fallon responded, “Really?” to which she shot back, “No. I’d wipe the floor with him.”
