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Joe Biden and Donald Trump are going head-to-head in first debate ahead of November’s hotly contested US election.
They have traded barbs for months, but Joe Biden and Donald Trump will soon get a chance to go head-to-head as the United States gears up for the first debate of the 2024 presidential election campaign.
The presumptive Democratic and Republican party nominees will take the debate stage in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday evening, less than five months before the vote on November 5.
Opinion polls show President Biden and ex-President Trump remain locked in a tight race that experts say could come down to a handful of key swing states.
Who is taking part in the debate?
Biden, the Democratic incumbent, and his Republican challenger Trump are going up against each other for the first time in the 2024 election cycle. They last debated each other on October 22, 2020, as part of that year’s presidential race.
To participate in the debate, presidential candidates had to meet a set of criteria set out by the US news network CNN, which is hosting the event.
This included having their name on enough state ballots to reach the Electoral College threshold needed to win the presidency, and having received at least 15 percent support in four separate national polls of registered and likely voters.
Where is the debate taking place and at what time? The debate kicks off at 9pm local time
Who is hosting the debate? The debate will be hosted by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
What is the debate format? The debate will last 90 minutes, with two commercial breaks, CNN said.
Biden and Trump have agreed to appear behind podiums — as opposed to being seated — and their microphones will be muted unless it is their respective turn to speak.
“While no props or pre-written notes will be allowed on the stage, candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water,” the network said.
There also will not be an audience, CNN said, in order “to ensure candidates may maximize the time allotted in the debate”.
Experts have said most voters already know for whom they plan to vote in November, so it’s unclear how much the debate will push the dial in favour of either candidate.
Still, a Pew Research Center poll from 2016 found that 63 percent of voters said the presidential debates were very or somewhat helpful in deciding which White House hopeful to cast a ballot for.
That means Biden and Trump will try to use the event to appeal to a small group of “swayable voters”, explained Alan Schroeder, a professor emeritus of journalism at Northeastern University and author of the book Presidential Debates: Risky Business on the Campaign Trail.
With Biden and Trump locked in a neck-and-neck contest, those undecided voters could prove critical, Schroeder told Al Jazeera. “Any time it’s this close, a debate can be important simply because it has the potential to break that logjam.”
Is the debate happening earlier than usual? How come?
Yes. Biden and Trump had called for the 2024 presidential debates to happen earlier in the campaign, saying they wanted to make their pitches to American voters before the early-voting period opens.
The first presidential debates are typically held in the fall months — September and October — after the Republican and Democratic parties have held conventions to officially name their nominees.
How can you watch Thursday’s debate? The debate will air on CNN channels and stream at CNN.com. In the US, it will also be available on the Max streaming platform. Other US television networks are also expected to carry the event.
