Tonight (Thursday) the first of two scheduled Presidential Debates (the second on September 10) will be aired on CNN, CNN International, and CNN Max. If you don’t have a cable subscription, the debate will also be streamed on CNN.com. The two candidates previously debated on two occasions in 2020.
Viewing time is 900 p.m. ET, or 7:00 p.m. in the Mountain Time Zone.
This will be the first time that either of the presidential candidates have debated this election cycle. Biden had no Democratic debates, and Trump chose not to participate in any of the Republican debates.
In order to qualify for the debate, the candidates had to meet criteria outlined by the host network, CNN, including receiving at least 15% in four separate national polls. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to meet the criteria and will not be part of the debate.
Unlike the last two times they debated and you couldn’t hear any of it because both interrupted the other continually, there will be some changes in this year’s debate.
The first debate between the two spiraled into near-constant interruptions and candidates speaking over one another. At one point Biden said to Trump, “Will you shut up, man?”
When one candidate is speaking, the other candidate’s microphone will be muted. There will be no live audience. There probably will be no opening statements and the candidates will have two minutes to answer questions. That hasn’t been the case since the 1960 debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
There will be two commercial breaks, though Trump and Biden won't be able to consult with their teams during them. The candidates are not allowed any props or prewritten notes, and will only be given a pen, paper and water.
Jake Tapper, who has been extremely critical of President Trump, and Dana Bash are the moderators. According to CNN, Biden’s team won a coin toss and chose to have the right-side podium which will give Trump the right for the final closing remarks.
This is the earliest debate in U.S. History.
After the debate, President Biden is heading for North Carolina while Trump will return to Virginia for a campaign event.
To win the general election, a candidate must collect 270 electoral votes. In recent polls, tallied by an organization called “ The Road to 270,” former President Trump has 225 electoral votes and current President Biden shows 196 votes.
A poll of popular vote recently showed Trump with 41.9%, Biden with 39.9% and Kennedy with 7.8%.
The debates, short of a fist fight, couldn’t deteriorate any more than they already have. If the new rules in place help us, as voters, actually find out what a candidate believes and proposes rather than assuring us the other candidate is a liar, a felon, a dementia victim, or an insurrectionist, we will all be winners.
The only other way to improve the debates will be if the nose of each candidate grows when they tell a lie. I suspect both of them might fall over on their faces before the first commercial.
I struggle with the people selected to ask the questions.
Neither of the two, but especially Tapper, can claim with a straight face to be interested in the facts without a desire to advance their candidate.
It is not easy, but it is possible as a wanna-be, informed voter to research specific things that effect your life. What was inflation like in the four years of each of the candidate’s term in office?
Unemployment? Gas Prices? Illegal aliens? Number of created jobs? Babies aborted?
Pick what is important to you and keep digging. I wonder who would win if everyone checked the two candidates out for the same amount of time they spend on Facebook each day?