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When’s the next presidential debate?

by Sarah Fortinsky - 09/03/24 1:24 PM ET

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< Former President Donald Trump, (R) Presidential Nominee "Kamala Harris has failed you. She has failed his vice president." > [Duration:0:04] BUT NEXT WEEK VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS AND FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP WILL FACE OFF *IN PERSON ON THE DEBATE STAGE. < Todd Belt, George Washington University "At this point the race looks like it's kind of 50/50. I think both candidates have a ton to lose in this debate." > [Duration:0:07] POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR TODD BELT POINTS OUT THE LAST DEBATE HAD HUGE CONSEQUENCES. < Todd Belt, George Washington University "One debate actually cost the nominee their entire campaign. And people are wondering could this happen again?" > [Duration:0:08] < STANDUP GOING INTO THIS DEBATE THE STAKES ARE HIGH - AS BOTH CANDIDATES TRY TO MOVE THE NEEDLE IN THIS REALLY COMPETITIVE RACE. > [Duration:0:06] < Todd Belt, George Washington University "Harris obviously has the momentum. Donald Trump is trying to turn it around. It's anybody's election and this could be a really critical event." > [Duration:0:07] IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN WHETHER THIS DEBATE WILL GIVE VOTERS NEW INSIGHT INTO KEY ISSUES AND WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND ON THEM. < Todd Belt, George Washington University "It's up to the moderators to really hold these candidates feet to the fire so that they can tell people what would an America look like under their leadership." > [Duration:0:08] BUT BELT SAYS A LOT OF VOTERS LIKELY WON'T WATCH THE ENTIRE DEBATE... < Todd Belt, George Washington University "That's why the candidates are always trying to get that good zinger or something that's going to be repeated over and over after the debate, because that's when most people form their opinions of actually what happened." > [Duration:0:09] THE DEBATE IS SET FOR SEPTEMBER 10TH AT 9PM EASTERN ON ABC NEWS. IT WILL BE IN PHILADELPHIA, BUT THERE WILL NOT BE A LIVE AUDIENCE. IN WASHINGTON, I'M HANNAH BRANDT." station="" title="" feed="" no_pr="false" disable_muted_autoplay="false" expect_preroll="true" json_feed="" class="" /]

The next presidential debate is slated to take place next Tuesday in Philadelphia.

The Sept. 10 debate, hosted by ABC News, will begin at 9 p.m. EDT and last 90 minutes, including two commercial breaks. It will be moderated by hosts Linsey Davis and David Muir.

The event marks the first time the nominees, Vice President Harris and former President Trump, will face off on the debate stage, as well as their first meeting in person.

The forum follows an extensive back-and-forth between the two campaigns over whether the debate terms — originally set when President Biden was still the likely candidate — are still valid now that Harris leads the Democratic ticket.

Questions have centered largely on whether one candidate’s microphone will be muted when the other is speaking. The rule was in place during the first debate between Trump and Biden, and some have attributed the former president’s relatively strong performance to the discipline that the mics provided him.

The vice president’s team has pushed to change the rule, but ABC indicated in a recent memo that the network has not made any changes. A campaign spokesperson said last week it has not yet agreed to those terms.

“The memo sent by ABC is a draft set of rules that both campaigns need to sign off on and indicate agreement,” Harris spokesperson Brian Fallon said on the social platform X. “We have not done so because we think both candidates have expressed a clear desire to have hot mics. Not clear why Trump staff is overruling their principal, who should be capable of making up his own mind.”

“We have been asked to accede to Trump’s handlers’ wishes on this point for the sake of preserving the debate,” he added. “We find the Trump’s team’s stance to be weak, and remain in discussions with ABC on the final rules,” Fallon wrote in a separate post on X.

Trump has attacked ABC News as “the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business” but said last week that he would participate in the Sept. 10 debate nonetheless, if the rules remained the same as the first debate.

The event comes as The Hill/Decision Desk HQ national polling index shows Harris ahead of Trump by 4 percentage points — 49.4 percent support to 45.4 percent. In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where the debate will take place, the vice president maintains a razor-sharp lead over the former president — 48.2 percent support to 47.5 percent.

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