With less than 60 days to go until the presidential election that will shape the future of Americans, the two candidates will face off in a presidential debate that could prove crucial to the outcome of the vote. The event can be followed from 9 p.m. (Eastern Time) on streaming on the EL PAÍS website accompanied by the narration of our political analysts. The face-to-face meeting will be held in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) and will be broadcast on the ABC News channel. It will last 90 minutes.
Donald Trump arrives after winning a first round against President Joe Biden on June 27, who was harshly criticized for his performance and his lack of abilities at 81 years old and pressured for weeks to give up reelection. He finally announced on July 21 that he was leaving the race to make way for Vice President Kamala Harris. The move caused Democrats to improve in the polls and achieve record fundraising figures for the campaign, although everything is still to be decided.
The former president was reluctant to debate after Biden’s withdrawal, but days later he changed his strategy to express his intention to face Harris in a one-on-one that could be decisive in winning the vote of independents. Last week, the Republican candidate assured in his platform Truth Social who reached an agreement to debate under the same parameters as she did before with Biden. “I have reached an agreement with the Radical Left Democrats for a Debate with Comrade Kamala Harris,” he wrote, attacking Harris for the umpteenth time. “It will be broadcast live on ABC FAKE NEWS, by far the most disgusting and unfair news network in the industry, on Tuesday, September 10 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The rules will be the same as the last CNN debate, which seemed to work well for everyone except, perhaps, corrupt Joe Biden,” he added. The Democratic candidate’s team confirmed the agreement days later.
The rules of debate
As in June, this time there will be no public or written notes from the candidates. ABC also assured that only moderators will be able to ask questions, which will not be submitted in advance to ensure a fair and equitable exchange. Last Tuesday, the location and order of closing statements was drawn by lot. Trump won the coin toss and chose to make the closing address, while Vice President Harris chose to be at the podium on the right side of the screen.
There will be no opening speeches in the debate, and closing statements will last two minutes per candidate, the same amount of time each candidate will have to answer each question, with a reply of another two minutes, and a one-minute counter-reply to follow up or clarify the issue.
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The point of contention, which even put the meeting at risk, was the one concerning the turning on and off of the microphones. Harris’ team was in favor of leaving them open during the entire broadcast, but the Republicans opposed it. “Trump’s handlers prefer the microphone muted because they don’t believe their candidate can act like a president for 90 minutes on his own,” said Brian Fallon, spokesman for Harris’ campaign, but in the end they prevailed. The microphones will be active only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak, a rule that will reduce the dynamism of the conversation, but will avoid the cockpit that the 2020 debates became, when Donald Trump did not let Biden speak, and Mike Pence did not let Harris either. The phrase of the now presidential contender: “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking” became viral at that time.
The main themes will not be known until the debate, but there will be no shortage of discussions on the economy, inflation, the cost of living in North America, foreign policy in the midst of the war in Gaza, citizen security, access to abortion and, of course, the migration crisis and control of the southern border.
Where and when can I watch the debate?
The first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will be on Tuesday, September 10 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and will be broadcast on ABC News at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern US time), and on streaming through the EL PAÍS website, ABC News Live 24/7, Disney+ and Hulu, but the vast majority of networks will also broadcast the signal served by ABC News. It will be presented by journalists David Muir and Linsey Davis. It will last 90 minutes, with two commercial breaks and the restriction of not talking to his advisors during that time, as happened in the face to face of Biden and Trump.
Time for debate in Latin America | |
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Argentina | 22.00 h |
Chili | 22.00 h |
Colombia | 20.00 h |
Mexico | 19.00 h |
How are the candidates doing in the polls?
They will do so with a technical tie. Four recent polls (Ipsos, Suffolk, The Economist and Yahoo News) give Harris an advantage over her rival of up to four percentage points, and point to a trend in her favor among women, the Latino electorate and younger voters. In fact, Harris is the favorite for 11 of the 15 pollsters whose results are compiled by the pollsters. aggregator from RealClearPolitics (RCP).
Experts point out that the route to the White House passes through seven key states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona), and in these the distance between Trump and Harris is very short. In the latest poll by Reutersthe former president leads by two percentage points (45-43%), while in the most recent study by the conservative media outlet Fox News, the vice president is two points ahead in the key states of Georgia and Nevada, and one ahead in Arizona.
For its part, The New York Times Harris is leading by two points in Michigan and Wisconsin, but is tied with Trump in Pennsylvania and Arizona. In Georgia, the Republican is four points ahead. Current estimates suggest the vice president needs to retain the majority of the Democratic vote in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to make history in November.
Will there be more debates?
This is the only debate scheduled so far and could be the only one in which voters see Harris and Trump face-to-face before the November election.
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