How to watch live face to face candidates and meet in person for the first time

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will meet for the first time when they go head-to-head on Sept. 10 in a presidential debate hosted by ABC News.

The first debate between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates will take place after President Biden decided to drop his re-election bid. His decision came after members of his own party called for him to resign following his troubling performance in a June 27 CNN debate against Trump.

Now that the Harris and Trump campaigns have agreed to ABC’s rules after weeks of uncertainty, here’s what you need to know:

⌚ When, where and how to watch

The September 10th debate is scheduled to begin at 9:00 PM ET and last 90 minutes with two commercial breaks. It will be held in Philadelphia – a deep blue Democratic city – at the National Constitution Center. Pennsylvania is considered a key battleground state in the 2024 election cycle. President Biden managed to flip the state by a narrow margin in 2020.

You can watch it on ABC News properties, which include ABC News Live online streaming, Disney Plus and Hulu.

YahooNews.com also features real-time coverage and analysis from our editorial team.

🗣️ Who guides the conversation?

The discussion will be moderated by “World News Tonight” anchor and editor-in-chief David Muir and “ABC News Live Prime” anchor Linsey Davis.

Muir has been with ABC since 2003. The Sept. 10 debate isn’t Muir’s first rodeo, as he also moderated the 2016 and 2020 presidential primary debates. He has also conducted interviews on both sides of the political aisle, including a June interview with President Biden for the network’s D-Day Review. He was the first reporter to interview Trump as president at the White House in 2017.

Davis has been with ABC since 2007 and has also moderated the 2019 and 2020 presidential debates and covered the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention.

📖 What are the rules of the conversation?

The discussion rules on live microphones initially became a sticking point for both campaigns. The Harris campaign wanted the microphones on at all times, while the Trump campaign wanted them on only for the candidate whose turn it was to speak, adhering to CNN’s June 27 debate rules.

The Harris campaign agreed to the muted microphone rule in a letter to ABC on Wednesday, citing the risk that Trump would miss the debate, but adding that Harris was “fundamentally disadvantaged” by the rule because it “shields Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the vice president.”

ABC News released the rules for its Sept. 10 debate, which are similar to the June debate between Biden and Trump. They include:

• There is no live audience in the chat room, so it is not possible to shout or laugh during the event.

• Candidates do not give an opening speech.

• Moderators are the only ones who ask questions.

• The candidate has two minutes to answer the question, a two-minute objection, and another minute to continue the explanation. The microphones will only be turned on for the applicant who answers the question.

• A coin toss determined the order of the closing speeches, which are two minutes per candidate, as well as the position of the candidates’ podiums on the stage. Trump won the toss and decided to give the final closing statement. Harris decided that his podium would appear on the right side of the screen (stage left).

• During the debate, the candidates stand behind their own podium. They cannot have props or prepared notes with them. Each applicant is given a piece of paper, a pen and a bottle of water.

• There are two commercial breaks. During this time, campaign staff cannot interact with their candidate.

📺 How did the candidates get to the ABC debate?

The qualifications are very similar to the debate hosted by CNN on June 27. As ABC outlined, candidates had to meet the requirements of Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution to be eligible to serve as president. They must also have filed a declaration of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.

They also had to complete voting and voting requirements by September 3 to get a spot on stage. A candidate had to appear in a certain number of state elections to be eligible to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidential election. In addition, the candidate had to receive at least 15 percent of the vote in four separate national polls among registered or likely voters.

According to ABC, only Harris and Trump met those requirements. That means independents and third-party candidates like Cornel West and Jill Stein won’t appear on the debate stage. Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his presidential campaign on August 23 and endorsed Trump.

🗓 Are there other discussions planned?

The Harris campaign said on August 15 that the two campaigns had agreed to three debates before Election Day – two for Harris against Trump and one between the vice presidential candidates, Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio.

As of this writing, the Sept. 10 debate is currently the only presidential debate scheduled before the Nov. 5 election. The Oct. 1 vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News will feature Walz and Vance head-to-head.

Thumbnail Credit: Photo: Yahoo News; photos: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images, Win McNamee/Getty Images