Two months before the American presidential election, the meeting is highly anticipated. For the first time, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will face each other, this Tuesday, September 10, during a debate broadcast live by the ABC channel.
For more than an hour, the vice president and the former president will confront their two radically different visions of the future of the United States. But strict rules have been put in place for this debate, which could be the only one.
One and only debate
This debate, which will last 90 minutes, is organized by the American channel ABC. Scheduled for the night of Tuesday 10 to Wednesday 11 September, at 3am, French time, the exchange between the Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate will be broadcast live, with two commercial breaks.
The event, hosted by ABC anchors Linsey Davis and David Muir, will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a room without an audience.
The location was not chosen at random. Pennsylvania is considered the most important of the swing states, those states that could swing Democrats or Republicans in November. Especially since, to date, no other debate is planned before the election on November 5.
No notes prepared in advance
After weeks of negotiations over the venue, date and terms, ABC has unveiled the strict rules that will govern the debate, which have been agreed to by both sides. Both candidates will stand behind lecterns for the entire debate.
They will only be allowed a pen, sheets of paper and a bottle of water. Props to support the demonstrations such as notes prepared in advance will not be allowed. The vice-president and the ex-president will not be allowed to come into contact during commercial breaks.
Questions and answers
The two candidates will not present opening remarks. It will be questions and answers only. Each will have two minutes to answer a question, while the opponent will have two minutes to reply.
An additional minute will be allowed for any “additional remarks, clarifications, or responses,” ABC explained. At the end of the debate, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will have two minutes to present their conclusions. After a drawing of lots, it was the former president who won the right to choose to go last.
Only the debate moderators will be allowed to ask questions, and no topics or questions will be shared in advance with either side, according to the rules.
Microphones cut
As in the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump at the end of June, the candidates’ microphones will be turned off when they are not speaking. A rule that has been at the heart of heated discussions in recent weeks between the two teams.
Kamala Harris’s team wanted to keep the microphones open, in the hope that her Republican rival would interrupt her untimely and launch into the digressions he is accustomed to. Conversely, Donald Trump’s team categorically refused, accusing the Democrats of wanting to change the rules they had already agreed on. It was ultimately ABC that decided: the microphones of the two candidates would only be open when they were given the floor.