The Covid-19 pandemic has made this an election season unlike any other, but one constant will be the debates. President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will face off onstage for the first time on September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace will moderate the debate, which will run from 9 to 10:30 pm ET. He has selected six topics for the debate: Trump’s and Biden’s records, the Supreme Court, the ongoing pandemic, the economy, race and violence in cities, and the integrity of the election.
The fifth topic, “Race and Violence in our Cities,” drew some objection — it appears to focus more on urban unrest than the struggle for racial justice. Bend the Arc, a liberal Jewish group, said the language “reinforces anti-Black fear mongering.”
Trump has repeatedly raised questions about the last topic: the election’s integrity. On Wednesday, he refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses, something no previous president has refused to do.
This will be the first of three debates between Biden and Trump. The two will meet again in Miami on October 15 and in Nashville on October 22. The vice presidential nominees, Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris, will debate in Salt Lake City on October 7.
Follow along below for Vox’s debate coverage, including how to watch, breaking news updates, analysis, and more.
The Proud Boys, explained
Far-right protesters jeer at members of Antifa during protests organized by the far-right group the Proud Boys. LightRocket via Getty ImagesDuring Tuesday night’s debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Trump was asked by moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News whether he would be “willing to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and say they need to stand down and not to add to the violence” taking place in cities like Portland, Oregon, and Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Trump asked whom he should condemn; Biden suggested the Proud Boys, a far-right street fighting organization that has gained a following both online and in major cities across the country.
Read Article >The K-shaped economic recovery, explained
President Trump and Joe Biden during the first presidential debate on September 29, 2020. AFP/Getty ImagesWhen you think about what’s going on in the economy, you’ve also got to think about who. And right now, things are not going evenly for everyone.
During Tuesday’s first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, moderator Chris Wallace posed a question to the two candidates about the economy: Is the US in a V-shaped recovery or a K-shaped recovery?
Read Article >Biden to Trump: “Will you shut up, man?”
Joe Biden during the first presidential debate. Scott Olson/Getty ImagesThere was one moment in Tuesday’s chaotic presidential debate that really crystallized the entire awful experience: an exasperated former Vice President Joe Biden saying, “Will you shut up, man?” to President Donald Trump.
The context was, as with most of the debate, strange. The moderator, Fox News’s Chris Wallace, asked Biden whether he would abolish the filibuster and add new justices to the Supreme Court if elected. Such measures would depend heavily on who wins the Senate, but the president would set the tone and the Democratic nominee has been cagey on where he stands. At the debate, he launched into a seemingly canned response designed to dodge commitment one way or another.
Read Article >Trump says murders are up in Democrat-run cities. They’re up in Republican-run cities, too.
President Donald Trump at the first presidential debate. Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump at Tuesday’s presidential debate claimed that crime is up in Democrat-run cities. “I think it’s a party issue,” Trump said, repeating a claim he’s made in the past.
The argument, in short, is that if you can’t trust Democrats to run cities, you shouldn’t trust Democratic candidate Joe Biden with the presidency.
Read Article >How to watch the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are about to face off in their pivotal first general election debate.
The debate will air Tuesday, September 29, from 9 pm ET to 11 pm ET; that’s 8-10 pm CT, 7-9 pm MT; and 6-8 pm PT. Moderated by Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace, the debate will take place at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Read Article >The Trump campaign spent months portraying Biden as senile. That might be a mistake.
Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden exits his plane after landing in Cleveland, Ohio, to participate in the first presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic on September 29, 2020. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty ImagesDonald Trump has made it very clear of what he thinks about Joe Biden. In his speeches, “Sleepy Joe” Biden is barely coherent, a “dumb guy” who “doesn’t know where the hell he is.” In online advertising, the Trump campaign has repeatedly alleged that Biden is “too old and out of it” to be president.
And during a Tuesday appearance on Fox & Friends, Trump ally Rudy Giuliani excitedly shared his theory that Biden has dementia and will “get through” the debate thanks to drugs typically used to treat attention deficit disorder.
Read Article >Trump’s adversarial relationship with presidential debate moderator Chris Wallace, explained
Trump and Chris Wallace shake hands after a presidential debate in October 2016. Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump expects complete loyalty from Fox News. Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace is the rare personality on the network that refuses to give it to him.
That’s the crux of the dynamic underpinning the first presidential debate of the 2020 general election, which will be held on Tuesday night at 9 pm ET at Case Western University and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and is set to be moderated by Wallace.
Read Article >When is the first presidential debate? September 29.
Joe Biden at the 11th Democratic debate on March 15, 2020. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesThe coronavirus pandemic has changed a lot about the 2020 presidential campaign, but at least one thing is set to proceed mostly as planned: the debates. The first of those, between Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, is set to take place on September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio.
The debate will be held on the joint campus shared by Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic. The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has announced that Fox News anchor Chris Wallace will moderate, and the debate will run from 9 to 10:30 pm Eastern time.
Read Article >Trump, Biden, and the war over American masculinity
President Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on the South Lawn of the White House on August 27, 2020. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty ImagesWhen voters decide between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden this November, they’ll be choosing between two parties, two histories, and two very different visions of America.
They’ll also be deciding between two versions of masculinity.
Read Article >
