ABC Sets Rules for First Kamala Harris-Donald Trump Presidential Debate

Matt Webb Mitovich and Dave Nemetz
·3 min read
43

Ahead of next week’s presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris, ABC is laying down some ground rules.

The network has announced the rules for the Tuesday, Sept. 10 debate (9/8c), which is set to run for 90 minutes with two commercial breaks. Candidates will have two minutes to answer each question, with two additional minutes allowed for rebuttals and an extra minute for follow-ups. Each candidate’s microphone will be muted when the other candidate is speaking, and they will not be permitted to ask each other questions. After a coin flip to decide, Trump will deliver the last closing statement — there will be no opening statements — while Harris’ podium will be on the right.

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ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, with no audience in the room, and “will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion.” No topics or questions will be shared with the candidates beforehand, and no props or pre-written notes will be allowed on stage.

Back in the spring, Trump and former Democratic nominee President Joe Biden had agreed to a second presidential debate to be held Sept. 10 and air on ABC. But in a recent Truth Social post, Trump falsely claimed that said face-off was “terminated” because, in part, he is “in litigation” against ABC News and thus there’s a “conflict of interest.”

Trump on March 18 filed a lawsuit against ABC News, arguing that George Stephanopoulos defamed him by saying in a This Week segment that the former president had been found liable for raping the writer E. Jean Carroll. (Trump last year was found liable for “sexually abusing” Carroll, but the judge later stated it was a matter of legal semantics.)

Harris’ team responded to Trump’s “terminated” claim with a statement saying, “Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out,” by proposing a Sept. 4 debate on the cable news channel. “We’re happy to discuss further debates after the [ABC] one both campaigns already agreed to. Mr Anytime, Anywhere, Anyplace should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th.”

Trump previously faced off then-opponent Biden on June 27, in a game-changing debate that aired on CNN, elevated concerns about Biden’s age and acuity, and set in motion a series of events that led the incumbent POTUS to ultimately drop out of the 2024 race.

In withdrawing his bid for reelection, Biden threw his support behind his veep, who promptly secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee, officially earning the nomination at last month’s Democratic National Convention.

Election Day this year is Tuesday, Nov. 5.

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