With the first debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump just about two weeks away, the networks hosting the debate have outlined the rules both candidates will follow.
The debate will take place on Thursday, June 27th at CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia, the key battleground state. The debate will be moderated by anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and will last approximately 90 minutes, including two commercial breaks.
Under rules agreed to by both candidates' campaigns, Biden and Trump will both stand at a neutral podium, with the location of the podium decided by a coin toss.
During the debates, candidates' microphones are muted until their turn to speak, apparently to limit interruptions and crosstalk.
There will be no spectators, props or pre-written notes at the debates, but each candidate will be given a pen and pad to take notes, as well as a bottle of water.
To qualify for a debate, candidates must meet the criteria set out in the U.S. Constitution, win the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, and receive at least 15% support in four national polls that meet CNN's criteria, according to CNN. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate running in several states, has been fighting to qualify for a debate, even filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging collusion between the network and the Biden and Trump campaigns.
The debate was formed last month after Biden challenged Trump to a showdown and canceled a traditional debate hosted by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. The second debate will take place in September and will be hosted by ABC News.
Trump quickly accepted and then challenged Biden to additional debates, including one hosted by Fox News in October, but the Biden campaign declined.
“We made it very clear what we wanted,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz told Spectrum News last month. “We wanted two debates that were fair, focused on real policy issues, not theatrical, and Biden agreed to that. But Donald Trump continues to play games with the American people because they don't want to talk about the issues. Enough of the games.”
The debate comes ahead of the presidential nominating conventions, where Trump and Biden will once again be their parties' candidates, and ahead of Trump's sentencing in his New York hush-money trial. A jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with payments to adult film stars to cover up alleged affairs before the 2016 election. Trump denies the affairs and has vowed to appeal the conviction.
The Biden campaign on Monday launched a $50 million ad offensive attacking Trump as a convicted felon that will run through the end of June ahead of the first debate. The Trump campaign has fired back, baselessly calling his trial a sham.
