US presidential debate: Kamala Harris, Trump to face off in 90-minute encounter

Washington: The first, and possibly the only, debate between US Vice-President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival in the 2024 White House race, former President Donald Trump, takes place in Philadelphia in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday night.

It starts at 9 a.m. US Eastern time (6.30 a.m. IST).

The debate will run live for 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.

Although ABC News is hosting the debate, it will be simulcast on most other channels in the US such as CNN, Fox News, CBS, MSNBC, NBC and C-Span, the free live TV station. They have their own special programming scheduled for before and after the debate.

ABC News' 'World News Tonight' anchor and Managing Editor David Muir and ABC News Live "Prime" anchor Linsey Davis will moderate the debate.

The rules will be the same as in the June debate between President Joe Biden and former President Trump.

There will be no live audience to cheer or boo the debaters. There will be only Harris and Trump, the debaters, and Muir and Davis, the moderators.

One key rule that the Harris camp tried hard to was the muting of the microphone of the candidate after they were through with the allotted speaking time. Harris’s camp wanted the microphones to be left on for the entire duration of the debate because Trump has a tendency to interrupt and talk over the other person as he did famously in the first debate with Biden in 2020.

Trump stood his ground and, the muting rule stayed. The candidates will not make opening statements.

Each of them will get two minutes to respond to questions from the moderators, two minutes for rebuttals, and one minute for follow-on responses. Each of them will be given a pen and notepad and bottled water and they cannot interact with aides during commercial breaks.

In a coin flip held virtually on September 3, Trump won and chose to offer his closing argument last - both will get two minutes each for their final statements - and Harris selected the right podium position on the screen, otherwise called stage left. The candidates will enter the stage from the sides after the introductions by the moderators, who will seek to enforce the rules including those about the time. The candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other. And they will be allowed to bring props of written notes.