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We’ve arrived.
The presidential race will kick into a new gear when Joe Biden and Donald Trump face off in their first 2024 debate Thursday on CNN.
The event is much earlier than debates of the past, one of several ways it breaks with tradition. This debate, too, will look and feel differently thanks to new rules and conditions set by the candidates themselves.
READ MORE: Here’s how Americans feel about Biden and Trump as election season revs up
With Biden and Trump neck-and-neck in the most recent polls, their first debate is an opportunity to make their case to voters, especially those who are dissatisfied with their choices or turned off by politics altogether.
Here’s what to expect from a debate filled with firsts.
How to watch the 1st 2024 presidential debate
Watch the debate in the player above.
The first presidential debate between Biden and Trump will begin at 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 27. It will be moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash in Atlanta.
PBS News special coverage will start with the 6 p.m. EDT News Hour broadcast, followed by digital special coverage at 8 p.m. After the debate ends, anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett will host on-air special analysis.
Check your local listings to find the PBS station near you, or watch online here or in the player above.
You can also follow PBS News coverage on YouTube, X, Facebook and TikTok, and see highlights on our Instagram.
What to expect
This matchup will be the first ever debate between a sitting and former president. Both men will have records to tout and defend.
Correspondents Laura Barrón-López and Lisa Desjardins explained the candidates’ policies on the economy, a leading issue for voters ahead of November’s election.
Watch the video in the player above.
Biden and Trump may also address a topic that’s become a centerpiece of their campaigns: immigration. Both have used executive powers to address challenges along the southern border.
There’s no shortage of headline-grabbing issues — abortion and reproductive rights, climate change, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, among others, are ones to watch for. Also at play: Trump’s embrace of Jan. 6 rioters and his historic felony conviction.
Trump, known for his personal attacks, is likely to draw attention to Hunter Biden’s conviction, as he has on the campaign trail.
Blast from the past
The prevailing perception of Biden and Trump’s first 2020 debate: It was short on substance. It had, as former anchor and special correspondent Judy Woodruff once put it, “all the civility of a children’s food fight.”
There was crosstalking, overtalking and shouting, mostly coming from Trump. Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News couldn’t control the back-and-forth. After persistent interruptions from Trump, Biden’s response could be distilled to a soundbite: “Will you shut up, man?”
The rules are different this time
In presidential debates of yesteryear, the Commission on Presidential Debates typically established the ground rules.
Citing dissatisfaction with how the bipartisan group managed the 2020 debates, the candidates took the first presidential debate into their own hands. It was shaped by agreed-upon rules from both sides, including:
- The debate will last 90 minutes. There will also be two commercial breaks.
- There will be no audience. Biden and Trump will debate at a CNN studio in Atlanta.
- There’s a muting mechanism. When one candidate is speaking, the other’s mic will be turned off.
- There will be no opening statements. A coin flip determined that Biden will be positioned at the lectern on the right. As a result, Trump will get to deliver the final closing statement.
- No props or notes are allowed on stage. What is allowed is a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.
This is the first of two planned debates. ABC News will host the second debate on Sept. 10.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had been angling for a spot, failed to qualify for CNN’s event.
This first debate is scheduled the earliest one has ever been in an election year. Presidential debates are typically held closer to Election Day, around September or so. Part of this year’s change: The Biden campaign’s desire to wrap up debates before early voting started. A debate in June means both candidates are facing off weeks ahead of the formal Republican and Democratic nominating conventions.
Who’s watching?
Chart by Jenna Cohen/ PBS News
As the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll shows, younger people between the ages of 18 to 29 are least likely to say they will watch the debate. Those aged 60 or older are most likely to watch.
Age has been an impossible-to-miss theme of this election cycle. Polls have shown a growing concern over the ages of the likely nominees. Biden, 81, is fewer than four years older than Trump, 78, who has focused on the president’s cognitive abilities on the campaign trail (though he has also made notable gaffes).
The debate, scheduled for 90 minutes on live television this Thursday, is an opportunity for both candidates to quell voter concerns, as well as fire up potential supporters who just aren’t enthused about either leading contender for the Oval Office right now.
