When is the Harris-Trump presidential debate and how can you watch it in New Zealand?

From Stephanie KellyReuters

Republican U.S. candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris will face each other this week in their first presidential debate since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

For some 240 million U.S. voters, this is the first opportunity to hear Trump and Harris explain their policies side by side before the November 5 election. And it's a rare moment when the two are in the same room.

Here are some details about the highly anticipated event:

When is the debate and how can I watch it?

The debate, moderated by ABC News, will take place on September 11 (New Zealand time) at 1 p.m. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one of the swing states where Democrats and Republicans vote, and will help determine the winner of this year's election.

The debate will take place at the National Constitution Center, a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, where the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall are also located.

The show is hosted by ABC's David Muir and Linsey Davis and airs on ABC and streams on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu, as well as their YouTube channel.

It is also produced in collaboration with local Philadelphia network WPVI-TV, an ABC affiliate.

What are the basic rules?

Candidates' microphones will be muted when it is not their turn to speak. The Harris team agreed to the rule on Wednesday after weeks of back and forth with the Trump team. Harris' team had initially hoped to use so-called “hot mics” throughout the debate, while Trump's team pushed for silent mics.

The CNN debate between Biden and Trump in June also featured muted microphones when the candidates were not speaking. The CNN debate also banned all props, had no live audience and featured two commercial breaks – conditions that are expected to be repeated.

What is expected of Harris?

Harris will enter the debate with momentum. After the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 22, her campaign announced that she had raised more than US$500 million (NZ$809.8 million) since entering the race.

She has gained strongly in the polls. Polling website FiveThirtyEight showed Harris ahead by 3.5 percentage points in national polls, but the race was much closer in some swing states.

Voters want to know more about her policy plans, strategists say. She could attack Trump over his appointment of three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade. She could mention “Project 2025,” a sweeping conservative policy framework written by some of his closest advisers, and contrast her record as a prosecutor with his felony conviction.

Harris, who launched a short-lived bid for the White House in the 2020 election cycle, has sought to portray herself as both an extension of the Biden administration and the face of a new generation, and will likely speak at length about her personal history and middle-class upbringing.

What is expected of Trump?

Trump has struggled to find a coherent and effective line of attack against Harris since she entered the presidential race, accusing her of being a radical leftist while simultaneously suggesting that she was responsible for Biden's more centrist political agenda. He has occasionally questioned her intelligence and her biracial identity.

In his debate with Biden, Trump repeated well-known falsehoods that largely went unchallenged. Harris is likely to be a tougher opponent and could put Trump even more on the defensive when it comes to facts, policy and his behavior after the 2020 election.

Trump, when nervous, could resort to personal attacks. Trump will likely try to pin the issues that have lowered Biden's popularity with voters – inflation and border security – on Harris, while suggesting she is not ready to be the nation's commander in chief. He could bring up the liberal views she espoused as a 2020 candidate and could attack the Biden administration's record in Gaza and Ukraine.

At the same time, Trump must convince skeptical voters that he has the temperament needed to win back the job he lost four years ago. The last time he faced a female candidate, Hillary Clinton, in 2016, he physically stood behind her in a debate and called her “the devil” and “an evil woman.”

What other topics are likely?

A major issue is likely to be the economy, particularly high consumer prices.

Trump has touted plans on taxes and health care. He has also proposed eliminating taxes on tip income, a proposal Harris has embraced, which could be an opportunity for the two to discuss a rare shared interest.

What about third parties?

Vice President Harris, who secured the Democratic nomination after Biden withdrew in July following a disastrous debate performance, said in early August that she would participate in the upcoming debate that Biden and Trump had previously agreed to.

Trump, 78, and Harris, 59, are not being endorsed by third-party candidates. The deadline to qualify was Sept. 3. Candidates who qualified had to appear on a sufficient number of ballots in the states and garner at least 15 percent support in four national opinion polls that meet ABC's standards.

– Reuters