The Final Presidential Debate is Tonight- Here’s What You Need to Know

The second and final presidential debate between Biden and Trump is tonight. Will you be watching? As much of a disaster the last one was, we were watching glued to our TV screen with bated breath. We kept looking at each other with disbelief. “How is this happening right now?” probably exited our lips 10 times that night.

After President Trump backed out of the original second debate that was supposed to go down last week, he has agreed to this one tonight. One big (and welcome) change is that each of their mics will be muted during the initial two minute response in each section (thanks for the correction and update, Lane!), which should hopefully help with the night’s progression. It’s sad that it even had to come to that, but this is 2020, and President Trump is, well, Trump.

Below are some things to know ahead of tonight’s debate:

Time:

9p-10:30p ET

Where to watch:

The debate will air on all major networks, and you can stream it online here.

Moderator:

NBC News’ Kristen Welker, who is also a White House correspondent and co-anchor of “Weekend Today”

Topics:

Fighting Covid-19
American Families
Race in America
Climate Change
National Security
Leadership

Where:

Belmont University in Nashville (one of the few original hosting universities that did not reverse its decision to hold a debate).

Format:

Same as previous debates. Each segment will last about 15 minutes, and the candidates will have two minutes to respond after the moderator opens each segment with a question, only this time their mics will be muted, giving the other a chance to respond without being interrupted.