Election 2020: How to watch Tuesday night’s debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will take the debate stage in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday night, the first of three chances for the Republican incumbent and Democratic challenger to square off publicly and make crucial pitches to millions of Americans before they head to the polls on Nov. 3.

The heavyweight debate follows seven months of campaigning in starkly different ways amid COVID-19 and increasingly tumultuous news cycles focused on the federal response to the pandemic, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement on the Supreme Court and Trump’s long-sought tax returns. The New York Times, after obtaining nearly 20 years of financial records that Trump has refused to release, published a blistering report Sunday with hard data that paints the president as a tax avoidance tycoon.

Here’s what you need to know heading in to the debate.

What time and where is the debate?

Tuesday’s debate, as well as two others planned for Oct. 15 and Oct. 22, will begin at 9 p.m. EST and last 90 minutes, according to the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

The candidates will meet at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The University of Notre Dame was initially scheduled to host, but dropped out due to the pandemic.

How can I watch on TV?

Every major network and cable news channel will broadcast the debate, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, Fox Business and MSNBC. Several networks and their apps will stream the debate, so people using Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and other streaming devices can find ways to watch. The Washington Post, The New York Times, ABC, CBS and Fox News have all announced they will live-stream the event.

C-SPAN plans to broadcast the debate and stream it on C-SPAN.org; it will also feature on the C-SPAN radio app, C-SPAN’s YouTube and Fox News Radio.

Who is moderating?

Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who anchors “Fox News Sunday” and received praise for pressing Trump in a July interview, will be the lone moderator. Wallace moderated a 2016 debate between Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

What topics are likely to arise?

Biden is sure to address a New York Times report that showed Trump paid no income taxes for 10 of the last 15 years, during Tuesday’s primetime contest.

Biden’s campaign quickly seized on the Times' key figures. Not only did Trump and his companies pay significantly more in taxes to at least Panama, India and the Philippines than to his own country -- where he paid just $750 in federal taxes in 2017 -- he paid significantly less than average American teachers, firefighters and nurses, a Biden ad suggested late Sunday night.

Trump is sure to hammer Biden over the former Delaware senator’s campaign style, which the president and his allies have long described as “hiding in his basement" as they churn out videos and social media posts suggesting Biden is out of touch with the American public and now mentally unfit to sit in the Oval Office where he served as President Barack Obama’s right-hand man for two terms.

Trump blasted the Times story as “fake news” during a Sunday evening news conference and in a tweet after midnight.

On Sunday morning, Trump said he planned to demand that Biden take a drug test, calling his opponent’s primary debate performances “UNEVEN, to put it mildly" and suggesting drug use could be the cause. Trump, mocked and questioned about potential cocaine use after a 2016 debate performance in which he audibly sniffed at least 50 times, pledged to take a drug test as well.

Wallace picked a handful of topics including the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice and the Supreme Court, to which Trump on Saturday nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Trump’s pick to replace Ginsburg delighted social conservatives long pressing to curb or eliminate abortion rights protected by the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Democrats accuse Trump and Republican senators of trying to ram through a radical right nominee just weeks before Election Day -- even though GOP lawmakers blocked Obama’s last nominee, Merrick Garland, several months before the 2016 election.

Other topics in the debate include the economy, election integrity and Trump’s and Biden’s track records.

Will the candidates be fact-checked?

Wallace will likely not fact-check the debaters live, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Frank Fahrenkopf, co-chair of the commission, told CNN that fact-checking is essential in reporting and interviews, but not debates.

“We don’t expect Chris or our other moderators to be fact-checkers,” Fahrenkopf said. “The minute (the debate is over) there are going to be plenty of fact-checkers at every newspaper and every television station in the world.”

What is the format?

According to Fox News, the debate will feature six 15-minute segments focused on the topics chosen by Wallace, which were approved by the debate commission. No interruptions are planned for the debate.

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