The first presidential debate of the 2024 general election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is scheduled for Thursday, June 19, at CNN's studios in Atlanta. Both candidates qualified for the debate stage with Biden largely running unopposed and Trump skipping the GOP primary debates. The debate will be moderated by CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and last for 90 minutes, starting at 9 p.m. ET.
Biden, who won the coin toss, chose the podium to the viewers' right while Trump opted for delivering the final closing statement of the evening. The debate is expected to cover recent legal dramas involving both candidates and their respective parties as well as issues like economy, immigration policy, international politics, and addressing base support.
Trump is anticipated to announce his pick for vice president in the coming weeks. A vice presidential debate is scheduled for either July 23 or August 13. Trump will appear for sentencing in his criminal trial on July 11, just before the Republican National Convention from July 15-20.
The Democratic National Convention will take place from August 19.
In the lead-up to the debate, both campaigns have taken extraordinary measures in hopes that their candidate will play against type. Trump's campaign argues that Biden is a feeble incompetent disconnected from reality, while Biden's campaign describes Trump as an unhinged extremist with dictatorial designs who snapped when he lost the 2020 election.
The upcoming debate is expected to be one of the most consequential moments of the 2024 campaign. In the 2020 debates, Trump's disastrous performance in the first debate ended his campaign's chances against Biden. In contrast, a measured Trump offered a spirited and coherent defense of his administration's record in the second debate.
Trump delivered a deft summation of his position on opening schools during the coronavirus pandemic at the 2020 debates: 'The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.'