Live Updates: Biden and Trump Are Set to Spar in High-Stakes Debate (2024)

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The group that was cut out of hosting this year’s debates will be watching.

But he had some pointed concerns.

The first of two scheduled debates between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump, a CNN production on Thursday, was poised to differ in visible ways from those run by Mr. Fahrenkopf’s group, the Commission on Presidential Debates.

This debate, held historically early in the campaign, features advertisem*nts and no live audience. It is being held in a TV studio, not on a college campus. And the candidates’ microphones are being muted when it is not their turn to talk.

The insertion of commercials, in particular, galled Mr. Fahrenkopf.

“I can’t believe something as important as the presidential debate — I mean, which is a basic part of the civics and history of our country — will have ads in the middle,” said Mr. Fahrenkopf, who is 84 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

He also expressed concern that CNN would not spend enough time on each topic to allow for revealing dialogue between the candidates. In the 2020 debates, each subject was allocated 15 minutes.

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The network has tasked two prominent news anchors, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, with moderating the debate. Journalists at other news organizations have voiced concern about limited press access to the event.

Mr. Trump had accused Mr. Fahrenkopf’s organization of bias in favor of Democrats, and the group had disagreed with Mr. Biden’s campaign over the timing of the debates. Mr. Biden’s campaign also asserted that the group had failed to organize professional debates in 2020.

In the first debate in that race, an interruption-prone Mr. Trump allowed little time for Mr. Biden and the moderator, Chris Wallace, to speak. At one point, Mr. Biden asked Mr. Trump to “shut up.”

Mr. Wallace later conceded that the debate had gone “off the tracks.”

Mr. Fahrenkopf argued that Mr. Trump’s performance in that debate had been revealing for voters. “It probably resulted in him losing the election,” he said.

Still, Mr. Fahrenkopf acknowledged that a more tightly managed approach might prove better in the end. He promised to salute CNN if it pulled off a successful event.

“I want to see how it works,” he said, adding, “Maybe they’ll do something tonight that we haven’t done in the past, and maybe it was something that we should have done.”

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A look back at memorable presidential debate moments.

Such debate moments — missteps, one-liners, flops and various “Oops” miscues — can even land in the history books.

In the first televised presidential debate, in 1960, a confident Senator John F. Kennedy dominated Vice President Richard Nixon, who appeared sweaty and disheveled as he recovered from an illness. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush impatiently checked his watch in full view of the cameras. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan — in a move relevant to both candidates this cycle — used a joke to deflate concerns about his age.

Here is a look back at debate moments that helped define presidential campaigns.

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The spin room tonight is in a separate building from the studio where the candidates will be debating. The press is all in McCamish Pavilion, the arena where Georgia Tech’s basketball teams play. In lieu of hardwood floors, we’re on a red carpet that matches the CNN logo. And we’ve got roaming reporters eager to catch the advisers, surrogates and campaign staff here to spin.

This will be the first presidential debate without an in-person audience since 1960.

The last time was in 1960, when Richard M. Nixon, the Republican vice president, and John F. Kennedy, the junior Democratic senator from Massachusetts, participated in the first televised debates between presidential candidates.

Their first encounter is remembered for the stark contrast between their appearances: Kennedy looked relaxed and tanned, while Nixon, who decided to forgo makeup, looked ashen and unshaven.

The telegenic Kennedy went on to win the election after facing Nixon three more times, including in an ABC debate that used a split screen so that the rivals could appear remotely from New York and Los Angeles.

Sixteen years then passed without a presidential debate, as Lyndon B. Johnson and Nixon refused to participate in subsequent election cycles. When debates resumed in 1976, they did so with in-person audiences. That was also the first time that a sitting president, Gerald R. Ford, participated in a televised debate.

His first debate with Jimmy Carter, the Democratic challenger and former Georgia governor, took place in front of a live audience at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. Carter went on to defeat Ford.

Every presidential debate since then has included an in-person audience, even during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump faced each other twice. The rivals were supposed to debate three times that year, but the second one was canceled after Trump would not agree to a remote format proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates for safety reasons.

This year, Mr. Biden’s team demanded no in-person audience, seeking to avoid any cheering or booing that could derail the conversation. Mr. Trump, who feeds off the reactions of his supporters, indicated that he wanted an audience, and he accused Mr. Biden of being “afraid of crowds.” Still, Mr. Trump agreed to CNN’s terms, which called for no audience.

Some candidates have benefited demonstrably from having an in-person audience. Bill Clinton, for instance, used a town hall debate in 1992 against President George H.W. Bush and the independent candidate Ross Perot to his advantage in winning the presidency.

In May, Mr. Trump’s supporters cheered him on during a town hall event hosted by CNN. The network was criticized over the event, partly because of the friendly setting.

Peter Baker contributed reporting.

The D.N.C. added two more billboards to its anti-Trump messaging campaign in the Atlanta area this afternoon, bringing the total number to five, a spokesman for the committee said.

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In Atlanta, the debate is competing for attention with the U.S. men’s soccer team.

CNN is hosting the debate in a closed studio without an audience, a departure from past presidential debates. So, while security for the event may snarl traffic, there will not be a crowd of attendees to deal with.

Two miles from CNN’s studio, however, the U.S. men’s soccer team is playing Panama at the 71,000-seat Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The game is part of the Copa América tournament and began at 6 p.m. Eastern, three hours before the debate’s scheduled start time.

Employees of bars and restaurants in the neighborhood around the studio said they had no special plans for the game or the debate, beyond turning their televisions to both events or, in one case, warning employees to go home early to beat traffic. Some roads are scheduled to be closed in the area.

Allison Fouché, a spokeswoman for Atlanta’s mayor, Andre Dickens, said she was not aware of any major public events planned around the debate other than watch parties organized by the political campaigns.

Although the soccer tournament has somewhat overshadowed the debate, CNN’s event has still generated local buzz for Democrats, who outnumber Republicans in Atlanta, said David Shock, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University.

“It elevates Atlanta’s status as a key political hub,” he said, adding that the debate had helped smooth some “ruffled feathers” after Atlanta lost a bid to host the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Chicago.

In Democratic circles, the debate has provided a reason to get together.

Manuel’s Tavern, a dive bar and longtime Democratic stronghold in the city, was preparing for a standing-room-only crowd.

The bar, where Jimmy Carter announced his run for governor in 1970 and where President Barack Obama once tossed darts, planned to tune its 14 televisions to the debate, said Steven Pitts, the general manager.

The tavern’s patrons broadly support Mr. Biden, Mr. Pitts said. But he added that he would not say they were “super enthusiastic” about the president, who narrowly won in Georgia in 2020 and currently trails Mr. Trump in the state, according to recent polls.

“The anxiety is overwhelming the enthusiasm,” Mr. Pitts said.

The Republican Party planned a debate party with about 50 campaign surrogates outside Atlanta, in Smyrna, Ga.

Get ready for the debate like an economics pro.

Inflation, immigration, government taxing and spending, interest rates, and trade relationships could all take center stage — and both candidates could make sweeping claims about them, as they do regularly at campaign events and other public appearances.

Given that, it could be handy to go into the event with an understanding of current economic data and what the latest research says.

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Melania Trump, the former first lady, was not among the people disembarking the plane with Trump in Atlanta on Thursday. Her office and his campaign have not responded to questions about whether she is in the city.

With two major events in town, Atlanta prepares for traffic to slow to a near standstill.

Although traffic during the day was not noticeably worse, the city warned that venturing out later could lead to headaches.

“If you are planning an evening out in Atlanta, for the game, dinner or any other of our offerings, we encourage you to plan ahead and anticipate limited parking and heavier than usual traffic,” the city said in an advisory, noting several planned road closures around the debate venue.

The two events, the U.S. men’s soccer team vs. Panama and President Biden vs. former President Donald J. Trump, will take place only miles apart.

The debate is being held at the CNN’s headquarters in Midtown, a growing neighborhood of high-rise hotels, office buildings and condo towers. To the south, the 71,000-capacity Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home of the Atlanta Falcons and the Atlanta United F.C., will host the soccer match.

Many visiting soccer fans said they were planning on walking or taking the MARTA, Atlanta’s light rail. Kellen Lowder, a 36-year-old engineer who came from Seattle to watch the game, said the double booking caught him by surprise.

“I knew the debate was happening, but didn’t realize it was in Atlanta until I spoke to the hotel front desk,” Mr. Lowder said. “They told us not to drive or Uber.”

Aga Villanueva, 43 and Pedro Valencia, 40, soccer fans in town from Chicago, were also caught off guard.

“I thought it would be in New York or something,” Mr. Villanueva said, before shrugging off worrying about anything happening outside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“I’m not too concerned about politics right now, just the U.S.A. beating Panama,” he said.

There is another potential snarl looming. Pro-Palestinian organizations have planned two separate protests that they believe could draw several hundred demonstrators. The rallies have been billed as being against both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, and also the U.S. government’s longstanding support for Israel.

Protest organizers also encouraged demonstrators to take the MARTA.

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A Trump will be in the debate spin room (for Biden).

But a host of advisers will be camped nearby inside green rooms that have been prepared for their teams, where the first lady, Jill Biden, is also expected to watch the high-stakes debate. Dr. Biden is expected to be the only Biden family member in attendance, according to people familiar with the plans who were not authorized to detail them.

It is not clear who, if anyone, from Mr. Trump’s immediate family will attend in support of him. Mr. Trump’s most politically active son, Donald Trump Jr., could not be there because of a previous family commitment with his oldest daughter, according to a person familiar with his plans.

But there will be at least one Trump family member there — spinning for Mr. Biden.

Mary Trump, Mr. Trump’s estranged niece, is among the half-dozen representatives that the Biden campaign is deploying to the spin room on Thursday.

“We cannot afford to allow Donald Trump anywhere near the levers of power again,” Ms. Trump said in a statement before the debate. Other Biden surrogates include Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas.

The debate will have two three-and-a-half minute commercial breaks, but neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Biden will be permitted to huddle with their nearby campaign teams during those interludes.

Mr. Biden flew to Atlanta on Thursday afternoon after a week sequestered at Camp David to rehearse, joined by political and government advisers. Mr. Trump was flying in from Florida with his team.

The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about who will be in the spin room on his behalf. But a number of high-profile campaign surrogates are set to attend a fund-raiser and watch party hosted by Kelly Loeffler, a former senator from Georgia. Among them are three people thought to be the top contenders for a running mate pick: Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.

Other Republicans who traveled to Atlanta and will attend the watch party are Representatives Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, who held an event on Wednesday night geared toward Black outreach in support of the Trump campaign; Ben Carson, who is another potential running mate contender and served as Mr. Trump’s secretary of housing and urban development; and Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the No. 4 House Republican, who has also been mentioned as a potential running mate.

Biden and Trump allies race to court Black voters in Atlanta ahead of the debate.

Surrogates, officials and organizers from both parties held a flurry of events in Atlanta barbershops, community centers and labor halls this week, using the backdrop of the early matchup between the two presidential candidates to encourage a crucial voting bloc in the heart of a key battleground state to turn back out in November.

Their efforts come as Black voters, long considered Democrats’ most loyal constituency, have voiced increasing frustrations with Mr. Biden and his party over the last several months. Some Black voters have suggested that they would support Mr. Trump in November or not vote at all.

But even as the Trump campaign aims to take advantage of the bloc’s softening support for Mr. Biden, it faces challenges in growing its grass-roots Black support and embracing policy positions that are popular with a broad enough swath of Black voters, particularly those who have supported Democrats in the past. Some of the challenges that the G.O.P. faces in fracturing Mr. Biden’s coalition were on display at these events.

A Republican-led discussion at a Black-owned barbershop on Wednesday in Atlanta quickly devolved as panelists vacillated among obscure policy suggestions, cultural grievances and at times ahistoric conjectures about Black Americans. One panelist referred to the trans-Atlantic slave trade as an “experience” and said that older generations of Black voters have generated “narratives that were divisive.”

Another, who said he was speaking on the panel in a nonpartisan capacity, suggested that Republicans might have a better chance of appealing to Black voters by “looking past Trump” to another candidate during the next presidential election. By the end of the 90-minute session, where reporters and Republican organizers far outnumbered potential voters, the owner of the barbershop, Rocky’s Barbershop, said he, himself, was not yet sure whom he would support for president this November.

“I’m just Black in America. I just want the right person to win,” said Rocky Jones, the owner. “I like the word ‘unity.’ I like to be diverse. I like who supports me. I support them. I like teamwork.”

Several prominent Black Trump campaign surrogates, including Representatives Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, as well as Ben Carson, the former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, attended the event. Mr. Trump also briefly called into the gathering, promoting his record on lowering Black unemployment and promising to lower gas prices if re-elected. He also repeated his claim that after his mug shot and, later, his felony conviction, his support from Black and Latino voters “skyrocketed” — a claim that Mr. Biden’s campaign immediately condemned as racist.

Representatives for Mr. Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Democrats, for their part, sent dozens of Black surrogates to Atlanta to hold events around the city before the debate. Many of the Biden campaign’s policy-focused campaign events, while not explicitly geared toward Black voters, have been led by local Black officials flanked by Black community leaders.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta who was named a senior adviser to Mr. Biden’s campaign, said during a Monday news conference that Mr. Biden had a “track record” of delivering for Black communities. Still, she and other Black supporters of the president face a much tougher battle in delivering that message to Black voters in battleground states like Georgia, where Mr. Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020.

“The work has been done,” she said of the president’s policy record. “There’s always an opportunity to make sure we’re saying it more frequently and we’re saying it louder.”

The level of turnout among Black voters could decide the election, something to which Republicans are attuned. Those involved in organizing the events on behalf of the Trump campaign, including Mr. Hunt and Mr. Donalds, have said the primary aim is to grow support among a slice of that group, namely Black men, who in polls and focus groups have shown more openness to supporting conservatives.

“If there’s an indictment of how the party — the Republican Party — has run itself the last 60 years, it’s that it never took the time to go engage Black voters and say there is another way to listen to us,” Mr. Donalds said at a “Congress, Cigars and Cognac” event in an Atlanta suburb on Wednesday.

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