Why Tonight's Presidential Debate Is Unprecedented
As President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump gear up for their first debate of the 2024 election cycle, viewers at home may notice it looks (and sounds) quite different from past presidential debates.
That's because it is, in fact, pretty unprecedented. Not only is it the earliest televised debate in American electoral history (since debates started being televised in 1960), but also, there will be no studio audience. Here, we break down the key changes about tonight's debate:
1. Earliest televised debate
Looking back at every televised presidential debate in history (from 1960 to today), no presidential debate between the two parties has ever taken place this early in the election cycle.
According to Pew Research, "Since the first televised debates in 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, all such events have been held in September or October." Before tonight, the earliest debate between Republican and Democratic nominees for president was on September 23, 1976, when then-President Gerald Ford debated Jimmy Carter. The general election debates have historically all happened in the fall—after candidates clinch their party's nominations.
2. No involvement by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD)
Tonight's debate, and the debate hosted by ABC in September, is not organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), the first time since 1988 that the CPD will not be involved in hosting the presidential debate. The timing was one of the main issues the Biden campaign reportedly had with the CPD debates—they wanted Biden to debate Trump earlier. There will likely be no CPD-hosted debates this fall.
3. No studio audience
For the first time since the first presidential debate in 1960, there will be no audience for the debate. "The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters, watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering," Campaign Chair for the Biden-Harris Campaign Jen O’Malley Dillon said.
4. Muted mics
Both Biden and Trump's microphones will be muted—unless it's their turn to speak, preventing them from interrupting each other.
5. President vs. former president
While this is not the first time a sitting president has run against a former president in a general election, it is the first time a president will debate a former president, according to The Hill. "I think it's going to be an historic and epic debate," presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told ABC. "The fact is that with Trump and Biden, it's the first time ever that we've had two people that have been president going at each other."
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