Newsmax will be carrying live the first presidential debate and showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Thursday night.
Newsmax will begin its live debate coverage at 8 p.m. ET with anchors Rob Schmitt and Mercedes Schlapp, followed by the 9 p.m. ET simulcast of CNN's debate feed.
When to Watch:
8 p.m. ET Pre-Debate Coverage
9 p.m. ET Watch Live Debate
Watch On: Newsmax+/Newsmax2
The event is already making history as the earliest election debate ever, taking place before either candidate officially receives his party’s nomination.
Newsmax will begin its debate coverage at 8 p.m. ET, and then simulcast CNN's feed beginning at 9 p.m.
Newsmax's pre- and post-debate coverage will include top political analysts and Republican contenders for Trump’s vice presidential running mate.
Newsmax’s roster of top analysts include Pam Bondi, Dick Morris, Mark Halperin, Ric Grenell, and Rick Santorum.
Special guests for the debate coverage include Matt Schlapp, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Ben Carson, and Gov. Doug Burgum, R-N.D.
Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, have not spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
This will be the first presidential debate since 1984 not to be hosted by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which was created in 1987.
The two men will stand at podiums located 8 feet apart, with Biden on viewers' right and Trump on viewers' left, and without a studio audience, CNN said.
Each man will be given 2 minutes to answer questions, and 1 minute for rebuttals.
When one man is speaking, the other's microphone will be turned off.
Trump and Biden will be able to tell how much time they have left to speak through "timing" lights the network has set up throughout the studio and in the candidates' field of vision.
There will be two commercial breaks, during which the candidates have agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off.
Biden will give the first closing statement, and Trump will have the second closing statement.
"Debates tend not to change voters' perception in ways that change their vote: They ordinarily reinforce, not persuade," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on presidential communications.
"What makes this debate different is that you have, in essence, two incumbents about whom voters have very well-formed views.”
CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are expected to ask questions concerning various issues.
Trump has already warned his followers that expect CNN hosts will do something “cute” to undermine his performance.
Media pundits expect CNN to raise issues like the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, the Dobbs decision on abortion, and Trump's recent conviction.
Trump allies want topics to include such things as rising inflation, the southern border's migrant crisis, and anti-Israel protests around the U.S. following the Hamas terrorists' Oct. 7 attack and massacre.
ABC will host the second debate on Sept. 10.
Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted an invitation from CBS News to debate her eventual Republican rival in studio on either July 23 or Aug. 13.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.
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Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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