With just five weeks until Election Day, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will go head-to-head tonight in their first of three 2020 presidential debates.
The televised event will span 90 minutes without commercial interruptions, and will be moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. Prior to the debate, organizers announced there will be six 15-minute segments that will focus on the following topics: Trump and Biden's respective records; the Supreme Court vacancy; the global pandemic; the economy; race and violence in the United States; and election integrity. Trump and Biden will each get two minutes to respond, and Wallace will use the remaining time to expand on the issues at hand.
Though Wallace will not fact-check during the debate, a number of outlets are expected to do so throughout their coverage. Biden's campaign also announced they are using the Twitter handle @Truth that will identify so-called lies and misinformation during the event.
The Biden campaign also recently launched the "Trump Tax Calculator" website, which allows Americans to compare their tax payments to those of President Trump. The site came just days after the New York Times published a report based on two decades of Trump's tax returns. The bombshell article detailed how little Trump allegedly pays in federal income tax, specifically highlighting his $750 payment in 2016 and 2017.
Biden and his vice presidential running mate, Kamala Harris, released their tax returns just hours before tonight's debate. According to NPR, the Bidens reported taxable income of $944,737 and paid nearly $300,000 in federal taxes in 2019. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, reported $3.02 million in taxable income and paid $1.19 million in federal taxes in 2019.
The debate will take place at the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland with approximately 70 audience members. All major news networks will air the event on TV as well as their radio and online platforms. You can stream the debate via YouTube above.
Mobilize, a leading events platform for Democrats and progressives, has reported a significant surge in volume ahead of tonight's debate. The company claims that within the past week alone, more than 1,000 events have been created on the platform; many of which were related to the date. Mobilize has also reported 652,000 volunteer/event signups in the past week, the most single-week activity the platform has experienced in its three-plus-year history. Young people and women make up a large portion of Mobilize supporters; people between the ages 25-34 account for 25 percent, while women account for 62 percent.
