Presidential debate live updates from Harris and Trump’s first showdown of 2024

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper says Harris is “her own person” and has already shown that she wants a way forward while outlining some of her positions on the campaign trail. “It’s a pretty clear choice for me,” Cooper told CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns ahead of Tuesday’s debate:

Harris arrived at the National Constitution Center debate site at 8:17 p.m., with onlookers waving at her motorcade as she went by, according to reporters traveling with her. 

Along the way, a digital billboard on the highway said, “VOTE TRUMP.” 

Harris has been in Philadelphia since Monday. She had been in Pittsburgh since last week, preparing for tonight. 

President Biden and Trump faced off in the first presidential debate of the cycle on June 27, and the race has been completely upended in the 75 days since. 

On July 13, an assassination attempt on the former president sent shockwaves through the nation. Trump announced his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, at the Republican National Convention two days later. 

Then on July 21, Mr. Biden announced he would leave the race under intense pressure from members of his own party following his debate performance weeks earlier. With the president’s endorsement, the party then coalesced around Harris as the new nominee. 

On Aug. 6, Harris selected her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The party rallied around the ticket at the Democratic National Convention that wrapped on Aug. 22. 

As Harris and Trump are set to take the stage Tuesday, the race is unrecognizable from where it stood at the start of the summer.

Heading into Tuesday night’s debate, the race between Trump and Harris is tight in key battleground states, according to the latest CBS News/YouGov poll conducted last week.

The poll showed Harris at 50% in Michigan to Trump’s 49%. The two were tied in Pennsylvania at 50%, and Harris had a one-point lead, 51% to 49%, in Wisconsin. 

Harris sparks slightly more enthusiasm among Democratic voters in those key battleground states than Trump does among Republican voters, according to the same poll. 

The presidential debate will begin at 9 p.m. ET and last 90 minutes, with two commercial breaks. 

There will be no opening statements — questioning by moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC will begin immediately. Both candidates will get two minutes for closing statements at the end of the debate.

The debate is being hosted by ABC News, which is allowing other networks to simulcast it. CBS News’ prime-time coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET — check your local listings.

Viewers can also stream the debate on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu, as well as CBS News 24/7 in the player above, on the CBS News app and on Paramount+.  Post-debate analysis will continue on CBS News 24/7 until 11:35 p.m. ET.

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The former president has been reviewing policy positions with advisers in the lead up to the debate, sources familiar with the former president’s preparation told CBS News, though his preparations are characterized as somewhat informal and include speaking with voters and engaging with the media.

In a call with reporters on Monday, Trump adviser Jason Miller said that preparing for debating Trump is like “trying to prepare for Floyd Mayweather or Muhammad Ali.”

“You don’t know what angle they’re going to come at you with. You don’t know what style of contrast that they’re going to deliver. There’s an amazing mix of humor and charm as well as very hard hitting facts of why we’re doing this, because Americans are suffering,” Miller said. 

“In this debate, President Trump will tie Kamala Harris to her record, her record on the border, her record with global instability, and her record being the deciding vote for high prices,” Miller added. “And if President Trump ties Kamala Harris to her record, which we are very confident he’ll do and that’ll be a success, because the American people will see what a dangerous radical liberal she is.”

Trump told “Good Morning New Hampshire” last week that he’s “been preparing all my life for this debate.”

“So, you know, I do. I have meetings on it,” Trump added. “We talk about it, but there’s not a lot you can do.”

The vice president was in Pittsburgh over the weekend to prepare for the debate before arriving in Philadelphia on Monday. She practiced with extended mock debates on a stage with lights to recreate the debate environment, while focusing on policy and an effort to draw a contrast with the former president. For the debate prep, Philippe Reines, a former aide to Hillary Clinton, played Trump, with a source saying he even dressed like the former president. 

After the Harris campaign made an unsuccessful push to have both candidates’ microphones unmuted during the debate, the vice president and her team also used the time in Pittsburgh to go back to the drawing board on their debate strategy, a senior campaign official said. Harris had planned to pepper Trump with questions, but her campaign has had to seek out a new approach due to the microphone restrictions. 

Surrogates for Harris have appeared to downplay expectations for the debate, like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told CNN’s that “it will take almost superhuman focus and discipline to deal with Donald Trump in a debate.” Buttigieg was involved in Harris’ debate preparations against former Vice President Mike Pence in 2020.

“It’s no ordinary proposition,” Buttigieg said. “Not because Donald Trump is a master of explaining policy ideas and how they’re going to make people better off. It’s because he’s a master of taking any form or format that is on television and turning it into a show that is all about him.” 

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