Watch As Donald Trump & Joe Biden Face Off In First Presidential Debate Of 2020

Erik Pedersen
·6 min read

There’s a little TV event taking place tonight that you might have heard about. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden will square off in their first debate of the 2020 election season. Deadline is offering the C-SPAN livestream above, but there are numerous other ways to watch.

Moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace, the 90-minute tussle starts at 9 p.m. ET from Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland. The Fox News Sunday host already has laid out what tonight’s topics will be, in no particular order: the Trump and Biden records, the Supreme Court, COVID-19, the economy, race and violence in our cities and the integrity of the election.

All the major broadcast and cable news networks and their radio and online outlets will carry the feed, while it will be shown on online platforms ranging from Roku to Twitter.

Here’s a guide on how to watch it on TV and online (all times Eastern).

Fox News/Fox Business

From 9-11 p.m., Special Report’s Bret Baier and The Story’s Martha MacCallum will co-anchor live coverage outside the debate venue. Throughout the special, the anchors will be joined by a team of commentators for post-debate analysis, including senior political analyst Brit Hume, co-host of The Five and The Daily Briefing anchor Dana Perino, as well as co-host of The Five and political analyst Juan Williams. FNC contributors Donna Brazile, Karl Rove and Katie Pavlich will also offer analysis throughout the evening. Additionally, FNC will provide all Fox affiliates special debate coverage from Cleveland anchored by FNC’s Bill Hemmer. Stations will also have the opportunity to livestream Hemmer’s coverage on digital and social platforms without interrupting their regularly scheduled programming. Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto will present special live coverage of the debate, starting with an 8 p.m. special Fox Business Network Presents Democracy 2020: The Presidential Debate, pre and post-debate analysis, as well as live coverage of the debate itself.

ABC News

Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos will lead coverage from New York City joined by “World News Tonight” Anchor David Muirand ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis. A one-hour special, Trump vs. Biden: The Main Event – A Special Edition of 20/20, kicks off coverage at 8 p.m. on ABC. The program will set the stage for a critical night for both candidates, reporting on the latest developments from the campaign trail, the stakes for both campaigns, and the most important issues to voters across the country. Following the debate, ABC News’ powerhouse political team will provide context and analysis. Coverage airs from 8-11 p.m. on the ABC Television Network. ABC News Live will begin coverage at 7 p.m. on the network’s streaming news channel.

CBS News

The live, primetime coverage ill air from 9-11 p.m., led by CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell from Washington. CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King and 60 Minutes correspondent and CBS News senior political analyst John Dickerson will join O’Donnell for the coverage. Former senior advisor to President Obama Valerie Jarrett and CBS News contributor and President Trump’s former chief of staff Reince Priebus will offer insight and analysis. CBS News political correspondent Ed O’Keefe will continue his coverage of the Biden campaign and report from the debate host cities. CBS News White House correspondents Weijia Jiang, Paula Reid, and Ben Tracy will report from the White House.

NBC News

Starting at 9 p.m., NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and Today co-anchor and NBC News chief legal correspondent Savannah Guthrie will anchor from NBC News Headquarters in New York. Meet the Press moderator and NBC News political director Chuck Todd and NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent and senior Washington correspondent Andrea Mitchell will anchor from Washington, D.C.

CNN

Anderson Cooper will be joined by Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, Abby Phillip for pre-debate commentary and will pick back up for post-debate coverage. Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon will lead the conversation from 1-3 a.m. ET. John King will be at the Magic Wall. Kaitlan Collins, Arlette Saenz, and Jessica Dean will be on the ground in Cleveland. Reporting and analysis will also be provided by CNN’s Gloria Borger, Nia Malika Henderson, Jeff Zeleny and Mark Preston. Commentators will include David Axelrod, Van Jones, Kirsten Powers, Rick Santorum, Michael Smerconish, Andrew Yang, Scott Jennings and David Gregory.

PBS

PBS NewsHour will broadcast live coverage from 9-11 p.m. on PBS stations nationwide. The special coverage will be anchored by managing editor Judy Woodruff and include contributions from PBS NewsHour senior national correspondent Amna Nawaz, White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, Capitol Hill correspondent Lisa Desjardins and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report, among others. Nawaz will engage with a panel of voters to discuss their impressions of each debate.

C-SPAN

C-SPAN will have live coverage beginning at 9 p.m. on C-SPAN and C-SPAN.org. Following the debates, phones will be opened for viewer calls and reaction.

Spectrum Networks

Spectrum Networks will use the resources of its 30-plus local news networks and Spectrum News App to provide comprehensive, networkwide coverage of the debate, exclusively for Spectrum in the U.S.

Online

All of the above will offer web-based coverage of the debate as will social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, as well as streaming devices including Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox and PlayStation

Radio

Fox News Radio will provide live coverage of the first presidential debate with an hour-long pre-show beginning at 8 p.m. ABC News Radio also will offer three hours of live, anchored coverage the night of the debate, including a one-hour pre-show, followed by the debate and live post-debate analysis. C-SPAN also will cover it live. SiriusXM Satellite Radio will air the debate on numerous channels including POTUS and all of its cable-news channels.

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