Harris-Trump ABC News presidential debate: How to watch, what to know
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to face off in their first debate of the 2024 election next week, moderated by ABC News.
With only weeks until Election Day, the debate is a crucial opportunity for both candidates to work to sway undecided voters in what’s expected to be a close contest.
The debate is a chance for Harris — who became the Democratic candidate after President Joe Biden left the race following his lackluster June debate performance — and Trump to explain their policies on key issues. It’s the first time the pair will meet in person.
Likewise, the debate is Trump’s first opportunity to attack Harris while laying out some of his own positions.
Here’s what to know about the debate and how to tune in.
How to watch or livestream the debate
There are several ways to watch the ABC News presidential debate, which is being produced in conjunction with the ABC-owned Philadelphia news station WPVI-TV.
It will air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu. Viewers can also stream the debate on the ABC app on a smartphone or tablet, on ABC.com and connected devices.
ABC News Digital and 538 will live blog the latest from the debate stage as it happens and provide analysis, fact checks and coverage of the biggest takeaways from the night.
When and where is the presidential debate?
The debate will take place in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 9 p.m. EDT.
Who is moderating the ABC News presidential debate?
“World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis will serve as moderators.
The prime-time pre-debate special, “Race for the White House,” will be anchored by chief global affairs correspondent and “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, chief Washington correspondent and “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce and senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott. It will air at 8 p.m. EDT and stream on ABC’s platforms.
What are the ground rules?
Both Harris and Trump accepted the debate rules, which include that their microphones will be muted when the time belongs to another candidate.
The agreed-upon rules include:
The debate will be 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.
The two seated moderators will be the only people asking questions.
A coin flip was held virtually on Tuesday, Sept. 3, to determine podium placement and order of closing statements; former
President Donald Trump won the coin toss and chose to select the order of statements. The former president will offer the last closing statement, and Vice President Harris selected the right podium position on screen (stage left).
Candidates will be introduced by the moderators.
The candidates enter upon introduction from opposite sides of the stage; the incumbent party will be introduced first.
No opening statements; closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.
Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate.
Props or prewritten notes are not allowed onstage.
No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.
Candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.
Candidates will have two-minute answers to questions, two-minute rebuttals, and one extra minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.
Candidates’ microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate.
Candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other.
Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks.
Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz both claim to be champions of gun rights for law-abiding citizens and have touted personal stories of growing up in households where firearms were commonplace, but the vice presidential candidates have vastly different views on how to curb America’s gun violence epidemic.
As the Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Chicago, Vice President Kamala Harris has made gun control a top priority.
“We who believe that every person should have the freedom to live safe from the terror of gun violence, will finally pass red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban,” Harris said at her first presidential campaign rally in Milwaukee.
Harris was appointed in September 2023 by President Joe Biden to oversee the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
Meanwhile, there was little acknowledgment of the nation’s gun violence scourge at the Republican National Convention last month, despite GOP presidential nominee former President Donald Trump being the victim of a would-be assassin wielding an AR-15-style rifle.
In the 2024 GOP convention platform, there was no mention of firearm violence or gun control, while in 2020, the party’s platform contained three paragraphs supporting reciprocity legislation allowing Americans to carry firearms in all 50 states regardless of which state they received a carry permit, and opposing an assault weapons ban, “frivolous” lawsuits against gun manufacturers and “any effort to deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms without due process of law.”
While Harris and Trump’s polarizing stances on gun control are well documented, the positions of their running mates are emerging for the first time on a national level.
Vance, the 40-year-old Ohio U.S. senator and Marine veteran, and Walz, the 60-year-old Minnesota governor and Army National Guard veteran, have portrayed themselves as strong Second Amendment advocates. But they have voiced starkly different views on gun control.
Vance’s stand on gun control
“I’m a big pro-Second Amendment guy and I know a lot of people who will strongly, stridently defend the Second Amendment. None of them think convicted felons, who have been afforded their due process rights should be able to buy firearms and then kill people,” Vance said during a June 2022 U.S. Senate election debate against his Democratic opponent, former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan.
In a 2022 federal candidate survey for the Ohio Gun Owners and the American Firearms Association, Vance said he opposes “red flag” gun laws, legislation to ban certain semiautomatic rifles, including AR-15s; supports abolishing the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and establishing a national stand-your-ground law giving individuals the right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect themselves.
Vance also checked yes on voting to repeal the 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act and supported a national Second Amendment Preservation Act that prohibits the use of federal funds to enforce gun control laws, regulations and executive orders.
“We need to fix the system we have that has problems as opposed to layering on a bunch of new regulations and laws on top of it,” Vance said during the debate against Ryan. “The thing that I don’t like is when you create a new background check system with new sets of regulations that go after law-abiding citizens.”
The National Rifle Association — which according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit research and government transparency group that tracks money in politics and its effect on elections and policy — contributed nearly $500,000 to Vance’s senate campaign. The NRA has also endorsed the Trump-Vance ticket.
“Now, more than ever, freedom and liberty need courageous and virtuous defenders,” Doug Hamlin, executive vice president and CEO of the NRA, said in a statement in July. “President Trump and Senator Vance have the guts and the grit to stand steadfast for the Second Amendment.”
In June 2024, Vance called efforts by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to ban bump stocks, a device that enables semiautomatic rifles to fire almost like machine guns, a “huge distraction.”
The gunman who committed the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and left more than 800 injured, used guns fitted with bump stocks, according to investigators.
“I think that we have to ask ourselves: ‘What is the real gun violence problem in this country?’ and are we legislating in a way that solves fake problems? Or solves real problems?” Vance told reporters in June as his name was then being floated as Trump’s running mate. “And my very strong suspicion is that the Schumer legislation is aimed at a PR problem, not something that’s going to meaningfully reduce gun violence in this country.”
While he wasn’t a member of the U.S. Senate at the time, Vance said he would have voted against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety law enacted in 30 years that Biden signed in June 2022, about a month after a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
The law enhances background checks for gun buyers under 21, closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to prevent people convicted of domestic abuse from purchasing guns, and allocates $750 million to help states implement “red flag laws” to remove firearms from people deemed to be dangerous to themselves and others.
“First of all, from what I’ve seen of this bill, I would not support it. I think red flag laws, in particular, they certainly are a slippery slope. They also don’t solve the problem of gun violence,” Vance said in a 2022 interview with the Breitbart News Daily podcast.
During his RNC acceptance speech, Vance — author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” — told the story of how after the death of his beloved grandmother, whom he called Mamaw, his family found 19 loaded guns in her house.
“The thing is, they were stashed all over her house — under her bed, in her closet, in the silverware drawer, and we wondered what was going on,” Vance said. “It occurred to us that toward the end of her life, Mamaw couldn’t get around so well, so she was sure that no matter where she was, she was within arm’s length of whatever she needed to protect her family. That’s who we fight for. That’s the American spirit.”
Walz’s stand on gun control
Walz, a former high school geography teacher and football coach, has proudly proclaimed being an avid hunter who once received an A-rating and an endorsement from the National Rifle Association while a five-term Congressman from rural Minnesota. As a member of Congress, Walz sponsored the Sportsman’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act, which expanded access to public lands for hunting and supported legislation to reform the ATF.
“I’m proud to stand with the NRA to protect our Second Amendment rights, and I’m truly grateful for their endorsement,” Walz said in a 2010 statement.
In 2016, Guns & Ammo magazine praised Walz’s record on protecting gun rights and put him on a list of top 20 politicians for gun owners.
“While most congressional Democrats have jumped on the gun control train with both feet, Tim Walz and a few others have stuck to their guns,” Guns & Ammo wrote.
But Walz said his NRA rating fell to an F-rating when his stance on gun control dramatically changed following the Feb. 14, 2018, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 15 students and two adults, including a football coach, dead.
“My job today is to be dad to a 17-year-old daughter,” Walz said during a 2018 community meeting in Minnesota while running for governor in the aftermath of the Parkland massacre. “Hope woke up as many of you did five weeks ago and said, ‘Dad, you’re the only person I know who’s in elected office. You need to stop what’s happening with this.'”
In an editorial he wrote that was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in February 2018 — which was titled “Tim Walz: Please understand my full record on guns” — Walz explained how the Parkland shooting forced him to reevaluate his positions on gun control.
“We all put ourselves in the place of a loved one or someone who faced that terror. It hits me as the dad of a fifth-grader and a high-school student. It hits me as a former high school geography teacher and football coach, when I think about the geography teacher and the coach at that school who gave their lives so that their students could keep theirs.”
Walz said he donated the $18,000 campaign contribution he received in his 2018 gubernatorial run from the NRA, to a charity that helps families of military personnel killed or injured while serving and came out in favor of an assault weapons ban.
In a Star Tribune editorial, he also said that during his time in Congress, he supported “common-sense” gun-control reform laws, repeatedly voted in favor of universal background checks and preventing people on no-fly lists from purchasing firearms. He also said he supported legislation to fund gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was a co-sponsor of a bill to ban bump stocks and voted against concealed-carry reciprocity.
Walz also confronted the NRA, writing in the editorial that the organization is “the biggest single obstacle to passing the most basic measures to prevent gun violence in America — including common-sense solutions that the majority of NRA members support.”
As governor, Walz signed in May 2023 a historic suite of gun-safety measures that created red flag laws, extended the waiting period for gun transfers between parties from 7 to 10 days and expanded background checks to include private purchases between individuals, including those made at gun shows. The laws also require anyone buying a pistol or “semiautomatic military-style assault weapons” to apply for a permit to purchase or carry such guns from their local police agency or sheriff’s department.
“As a veteran, gun-owner, hunter, and dad, I know basic gun safety isn’t a threat to the Second Amendment — it’s about keeping our kids safe,” Walz said during a ceremony to sign the gun legislation. “There’s no place for weapons of war in our schools, churches, banks, or anywhere else people are just trying to live their lives. Today is about taking meaningful action to create a safer future for our kids, and I am proud to sign this commonsense, life-saving legislation into law.”
‘The number one killer of our generation’
Timberlyn Mazeikis, who endured a Feb. 13, 2023, mass shooting at Michigan State University that left three of her classmates dead and five others injured, told ABC News that for her and many other Gen Z members the choice in this election “is simple.”
“Gun violence is the leading cause of death in our generation, and for a lot of us, we can no longer sit by and continue to watch this happen and just wait for the next massacre to occur. Because of that, we are showing up to vote,” said 21-year-old Mazeikis, now a senior at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
Mazeikis, who will be voting in her first presidential election in November, said the MSU mass shooting “took a toll on me” as she recounted being barricaded in the school gym for hours, terrified that the shooter would burst through the doors at any minute.
After the shooting, she became a volunteer leader for Students Demand Action, an organization that fights for gun control legislation.
“I felt that I could no longer sit back and watch as further communities were destroyed by gun violence,” Mazeikis said. “And that experience of being on campus and the fear that I felt that day and losing my classmates and my sense of security has really worked as a catalyst to push me in this movement and to realize that we can no longer live this way.”
She said that while she views Trump and Vance as a “gun extremist dream ticket,” she said Harris and Walz have given her “hope.”
“The choice is simple. Our lives are on the line,” Mazeikis said. “We either go back with Trump and Vance or we go forward with Harris and Walz.”
Mazeikis also said Walz’s transformation from a strong pro-gun politician into one who now favors sensible gun regulations doesn’t concern her, saying, “his stance on gun violence prevention is one of strength and one of courage to change.”
“He is living proof that the gun lobby and the gun industry are lying to us, that you can be a responsible gun owner and still want to keep your community safe and believe in gun safety,” Mazeikis said.
However, Rob Doar, vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus — the largest gun rights group in Minnesota with more than 10,000 dues-paying members — told ABC News that he’s been following Walz’s policies and actions on guns for about a decade and was surprised he was picked to be Harris’ running mate.
“Initially, my thought was that it was not a good pick if the goal of the campaign was to try to appeal to maybe disaffected Republicans and moderates, just because he has had some flip-flopping on contentious issues like firearms,” Doar said. “But then as I saw more of the campaign strategy roll out, it seems like the goal has been to more highlight him as an example of what progressive leaders can do. In that vein, I think that he’s probably serving the campaign very well, given the high number of progressive policies that Minnesota’s passed recently.”
Doar said his organization does not endorse presidential candidates and noted that his members don’t necessarily like Trump.
“I think both tickets have problematic histories as far as a Second Amendment standpoint goes. Donald Trump was a huge advocate for the bump stock ban. Donald Trump made quotes like, ‘to take the guns first and then get due process second,’ and he’s made some other statements that have been fairly anti-Second Amendment,” Doar said. “On the other hand, you’ve got Kamala Harris, who is talking about, initially, mandatory gun buybacks for certain types of firearms. She has walked that back a little bit, but I think both tickets, as far as somebody who looks at the Second Amendment as their primary issue at the polls, have some problems.”
He said Vance’s “posturing” on gun rights is something a lot of Second Amendment supporters like.
“But these are the same kind of things that we heard out of Tim Walz when he was a representative in the first district [of Minnesota],” Doar said. “Unfortunately, JD Vance just doesn’t have the longevity of a political career to be able to back up the words that he’s saying, but I do think the way that he’s positioning himself is a way that might appeal to those who value the Second Amendment when they go to the polls.”
He said many of his group’s members have expressed concern about keeping the current conservative majority of the Supreme Court intact.
“I do hear a lot from our members that they don’t like Trump, but the sole reason they’re voting for him is because of the Supreme Court and for federal judicial nominations. So that’s not an unpopular sentiment among gun rights advocates,” Doar said. “I do think that the general consensus is that Trump would be much more favorable from a Second Amendment jurisprudence standpoint in his judicial appointments.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is claiming it was hacked by “foreign sources” with the intent to interfere in the upcoming election.
The Trump campaign statement cited a report published by Microsoft on Friday, which said, “In June 2024, Mint Sandstorm — a group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit — sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor. The phishing email contained a fake forward with a hyperlink that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain.”
The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces.
Microsoft does not identify the presidential campaign in its report. Microsoft has also not responded to ABC News’ request for more information.
A White House National Security Council spokesperson deferred to the Justice Department when asked for comment on the allegations.
“The Biden-Harris Administration strongly condemns any foreign government or entity who attempts to interfere in our electoral process or seeks to undermine confidence in our democratic institutions,” the spokesperson said.
They added that they take any reports of “such activity extremely seriously.”
The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice declined to comment.
Outside of the Trump campaign statement, ABC News has not confirmed the campaign was hacked by foreign sources with the intent to interfere in the election.
The Secret Service referred ABC News to the Trump campaign and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence didn’t respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks, Michelle Stoddart and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Education will send an email to Americans with student debt on Wednesday, laying out options for how roughly 25 million could have some, or all, of their debt canceled this fall.
The email is the first step of the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed rule announced in April — and still being finalized — for narrower, targeted debt relief.
The proposed rule has been in the works as a plan B ever since President Joe Biden’s initial effort to cancel some or all debt for 43 million people was overturned by the Supreme Court last summer.
If it’s implemented as drafted, and survives the expected Republican-led lawsuits, it could give some amount of debt relief to 25 million people, on top of the nearly 4.8 million people that have already had their debts canceled under Biden’s tenure.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will outline in the email the pathways for debt relief — most of which are targeting people with runaway interest or who have been paying their debt for over two decades — and inform borrowers that they have until Aug. 30 to inform their servicers if they’d like to opt-out.
The Education Department “is in the process of finalizing who will be eligible for student debt relief, but we want to make you aware of this potential relief,” Cardona writes in the email.
Biden, in a statement on Wednesday, said the goal is to notify borrowers of the upcoming debt relief programs in advance, so they can “benefit swiftly once the rules are final.” Moving quickly to get relief out the door is sure to be important to the program’s success, given the barrage of lawsuits from Republicans on any debt relief or student loan system reform Biden has attempted so far.
“Despite attempts led by Republican elected officials to block our efforts, we won’t stop fighting to provide relief to student loan borrowers, fix the broken student loan system, and help borrowers get out from under the burden of student debt,” Biden said.
Biden’s hallmark reform to student debt repayment, the SAVE Plan, was put on hold by a court earlier this month after Republicans argued it was overstepping the administration’s authority. The plan has been touted as the most affordable loan repayment plan for borrowers, tying monthly payments to borrowers’ incomes and allowing debt relief after 10 years for people who took out small initial loan balances.
Here is who the latest debt relief plan would apply to, under this new plan:
The largest group will be people who have runaway interest, which is more than half of all borrowers. Roughly 25 million people owe a larger debt now than when they initially took out their loans due to ballooning interest. The new rule would not cancel their loans entirely, but rather reduce or cancel the interest that’s built up, according to a draft rule of the plan.
Some people would get up to $20,000 of interest canceled, while those who make below a certain income — $120,000 as a single person or $240,000 as a married couple — will get their entire runaway interest canceled.
The Department of Education estimated that over 90% of people, or roughly 23 million, will fall into the second bucket and be fully reset back to their initial loan amount.
The second largest group will be people who have been paying down their loans for 20 years or more, but still haven’t paid it off. This could apply to 2.6 million borrowers, the Department of Education estimated. People would be eligible if they have undergraduate loans they’ve been paying since or before July 1, 2005, or if they have graduate school loans they’ve been paying since or before July 1, 2000.
The rule will also provide debt relief to a few hundred thousand people who already qualify under programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness but have never applied, and to those who paid for a degree from a school that didn’t provide students with the financial security it advertised.
A vaster component of the rule, which would evaluate borrower “hardship” as a qualifier for debt relief, is also still in the works but not likely on the same timeline.
