Final Presidential Debate Briefing

Tonight sees the second and final presidential election debate take place between Republican incumbent President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee former vice-president Joe Biden. The debate takes place at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

• When will the debate take place?: 2000-2130 local time, 2100-2230ET, 0200-0330BST, 0300-0430CET, 1000-1130JST, 1200-1330AEDT
• Where will the debate be shown?:
  • US: Televised on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, C-SPAN, PBS, Fox News and MSNBC.
  • UK: Televised on BBC News and Sky News. BBC will also stream via iPlayer.
  • Germany: n-tv, Welt, Tagesschau24
  • Australia: SBS News, ABC News
  • Internationally: CBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_92o3Z919f4, C-SPAN: https://www.c-span.org/debates/?debate=second
• What topics will be debated?: Moderator Kristen Welker of NBC News has chosen the following six topics that will be discussed in 15-minute segments totaling a 90 min debate: Fighting Covid-19, American Families, Race in America, Climate Change, National Security, and Leadership. To avoid the interruptions that marred the first debate, while a candidate is delivering their two-minute statement at the start of each segment the other candidate will have their microphone cut off.
• Will the debate have an impact?: A recent poll from Ipsos/Reuters found that just 8% of voters had yet to make up their minds on their preference for president, but winning over that 8% could prove crucial for either candidate if it gives them a boost in key swing states. The expectations remain similar to the first debate in that Trump needs to pull a rabbit out of his hat to reverse the polls that continue to show him trailing, while Biden simply needs to avoid any notable gaffes and his campaign can view the debate as a relative success.