US Presidential Debate 2020: Final Trump-Biden face-off ahead of polls; check details here

US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger for the 2020 presidential elections, Joe Biden, are set to lock horns in the final debate on October 22. The debate, moderated by NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker, will be held at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The topics for the debate, subject to possible changes, will be on COVID-19 fight, racial issues, climate change, national security, and leadership.

The debate will start at 9:00pm ET (6:30 am IST, October 23) and run for 90 minutes without commercial interruption. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has announced that Trump and Biden will have their microphones muted during some parts of the presidential debate, a move likely to disappoint Trump who had initially opposed any change in the existing rules.

Read: US Election 2020: Trump Campaign Demands Last Presidential Debate To Be On Foreign Policy

Read: US Presidential Debate 2020: Trump, Biden To Have Mics Muted To Prevent Interruptions

Trump campaign demand

Earlier on October 19, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien demanded that the final round of Presidential Debates should focus on foreign policy. In a letter to the CPD, Stepien urged the officials to “rethink” and “reissue” a set of topics, while dismissing “unacceptable” proposals to allow the moderator to shut off candidates’ microphones. 

“For the good of campaign integrity and for the benefit of the American people, we urge you to rethink and reissue a set of topics for the October 22 debate, with an emphasis on foreign policy. This is what the campaigns had agreed to and it has been the tradition in past campaigns,” wrote Stepien. 

According to media reports, Biden is ahead of his Republican rival in most national polls and has a narrow advantage in swing states that could decide the race. The US President wants to focus on foreign policy as the Trump administration recently brokered peace deals to normalise Israel’s relation with the UAE and Bahrain. Meanwhile, Biden campaign has focussed on the failed coronavirus response to corner Trump.

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