US Presidential Debate: What time will final Trump-Biden face-off start? Where to watch?

With US Election 2020 being less than two weeks away, US President Donald Trump and Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden are all set to meet for the second and the final face-off before November 3. What should have been traditionally the third presidential debate, Biden and Trump will get the last chance to counter each other head-on in Nashville after Trump refused to participate in the virtual debate of October 15 following his COVID-19 diagnosis. However, instead of the second debate, both candidates held separate, simultaneous townhalls on different US broadcasters. With polls showing Trump and Biden competing neck-to-neck in some battleground states, the upcoming event is expected to be heated but not as disjointed as the first face-off of September 30.

When will US Presidential Debate start?

The final face-off between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will take place at Belmont University in Nashville and will begin on October 22 at 9 PM (EST) or October 23 at 6:30 AM (IST). Expected to last for 90 minutes as per the standard format, the debate has an updated rule prompted by the chaotic first presidential debate in Florida. Both Trump and Biden will have their microphones turned off at the final debate so that the answers from each side is uninterrupted for two minutes. The entire event will be divided into 15-minute segments into the already prepared topics. 

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Where to watch Trump-Biden face-off?

Similar to previous events, the final Trump-Biden face-off will be streamed by major American broadcasters including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Apart from broadcasting, the official social media accounts will also be live-streaming the Nashville event that will take place without any commercial interruption. Or you can watch it here:

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However, even though both candidates are gearing up to meet for the debate, Trump has expressed his disagreement with the muting feature introduced in the final face-off. The update in rules came after the candidates held a chaotic first presidential debate with interruptions mostly by Donald Trump. So much so, that its moderator Chris Wallace was seen battling to gain control of the discussion. As per The Washington Post analysis, in the 90-minute-debate last month, the candidates either interrupted Wallace or their opponent at least 90 times, out of which, 71 times it was the Republican leader.

While Trump’s team was opposing any changes, Biden camp was reportedly hoping for a more structured debate. As quoted by AP, the Debate Commission said in a statement that it had “determined that it is appropriate to adopt measures intended to promote adherence to agreed upon rules and inappropriate to make changes to those rules”.

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