It's just about showtime.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio are meeting Tuesday for their first and only scheduled vice presidential debate.
Walz, who is Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, and Vance, who is on the Republican ticket with former President Donald Trump, will make the case for their respective candidates five weeks before Election Day.
They have been crisscrossing the country to introduce themselves to voters, paying special attention to the handful of battleground states that will determine the winner.
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Here’s how to watch the debate:
What time is the debate tonight?
The 90-minute debate will start at 9 p.m. EDT on Oct. 1. It's being moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of CBS' “Face the Nation.”
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What channel is the debate on?
CBS News is airing on its broadcast network live and will livestream it on all platforms where CBS News 24/7 and Paramount+ are available. It's also being made available for simulcast, and other networks, including NBC, will air it.
It will also stream live on this site.
Where is the debate?
The vice presidential debate is taking place in New York City.
Often the scene of fundraising events for candidates in both parties, New York has been considered a reliably Democratic state in the general election. But Trump, a native New Yorker, has insisted he has a chance to put it in the Republican column this year, despite losing the state in his two earlier bids for the presidency, and has held events in the South Bronx and on Long Island.
Harris, meanwhile, has announced she's skipping this year's Al Smith dinner, a Catholic Charities benefit event held in New York City that is typically used to promote collegiality and good humor. Rather than attend the Oct. 17 gala — at which Trump will now be the sole featured speaker — Harris' campaign said she would stump in a battleground state instead.
How are the candidates preparing?
Walz and Vance will meet for the first time in person on the biggest stage of their political careers. Both have been engaged in preparations for the debate with stand-ins used for their opponents.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been playing the role of Vance in the Walz debate prep, which has been taking place at a downtown Minneapolis hotel, according to a person familiar with the preparations. The person said Buttigieg was chosen because he's a sharp communicator, and the campaign believes that Vance will be a formidable opponent.
On the Republican side, a person familiar with Vance's preparations said GOP Rep. Tom Emmer — who, like Walz, hails from Minnesota — will be standing in for the Democrat in a similar fashion. The people speaking about both candidates' plans spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door preparations.
CBS is expected to release more information about the debate rules in the coming days.
Will there be another presidential or vice presidential debate?
No additional presidential or vice presidential debates are scheduled, but that could always change.
After Harris and Trump's presidential debate on Sept. 10, Harris said she'd be open to debating the former president again. She said she would “gladly” accept an Oct. 23 invitation from CNN and hoped Trump would do the same.
Trump, however, has said that date, less than two weeks ahead of the November election, would be “too late.” Early voting is already underway in several states.
But that proposed timeline would be roughly in line with the last two presidential cycles. Trump’s last debate with President Joe Biden in 2020 was on Oct. 22, and the third and final debate he had with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 occurred on Oct. 19.
Presidential nominees typically debate each other more than once per cycle, but this year is different in several ways. Debates are being orchestrated on an ad hoc basis by host networks, as opposed to the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, through which debate rules were previously negotiated privately. Trump and Biden debated each other once this year, but Biden’s disastrous performance in that June meeting is one of the factors that led to his decision to shutter his reelection bid, making way for Harris to become the Democrats’ nominee.
