How to Watch CNN’s Coverage of the First Presidential Debate of 2020 Live Online
The presidential debates are upon us, and that means we’re fairly close, finally, to the end of what has been an extraordinarily hectic election cycle. The first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is on Tuesday, Sept. 29, and CNN will have its usual expansive coverage, and it’ll all be available to stream live for free.
The debate itself is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. ET, and CNN’s debate preshow — led by Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper — will start up two hours before that at 7 p.m. ET. CNN’s main crew for the night — Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Dana Bash and Abby Phillip — will join in at 8 p.m., and they’ll all stick around once the debate ends at 10:30 p.m. ET.
A whole bunch of other CNN contributors will be popping up throughout the evening, with John King providing stats and polling data on the Magic Wall, and Kaitlan Collins, Arlette Saenz and Jessica Dean reporting in from Clevelend. Daniel Dale will be on fact check duty.
*Also Read:* How to Watch MSNBC and NBC News' Coverage of the First 2020 Presidential Debate Live
Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon will take over coverage at 1 a.m. ET.
Unlike Fox News and MSNBC, CNN will allow viewers to stream its debate coverage live, for free on the CNN.com homepage and via the CNN stable of apps Android, iOS and TV streaming boxes. No TV login required.
This debate will be moderated by Chris Wallace from Fox News. The moderators for each of the debates gets to pick the topics that Biden and Trump will discuss, and Wallace picked these six: “The Trump and Biden Records,” “The Supreme Court,” “COVID-19,” “The Economy,” “Race and Violence in our Cities” and “The Integrity of the Election.”
*Also Read:* How to Watch Fox News' Coverage of the First 2020 Presidential Debate Live Online
This isn’t the only presidential debate that 2020 has in store for us. Biden and Trump will debate two more times, on Oct. 15 and Oct. 22. Sen. Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, meanwhile, will face off at the vice presidential debate on Oct. 7. It’s likely that CNN will maintain this format throughout the debate cycle.
Aside from CNN, there are a number of other free streams for the debate that you’ll be able to check on YouTube, including PBS NewsHour and C-SPAN. And if you pop onto Twitter around debate time, you’ll almost certainly be greeted by a livestream at the top of your feed.
