How to Watch MSNBC and NBC News’ Coverage of the First 2020 Presidential Debate Live
It’s been a pretty shockingly eventful election year thus far, for sure. But the first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is upon us, and that means this election cycle is finally drawing to a close. And MSNBC and NBC News, as you might expect, will bring you all the coverage of the debate that you could ask for on Tuesday night across a variety of platforms.
The debate is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, and MSNBC will kick off its dedicated coverage first at 8 p.m. ET with the “Decision 2020” special anchored by Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid and Nicolle Wallace. They’ll have Steve Kornacki on hand at the Big Board to provide polling data and whatnot. After the debate ends, Reid, Maddow and Wallace will team up with Brian Williams for continuing coverage and analysis.
Over on NBC proper, meanwhile, coverage will begin at 9 p.m. ET with Lester Holt of the “NBC Nightly News” and “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. They’re be joined by Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell.
*Also Read:* How to Watch Fox News' Coverage of the First 2020 Presidential Debate Live Online
The debate itself is also scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET, and end at 10:30. But it’s a live event, so no guarantees it’ll stay on schedule.
As for streaming the debate, along with MSNBC and NBC News’ coverage of Biden’s showdown with Trump, you have some options. The free NBC News Now streaming platform will carry all of NBC News’ coverage on Tuesday night. It’ll also have a debate pre-show with Chuck Todd and Kasie Hunt starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, before switching to Holt and Guthrie and the debate itself.
NBC News Now is available freely on YouTube right here (or embedded in this page), and it also has an app for mobile devices if you’d rather do that.
*Also Read:* Biden-Trump Debate Moderator Chris Wallace's Plan: 'To Be as Invisible as Possible' (Video)
MSNBC’s coverage, on the other hand, won’t be freely available to stream. To watch MSNBC online you’ll need to have a valid TV provider login — once you have that, you can access its feed via MSNBC.com here, or in the NBC app, which includes stream’s of all of the NBCUniversal family of television channels.
There will be no shortage of free streams of Tuesday’s debate in addition to the one linked above. YouTube will be chock full of them, and if you so much as look at Twitter during the debate you’ll probably be greeted by a livestream there too.
Tuesday’s debate will be the first of three debates between Biden and Trump — the next two will be on Oct. 15 and Oct. 22. And on Oct. 7 we’ll get the vice presidential debate, with Sen. Kamala Harris facing off against Mike Pence. It’s likely that each debate will have roughly similar coverage plans from MSNBC and NBC News.
Chris Wallace of Fox News will attempt to moderate the debate, and he’s chosen six topics for discussion for Biden and Trump. They are: “The Trump and Biden Records,” “The Supreme Court,” “COVID-19,” “The Economy,” “Race and Violence in our Cities” and “The Integrity of the Election.”
