All right, your time now is 5:06. Let’s get to your Decision 2024 coverage.
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Debate night is finally here. It’s between President Biden and former President Donald Trump. They will face off in what will be a highly watched debate.
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NBC’s Alice Barr has the details.
Alice Barr (00:17):
In the final hours before tonight’s highly anticipated face off, President Biden and former President Trump fine-tuning their talking points.
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The former president’s likely centered on immigration and the economy, previewed in a call-in to a campaign event with Black businessmen.
Donald Trump (00:34):
Inflation is a disaster. It’s killing the Black community and it’s killing the country.
Alice Barr (00:41):
President Biden expected to focus on reproductive rights and threats to democracy, both candidates hoping to break through with voters who are skeptical of both: so-called double haters making up nearly a quarter of the electorate.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I’m undecided on both of them because I don’t really like what they’re talking about doing.
Alice Barr (01:00):
The debate offers a potential pivot point with a new poll finding six in 10 Americans plan to watch.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
For a lot of these undecided voters, Biden and Trump are the same old, same old. They want to hear something new.
Alice Barr (01:12):
To ensure voters can hear where the two men stand on the issues, mics will be muted while the other candidate is speaking, and there will be no live studio audience; something the Trump campaign agreed to, but the former president now complains will mean a sterile, dead room; the Biden campaign setting up a war room to blast out fact checks during the 90 minute primetime showdown.
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The Biden campaign also launching a digital strategy, working with high profile social media content creators to ensure clips that they want shared from the debate get posted far and wide.
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Coming out of the debate, both candidates will be on the campaign trail; President Biden planning a rally in North Carolina, former President Trump, one in Virginia.
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In Washington, Alice Barr, NBC News.