It could be a presidential debate that will be remembered more for what happened outside of it, rather than what happened on stage — maybe. After both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump sidestepped the Commission on Presidential Debates, the traditional, nonpartisan organizer of debates, CNN swooped in to strike a debate deal with the campaigns. The unorthodox approach coincides with an electorate that is unhappy with the choices it has for president.
KUER will carry live coverage of the debate, both on the air and online, starting at 7 p.m. MDT on Thursday, June 27. Find a station near you, ask your smartspeaker to "play KUER" or watch the video feed above. The debate will take place with no audience in a CNN Atlanta studio. The moderators are CNN's Dana Bash and Jake Tapper. There will also be a crucial addition: CNN will control a mute button to turn a candidate’s microphone off when his opponent is speaking — a nod to the crosstalk and interruptions of the last time the candidates met.
Biden and Trump each enter the debate with low favorability ratings. According to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about 6 in 10 U.S. adults say they have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of Biden, and a similar number have a negative view of Trump.
Most Americans, 56%, say they are “very” or “somewhat” dissatisfied with Biden being the Democratic Party’s likely nominee for president, and a similar majority are dissatisfied with Trump as the likely GOP nominee. The poll indicates that Republicans continue to be more satisfied with a re-nomination of Trump than Democrats are with an anticipated Biden re-nomination. Six in 10 Republicans are satisfied with Trump as a nominee; just 42% of Democrats say that about Biden.
About 3 in 10 U.S. adults are dissatisfied with both Trump and Biden as their party’s likely nominees — with independents and Democrats being more likely than Republicans to be dissatisfied with both.
Even so, about 6 in 10 U.S. adults say they are “extremely" or “very” likely to watch the debate live or in clips, or read about or listen to commentary about the performance of the candidates in the news or social media.
