What to Know About the Trump-Biden Debates

President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump are giving voters at least two opportunities to size them up on a debate stage before the election, though their plans upend the traditional structure of presidential debates.

The first debate will take place much earlier than has been typical, and so far, neither will involve the commission that has been hosting presidential debates since 1988.

Here’s what to know:

When will the debates be held?

The first debate will be on Thursday, hosted by CNN in its Atlanta studios. The second, hosted by ABC News, is scheduled for Sept. 10.

June is much earlier than when presidential debates have typically been held. Major-party candidates generally face each other in late September and October, closer to Election Day. But Mr. Biden’s team wants to wrap up the debates around the start of early voting.

His campaign suggested that earlier debates would give voters the chance to judge the candidates before early ballots are cast and would allow the nominees to focus on campaigning in the final weeks of the race.

What are the debates’ terms, and who will moderate them?

With the CNN debate fast approaching, those terms have been set. Here’s what we know:

• It will take place without an audience, meeting one of the demands from Mr. Biden’s team, which wanted to avoid an in-person audience that could cheer, boo and derail the conversation.

• The debate will start at 9 p.m. Eastern time and go on for 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.

• The candidates’ microphones will be muted when it is not their turn to speak, meeting another requirement from the Biden campaign.

• Only Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden will be on the stage. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent candidate who has been polling in the teens, failed to qualify.

• The candidates will stand at podiums. Mr. Biden will be on the right and Mr. Trump will be on the left of viewers’ screens. Their positions were determined by a coin flip, which Mr. Biden won.

• Mr. Trump will get the final word during closing statements, also a result of the coin flip.

• Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will be the moderators.

Fewer details are known about the ABC News debate, but it was announced that David Muir and Linsey Davis will be the moderators.

How will the debates differ from previous ones?

The longstanding debate calendar isn’t the only thing being upended.

The Commission on Presidential Debates has organized debates for nearly 40 years, but Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have each voiced grievances over the process and the organization. Neither of the debates they agreed to involve the commission, which had set its debates for Sept. 16, Oct. 1 and Oct. 9.

And for the June debate, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump will still be only the presumptive nominees — that’s because it is taking place before both parties’ formal nominating conventions, another break with longstanding tradition.

While the two men clinched their party’s nominations in March, Mr. Trump is not scheduled to accept the Republican nomination formally until the party holds its convention in July in Milwaukee. Mr. Biden will formally accept the Democratic nomination during the party’s convention in August in Chicago.

Will the debates actually happen?

Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden appeared to throw down the gauntlet in May when they committed to the two debates. And there have been no threats of cancellation exchanged between the two since.

Still, a cancellation of a presidential debate would not be a novelty.

In 2020, the second of three debates had to be scrapped after Mr. Trump refused to participate virtually, which was proposed by the debate commission because of the coronavirus pandemic.

And in this election cycle, Mr. Trump bypassed the Republican primary debates, at times organizing counterprogramming of his own through televised town halls.