Culture

Presidential Debate: How to Watch for Free, What Time, and Where to Stream


 

Do you have the energy for one more of these? That’s a rhetorical question because, like it or not, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are squaring off for one last debate on Thursday evening.

Trump and Biden will meet for the third and thankfully final presidential debate at Belmont University, a private college located in Nashville, Tennessee. The event will see the candidates discuss six key topics in 15-minute segments: “Fighting COVID-19,” “American Families,” “Race in America,” “Climate Change,” “National Security,” and “Leadership.” The nominees will each have two minutes to respond to questions from moderator Kristen Welker, the White House correspondent for NBC News, before their opponent is given a chance to rebut.

A major difference between these proceedings and the previous faceoff between Trump and Biden is that each of their mics will be muted during their opponent’s initial answers to Welker’s questions. But afterward the mics will be live, giving the president the chance to do what he does best: derail the event by talking over the opponent, badgering the moderator, and constantly lying.

After viewers compared the first debate on September 29 to watching The Hurt Locker on acid, the second was cancelled after Trump and members of his inner circle contracted COVID-19 at a White House superspreader event. The president declined to participate in a virtual debate proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates, so the candidates instead participated in a pair of dueling town halls last week, which notably saw Trump admit to being $400 million in debt and refuse to disavow the conspiracy theory Qanon.

Any reasonable person would understand why you don’t want to do this to yourself all over again, but for those among you who wish to approximate the feeling of a rolling anxiety attack, here’s how you can tune in.

What Time Is the Last Presidential Debate?

The debate will be broadcast at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, which is 6 p.m. for West Coasters. The duration will last 90 minutes, with no commercials.

How Do I Watch the Last Presidential Debate?

For better or worse, the debate is being broadcast on just about every major channel or streaming service, meaning that it would be difficult to avoid even if you really, really, really wanted to. (We’re so sorry.) Those with access to cable or broadcast television can watch the debate on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox News, Telemundo, Univision, and MSNBC, many of which are simultaneously live-streaming the event on YouTube and/or on their websites’ respective homepages.

If you don’t have cable or an antenna, I suggest you bribe a Spectrum installer with some key moves from Body Heat or simply purchase an antenna from Target, Walmart, Best Buy, ACE Hardware, or even Instacart, the latter of which will deliver it to you. Target and Best Buy offer day-of curbside pickup so you don’t have to enter the store during these COVID times.

For the Sense of a Rhetorical Exercise, I Irrationally Hate All the Options You Just Presented. What Say You Now?

First, seek Jesus. Assuming that goes well for you, I would suggest checking out C-SPAN, one of the most reliable streamers of the presidential debates, which already has its broadcast set up for this evening. If you’re the kind of weirdo who likes to get to a party six hours before it starts for no literally reason, you could go to its homepage right this very second, hang out, and make yourself comfortable. (To pass the time, C-SPAN has videos of both the previous presidential debate and the vice presidential faceoff between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, in case you have a yearning to relive Pence’s Amityville moment.)

There’s also the option of listening to it on NPR, which will be broadcasting the event wherever your nearest affiliate is. (If you don’t know your local NPR station’s channel number, you can find it online here.)

Sorry, I Only Watch Netflix. Can I Watch It on Netflix?

No, you can’t. While you don’t have the option to Netflix and Chill this one, you can Hulu and Hang, Roku and Relax, or Amazon Fire and… Aardvark Flamenco? (Sorry, I ran out of alliterative double entendres.) Should you be willing to shell out a couple extra bucks, services like SlingTV, FuboTV, and YouTube TV offer their own paid subscription services — as was covered extensively in our previous guide to the vice presidential debates.



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