Here"s the format of tonight"s event The debate will have six 15-minute segments. It will run for 90 minutes, with no breaks for commercials. There will be no opening statements, and the first question will go to Trump. Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News said he’s hoping to let the debate flow. He isn’t expected to factcheck either candidate – it would be a mammoth, time-consuming task – and has said he will strive to be as “invisible as possible”. Wallace was in charge of selecting the six topics, and they were announced by the Commission on Presidential Debates last week. They are: The records of Trump and Biden. The supreme court. Covid-19. The economy. Race and violence in our cities. The integrity of the election. As the president prepares for his first debate of this election cycle, the vice president is campaigning in the swing state of Pennsylvania. “People will ask me, ‘How long has the president been preparing for the debate?’” Pence said at a farm in Lititz, Pennsylvania. “All his life.” The vice president later added, “After you see the debate tonight, you’ll forget I was even here.” According to CNN, Trump did less than two hours of debate prep total for tonight’s event, while Biden has been largely off the campaign trail in recent days to prepare for the debate. In his remarks, Pence also attacked Biden, arguing the Democratic nominee would be “nothing more than a Trojan horse for the radical left.” According to two recent polls, Biden has a 9-point lead among likely voters in Pennsylvania, which Trump won by less than 1 point in 2016. With about an hour to go until the start of the debate, Joe Biden has sent a tweet mocking Trump’s recent attacks against him. Tweeting a photo of Apple earbuds and Jeni’s ice cream, the Democratic nominee said, “It’s debate night, so I’ve got my earpiece and performance enhancers ready.” The tweet was a clear jab at Trump, who has suggested (without evidence) that Biden may take drugs or use an earpiece tonight to boost his debate performance. The Jeni’s ice cream was also a bit of an homage to Ohio, where tonight’s debate is taking place. The ice cream company is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Trump and Biden set to debate for first time Hello, live blog readers, and welcome to the first presidential debate. Donald Trump and Joe Biden are scheduled to take the debate stage at 9 pm ET in Cleveland, Ohio, for their first face-off of this election cycle. The debate will be unlike others in recent years because of the coronavirus pandemic. The two presidential nominees have been instructed not to shake hands, and the debate audience will be severely limited. The debate may also be uniquely contentious, given the attacks the two campaigns have launched against each other in recent weeks. In the hours leading up to the debate, the Trump campaign peddled baseless claims that Biden may take drugs or use an earpiece to boost his performance tonight. The Biden campaign replied by accusing the Trump team of trying to distract from the substance of the debate out of concerns about the president’s performance. The nominees may repeat those attacks when they take the stage, so moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News will likely have his work cut out for him. The candidates will take the stage in a little over an hour, so stay tuned.