Presidential debate live updates: Biden and Trump arrive in Atlanta

One of Biden’s biggest financial boosters said he’s hoping to see what he describes as the “real” Trump versus the “real” Biden in Thursday’s debate.

“My hope is that the audience and by extension, the voters will see the real true Trump, as well as the real true Biden,” Haim Saban said in an email to CNBC. He did not respond to follow-up requests for further comment.

But the one-line statement does suggest that Saban, like many other donors, will be carefully watching how the two perform on stage as he tries to raise money for Biden.

— Brian Schwartz

It’s June 27, making tonight’s debate the earliest presidential debate in modern U.S. history by nearly three months.

Before tonight, the earliest presidential debate was on Sept. 21, 1980, when Ronald Reagan debated John Anderson, who was running as an independent, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Last election cycle, the first debate between Biden and Trump was on Sept. 29, 2020. The cycle before that, Hillary Clinton and Trump first faced off on Sept. 26, 2016.

Debates have historically occurred after candidates receive their official nominations from their respective parties. Tonight, Biden and Trump remain presumptive nominees.

The Republican National Convention is set for July 15-18 in Milwaukee. The Democratic National Convention will take place in Chicago from Aug. 19-22.

— Josephine Rozzelle

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is also participating in the debate — sort of.

While Kennedy is easily the biggest third-party challenger in the cycle, he did not meet CNN’s debate qualifications, which require that eligible candidates must appear on enough state ballots that they could potentially win 270 electoral votes.

Rather than sit this one out, however, Kennedy will be appearing on a livestream and giving his own real-time answers to the questions posed to Trump and Biden. His “debate” will take place in West Hollywood, rather than Atlanta, and will be moderated by John Stossel.

The “Real Debate” will stream on X. Elon Musk, the social media platform’s owner, promoted the event from his account ahead of CNN’s debate.

— Kevin Breuninger

With Melania Trump’s whereabouts unknown just hours before the debate’s kick-off, Biden seized the opportunity to take a veiled shot at Trump over it on social media.

“The best part of the campaign trail is having you by my side, Jilly,” Biden wrote in a post on X, responding to Dr. Jill Biden’s earlier post about her readiness to support her husband on the campaign trail.

The split screen of the Biden family’s unified front versus the former First Lady’s noticeable absence from Trump campaign events has been a theme of the presidential race so far.

Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, told NBC News that it would be “very surprising if she [Melania] didn’t attend” the debate.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Trump said on Saturday that his secretly chosen running mate would join him at tonight’s debate.

But so far, that’s not proving to be much of a clue.

Trump stepped off his plane Thursday night accompanied by a host of characters who are not being vetted as potential running mates, such as senior advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, as well as longtime allies Corey Lewandowski and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

It’s unclear if any potential running mates will be with Trump at the debate venue in Atlanta, although several of them will be attending a nearby fundraiser and VIP watch party.

The fundraiser is being co-hosted by former Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, according to an invitation. Tickets for the event cost between $10,000 and $25,000, with funds directed to the Trump 47 Committee, a joint fundraising operation that benefits the Trump campaign.

Most of the people on Trump’s reported short list of potential running mates are expected to attend the watch party: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, Fla., and JD Vance, Ohio; as well as Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik.

— Brian Schwartz

Atlanta, where Biden and Trump meet tonight, has mirrored the U.S. economy’s fragile but steady postpandemic recovery.

The Atlanta area unemployment rate came in at 2.8% in April, below the national figure, keeping up with the strong national labor market Biden has taken credit for.

But Trump’s more lax approach to business regulation could appeal to a city that is swarming with entrepreneurs.

Despite pandemic headwinds to small businesses, Atlanta has had a startup surge, hitting an all-time record of 323,669 new business formation filings in 2021. The city is also home to several large corporate headquarters such as The Coca-Cola Company, United Parcel Service and Delta.

But living costs are 10% higher in Atlanta than they are in the rest of Georgia, according to the real estate database RentCafe.

Strong jobs numbers accompanied by inflation-boosted costs of living are a familiar pair for Biden. His economic messaging threads a needle between celebrating what he has accomplished and sympathizing with Americans who work and still struggle to make ends meet.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Tonight’s debate between Biden and Trump, hosted by CNN, will air live beginning at 9 p.m. ET on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español. Major broadcast networks simulcasting the debate include NBC, ABC and CBS.

CNBC will stream the debate here live, starting at 9 p.m. ET.

— Josephine Rozzelle

New economic indicators this week paint a mixed picture of the state of the economy, one that will likely be spun by both Biden and Trump tonight to corroborate competing economic narratives.

So far, the week’s numbers are tepid.

Consumer confidence dipped slightly to 100.4 in June from 101.3 in May, according to the latest monthly reading published Tuesday by the nonprofit research group The Conference Board.

Biden has repeatedly acknowledged that many Americans do not feel good about the economy, while Trump has used some negative economic vibes to argue for the superiority of “MAGAnomics” over “Bidenomics.”

The Labor Department on Thursday reported that initial jobless claims, a weekly unemployment metric, decreased to 233,000 from 239,000 last week, which could bolster Biden’s claims that the labor market is strong.

However, the number of people collecting unemployment benefits continues to rise, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4% in May for the first time since January 2022.

The U.S. economy is also growing at a slower pace, according to a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimate Thursday of first-quarter gross domestic product, which came in at 1.4%, the lowest quarterly rate since the second quarter of 2022.

Several gauges of inflation, likely to be a central economic focus tonight, will be released Friday morning, including the personal consumption expenditures index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation data point.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, will be in Atlanta tonight for the debate, but she will not be in her uncle’s corner.

Biden’s campaign announced that Mary Trump, who has been a fierce critic of her uncle, will be a guest of the campaign in the spin room after the debate concludes late Thursday night.

“I’m in Atlanta tonight to remind everyone who Donald is as a person and how he would rule as a president because the stakes are far too high for us to get this wrong: We cannot afford to allow Donald Trump anywhere near the levers of power again,” Mary Trump said in a statement provided to CNBC by the Biden campaign.

— Brian Schwartz

Several Democratic Party donors are going to be closely watching how hard Biden punches back against Trump during their debate Thursday night, according to people familiar with the matter.

These donors, some of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely, acknowledge that if Biden can land some verbal blows against Trump, they’ll have an easier time raising money for him.

“All of us want Biden to come out swinging and swinging hard” against Trump, said Charles Myers, a former vice chairman at Evercore and a Biden bundler, about the expectations from party donors.

If Biden struggles to fight back and respond to the often rowdy Trump, money could be hard to come by.

“Democrats and donors are fired up about this election. They know what’s at stake. Biden’s performance will not change that unless he bombs tonight, which is highly unlikely,” Myers added.

— Brian Schwartz

Biden’s campaign is releasing a new video featuring criticism of Trump by several former Trump aides.

The video includes Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, saying earlier this year, “I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump.” 

John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security advisor, is shown in the video saying, “Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, they’re fully prepared to take advantage of him.”

Trump defense secretary Mark Esper calls him a “threat to democracy” in the video.

— Dan Mangan

While opinion polls, especially those for national presidential contests, are imperfect measures of where an election stands, numerous recent surveys have offered the same assessment: The race is tight.

The New York Times’ average polling tracker currently shows Biden and Trump are virtually tied, 46% to 45%, respectively.

FiveThirtyEight’s tracker is even narrower, showing Trump with just a 0.2-point average lead in the polls over Biden, 41.1% to 40.9%.

But when it comes to which candidate is more likely to prevail in the debate, more voters say they have higher expectations for Trump, according to recent polls by Ipsos and New York Times/Siena College.

— Kevin Breuninger

Major stock indexes closed slightly higher in the hours before the debate, and on the eve of new inflation data that could affect the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to adjust interest rates.

The upcoming report on May’s core personal consumption expenditures index could show that Biden-era inflation woes, which are declining but still persistent, are continuing to cool. That in turn could boost traders’ hopes that the Fed will be more likely to lower rates later in the year.

While the economy has skirted fears of a postpandemic recession and the stock market has performed well under Biden overall, the Democratic incumbent has struggled to make his case to voters, whose economic attitudes remain broadly negative.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump in a Truth Social post shared debate “talking points” suggestions on the climate that he received from former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler.

Wheeler, among other things, told Trump to argue that during his presidential administration, “CO2 emissions went down,” and that “Biden just increased the energy costs for everyone.”

Biden campaign rapid response director Ammar Moussa promptly posted the advice on social media platform X, and wrote, “Thanks I guess.”

— Dan Mangan

Thanks to Biden’s lack of Democratic primary challengers and Trump’s decision not to participate in the Republican primary debates, tonight marks the first time either candidate has debated since they faced each other nearly four years ago, on Oct. 23, 2020.

The lapse is unusual for presidential candidates, at least one of whom typically debates in their party’s primary. Whether the lack of practice will leave Biden or Trump rusty in tonight’s debate remains to be seen.

— Josephine Rozzelle

The candidates’ microphones will be muted tonight unless it is their turn to speak, a new rule likely prompted by the persistent interruptions that defined Biden and Trump’s last faceoff during the 2020 campaign.

Lights in the candidates’ field of view will turn yellow when they have 15 seconds left to speak and flash red when they are down to their last five seconds, CNN explained in a video Wednesday. The displays will turn solid red when a candidate’s time is up, at which point their microphone will be muted and the other’s turned on.

Biden and Trump will know when their microphones are muted thanks to lights on each of their lecterns. When the lights are green, the microphone is on. When the lights are off, their microphone is muted.

— Josephine Rozzelle

Will she or won’t she?

With less than five hours before the candidates face off, it is still not clear whether Melania Trump will be in Atlanta for the debate between her husband Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

The former first lady has been conspicuously absent from Trump’s side on the campaign trail and at the New York criminal hush money trial, where he was convicted last month of crimes related to paying off porn star Stormy Daniels.

— Dan Mangan

Biden and Trump have debated before, but their first faceoff of the 2024 election cycle is bound to look very different.

That is due to the rules put in place by CNN, which is hosting the debate after both candidates sidestepped the Commission on Presidential Debates, the traditional organizer of the events.

Among CNN’s biggest changes: There will be no live audience, and candidates’ microphones will be muted until it is their turn to speak.

In another break from tradition, CNN is allowing two commercial breaks during the debate. Campaign staff are forbidden from interacting with their candidate during those times.

Trump and Biden will be standing at lecterns eight feet apart during the 90-minute debate in Atlanta. Biden won a coin flip to choose his lectern position, though in doing so he allowed Trump to get the final word of the night.

There will be closing statements but no opening statements. Candidates will have two minutes to answer questions, and one minute for responses or rebuttals.

The moderators — CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash — will have discretion to allow additional time for follow-ups.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump will debate Biden while his speech is restricted by gag orders in multiple civil and criminal cases against him.

Judge Juan Merchan recently lifted part, but not all, of the gag order on Trump in his criminal hush money case in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Trump, who was convicted on 34 felony counts in that trial, is now free to speak about witnesses and the jury. But he is still barred from discussing lawyers and staff for the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the court, plus any of their family members.

At least two other gag orders on Trump still appear to be in effect: one from his New York civil business fraud trial, and one from his federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., federal court.

The gag order from the civil fraud trial barred Trump from speaking about court personnel. It was imposed after Trump repeatedly verbally attacked the judge’s principal law clerk.

In the D.C. case, Judge Tanya Chutkan restricted public statements about likely witnesses, court staff and related legal counsel, including the lead prosecutor, Special Counsel Jack Smith. A federal appeals court later narrowed that gag order, allowing Trump to speak about Smith.

— Kevin Breuninger

The White House Correspondents’ Association complained about the exclusion of the White House travel pool of journalists from being in the studio during the debate.

“WHCA is deeply concerned that CNN has rejected our repeated requests to include the White House travel pool inside the studio,” the group said in a statement, which noted it had asked for access for at least one print pool reporter.

The group said the “White House pool has a duty to document, report and witness the president’s events and his movements on behalf of the American people.”

— Dan Mangan

CNN announced last week that Biden and Trump were the only presidential candidates who met its qualification requirements, solidifying tonight’s head-to-head debate.

To earn a spot tonight, presidential hopefuls had to cross two key thresholds by June 20:

• Candidates had to appear on enough state ballots to reach 270 electoral votes.
• Candidates had to receive at least 15% support in four national polls that met CNN’s standards.

Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to meet those requirements, reaching 15% in just three surveys and gaining ballot access in only 10 states, according to an NBC News analysis.

— Josephine Rozzelle